Pamela Jennings

Creativity Support Tools: Report From a U.S. National Science Foundation Sponsored Workshop

Creativity support tools is a research topic with high risk but potentially very high payoff. The goal is to develop improved software and user interfaces that empower users to be not only more productive but also more innovative. Potential users include software and other engineers, diverse scientists, product and graphic designers, architects, educators, students, and many others. Enhanced interfaces could enable more effective searching of intellectual resources, improved collaboration among teams, and more rapid discovery processes. These advanced interfaces should also provide potent support in hypothesis formation, speedier evaluation of alternatives, improved understanding through visualization, and better dissemination of results. For creative endeavors that require composition of novel artifacts (e.g., computer programs, scientific papers, engineering diagrams, symphonies, artwork), enhanced interfaces could facilitate exploration of alternatives, prevent unproductive choices, and enable easy backtracking. This U.S. National Science Foundation sponsored workshop brought together 25 research leaders and graduate students to share experiences, identify opportunities, and formulate research challenges. Two key outcomes emerged: (a) encouragement to evaluate creativity support tools through multidimensional in-depth longitudinal case studies and (b) formulation of 12 principles for design of creativity support tools.

ComSlipper: an expressive design to support awareness and availability

In our increasingly decentralized world, demands to maintain relationships over long distances continue to increase. It is more and more difficult to maintain a sense of connection with others, to communicate with others in an emotionally rich way, and to know whether one is available for initiating a conversation in an appropriate context.This paper describes the design process and our solution to this challenge. The ComSlipper is a lightweight yet expressive sensible slipper that enhances the quality of computer-mediated relationships. The ComSlipper was developed using a human-centered design approach to better understand user behaviors and needs. The ComSlipper empowers the wearer to create a sense of connection to others. The wearer uses body gesture and tactile manipulation to feel and express emotions and availability to distant loved ones. The ComSlipper provides a natural and intimate way of communicating, and facilitates the development of intimate relationships.

About face interface: creative engagement in the new media arts and HCI

By promoting divergent thinking and creative visions, new media art practices present HCI research with a platform that emphasizes creative engagement as a locus for innovative design and evaluation methods. The workshop goal is to identify attributes of a conceptual framework that positions creative engagement as a hub for future transdisciplinary research and incorporates practices and theories from the new media arts, HCI, and computer science research.

Creativity challenges and opportunities in social computing

There is a convergence in recent theories of creativity that go beyond characteristics and cognitive processes of individuals to recognize the importance of the social construction of creativity. In parallel, there has been a rise in social computing supporting the collaborative construction of knowledge. The panel will discuss the challenges and opportunities from the confluence of these two developments by bringing together the contrasting and controversial perspective of the individual panel members. It will synthesize from different perspectives an analytic framework to understand these new developments, and how to promote rigorous research methods and how to identify the unique challenges in developing evaluation and assessment methods for creativity research.

ACM multimedia interactive art program: an introduction to the digital boundaries exhibition

The Digital Boundaries exhibition includes works that use multimedia to address issues of multiculturalism, identity, and awareness. By placing technology in new contexts to explore multimedias impact on culture (and vice versa) we create a space for the discussion of new ideas and create an interdisciplinary impact by reinforcing a dialogue between the arts and multimedia communities. We discuss our motivation, the exhibition theme, the works selected, and their potential technical impact.

Constructed narratives a tangible social interface

Constructed Narratives is a tangible social interface designed for use in public spaces where people have the opportunity to encounter the game and subsequently learn about each other. The hardware and software system architecture developed for this project could be applied for experimental computer-based interfaces for several human computer interaction domains including collaborative learning (CSCL), and collaborative design activities in the tradition of computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). The current domain explored for Constructed Narratives is that of computer systems designed to enable shared experience through play, or computer supported collaborative play (CSCP).

Reflections on interdisciplinary team development for the design of a platform for computer supported collaborative play

The Constructed Narratives project has been designed for use in public spaces where there is the opportunity for individuals and groups of people, who are not acquainted with each other, to encounter the game and subsequently each other. The goal is to provide a platform that supports discourse in environments where ‘keeping comfortable distance’ between oneself and others is the norm. The system framework developed for this project can be applied for use in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL), and collaborative design activities in the tradition of computer supported collaborative work (CSCW). The current domain explored in the Constructed Narratives project is computer systems designed to enable shared experience through play, or computer supported collaborative play (CSCP). This paper examines the learner-centred design methodologies used for the development of the physical artifacts and underlying software and hardware system architecture for the Constructed Narratives project. The design methodology demonstrates how an interdisciplinary team of artists, designers, and technologists can exploit the opportunities inherent in this ‘symmetry of ignorance’ to find solutions for multiple wicked design problems that can arise during the development of an integrated software and hardware system.

Interactivity: constructed narratives

Constructed Narratives is a digital media research project and game that explores the design of tangible social interfaces that facilitate discourse and information sharing in public spaces. Designed for experiments in social networking and learning in physical environments, the tangible social interface (TSI) is based on the premises of the tangible user interface (TUI) -- physical objects embedded with hardware sensors for responsive output when manipulated. The tangible social interface gives unique output based on manipulation technique as well as profile information about the person who is doing the manipulation.

Exploring open narrative structures with tangibles

The Constructed Narratives Construction Kit is a tangible game interface built on the 802.15.4 wireless protocol designed for supporting players social awareness of others who are also engaged in the collaborative building activity.