jules's thoughts

Call for Papers: Design History Futures – Sustaining What?

jules — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:49:32 +0100

CALL FOR PAPERS

Design History Futures – Sustaining What?

An issue of Design Philosophy Papers to be edited by Karin Jaschke, Paul Denison and Tara Andrews in association with Anne-Marie Willis

Submit 200 word abstracts by 12 Dec 2008 to:
Anne-Marie Willis, Editor, Design Philosophy Papers amwillis@teamdes.com.au
...continued after the jump

SCHEDULE
Abstracts (200 words) due by: 12 Dec 2008
First drafts of papers due by: 13 March 2009
Final drafts due by: 24 April 2009
Publication online by: May 2009

SUBMIT ABSTRACTS TO:
Anne-Marie Willis
Editor, Design Philosophy Papers
amwillis@teamdes.com.au
www.desphilosophy.com
http://www.desphilosophy.com/dpp/splash.html

SUMMARY:
Modern lifestyles and material cultures made possible by design are now being seen as so deeply implicated in unsustainability that a re-writing of
design history seems inevitable.

Conversely, a revitalised, critical design history could play a major role in providing an intellectual framework for new, redirective design practices.

How does awareness of sustainability and unsustainability affect design history? What does this mean for specific areas of research: histories of product design, architecture, fashion, graphics, material and visual cultures, etc.?
What part has design history itself played in the development of unsustainability?

Submit 200 word abstracts by 12 Dec 2008 to:
Anne-Marie Willis, Editor, Design Philosophy Papers amwillis@teamdes.com.au

FULL TEXT:
Design history has evolved over recent decades through engagement with
matters of concern like class, gender and the postcolonial. In turn,
critical design histories have contributed to new ways of understanding the
world around us. Today, the matter of concern is sustainability: an issue
that is almost too large in its implications to be grasped outright. It
presents a challenge that is new in scope and kind. Design history cannot
remain unaffected by this.

Design historians are well aware of the role design has played in making the
modern world. Yet the modern lifestyles and material cultures made possible
by design are now being seen as so deeply implicated in unsustainability
that on these grounds alone a re-writing of design history seems inevitable.
Modes of practice and thought, social and economic contexts, and the
ideological premises of past design practice need to be addressed anew.

At the same time, this raises the question of design history's own
disciplinary past, present, and future. Design histories have used and
perpetuated ways of thinking that have fed directly into current,
unsustainable design practice, including notions of progress, newness, and
obsolescence, 'iconic design', and the star-designer or 'starchitect'.
Historians of design thus need to consider the implications of their
value-systems.

Climate change, resource depletion, and pollution will lead to major changes
in modern lifestyles in the near future. Design has a major ethical and
professional stake in this transition and the direction it will take.

We propose that a revitalised, critical design history could play a major
role in providing an intellectual framework for new, redirective design
practices. Thus we ask the following questions, and invite papers that
address them:

• How does awareness of sustainability and unsustainability affect design
history?

• What insights could be gained by re-reading design's past through
perspectives of sustainability and unsustainability?

• Could design history contribute to a more developed understanding of
sustainability and unsustainability?

• Are there past writers who have already done this? Is their work relevant
to today?

• Have we overlooked historical subjects that are of importance to the
sustainability debate?

• What part has design history itself played in the development of
unsustainability?

• Do we need radically new ways of thinking to understand the role that
design has played in bringing about the present unsustainable state of the
world?

• What does this mean for specific areas of research: histories of product
design, architecture, fashion, graphics, material and visual cultures, etc.?

• Is there an ethical imperative for historians to reconsider their
disciplinary approach with view to sustainability? Does this imperative
undercut notions of impartiality?

• Where are the blind-spots in design historiography that may hinder a real
rethinking of design history?

• What methods and approaches from other disciplines or traditions of
thinking could offer ways of understanding our unsustainable past that might
be relevant to the historical study of design?

