Artefact 2: Ethnographic Study of Domestic Space

Evaluation:

Upon my research of new technologies that are used to study social patterns within domestic and commercial spaces and how these technologies can help give informed patterns of information relating to technology I decided to do an ethnographic study within a domestic environment to find my own patterns of how people interact and socialize.

I drew a top view plan of a domestic environment, including the living room, bedrooms, kitchen and bathroom and mapped the data of how the inhabitants moved within this domestic domain when interfacing with technology. I used different colours to visually correspond to singular actions, including movement, interaction with technology and where the inhabitants would socialize. I found that when one person used a mobile phone within a social situation with other people they would normally move to a more private space, usually their bedroom.

This is symmetric to my research paper on the Network Society, which discussed how mobile technologies are fragmenting society. This self autonomy clearly shows that technology within a domestic space does fragment the social sphere. I’ve found however more technology is allowing people to network within a digital domain; technology in physical conditions is having a direct impact that is fragmenting this face to face socialization.

I also found that when my participants were watching TV and an advert was about to come on, they would usually interface with a personal computer, which would usually last around 10-15 minutes. This correlates to the study of energy demands when football matches where aired and upon half time energy levels where upped to supply the demand of people putting the kettle on to make a cup of tea. My individuals in my experiment would usually log onto Facebook to network with people in a digital space, this shows that today we are living within a Network Society.

Artefact One: Literature Review of Society & Technology

Evaluation:

For this artefact I produced a mini literature review researching how new technologies are affecting society within a domestic and commercial space. Today advanced technologies are been used to track social movements within society to help individuals make more informed decisions about their environment.

I’ve researched Ethnographic studies of social movements (Creative Networking at RISD, 2008), Visual Displays of Quantitative Information (Edward R. Tufte, 2001), Realtime Rome, and the Crowd Compiler. These are all excellent resources to help me better understand the relationship between Society and Technology.
Real time Rome aggregates data from mobile phones to track the social movements of people within an urban environment and the crowd compiler algorithm displays crowds in time and space rather than as a static image to further analytically look at how people move in an urban environment.

My aim of this artefact was to help me further understand new technologies and research further into this way of ethnographically looking at society and how the results of this data can be represented visually rather than statistically. It has paved a way for me to further research Technology and Domestic Space and whether Technology is fragmenting our domestic space through the privatization of new entertainment technologies.

This brings me onto my 2nd artefact, I will be looking at ethnographic studies of a domestic space which will help me better understand how technology is changing our environment and whether domestic space needs to be changed to accommodate for this rise in what is ultimately a Network Society.

DVD Packaging Design - Client Project

This is the design I've came up for my client project, its the DVD packaging which m authored DVD Rom will be housed in. The DVD will be card with a plastic tray. I've gone for a simplistic design focusing on typography rather than imagery. The text will either be foil blocked or debossed, I'm currently enquiring on the printing costs of this as I want around 20 or so copies done so that some can be handed out at the exhibition as well as kept for my portfolio.

Front:

Inside (Transparent Tray will be on the Graphic Side):

Economic Growth - Richard Fenwick

Nice little video I forgot about which brought back a few college memories, I attended an opening to his RND films in 2004 which involved a talk and a private session in a studio with him showing his work and how he went about developing, designing and producing his videos which was very insightful and inspiring.




Also a dark comical animated video potraying safety procedures on a plane.

Red Riding - Channel 4

For anyone that hasn't seen this, the final chapter of the trilogy was aired Thursday Night, however it is possible to watch all 3 online at channel4.com/catchup. I highly recommend watching it! The direction, acting and visual style, and how all 3 stories interlink is fantastic. I found an interview with James Marsh (Director) talking about Red Riding to give a little insight to what its all about.

Click here to read

Imaging and Social Technology

Interesting video discussing Imaging and Social Content.

Crowd Compiler

Taken from http://www.softhook.com/crowd.htm

Computer software which produces an image of the temporal crowd. Ever since the very first photograph of a crowd was taken in 1848, these images have been controversial for what they purported to show and what they did not show.

Even today, most representations of the crowd aim to rationalise and quantify the crowd rather than show its curious dynamics of both density and fluidity. The Crowd Compiler software tries to present the ‘crowd in time’ rather than a static snapshot.

A fixed camera takes photographs at regular intervals which are then sequentially processed by the software. Using a simple algorithm all the visual changes between the frames are composited and made simultaneously visible.

The resulting images widen our senses to this normally invisible ‘temporal crowd’ which occupies public space. Is this simply a special effect? No, the images carry visual data about the effect of architecture and urban design on group behaviour.

Of equal importance is the fact that the images are created by a process that is legible. The political and technical logic of the representation becomes visible in the image itself rather than being hidden away.

Legibility = Visual data + Social Context + Technical Transparency The Crowd Compiler software operates by comparing each individual pixel between the photographic frame and the back-ground image.

If the colour has changed a significant amount, the new pixel is copied to the background. The process continues until all the photographs have been processed.

Edward R. Tufte - The Visual Display of Quantitative Information

Visual Representation of Domestic Space

This is a test of visually representing domestic space through ethnographic studies. The colours will represent a particular activity, ie Red = Mobile Phone Usage, Blue = The physical person, Green = Socialising with friends in a Domestic Space and so on... The length of time they are represented will determine the data.

Visually Representating Data - Ethnographic Studies

This artefact looks at technology and domestic space, it researches how technology can help individuals make more informed decisions about their environment. My first artefact researched Society and Technology, I used a questionnaire to collect data on how often an individual interacts with technology and whether they have ever allowed technology to get in the way of work, studies or face to face socialisation. My results were conclusive and I felt there was no depth to progress further as a result of this. To further understand the developing nature of Technology and Society I have decided to look at ethnographic studies of Domestic Space and Technology.

Creative Networking Workshop at RISD, 2008

One day workshop focusing on the design of large scale networks as a creative activity and expanding the individual's thinking about the network as a creative medium. Starting from simple graph elements participants gradually build diagrams for complex networks. Emphasis on network topology, relationship dynamics, protocols, and information design. Participants learn the most through observing and extracting examples of networks from their daily life, sketching diagrams, and authoring protocols.

Real Time Rome

Real time rome aggregates data from cell phones (obtained using Telecom Italia’s innovative Lochness platform), buses and taxis in Rome to better understand urban dynamics in real time. By revealing the pulse of the city the project aims to show how technology can help individuals make more informed decisions about their environment. In the long run will it be possible to reduce the inefficiencies of present day urban systems and open the way to a more sustainable urban future?

http://senseable.mit.edu/