Monday, December 19, 2011

Four stories, four short-films

As part of the course Interactive Media/Project in our Masters programme in Interactive Media, students are required make video productions. This year, we decided to start from existing stories and we were kindly given permission by Bock The Robber to use some of his stories.

For the screening, Bourke's Bar in Limerick City agreed to host the event and we also exhibited and sold some of the photographs the students had made during the course.
All proceeds collected were in aid of the Irish Cancer Society's Action Breast Cancer.

The original stories, on Bock the Robber's site, were:
Paul Tarpey was our Master of Ceremonies of the evening. Here's his introduction to the event:
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Faction  a filmic translation
Here we experience 4 films that interpret the stories of a 20th century author who is a well known physical and other presence in Limerick and beyond. By other, we mean a 21st century nagging virtual presence who combines forceful news reporting with creative storytelling. But he is as yet not a published storyteller in a traditional sense. Perhaps his tales were meant for a different platform.

Bock the Robber. His very name conjours up both response and meaning adapted as it is from the name of a mythical Limerick bogeyman. Faction is an extension of the process where the character has posted fiction alongside news items on bocktherobber.com. In this collaborative film showcase with the University of Limerick's Interactive media students, we now focus on Bock as an expansive worker who's identity now begins to take the form of a flickering live presence.

The drafts for these films tonight are rooted in real life. There is the short physical tale of Munster – Gloucester, a tense retelling of the famous rugby game focused on Bock's shoulders but voiced by his son. This take on a well known event is balanced with the debauched memories of the band Blind Gun Dog's festival escapades. Broader interpretations feature also. Scary fantasy appears in the draft of Him and claustiphobia and desperation meet us in the intense draft of Whiskey. Same author - different weights.

These are 4 expressions grounded in a 20th century reflection of life as it was lived by the author and his friends. The tales are stylistically imagined by Bock and we view their finished state now as a collaborative hand over.

After he has channeled his stories - containing in them more than a hint of a filmic imagination - the interactive media film makers began to shape the work within their own sense of 21st century realness. This translation is the crux as experience and cultural knowledge are exchanged and mediated from one generation of creatives to the next.

We often trade reflective experience using the language of film. Many of our life fragments are positioned in retelling like that bit in Easy Rider. This collaborative experience has collectively created the final draft for these films. They have illustrated and drawn out the familiar in the 21st century styles of documentary and horror that has lurked in the 20th century tales of Bock.

The students have certainly displayed a familiarity and confidence with these styles in their interpretations. They have now put digital flesh on Bock's virtual bones.

Paul Tarpey
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Here's the small-screen version of the excellent work the students produced:

Him

Blind Gun Dog

Munster v Gloucester

Whiskey

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

2 Events in the Nomadic Work/Life Seminar Series

The 4th NWL International Seminar Series was concluded by public talks by two international visitors. Dr. Mark Perry, Brunel University (UK) presented "Work Around - Practices around Technology, Space and the Ever-changing Nature of Organisational Life". Dr. Perry is an interdisciplinary researcher with interests spanning cognitive science, computing and social science and 'user studies'. He was originally trained as a psychologist (BA (Hons.), Cardiff University), a cognitive scientist (MSc, Cardiff), and an interdisciplinary PhD (Brunel), having worked at a variety of places along the way, including Goldsmiths College (London), Hewlet-Packard Research Labs (Bristol), Stanford University (USA), and the Appliance Studio (Bristol). For the past few years, most of his research has revolved around the use of mobile information and communications technology, and in the use and design of ubiquitous/pervasive computing and networked information appliances.
The final talk was delivered by Professor Barbara Czarniawska, University of Gothenburg (Sweden): "Nomadic Work as Life Story Plot". Professor Czarniawska is a professor in Managing Overflow at the School of Business, Economics and Law, Gothenburg Research Institute University of Gothenburg; a Visiting Research Fellow at the Sloan School of Management, MIT, USA, London School of Economics and Political Science and Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin; a Scholar-in-Residence at Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy; a Fellow at Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University; and a Visiting Professor at Università di Roma, La Sapienza.She holds a MA in Social and Industrial Psychology, Warsaw University, 1970 and a Ph.D.in Economic Sciences, Warsaw School of Economics, 1976. She is also member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Royal Engineering Academy, the Royal Society of Art and Sciences in Göteborg and the Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters. She received the Lily and Sven Thuréus Technical-Economic Award for internationally renowned research in organization theory, 2000 and a Wihuri International Prize in 2003, "in recognition of creative work that has specially furthered and developed the cultural and economic progress of mankind." In 2003 she has been elected to an Honorary Fellow of the European Institute of Advanced Studies, Brussels. Stockholm School of Economics bestowed on her the title of Oeconomiae doctor honoris causa in September 2005; Copenhagen Business School made her Doctor Mercaturae Honoris Causa in March 2006; Helsinki School of Economics made her an Honorary Doctor of Science (Economics) in May 2006. Her latest books in English are Shadowing and other techniques for doing fieldwork in modern societies (2007) and A theory of organizing (2008).
The 4th NWL International Seminar Series: ‘Work practices, Nomadicity and ICT Mediation’ was organised by Fabiano Pinatti and Dr. Luigina Ciolfi on behalf of the Nomadic Work/Life in the Knowledge Economy project team. The seminars were co-sponsored by the Interaction Design Centre – Department of Computer Science & Information Systems and by the Department of Sociology of the University of Limerick. Full information on the events and the project can be found on the NWL Website

Upcoming Design Week 2011

The Interaction Design Centre will participate in a number of events during Design Week 2011, including demos, talks and a 2nd "Connected Limerick" workshop hosted by IxDA Limerick. Check out the Design Week 2011 Website for a full schedule!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

NWL Seminar with Prof Gloria Mark

The first in a series of international seminars on the topic of "Work Practices, Nomadicity and ICT Mediation" and organised by the Nomadic Work Life Project was held yesterday, 14th of September 2011. The speaker was Professor Gloria Mark from the University of Californa Irvine. Gloria spoke about "Managing Work in a global Context: the Role of Infrastructure". Professor Mark is pictured below with the NWL team: (l/r) Dr. Breda Gray (Sociology), Prof Gloria Mark, Dr. Luigina Ciolfi (IDC) and Fabiano Pinatti (IDC)

Friday, August 26, 2011

Congratulations to Dr Marc McLoughlin!

During the conferring ceremony that took place yesterday, 25 August 2011, our colleague Marc McLoughlin was officially awarded his doctorate!

The title of Marc's thesis was:
Designing for Public Interaction: Extending, Applying and Reflecting on the Principles of "Assembly"

Marc is pictured here with his supervisor, Dr Luigina Ciolfi, after the ceremony.

The best of luck to Marc in his future career!

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Cristiano Storni presents at Sheffield Hallam University

Thursday the 9th of June - Cristiano Storni presents the 'Reassembling Health research and design agenda' as part of the User Centred Healthcare Design seminar series (UCHD www.uchd.org.uk). Cristiano reports on the FutureComm project research and design activities, describes the TiY design concept and discusses directions for future research in the area of self-care practices and technology in chronic disease.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Luigina Ciolfi speaks at "Museums and Design Disciplines: Society and Participation"

Luigina Ciolfi was one of the invited speakers at Museums and Design Disciplines: Society and Participation, an international seminar organised by the IUAV Doctoral School in Venice (Italy) and the Museology of Design Research Group. The programme also included talks by Duncan Grewcock, Kingston University, London, Kali Tzortzi, University of Athens, and Davide Ponzini, Politecnico di Milano.
A summary of the event (in Italian and English) can be read here