SCHEDULE
Abstracts (200 words) due by: 12 Dec 2008
First drafts of papers due by: 13 March 2009
Final drafts due by: 24 April 2009
Publication online by: May 2009

SUBMIT ABSTRACTS TO:
Anne-Marie Willis
Editor, Design Philosophy Papers
amwillis@teamdes.com.au
www.desphilosophy.com
http://www.desphilosophy.com/dpp/splash.html

13 PhD Scholarships Humanities, University Copenhagen

jules — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:33:42 +0100

Calls for PhD Applications
13 PhD Fellowships at the Faculty of Humanities

2008-11-10

The Faculty of Humanities’ Graduate School at the University of Copenhagen is inviting applications for 13 PhD fellowships starting 1 September, 2009 for a period of up to three years. Application deadline 9 February, 2009.

Detailed description is to be seen here:
http://www.humanities.ku.dk/research/phd/announcements/globalisation/

PhD projects can be related to one of the following subject areas:

* Scandinavian studies in literature, language or media, or ideally across the boundaries of these areas (Subject area 1: Nordic Philology, General and Applied Linguistics)
* IT and communication (Subject area 2: Education, Philosophy and Rhetoric, Film and Media Studies)
* Themes within European culture and history in a global context (Subject area 3: History, Archaeology and Ethnology, Greek and Latin)
* Cultural memory and migration: The construction of nation, religion and history as rendered through exhibition, writing, canon, schoolbooks or other media (Subject area 4: Middle Eastern Studies, Asian Studies, Eskimology, History of Religion, native American Languages and Cultures, Eastern European Studies, Minority Studies, Comparative Cultural Studies)
* Globalization and transnational studies (Subject area 5: English, German and Romance Languages and Literature)
* Forms of cultural attention (Subject area 6: History, Theatre Research, Dance, Comparative Literature, Musicology)
* Medieval and/or early-modern Scandinavian textual studies (Subject area 7: Old Norse, Dialect Research, name Research)
* Language technology, preferably within the strategic fields: language resources and tools (research infrastructure), cognitive science, knowledge systems and tools for multilinguality (Subject area 8: Language Technology)

Detailed description is to be seen here:
http://www.humanities.ku.dk/research/phd/announcements/globalisation/

Call for Papers: Interdisciplinary Design and Research e-Publication (IDRP) Volume III.

jules — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:25:56 +0100

Call for Papers for the Interdisciplinary Design and Research e-Publication (IDRP) Volume III. The topic is Design + Politics

In keeping with our commitment to interdisciplinary inquiry, we welcome the broadest possible range of interpretations for what "Design" and "Politics" can mean.

http://www.idrp.wsu.edu/Vol_3/call.htm

We invite submissions from the following disciplinary domains: The natural sciences, the social sciences, health care/public health, the arts, the design disciplines, from the academic and business worlds, and from public and private sectors.

All submissions will be considered for peer review, provided that the submission interweaves design and politics in a well-defined way. By way of suggestion, topics can address the following areas of concern:

* Political factors in the psychology of design process
* Regional-national versus global factors in design (specific case
studies)
* The politics of defensible space: are secure environments also
segregated environments?
* Politics and cybernetics
* Environmental design and group behavior: prisons, hospitals,
schools, corporate headquarters
* The politics of "sustainability"
* The effect of gentrification on disadvantaged urban populations
* Implications of design standards / policy on businesses and
private property ownership
* Implementing service design into design education: Habitat for
Humanity, student involvement in medical, faith-based, criminal justice, etc.
* Political agendas and "best practices"
* Gender, design, and politics

Maximum word count: 5,000. For ease of distribution for blind peer review, be sure the document is in MS WORD (not PDF).

All submissions must include contributor(s) name, affiliation, and contact information. Submission shall be by email only to David Wang at davidwang@wsu.edu This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . All submissions will be blind peer reviewed.

Deadline for initial submissions: January 15, 2009. We anticipate releasing IDRP Volume 3 in Spring 2009.

