Oliver Frank Chanarin: A Perfect Sentence.

The workshop, involving i-DAT/CODEX PhD and Experience Design and Architecture Masters students, took place during the Oliver Frank Chanarin: A Perfect Sentence.

26 JAN – 23 MAR 2024 at KARST.

i-DAT would like to thank Oliver Chanarin, Antonia Shaw (Forma) and Ben Borthwick for letting us play with their beautifully delicate installation.

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Workshop images by Francie...

Design Research collaboration: Design Knowledge, i-DAT and Message

Design Research Workshop delivered in collaboration with the Message and Design Knowledge Research Groups.

Date: Wednesday 29 January

13.00 Lunch – research posters (2nd Floor Balcony)

14.00 Dóra Ísleifsdóttir & Åse Huus research seminar (Design Lab)

Location: Design Lab

Expanding research networks

Research seminar: Dóra Ísleifsdóttir & Åse Huus & research poster event.

We are delighted to inform you that the next Design Research seminar will be given by Professor Dóra Ísleifsdóttir & Associate Professor Åse Huus from Bergen, Norway.

Dóra Ísleifsdóttir & Åse Huus are co-editors of Message – Graphic Communication Design Research journal.
Over lunch, there will be a networking opportunity to view and discuss Design Research posters from members of Design Knowledge, i-DAT and Message.

Poster Session:

Jamie Billing: 50/50 Production Products. Engineering a precise place for digital and handmade production objects.

Dr. Stephanie Black: Exploring the contemporary Moon Under Water through illustration: nostalgia and the power of the image.

James Brocklehurst: How can the visualisation of regional open data using emerging digital typography technologies assist with data literacy agendas?

Dr Gianni Corino: Thingbook. How design prototyping tool can support a participatory approach to data and their trading? how can we generate value in a decentralised data system made of new technological artefact?

Pete Quinn Davis: SKINNING: This work investigates the creative potential of using 3D scanning and printing techniques (machine learning) not just to replicate/reproduce originals, but to transform scales and spaces to generate a new genre of (design/sculptural) artefacts.

Elena Del Signore: UBICARE How to address construction waste through design.

Joel Hodges, Luke Christison, Mike Phillips: GABOXR: Naum Gabo: Bronze Spheric Theme c.1960 / Scan / Model / Projection / Interaction. GABOXR is a Quorum project which comprises research in the design and application of software/hardware to augment public engagement of cultural experiences.

Sophie Homer & Victoria Squire: Under pressure – Psychological perspectives on letterpress, craft, and wellbeing.

Christiana Kazakou: Hybrid Narrative Environments: a ‘beyond disciplinary’ approach for intermediating art and science discourse.

John Kilburn: What is Fresh Air? Can illustration projects have impact and make a difference to environmental issues?

Marc Tharsil Trotereau: LightVolume – Plastic waste within the lampshade industry.

Dr Helen Margaret Walter: Embodied History: Wearing Historic Dress and Textiles in the Cavalcade of Costume.

Dane Watkins: How Likely is it that you would recommend this to a friend, family member or colleague.

Dr Stephanie Black & Ashley Potter: ALE TALE: Augmented Reality Beermats.

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DATA TA-DA!

Design Research Workshop delivered in collaboration with the Message and Design Knowledge Research Groups.

Date: Wednesday 20 November

Time: 15.00 – 18.00

Location: i-DAT Room 201 Roland Levinsky Building

The DATA TA-DA! Workshop is aimed at supporting research engagement with the overlapping DATA concerns of the Impact Lab (www.impactlab.org.uk/)and the South West Creative Technology Network (www.swctn.org.uk/data/).

The SWCTN Data Fellowship call deadline is the 9th December and the workshop i support applications and engagement with the project. It also aims to build more relationships with the Impact Lab and the Sustainable Earth Institute.

