MRes IE graduate Daria Filatova will present her research on Mediation of Visual Memories of Environments by Verbal Narrative on 29 Mar 2012 at Drawing Out: 2012.

The British Library asked IE students to research solutions for ‘The Silent Network.’ From the brief: 

Within the Library building you can see hundreds of Readers poring over manuscripts in silence, absorbed in their own thoughts. They are working on groundbreaking projects, and, on the surface of it, don’t want to be disturbed.

But scratch beneath the surface and there’s a different picture. Do our Readers wonder who is sat at the desk next to them? Do they want to reach out to people researching a similar topic? Are they stuck and need some help and support?

Or if they have a commercial aspect to their work, are they looking for contacts?

What happens when you connect an author with a scientist? Or an inventor with a group of students? There is a ‘silent network’ of Readers that to date has been largely untapped and unconnected. The potential is huge.

Download the resulting research here, and see the solution we came up with below:

Receiving the initial briefing from Fran Taylor, Marketing Manager for Creative Industries at the BL, on 21 Oct 2011

Interim presentation 11 Nov 2011.

Final presentation

IE student John Fass leaves his mark.

TEDx Brussels was packed with interesting people. Thanks John! 

Some personal highlights:

“Any machine that pollutes is only half invented.” (John Shirley)

Rudy Rucker said that in the future, we’ll grow everything, including products and electronic components

Jacques Vallee called for a physics of information for the digital, not physical, world - freed from the constraints of time, dimension.

David Deutsch said that increasing knowledge decreased predictability of our own future - unforeseen consequences. Thus we need generative knowledge and unforeseen solutions/technologies.

The video projected in the final show

MRes IE 2011 degree show is hung. Looks amazing! More pics here.

Counting ZZZZZs: Self-measurement and how technology mediates perceptions of sleep
MRes Information Environments thesis by John Fass

The problem of how new technology integrates into everyday life and creates new behaviour is a constantly evolving topic, and my research applies existing critical frameworks to a field of human activity not well covered by current thinking.

I explore the question of how technology mediates self-perception and behaviour change using self-measurement of sleep as a case study. My research takes an understanding of human reality as socially constructed, and applies this perspective to human computer interaction (HCI). This is a mixed method study situated in a real-world context.

Findings address the importance of design to engage users and remove barriers, the significance of prior knowledge and experience, how people act and think in context.and how this context changes under the influence of technology.

The implications of these findings are related to design research. The body as information environment is a new conception, one that puts together sensing technology, body awareness and social context. It is an idea that has wide-reaching implications for health care, HCI and design.

The classroom as information environment: A case study of a rural Brazilian state school
MRes Information Environments thesis by Stephanie Lessmann

This research project investigated the influence of the physical environment of the classroom on students’ behaviour, including concentration, attitudes, motivation and self-esteem. It focuses on independent variables such as the classroom size, density, design and architecture, information density, the comfort and positions of chairs, privacy, location and noise, and secondarily the outside space, and the surrounding social and cultural environment. The research was conducted in a state school at a rural area in the northeast of Brazil. During a period of one month, participant observation, survey, interviews, drawings, mapping and design interventions were tested. These interventions aimed to analyse the influence that physical changes in the classroom can have on primary-age children. Motivating the students to participate in each step gave them a sense of ownership, and helped me analyse the changes on a daily basis.

Signs and the city: A social semiotic analysis of development sites in Southwark, London
MRes Information Environments thesis by Sarah Thompson

The aim of this paper is to consider what signs are contributing to the information environment
of London, in what ways and where they are used and what meaning(s) might be extracted from their content and placement. Guided by the theoretical perspective of social semiotics and the study of ‘geosemiotics’ pioneered by Scollon & Scollon (2003), this research study focuses on specific development sites in the London Borough of Southwark. The research was conducted in the summer of 2011 using observation methods and collecting data by recording context, placement and content with notes and photographs. Data was then analysed from a taxonomy designed for the purpose of making comparisons to draw out patterns and examine details. Initial findings show the range of discourses and visual interpretations that emerged as well as the overall “legibility” that is inferred
by these sites (Lynch, 1960). I conclude with a discussion that looks forward, considers the role of technologies and makes suggestions for possible future interventions. 

Personal paternalism & persuasive technology: How technology could help us make better choices about food
MRes Information Environments thesis by Angus Main

Angus combines physical computing and augmented reality technologies with ‘nudge theory’ in this study focused on shopping behaviour. He finds that consumer behaviour in the supermarket is not always rational, and comes up with a novel solution to obscure tempting but unhealthy information.