"Magic is Might 2012" Programme & Registration Available!

Magic is Might 2012: An International Academic Conference Exploring the Cultural Influences of the Harry Potter Books and Films

Hosted by the University of Limerick Department of Sociology and by the UL Interaction Design Centre.

University of Limerick, Ireland

July 23-24 2012

Full Program now available

Registration now open!

The Harry Potter series has become a publishing phenomenon that has captured the imagination of children and adults all over the world. The stories created by J.K. Rowling have inspired extensive multidisciplinary academic discussion, ranging from cultural and literary analyses, sociological and philosophical interpretations, design practices, to recognised medical publications. Conferences have taken place that focused on the impact that the novels have had on the world and their educational contribution and edited collections have been produced centering on themes of philosophy, religion, sociology, and critical analysis, to name just a few. The characters' relationships, the political and social systems, and cultural commentaries woven into Rowling’s writing are just some examples of what makes the Harry Potter series an exciting framework for academic discourse in a number of areas. This two-day event will feature twenty 15-20 minute presentations on papers relating to popular culture and the Harry Potter series. We will encourage intensive and lively discussion and debate around the papers over the two days in this intimate setting. The conference will feature opening remarks by Dr. Eoin Devereux, author of "Understanding the Media", Head of the UL Dept. of Sociology and a world-renowned expert on fandom, and a keynote presentation by Dom Mark Patrick Hederman, OSB, Abbott of Glenstal Abbey, lecturer and writer, on "Harry Potter" Archetype of the Child as our future in the 21st Century".

Wizards, Muggles, established academics and postgraduate students are invited to join the conference!

Conference organisers:

Gráinne O’Brien (University of Limerick, Ireland) Dr. Luigina Ciolfi (University of Limerick, Ireland) Jadwiga O’Brien (National University of Galway, Ireland) Lette Moloney (MoloneyMedia and Interaction Design Centre, UL)

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To Register: http://magicismight2012.eventbrite.com/?ebtv=C

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This conference is NOT authorized by J.K. Rowling, her US or UK publishers, WB, Universal Studios or any other official Harry Potter related or trademarked entity.

Faculty of Science and Engineering Scholarship

This year, two of the students currently enrolled in the Master program in Interactive Media have been awarded the Faculty of Science and Engineering Scholarship. The awarding ceremony took place in the Millstream Common Room on the 26th of January.

Congratulation to Xiaonan Gao and Yefan Wang.

Xiaonan Gao (left) and Yefan Wang (right) receive the award from Prof. Paul McCutcheon - Vice President Academic & Registrar

Xiaonan Gao and Yefan Wang with course leader Dr. Cristiano Storni

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:

• Him
• Whiskey
• Miracle Match
• Blind Gun-Dog — Monsters of Rock

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

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!

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)

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!

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.

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

IDC Work at "Boundary Work I" Exhibition

IDC has been invited to participate in Boundary Work I, and exhibition on the theme of technology in practice between art and science. The exhibition, curated by Paul Green on CIT Crawford College of Art, opened last week at Wandesford quay Gallery in Cork and it will run until November 27th. An overview of the work exhibited, including images is available here

Congrats to Softday on "Marbh Chrios"

Congrats to Mikael Fernstrom and Softday on the recent successful performance of "Marbh Chrios", which took place on October 16th at Mooney's Boatyard in Killybegs, Co. Donegal. Congrats to Mikael and Sean on their success!

Success for the third Edition of Tweak Festival

Between September 17th and 24th 2010, Limerick was yet again buzzing thanks to Tweak, the interactive digital art festival featuring an exhibition, workshops, concerts and a cinema day. Tweak is aiming to promote the understanding of the use of technology in our lives and has been curated by IDC Nora O'Murchu in collaboration with (among others) UL IDC, the Limerick School of Art and Design, the arts Council and Creative Limerick

"Reminisce" at Bunratty Folk Park going Live!

“Reminisce” at Bunratty Folk Park
August 25-27 2010

Are you curious about how interactive technology can bring memories of the past to life? Then try out "Reminisce" at Bunratty Folk Park!

Researchers at the Interaction Design Centre have developed a new interactive experience, "Reminisce", which will allow visitors of Bunratty Folk Park in Co. Clare to discover, share and contribute to personal memories linked to buildings, traditions and ways of life of Ireland's past. "Reminisce" will engage visitors in a quest for memories and mementoes to add value to their experience of the cottages and activities on display at the Park.

The IDC is a multidisciplinary research group in the Dept. of Computer Science and Information Systems at the University of Limerick, focused on the design, use and evaluation of information and communications technologies from a human-centred design perspective: our research is focused on enhancing and supporting people's activities and is grounded on the context of the users' experience. The IDC has conducted extensive research on the use of ICTs in museums and exhibitions during the past 10 years, with successful installations at The Hunt Museum, Shannon Airport and Limerick’s Milk Market.

"Reminisce" is part of a research project exploring the utility and potential of technologies such as smart phones, augmented reality and location-based services in outdoor exhibition sites, and it has been supported by Failte Ireland and the University of Limerick Seed Funding initiative.

"Reminisce" is easy to use, doesn't require any specialised equipment and is completely free. It will be available for trials at Bunratty Folk Park from the 25th to the 27th of August 2010.