The aim of this workshop is to:

• provide support for SWCTN fellowship and Impact Lab applications and partnerships.
• enlighten participants to contemporary issues and practicalities of Data.
• provide a playful and accessible hands-on experience of data harvesting, processing and systems
• enable insights to how these processes can inform individual research practices
• discuss issues around ethics, IP within collaborative academic/industrial research
• provide a platform for discussion around academic/industrial knowledge exchange

Schedule
15:00: Introduction: Mike Phillips/ Victoria Squire / Pete Davis.
15:30: Dr Lauren Ansell [Impact Lab] Using Social Media Data
15:45: DATA TA-DA! Workshop. Data harvesting with Joel Hodges [i-DAT/Impact Lab] 16:30: Pizza & more fiddling
17:00: More Data and applications, partnership and project surgery.
18:00: Game over

Miniature Pataphysical Laboratory Niel Spiller. 2004.

300:

Design Research Workshop delivered in collaboration with the Message and Design Knowledge Research Groups.

Date: Monday 17 June 2019

Time: 10:00-16:00

Location: Design Lab / 3D Design Studio [TBC], 2nd floor Roland Levinsky Building.

The 300 Workshop will focus on the 300 word descriptors used to support individual research outputs. Many of you will have submitted 300 words using this template. Others may be interested in better understanding how to articulate their research activity for grant applications and in preparation for the next REF.

For staff aiming at the REF, please submit your 300 words (in whatever state) to mike.phillips@plymouth.ac.uk by Wednesday 12 June so that they can be forwarded to Prof Spiller.

If you haven’t yet completed the template don’t worry but have a go prior to the workshop so we have something to talk about.

These 300 words should provide evidence of originality, rigour and significance for each research output, a supporting portfolio and the activity and its context. For those submitting practice based research the 300 word statement will be critical for the assessors.

• Originality: an intellectual advance or an important and innovative contribution to understanding and knowledge.: substantive empirical findings/ new arguments, interpretations or insights / imaginative scope / assembling of information in an innovative way / development of new theoretical frameworks and conceptual models / innovative methodologies and/or new forms of expression.
• Rigour; peer review, what were  the processes engaged in ; accuracy and depth of scholarship;  awareness of and appropriate engagement with other relevant work: intellectual coherence / methodological precision and analytical power / accuracy and depth of scholarship / awareness of and appropriate engagement with other relevant work
• Significance: how does the work contribute to the wider field; how is it likely to enhance knowledge, thinking, understanding and/or practice in its field. What is the contribution towards culture, public and economic policy?: The enhancement of: knowledge / thinking / understanding /and-or practice

https://www.ref.ac.uk/

The workshop will be delivered by Professor Neil Spiller in collaboration with the leads of Message [Victoria Squire] / Design Knowledge [Pete Davis] / i-DAT [Mike Phillips].

Neil Spiller is Hawksmoor Chair of Architecture and Landscape and Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor of the University of Greenwich, London prior to this he was Dean of the School of Architecture, Design and Construction and Professor of Architecture and Digital Theory at Greenwich University. Before this he was Vice-Dean and Graduate Director of Design at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London.

He guest edited his first AD, Architects in Cyberspace in 1995 (with Martin Pearce) followed in 1996 by Integrating Architecture (1996), Architects in Cyberspace II (1998), Young Blood (2000), Reflexive Architecture (2002), Protocell Architecture with Rachel Armstrong (2010) and Drawing Architecture (2013). Neil’s numerous books include Cyberreader: Critical Writings of the Digital Era (2002), Digital Dreams – The Architecture of the New Alchemic Technologies (1998) and Visionary Architecture – Blueprints of the Modern Imagination (2006). He is on the AD editorial Board. His architectural design work has been published and exhibited on many occasions worldwide. Since 1998, he has produced the epic COMMUNICATING VESSELS project.

