Staff Research Profiles

I am interested in the relationship between technology and culture. In particular the design of new forms of digital media.

The cultural significance of technology is its power to create new forms of embodied and embedded interaction with the world and each other. In doing so it brings into existence new way of doing, thinking and being. For the arts and creative industries this means the digital is not just a way to conduct practice by other means but an opportunity for radical evolution of that practice. I am interested in the process by which this happens. The creativity, innovation and exploration inherent in the design process plays a central role here. Rather than the analytic requirements capture of some approaches or the passive ethnographic study of existing practice we use design interventions as a research tool to embed technology into complex social contexts and thus to reveal something about those contexts.

I have been interested in the fundamental cross disciplinary questions of informatics such as the relationship of language to interaction or the central role of representations and how these are built up and relate to behavior. More recently my work with Edinburgh College of Art has brought exposure to the theory, research and practice of artists and designers. This experience has raised the question of how to maximise the potential of informatic knowledge and methodologies in the arts. A second and more fundamental question is can we find a cross disciplinary approach whereby the arts and sciences can work together in a way which is intellectually, creatively and economically beneficial to the participants and wider society?

My perspective on informatics:

Informatics is a radical intellectual perspective on research and not just an institutional category. Informatics is by definition interdisciplinary and, if it is to realise its potential, it must engage in research that could not be performed by the disparate subjects which preceded it. Therefore, in addition to the elemental research which gives each subject within informatics depth and substance, it is essential that researchers engage is intra and interdisciplinary research. I see two methods by which this can be encouraged. Firstly, an intellectual focus on fundamental "grand challenge" questions such as the relationship between language and interaction. Secondly, a practical focus on the structure and needs of a complex human practice such as art and design. I work in both ways. The logic conclusion of this view is the practical embedded focus of informatics should be culture itself.

How can artists and scientists work together?

Not withstanding the potential of cultural exchange between informatics, the arts and creative industries it is not obvious what form this should take. Subjugation of the artist as illustrator or the scientist as technical assistant is a pitfall. Arms length hermetic contact, in which the other is treated as a muse or context, preserves integrity of practice but seems inadequate.

Media Informatics:

A promising approach is the collaborative user centered development of new forms of creative media. Over the past 5 years I have helped artist and designers to create two radically new forms of digital media using this technique. 1. A haptic design medium 2. camera phone digital medium.

Moving Targets, Virtual Environments and the Arts, CIRCLE