Interaction Ecologies

SeFun International Seminar / 6th Nordcode Seminar & Workshop, Helsinki, 6-8 May 2007

Henrik Enquist et al. Interaction Ecologies

Henrik Enquist, Konrad Tollmar.Lund University

Aino Vonge CorryAarhus University

Complementing visions

Ubiquitous computing

• invisibility• scalability• construction• heterogeneity• change• automation

Palpable computing

• visibility*• understandability• de-construction*• coherence• stability• user control*

Application areas

• Healthcare• Emergency services• Landscape architecture

www.ist-palcom.org

Case study

• Pregnancy and early maternity• Skejby Hospital, Denmark

It’s not only complex…

Some issues:

• Paper work

• Coordination

• Visibility

• Locations

• Participation

…it’s a jungle !

Designers to the rescue!

• Field studies• Workshops• Cultural probes• Prototyping

Experimental prototypes

Prototype design

Some findings

• Design issues• Yet another device!

– Swiss army knife– It is something special

• Empowerment• Gender issues• New (mental) model of

information and interaction

Aspects of interaction

• Privacy / control• Overview / inspection• Clinical / personal data

To sum up

• Lots of devices• Lots of people• Lots of activities• Lots of possibilities

– Open but fairly stable situation

• Two related examples:

Vision of the Future

Some issues• How are we affected by this situation in

our everyday life?

• How does this inform us as designers in a constructive way?

• How will this change our view on artefacts and their use?

• How do we communicate this change of the way we relate to clusters of artefacts?

Ecology in biology• applied ecology, the practice of employing ecological principles and understanding to solve real world

problems (includes agroecology and conservation biology); • biogeochemistry, effect of biota on global chemistry, and the cycles of matter and energy that

transport the Earth's chemical components in time and space. • biogeography, the study of the geographic distributions of species ; • chemical ecology, which deals with the ecological role of biological chemicals used in a wide range of

areas including defense against predators and attraction of mates; • conservation ecology, which studies how to reduce the risk of species extinction; • ecological succession, which focuses on understanding directed vegetation change; • ecophysiology which studies the interaction of physiological traits with the abiotic environment; • ecotoxicology, which looks at the ecological role of toxic chemicals (often pollutants, but also naturally

occurring compounds); • evolutionary ecology or ecoevolution which looks at evolutionary changes in the context of the

populations and communities in which the organisms exist; • fire ecology, which looks at the role of fire in the environment of plants and animals and its effect on

ecological communities; • functional ecology, the study of the roles, or functions, that certain species (or groups thereof) play in

an ecosystem; • global ecology, which examines ecological phenomena at the largest possible scale, addressing

macroecological questions; • landscape ecology, which studies the interactions between discrete elements of a landscape; • macroecology, the study of large scale phenomena; • marine ecology, and aquatic ecology, where the dominant environmental milieu is water; • microbial ecology, the ecology of micro-organisms; • microecology, the study of small scale phenomena; • paleoecology, which seeks to understand the relationships between species in fossil assemblages; • restoration ecology, which attempts to understand the ecological basis needed to restore impaired or

damaged ecosystems; • soil ecology, the ecology of the pedosphere; • theoretical ecology, the development of ecological theory, usually with mathematical, statistical and/or

computer modeling tools; • urban ecology, the study of ecosystems in urban areas.

Interdisciplinary ecology

• Ecological Engineering• Ecological Economics• Human Ecology• Social Ecology• Anthropological Ecology

Metaphoric ecology

• Media Ecology– Media environments

• Information Ecology– (Nardi & O’Day)– Library as an example

• Ecology of Artefacts– (Krippendorff)– Species of artefacts– Ecological meanings– Different interaction types

Key properties

• System• Diversity• Coevolution• Keystone species• Locality

Possible (inter)actor categories

• Software represents any component such as computational code, policies, norms, rules, procedures, practices, and any other formal or informal rules that defines the way in which the different components of the system interact with each other and with the external environment.

• Hardware represents any physical and nonhuman/non-living component of the system, such as equipment, vehicles, tools, manuals, and signs.

• Liveware represents any human (or other living) components in their relational and communicational aspects.

Affordance

”The affordance of anything is aspecific combination of the physicalproperties of the environment that is

uniquely suited to a given animal”(Gibson 1977)

• Relationships and properties (Gibson)• Perceived affordance (Norman)

Interaction Ecology

• Focus on interaction and meaning– Making sense of complex

relationships and activities

• It’s a living thing– Semi-permeable system– Dynamically created and maintained

• Non-hierarchical ’interactors’– Actants (ANT)

Where do we go from here?

• ...model for inspiration• ...model for informing designers• ...model for evaluation of a

design• ...model for describing a design• …(fill in the blanks)

Thank you

Questions ? (…please ;)

Interaction Ecologies

Documents

Transcript of Interaction Ecologies

The Three Ecologies, Guattari

Urban Ecologies Information and Complexity

Urban Ecologies #3 Water Workshop

Cultivating knowledge ecologies presentation flew

EMASA 2009 - Paper: Complex Ecologies

Archigram Ecologies

Ecologies of the excess

TIF - Toxic Ecologies

liberation ecologies, intro.pdf

Teaching Sustainability: Ecologies that MaLer

Research Records and Artifact Ecologies

New ecologies for learning + wellness

DISTANCE LEARNER ECOLOGIES - Columbia University

Urban Ecologies #1 site visit

Performative Ecologies

ECOLOGIES WITHOUT BORDERS?

Historical Ecologies, Heterarchies and Transtemporal ...

Ecologies, Communities, Imaginaries

Control Systems Design, SC4026 - TU Delftaabate/2010sc4026/sc4026_lec1.pdf · Control Systems Design, SC4026 ... cells to the interaction of organisms in complex ecologies. ... vascular

Writing Texts: Reading Rhetorical Ecologies