Usability: Web Writing Tips

jules — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:55:15 +0100

via Tutorialblog

Visitors to your Web site - and also on forums like this - won’t read much of your content word-for-word. They’ll skim the text and selectively focus on key words that catch their eyes. Some Web usability gurus, such as Jakob Nielsen, call this phenomenon “scannability.”

You will not change your way of writing research texts, but think about the different styles of communication!

Here are some top-10 rules that make your posting more readable to others:

1. Reading on screen is hard on the eyes.

Figure on using one-third the number of of words onscreen as you would for the same content in print. If you can do it with a smaller percentage of words, even better.

2. Keep blocks of copy short.

Studies show that about half your readers will not bother to scroll down a page. In the newspaper business “it’s called keeping the news above the fold.”

3. Sometimes, pyramids just stack up better.

Newspaper reporters learned long ago to write in an “inverted pyramid style,” meaning that the most important content is at the top of the story and the least important content trails off at the end. You probably learned all about the “who, what, when, why and how” concept in English class. On the Web, that concept is even more important because people are less likely to scroll, as I noted, but also because they’re in a hurry and want the facts toute de suite. They’re also not as literate as previous generations, but that’s a topic for another time and place.

4.You need to play into the way readers scan your pages.

Readers love lists because lists are easy to read and pack a lot a info into fewer words. Use bullets and numbers to make your lists stand out.

5. KISS. One idea per sentence.

Two or three sentences per paragraph. One idea per paragraph. Hit your reader with steady jabs of information. Often short pops work better than long, looping roundhouses.

6.Use lots of subheads.

Not only are subheads guideposts for your readers, but also resting places for fast-moving eyeballs.

7.Use links to add color to body copy

and give readers a place to pause as they scan. Here’s how I construct my links: For more information on my writing and editing background, check out my About page. This link breaks up the copy flow for starters and makes it seem less dense. Equally important, the link is descriptive, it’s meaning is clear. You know what you’re going to get if you click on it (or at least I hope so). I’ll write about how to craft effective inbound and outbound links before too long.

8.Get to the point.

The fact your company is located in the beautiful hills of Lubbock, Texas is irrelevant to everyone except Mom. Try to stay on message. I discussed KISS in tip 5 but what I’m talking about here is a bit different. “Omit needless words,” as famed author E.B. White once wrote.

9.Add Pictures

- they DO make your posting more clickable = read.

10.Write in a natural, conversational style.

No one other than my brother-in-law says stuff like: “We need to marginalize the real estate agent’s input so we can orchestrate options that will materialize in greater assets.” Why write that way? Keep it real. It’s also easier for you write that way if you’re not a polished writer.

Find more + Links on Tutorialblogs original Post:
http://tutorialblog.org/10-web-writing-tips-and-7-sources-where-you-can-...

One-day public symposium London Jan. 19th 09 'Completing the Circle: Incorporating Evaluation Methods in Creative Work'

jules — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:51:52 +0100

One-day public symposium 'Completing the Circle: Incorporating Evaluation Methods in Creative Work' focusing on changes brought about by interactive digital technologies. This is a one-day symposium endorsed by the BCS Computer Arts Society and the Design Research Society, to be held in central London on Monday 19th January 2009.
Further information http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=59&item=31

Registration to attend is now OPEN.

Attendance for the day costs £50, reduced to £25 for full-time students, members of the British Computer Society (BCS), Computer Arts Society (CAS) and Design Research Society (DRS).

The fee includes refreshments and a copy of the proceedings on CD.

---------------------------------------------
How to register to attend
---------------------------------------------

You can register online, and pay by credit card, here:

http://www.bcs.org/events/registration

Alternatively you can email or phone Gemma Liddiard at the British Computer Society:

gemma.liddiard@hq.bcs.org.uk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Phone from within UK: 017 9341 7656
Phone from outside UK: 44 17 9341 7656

Registration closes on Monday 5th January 2009.

---------------------------------------------
About the Symposium
---------------------------------------------
The symposium celebrates curiosity in creative digital work, bringing together artists, designers, computer scientists, developers and academics. All papers have been peer- reviewed by an international panel.