Neil is also known as the founding director of the AVATAR (Advanced Virtual and Technological Architectural Research) Group (2004); now based at the University of Greenwich. This group has its own PhD and Masters programmes and conducts research into advanced technologies in architectural representation but more importantly into the impact of advanced technologies such as virtuality and biotechnology on 21st century design. Neil and the AVATAR Group are recognised internationally for their paradigm shifting contribution to architectural discourse, research / experiment and teaching.

The twenty-first century is upon us and the status quo cannot survive. New ways of seeing, doing, practising, and exercising our ethical concerns in relation to architecture are crucial to the continued longevity of the architectural profession. This starts with how we imagine our architectures and how we communicate to others.

http://www.neilspiller.com/about/

The aim of this workshop is to:

• enlighten participants to the REF Research Output requirements.
• understand where your research fits within the broader HE/Design community.
• provide a holistic understanding of our research in terms of originality, rigour and significance.
• clarify and better describe ‘Originality’ in your research.
• Clarify and better describe ‘Rigour’ in your research.
• Clarify and better describe ‘Significance’ in your research.
• Built a communal understanding of why these activities are important to build research resilience.

Schedule [TBC]:

Design Research Workshop.

[Skunk-Works #2]

Design Research Workshop delivered in collaboration with the Message and Design Knowledge Research Groups.

Automatik:

Date: Monday 17 December 2018

Time: 10:00-16:00

Location: Design Lab, 2nd floor Roland Levinsky Building.

As with the previous Skunk-Works, this workshop will explore key aspects of the UK’s Industrial Strategy as framework for individual/group research activities within the Design Area. The workshop will focus on a practical engagement with the new Automation Call for the South West Creative Technology Network: https://swctn.org.uk/.

The aim of this workshop is to:

• enlighten participants to contemporary issues and practicalities of Automation.
• provide a brief but accessible hands-on experience of AI and Robotic systems
• enable insights to how these processes can inform individual research practices
• discuss issues around Intellectual Property within collaborative academic/industrial research
• provide a platform for discussion around academic/industrial knowledge exchange
• provide first-hand accounts of the SWCTN fellowship experience.

To do this we have two short practical workshops from B Aga (Conversational AI) and Swen Gaudl (Robotics), staff from Research & Innovation supporting the SWCTN and Knowledge Exchange and two presentations by fellows from the Immersion cohort of the SWCTN.

The workshop is aimed at academic researchers, but ‘New Talent’ and Industrial partition is very welcome.

10:00: Introduction: {Pete Davis/Mike Phillips/Vicky Squire}

10:15-11:45: Things that Talk: Conversational Artificial Intelligence: {B Aga}

This workshop explores how ‘things that talk’ (conversational AI system such as Siri, Google Home, Alexa etc.) can offer a number of practical and theoretical contributions to research, and simultaneously reveal new possibilities in cultural expression and design. It will offer a quick introduction to the field, highlighting relevant cultural and commercial developments, followed by a short hands-on workshop applying a speculative design framework to create a collaborative ‘thing that talks’ through using https://dialogflow.com/.

Please note: Bring a laptop. If you wish to take part in the workshop, please email baga@plymouth.ac.uk with your Gmail address so you can be invited to set up a collaborative Dialogflow account.
(A Goggle account is required to set up a Dialogflow account, but If you do not have (or choose not to have) a Google account you may still participate in the workshop).

11:45-12:00: Coffee

12:00-13:30: Things that Walk: Robotics Workshop: {Swen Gaudl}

Automating manual labour in factories are what comes to mind when thinking about robotics. However, robots are capable of much more; they can provide a framework for creating highly interactive performances as well as augment human capabilities in terms of precision or repetition. This workshop provides an introduction to the domain through the experimentation and creation of physical robotic entities from a non-engineering perspective.

The workshop will first give a brief overview of existing technology that can be used to develop embodied expressive systems on a budget. Next, participants will be able to experiment with the Lego NXT robotic teaching toolkit to build moving and sensing embodied entities. While engaging with their own robot, the workshop participants will also be able to get to know a currently available commercial robotic platform, Softbank’s Pepper robot.

