Wallis Motta

Tension Space Analysis: Exploring Community Requirements for Networked Urban Screens

This paper draws on the design process, implementation and early evaluation results of an urban screens network to highlight the tensions that emerge at the boundary between the technical and social aspects of design. While public interactive screens in urban spaces are widely researched, the newly emerging networks of such screens present fresh challenges. Researchers wishing to be led by a diverse user community may find that the priorities of some users, directly oppose the wishes of others. Previous literature suggests such tensions can be handled by ‘goal balancing’, where all requirements are reduced down to one set of essential, implementable attributes. Contrasting this, this paper’s contribution is ‘Tension Space Analysis’, which broadens and extends existing work on Design Tensions. It includes new domains, new representational methods and offers a view on how to best reflect conflicting community requirements in some aspects or features of the design.

Exploring the effect of spatial layout on mediated urban interactions

In this paper we focus on the spatial configuration and emergent social interactions in two locations in London mediated by interactive and networked urban displays. Our analysis draws upon interactions mediated through displays we implemented in the real world connecting four urban spaces [1]. We outline our case study and the methodology we implemented, including the analysis of the spatial layout on the micro/local scale in two sites, followed by the observations of social behavior and technologically mediated interactions by actors, spectators and passers-by during two community events, before finally outlining the following identified interaction zones: 1) direct interaction space surrounding the display (direct); 2) the surrounding public space (wide); and 3) across spatial boundaries i.e. the remotely connected space through networked displays (connected) over time. We highlight site-specific interactions and compare them to the more generic types of interactions, thus contributing to the understanding of mediated social interactions. We suggest that the properties of the spatial layout play a significant role and, to a certain extent, frame the type of interactions mediated through public displays. We highlight in particular the dynamic and interconnected nature of this mediation, defined through the spatial layout, people, type of social activities, and time of the day.

Considering Communities, Diversity and the Production of Locality in the Design of Networked Urban Screens

Highly diverse settings such as London (with people from ~179 countries speaking ~300 languages) are unique in that ethnic or socio-cultural backgrounds are no longer sufficient to generate a sense of place, belonging and community. Instead, residents actively perform place building activities on an ongoing basis, which we believe is of great importance when deploying interactive situated technologies in public spaces. This paper investigates community and place building within a complex multicultural context. We approached this using ethnography, complemented with workshops in the wild. By studying the relationships arising between different segments of the community and two networked screen nodes, we examine the place building activities of residents, and how screen nodes are incorporated into them. Our research suggests that urban screens will be framed (and eventually used) as part of this continuing process of social, spatial and cultural construction. This highlights the importance of enabling socially meaningful relations between the people mediated by these technologies.

Screens in the Wild: Exploring the Potential of Networked Urban Screens for Communities and Culture

In this paper, we describe our Research-in-the-Wild driven methodology to tackle a complex range of social, technical and interactional issues when implementing networked Urban Screens in London and Nottingham, UK [1]. The diversity of the local communities provides a unique opportunity for the research to examine interactions within the town centres, as well as UK-wide.

Self-funded social impact investment: an interdisciplinary analysis of the Sardex mutual credit system

ABSTRACT Sardex is a B2B electronic complementary currency and mutual credit system. It allows private funding to be endogenously generated within a geographically limited socio-economic context, rather than injected from exogenous sources, leading to a greater level of positive social impact. Sardex promotes stable and constructive integration of market activity with democratic institutions and socio-cultural values, and is hence identified with sustainable development. This paper presents a case study based on 29 semi-structured in-depth interviews of Sardex members. By drawing on monetary theory, sociology and anthropology, the paper argues that Sardex implements a form of self-funded social impact investment.