---------------------------------------------
What is the point?
---------------------------------------------
The theme is controversial: the event title - 'Completing the Circle' - implies that
evaluation is often missing from the creative process. But what is the role of evaluation
in creative practice and how, if at all, is this altered by digital technologies?

Interactive digital technologies offer an increasing range of opportunities for artists,
designers and other creative workers to find out how their work is experienced. Some
creative people are keen to embrace these opportunities, while others consider such
methods an intrusion. The symposium allows participants to share ideas and expertise
and tackle some hard questions.

An international programme of speakers present papers which focus on using interactive
technologies and other novel methods to evaluate the user's or audience's response to
media including artworks, designs and performance.

Leaders of the field from around the world will contribute, including Professor Ernest
Edmonds who directs the Creativity and Cognition Studios at the University of Technology
in Sydney, and Kristina Hook, professor in human-machine interaction at Stockholm
University/Royal Institute of Technology. The day of eight papers plus discussion includes
papers exploring innovative uses of eye-tracking technology; non-verbal elicitation of
responses to design; changes in the relation between artist, exhibit, gallery and public
brought about by digital interaction (including a speaker from the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York). Other speakers will interrogate the basic principles in question.

Participants will benefit from new knowledge on techniques of evaluation, important case
studies, and the practical and conceptual issues to be confronted.

This event is organised by the Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts at Middlesex
University and supported by the BCS Computer Arts Society and the Design Research
Society.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The papers are listed here:
http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/?location_id=59&item=31
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The symposium will be held on Monday 19th January 2009 at:

British Computer Society
The Davidson Building
5 Southampton Street
London, WC2E 7HA
United Kingdom

The symposium programme is published in good faith and could change under unforeseen
circumstances.
_____________________________________________________________
Stephen Boyd Davis
Symposium Chair, Reader in Interactive Media
Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT
United Kingdom
Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072
.............................................................
The Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/

CFP: CMSoEA'09 Deadline 15th of Dec. 2008, Workshop: March 23-24, 2009, Leipzig, Germany

jules — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 09:41:09 +0100

Call for Papers Deadline 15th of Dec. 2008:

First International Workshop on Concepts and Methods on Service oriented Enterprise Architecture, CMSoEA'09, is organised in conjunction with the 2d International Conference on Business Process and Service Computing (BPSC) on March 23-24, 2009, Leipzig.

The goal of the CMSoEA workshop is to clarify the relationship between business process management and service provisioning. The objective is twofold:

(i) To characterise the strong relationship existing between Business Process Management and Service oriented Enterprise Architecture

(ii) To study and to develop concepts, methods and architectures in order to manage the life cycle of services and of their support system.

The Call for Papers can be downloaded in few days from the BPSC'09 Web site :
http://bpsc.sabre-conference.com

In the meantime, it is available at http://crinfo.univ-paris1.fr/users/nurcan/CMSoEA_cfp_flyer.pdf
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Call for Papers
First International Workshop on Concepts and Methods for Service oreinted Enterprise Architecture (BPMS2)
in conjunction with BPSC 2009
March 23-24, 2009, Leipzig, Germany

Organizers:
Selmin Nurcan – University Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, France
Rainer Schmidt – Aalen University , Germany

Papers submission deadline: December 15, 2008

Berlin: SALE at PROQM Arts & Theory Bookshop

jules — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:08:14 +0100

....Susann Vihma told me that she was very excited when she found PROQM, the little Berlin Bookshop in Almstadtstr. 48-50, Berlin Mitte 10119.

PROQMs speciality is literature about City, Politics, Pop, Critisism, Architekture, Design, Art and Theory.

for folks in Berlin:
THEY ARE HAVING A SALE NOW...