Workshop

For the workshop, it is recommended to bring a laptop along. The software used during the workshop is free but requires installation. However, the workshop will be done in small groups. Thus, not all participants are required to bring a laptop.

Downloads:

Mac OSX usb driver: https://www.lego.com/r/www/r/mindstorms/-/media/franchises/mindstorms%202014/downloads/firmware%20and%20software/nxt%20software/nxt%20fantom%20drivers%20v120.zip?l.r2=-964392510

and the editor software: https://www.lego.com/en-gb/mindstorms/downloads/nxt-software-download

13:30-14:30 Working Lunch with conversations about:

• Intellectual Property: {Rupert Lorraine}
• Business Engagement and Knowledge Exchange: {Tom Edie}
• Automation Call Proposals: {Mike Phillips}

14:30-15:00: Current SWCTN Immersion Fellows Presentation #1. {Jane Grant}

15:00-15:30: Current SWCTN Immersion Fellows Presentation #2. {Aste Amundsen}

15:30-16:00: Breakout discussion/End

To book a place please contact: Alison Valerio <alison.valerio@plymouth.ac.uk>

and Mike Phillips for any questions: <mike.phillips@plymouth.ac.uk>

CALL FOR AUTOMATION FELLOWS:

The South West Creative Technology Network are recruiting for 24 Automation Fellows. This is a flexible, part-time paid opportunity for people from industry, academia, as well as those in the early stages of their careers who want to think deeply about the potential, challenges and opportunities in the realm of Automation. This is a unique and exciting opportunity to step back from commercial, academic or career pressures, and focus on new and innovative areas of research, exploration and collaboration.

Fellowships run for twelve months from April 2019 through to April 2020, with most time commitment required in the first three months (April to June 2019). Each Fellow will receive a £15k bursary to support time and research costs.

Automation is changing the way we live; it is increasingly important within the Creative Industries as well as manufacturing, retail, financial services, healthcare and many other industries. Automation could be seen as the ‘quiet’ revolution – working in the background to assist in creative processes, or gradually transforming agriculture through robotics, or re-imagining how we search the internet. We are looking for people to explore the frontiers of automation technology and its applications. We are excited about innovative uses of technologies that engage users in hybrid experiences that are ethical, promote wellbeing, connect us to one another and create value (this could be money, enjoyment, understanding, or something else you think the world needs more of). SWCTN is rooted in the creative industries but aims to make connections into other sectors. We want to generate shared knowledge, boost creative thinking and expertise, and create new commercial products and services that no one has thought to make before.

Full briefing for the Automation Call (link to pdf)

FAQs for industry and academic fellows (link to Google doc)

FAQs for new talent fellows (link to Google doc)

Online application form

Get in touch with Charlie Tapp, Producer at Kaleider (charlie@kaleider.com) if you have any questions or want to talk to us over the phone or on Skype.

We aim to be as inclusive as possible and work to accommodate all access requirements. We will openly discuss and tailor how we do things to support you as best we can.

We welcome applications from BAME, LGBTQI, Deaf and disabled practitioners.

• Deadline for applications: 9am, 31 January 2019
• Every applicant will hear from us by 22 February 2019
• Interviews will be held on the 4 & 5 March

Design Research: Skunk-Works

[Workshop and poster event]

Design Research Workshop delivered in collaboration with the Message and Design Knowledge Research Groups.

>Save the day: Thursday 21 June 10.00-16.00

>Previously on Design Research…

Professor Leon Cruickshank, Professor Rachel Cooper and Professor Iain Stewart have contributed to research workshops and poster events. Now all Design Area staff and PGR/T students are invited to take part in the Design Research Skunk-Works to be held on the 21 June 2018.

