A joint design research project (HES-SO) between ECAL, HEAD, EPFL-ECAL Lab & EPFL
At HEAD – Genève today, we started the first workshop of the research project with James Auger (from Auger-Loizeau design studio and the Royal College of Arts in London). We’re going to spend this week with the first year students of the Media Design MA exploring cloud computing, personal cloud systems, objects and user interfaces.
In order to address this, the workshop started with a background description of the project’s purposes, the evolution of computers and network infrastructures, as well as an introduction to the current state of design objects and architectures related to cloud Computing: NAS systems, servers combined with heater, speculative projects related to such technologies. From this broad list of material we wondered about the lack of artefacts that go beyond purely functionalists goals. Cloud computing systems, especially in the context of people’s context is generally a commodity… hence a need for design interventions to re-open this black box.
Following Eames’ quote “A plan for arranging elements to accomplish a particular purpose” (as a definition of design), we asked students to start with a basic activity: to create a map of “elements” related to cloud computing. They had to choose a domain of everyday life (cooking, communication, etc.), begin by compiling “their” elements (material scale, cultural, historical, list people’s motivations, objects used to achieve it, situations, behaviors, etc.), sub-themes.
From this we discussed this ecology of elements and what aspects or user contexts they could focus on. Interestingly, students chose very broad topics: religion, communication, cooking, art performances, animal-computer relationships or music-making. Based on this map, we then asked students to explore the role of cloud computing into these elements by looking at these questions:
The (many) answers to these questions led the groups to highlighting design opportunities to be discussed tomorrow.
ECAL / Media & Interaction Design
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Prof. Patrick Keller
Co-Head of the I&IC design research.
Patrick Keller is Professor at the University of Art & Design, Lausanne (ECAL) where he teaches design in the Media & Interaction Design unit. He was in charge of this unit between 2001 and 2004. In 2007, he led the design research Variable_Environment that united designers from ECAL and scientists from EPFL (design & sciences research).
Patrick is a founding member of fabric | ch, a studio for architecture, interaction and research. As part of his activity as creative director for the studio, he formulates new space proposals that combines digital, physical and environmental dimensions. Oscillating between devices, installations, experiments and productions, the work of the collective has been exhibited and published internationally, so has presented in numerous talks.
Patrick Keller studied architecture at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL) where he graduated in 1993 (M.Sc) and in Berlin. He then continued his education in the research labs of the EPFL with a postgraduate in Computer Graphics (Mas). Patrick worked at the EPFL as a research assistant where he contributed as a designer on several research projects between 1996 and 2000, before formally founding fabric | ch in 2001.
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Contact: patrick[dot]keller[at]ecal[dot]ch
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Prof. Nicolas Nova
Co-Head of the I&IC design research.
Nicolas Nova is Professor at the Geneva University of Arts and Design (HEAD – Geneva) and founder of the Near Future Laboratory, a design studio based in Europe and California. His work is about identifying weak signals as well as exploring people’s needs, motivations and contexts to map new design opportunities and chart potential futures.
Nicolas has given talks and exhibited his work on the intersections of design, technology and the near-future possibilities for new social-technical interaction rituals in venues such SXSW, AAS, O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference and the design week in Milano, the Institute for the Future, the MIT Medialab.
He holds a Phd in Human-Computer Interaction from the Swiss Institute of Technology (EPFL, Switzerland) and was previously a visiting researcher at the Art Center College of Design (Pasadena, CA). He is also curatot for Lift Conference, a series of international events about digital culture and innovation.
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Contact: nicolas[dot]nova[at]hesge[dot]ch
EPFL / ALICE – Atelier de la conception de l’espace
Prof. Dieter Dietz
Educated at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (Arch. Degree 1991), Dieter Dietz also studied at the Cooper Union in New York with Diller/Scofidio. Since 2006, he is Associate Professor for Architectural Design at EPFL, director of the ALICE laboratory in the ENAC faculty. He collaborates with the ALICE team on research projects at diverse scales with labs inside and outside EPFL.
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Contact: dieter[dot]dietz[at]epfl[dot]ch
Nicolas Henchoz
Based in Lausanne, the EPFL+ECAL Lab was founded by Nicolas Henchoz in 2003 to explore the potential of emerging technologies. Its mission is to foster innovation at the point where technology, design and architecture overlap.
Under Nicholas’s direction The Lab’s activities are focused on three main concerns. First, to develop practical, real-world applications for technologies developed in the scientific labs. Secondly, to drive innovation by widening the scope of designers’ work. Thirdly, to form new links and develop synergy between researchers and wider society seeking technological and other innovative solutions.
One key area of exploration is augmented reality which developed into an exhibition, Gimme More, in New York earlier this year. It is part of a project aiming to better understand how augmented reality can be developed into a medium in its own right.
Nicholas Henchoz’s teaching and research concerns include augmented reality, innovation management and material science. He has been named among Bilan’s “300 Most Influential People in Switzerland”. The EPFL+ECAL Lab is a unit of the Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne – Europe’s leading research & development university – in co-operation with the Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne.
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Contact: nicolas[dot]henchoz[at]epfl[dot]ch
... Along the design research, we are going through many different types of references that we don't necessarily post or document ...
The website presenting the downloadable results of the joint design and ethnographic research Inhabiting and Interfacing the Cloud(s) is now ...
