Lecture and workshop in Buenos Aires, Argentina

Research and Arts
Lecture and workshop series 2007-2008

"Participatory Design of Interactive Games for Cellphones, Public Spaces and Extreme User Scenarios"
David McIntosh
October 23-30, 2007

The cell phone has become the most popular and widespread medium of communication in the world and is producing profound changes in the way in which we experience, occupy and move through physical and public space. On one hand, constant mobile access to virtual space via the cell phone enhances individual subjectivity while converting the physical space we find ourselves in into a form of "nowhere." On the other hand, cell phone services connect the deterritorialized individual user to a global virtual network of commercial audiovisual products for consumption, another form of "nowhere that is paradoxically everywhere in the world. In this context, the needs and desires of specific located and embodied user groups must be taken as crucial elements in any participatory design process for new cell phone uses, taking into account not only conventional uses, but also extreme use scenarios, including people with memory loss, loss of sight and loss of mobility. This new and developing dynamic between physical/ corporeal/public/local space and mobile/virtual/global space underpins David McIntosh's recent research and creation work at the Ontario College of Art & Design, Toronto, Canada.

In this workshop, McIntosh will present his experiences with the design of the interactive cell phone game "The Haunting," which combines the narrative logic of the land with the mobile locative interactive potential of the cell phone and with the collective actions of a group of players. He will also present a series of other design approaches to artistic and social uses of cell phone networks. Participants in the workshop will develop an understanding of the underlying technologies for mobile interaction design, including GPS, Bluetooth and WiFi. Workshop participants will employ this framework for cell phone interaction design to identify potential user groups in their immediate local context. In this design process, we will examine a series of cell phone interaction design issues including: writing and designing for specific physical spaces taking into account the geographical and historical specificities of the site of interaction; constructing coherent narrative logic across a range of technological devices; interaction design that promotes user experimentation and innovation; and the re-imagination, re-invention and re-metaphorization of the cell phone for innovative applications.

More information about CEIArtE – UNTreF: http://www.ceiarte.untref.edu.ar/