>Skunk-Works:

The Skunk-Works day-long prototyping workshops will focus on three themes related to the UK Industrial Strategy (https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/industrial-strategy-building-a-britain-fit-for-the-future). It also offers an opportunity for staff to rehearse ideas and prototypes for the Impact Lab and South West Creative Technology Fellowships (SWCTN). The SWCTN will fund a total of 24 fellowships a year for 3 years across the 4 partner institutions, UWE, Bath Spa, Falmouth and Plymouth. Plymouth, through a competitive process, will probably receive 2 x £15k Fellowships, 2 x £15k Industry Fellowships and 2 x £18k New Talent Fellowships (recent graduates or equivalent) per year for 3 years.

Meet: 2nd Floor RLB – Design Lab.

>1: Prototyping Workshops:

The themes for the workshops are: Immersion/Automation/Data. Immersion being the first SWCTN call to be published this June for an August submission and September start. Three parallel prototyping workshops will be held on floor 2 of the Roland Levinsky Building starting with a briefing in the Design Lab. Each themed prototyping workshop will be supported by skilled students from the Ion Studio representing the broad range of skills and practices of the Design Research Area. These will facilitate the prototyping workshops to help rapid prototype of ideas.

>Outputs:

The Skunk-Works outputs will be captured and published in the first of a series of digital publications.

>2: Research Poster:

In order for us all to gain a greater awareness of research interests, ideas and skills currently being undertaken within the Design Area, you are asked to produce a research poster to accompany the event. A template will be provided shortly.

>Skunk-Works Themes:

• Immersion: Emerging mixed reality technologies give developers, designers, artists and performers new ways to blend the real and the virtual. How can immersive applications be used to solve core challenges in health, productivity and the global digital economy?
• Automation: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning and the soft and hard technologies of automation have had a significant impact in the fields of engineering, data analytics and their applications. What are the new Creative Industries strategies needed to harness the opportunities offered by Artificial Intelligence and the technologies of automation.
• Data: My data, your data, our data, most often portrayed as a seamless, networked layer or high-functioning, ubiquitous grid of communication. The ambition being that from this grid of multifarious technologies and flows of behavioural, infrastructural and environmental data new meaning and insight can emerge. How can this personal, societal and ethical data milieu be best be experienced?

Timetable:

10:00: Poster Session and Briefing

Design Lab RLB Floor 2 Landing.

11:00: Theme Teams [Immersion/Automation/Data]

Spaces [Design Lab / 209 / 204&5A]

Theme Leaders: Coral Manton [Immersion] / B Aga [Automation / Data [Dane Watkins].

The Theme Teams will be supported by members of ION Studio:

Christopher Smith / Ellie Seal / Daniel Ward / Lucy Goodall / Stephanie Field / Harry Sayers / Feyisara Odunuga / Gavin Keightey / James Moseley.

Luke Christon will be on hand for VR and Fulldome support.

Stewart Starbuck will also be there to support the Rapid Prototype kit and electronic bits n pieces.

Motivations:

Thinking and making outside of individual disciplinary focus.

Response to external Research England/ UK Industrial Strategy themes.

Develop research questions and agendas beyond individual preoccupations.

Inter(sub)disciplinary collaboration – get them to collaborate and have some fun together.

There will be egos and sacredness so needs playful cultivation.

Context:

1: http://i-dat.org/funded-industry-academic-new-talent-fellowships-14-june/

2: https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/research/institutes/sustainable-earth/impact-lab

Outcomes:

New inter(sub)disciplinary collaborations

Prototypes

Documentation: Digital form [Examples could be (but not): http://liveablecities.org.uk/outcomes/little-book-series

/ https://things2things.nl/

Sketch Session and Ideas Generation.

We will be using a compressed version of: https://designsprintkit.withgoogle.com/methods/

12:30: Prototyping / Documentation.

Prototyping resources will be available, such as electronics [Arduinos/PI’s/sensors], VR kits, IVT, etc.

13:00: Lunch

14:00: Prototyping / Documentation

More of the same…

15:00: Show & Tell / Documentation

DEMOORDIE!

16:00: End.

[i-DAT/Design Knowledge/Message – researchplayaywayday]