If you would like to try out "Reminisce", please contact luigina.ciolfi@ul.ie or marc.mcloughlin@ul.ie, or get in touch through our Facebook page or Twitter

Congratulations to Dr Erik and Dr Anders!

This week, Anders Sigfridsson and Erik Lövquist successfully completed their PhD vivas.

Dr. Annette Aboulafia (Erik's supervisor), Erik Lövquist, Prof Liam Bannon (Anders' supervisor) and Anders Sigfridson.

Interaction Design Talks: Fernando Orellana

The Interaction Design Talks series continues this semester with a talk by Fernando Orellana.

Fernando will speak about his recent artwork relating to robotics, anthropomorphism, dreams, generative art, automobiles, and Play-doh.

He was one of the artists featured during the 2nd edition of Tweak in September last year.

Currently an Assistant Professor developing an electronic art program at Union College in Schenectady, NY, Fernando Orellana uses new and traditional media as a way of transmitting concepts that range from generative art to social-political commentary. He has recently exhibited at the Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY, Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires, Argentina, The Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady, NY, Exit Art, New York, New York, LABoral, Gijon, Spain, The Tang Museum of Art, Saratoga Springs, NY, Glass Curtain Gallery, Chicago, IL, The Ark, Dublin, Ireland, and The Biennial of Electronic Art, Perth, Australia.

The talk will take place this Wednesday, 3 March 2010, 2:30pm in KBG13 (Kemmy Business School), and everybody is welcome!

On Wednesday evening, Fernando Orellana will also give a talk at the IxDA Limerick meetup in the Absolute Hotel. The meetup starts at 7pm as usual. All are welcome!

Interaction Design Talks: Nicholas Polley

Wednesday, 3 February 2010, the Interaction Design Talks series continues with a talk by Nicholas Polley, the founder of the Dublin-based company 3rd Dimension.

The talk, titled Inside 3D Visualisation, is scheduled for 2:30pm in KB119, and everybody is welcome.

3rd Dimension's Visualisation and Animation studios are based in Blackrock in Co Dublin. The company is focused on creating design solutions that include 3D visuals, photomontages, visual impact assessments and 3D walkthroughs meant to support their clients planning and marketing strategies.

Nicholas will speak about his company's past and ongoing projects, referring to the processes and technologies involved. He will also focus on the advances in 3D visualisation technologies over the years and the vital role played by these in many industries (Architecture, Engineering, Design, Games Development).

On Wednesday evening, Nicholas Polley will also give a talk at the IxDA Limerick meetup in the Absolute Hotel. The meetup starts at 7pm as usual. All are welcome!

Reassembling Health: exploring the role of the internet of things

Last Friday, the 4th of December Cristiano Storni led a workshop at LIFT@Home under the event 'Are you ready for the Internet of Things' where the Think tank 'The Council' launched.

Workshop description can be found here;

Workshop report can be found here (draft);

Some of the Workshop material can be found here (presentation), here (concept map), and here (inspirational booklet);

The Council website can be found here;

The LIFT event link can be found here.

'Problematizing Design' Panel with Cristiano Storni and Aphra Kerr

Cristiano Storni has participated to the Workshop 'Ethnography, Creativity and design' as part of the Anthropology seminar series in collaboration with Intel last November the 12th at NUI Maynooth. Cristiano Storni was part of the panel 'Problematizing design' with Lecturer Aphra Kerr. In his presentation (The politics of design inthe Health Care dispositif), Cristiano has shared some of the finds of his research on self-care practices and technology. He argued for the limit of the medical model in self and home care practices and the need to create room for more dialogical collaborations between lay persons and expert practitioners in care. Aphra Kerr has presented her research on the game industry by problematize the relationship between producers and users in the digital game domain. Intel hosted part of the seminar and provide a series of presentations regarding the Independent Living project and the related Tril centre (www.trilcentre.org).

Program available here

Event brochure available here

Interaction Design Talk: Macdara Butler

Wednesday, 18 Nov 2009, at 2:30 pm, Macdara Butler from Tricycle Interactive, will give a talk titled "Designers & Programmers - Crossing the Divide in Interactive Media Development" in room CSG001.

Macdara Butler, the MD of Tricycle Interactive Ltd., has graduated from UL in 2003 with a Business degree in Economics, Finance & French. He worked in the financial sector for 2 years before returning to UL for the Interactive Media Masters. In October 2006, he set up Tricycle Interactive, together with 2 fellow graduates. Tricycle Interactive provides web applications, mobile software and interface design services.

Designers & Programmers - Crossing the Divide in Interactive Media Development

It is essential that design-oriented people increase their technical skills and knowledge in order to meet the demands of industry. Equally, programmers need to embrace the principles of User Centred Design and engage whole-heartedly with the designers to achieve successful outcomes.

When designers and programmers are able to communicate effectively, work closely together, and understand each other's domains, the team will achieve great results.

Update (19 Nov 2009): Photos from Macdara's talk

IDC Team delivers "Get Connected" on behalf of the Irish Museums Association

On Friday, 13th of November, Gabriela Avram, Luigina Ciolfi, Eamonn Finn, Olivia Kennedy an Marc McLoughlin from IDC delivered a training day on behalf of the Irish Museums Association: "Get Connected. Your Museum and Web 2.0". Participants representing museums and other exhibition spaces and cultural institutions from all over Ireland were briefed on the benefits of using Web 2.0 tools to promote and support current activities at their institution. The workshop was hosted by The Hunt Museum