Engaging with Cultural Content on Ambient

Displays

Areti GalaniICCHS, Newcastle University

Motivation

• Understanding the situation

• Calm technology..as opposed to infrastructure-driven application

• Cultural content …but not necessarily an art installation

Setting – Campus Coffee Café

Ethnographic approach

• In-situ brief questionnaires• Observations• Space usage snapshots• Focus groups

– Perceptions– Design ideas

Event recommendations

Live object interpretation

Blogboard

Spatial considerations• Ambient display• Position in the space & lighting

– Visibility – Readability– Just over 40% of the customers sit facing the

screen • Competition with other features of the

space – Blackboards

Use • Opportunistic

– Moment-long/glancing • The ‘fish tank’ effect

(moving image attraction)– Passer-bys

• In the fringes of main activity – On the way to places (e.g.

the loo) – While queuing

• A reminder/prompt– Complementary function

Sense of place

• ‘European feeling’ – ‘Relaxed but smart’

• Informal & social – A place to meet friends

• Public but also institutional – In the city and in the university – Boundary space

• Diverse & multicultural

Content & Interaction • ‘Screen=information’

– Peripheral participation • Cultural

– Current approach = good approach – No advertising– No sound

• Relevant to place– Primacy of social function – Moderation

What’s next?

• Explore the boundaries of people’s interaction with calm technology– Mobile phones

• Explore ownership of content – Issues of privacy and moderation

AcknowledgementsAll staff and customers of Campus Coffee CaféStudent Union, Newcastle University

Areti Galani areti.galani@ncl.ac.uk

Chris Kray c.kray@ncl.ac.uk Keith Cheverest

kc@comp.lancs.ac.uk