DESIRE - 13 PhD positions open for applicants - Application closes at 01 Dec 2008

jules — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 09:35:27 +0100

13 PhD positions open for applicants
DESIRE: Creative design for innovation in science and technology

Applicants must be in the first 4 years (full-time equivalent) of their research careers. Positions are open to candidates of any nationality with the exception that the applicant may not have resided in the country of the host institution for more than 1 year in the 3 years before appointment. For additional information please check: http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~corina/DESIRE/index.html

DESIRE aims to make theoretical contributions to the field of creative design by bringing together expertise in human computer interaction, psychology, arts and design. The network aims to advance our understanding of creative design processes applied in the scientific and technological problem solving. This will lead to the elaboration of:

a.. theories and models of creative processes in general, and those involved in creative problem solving in particular, and
b.. methods, techniques and systems to support both creative design processes and creativity training.
These 3-year positions are funded through the European Commission Framework 7 Network on Creative Design for Innovation in Science and Technology (DESIRE Project), and are offered with excellent financial conditions including competitive salary, mobility and travel allowances, contributions to participation expenses for research and training activities, as well as career exploratory allowances.

An attractive training programme will also be offered to the successful candidates consisting of expert research supervision by world leading researchers, access to training courses on foundation and advanced topics in creative design, access to complementary training and industrial secondments within the network's industrial partners, as well as participation in the network's summers schools and conferences.

Suitable candidates are encouraged to make informal enquires directly to each project supervisor to find out further details regarding the application process.

For more information on these PhDs please visit the DESIRE website:

http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/~corina/DESIRE/index.html

Initial Closing Date for Applications: 01 December 2008

Visual Thinking in Complex Problems – Interview with Dan Roam

jules — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 09:43:35 +0100

via http://managementconsultingnews.com

Dan Roam is the founder and president of Digital Roam Inc., a consulting firm that helps clients solve complex problems through visual thinking. He’s also the author of The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures.

The Process for Visual Thinking

1. Look: Collect and screen information to get the big picture.
2. See: Select and categorize by recognizing patterns.
3. Imagine: See what isn't there.
4. Show: Make it all clear to others.

Adapted from: The Back of the Napkin, by Dan Roam.

Meet the MasterMinds: Dan Roam Will Draw You a Picture
http://www.managementconsultingnews.com/interviews/roam_interview.php

Fun or Serious: Design for Design Researchers

jules — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 08:45:14 +0100

Thats what I stumbled across on the web:

A tablet for design researcher's field research. There are several features in the concept that seem to meet researchers needs.

What Do you think? Useful?

http://www.designingforhumans.com/idsa/2008/09/fieldcrew---a-user-resear...

via http://www.designforhumans.com

"The field-based contextual research workstation, or FieldCREW, is primarily targeted at improving data collection efficiency, particularly when studying complex, multi-dimensional work situations such as surgery in an operating room or a construction crew.

FieldCREW brings together a number of "near-future" technologies to support user research in two contexts:

* When a researcher is working by him/herself and needs to play the role of both note-taker and videographer
*

When a team of observers is working together and needs a way to synchronize their observations around multiple events

The Workstation consists of the tablet and several wireless data gathering components (see illustrations in the slideshow below). The components include:

* Wireless, remotely controlled tracking video cameras for audio and video recording
* Handheld wireless taggers that allow each observer to tag key events of their choosing for later review - tagging is synched to a common timeline on the tablet
* Subvocalization sensor allows the researcher to silently dictate notes that are automatically transcribed to text and stored on the tablet

The tablet manages and receives data from these wireless components and provides features including:

* Video notation (i.e. telestrator) for annotation of events as they happen
* Speech-to-text translation of recorded audio (and subvocalizations)
* Access to stored and online project and research reference materials
* Built-in storage and recharging for wireless components
* Synchronization of all input sources (video, tagging, notes) for streamlined analysis In a research scenario the lead researcher (or an associate) can manage the data from multiple observers and utilize tagging and annotation features to prioritize key observations, speeding up the analysis process. Similarly, a single researcher, working alone, can do the work of a team by coordinating input from multiple sources.

And while FieldCREW has the capabilities to support complex field research situations, it can also be used by a single researcher conducted a one-on-one interview, much like a clipboard is used.

We'd appreciate your questions, comments and suggestions as we continue to develop this new platform for facilitating user research."