MAKING AND OPENING: ENTANGLING DESIGN AND SOCIAL SCIENCE
24TH SEPTEMBER 2010, 9.00 – 17:30

BEN PIMLOTT BUILDING – LECTURE THEATRE GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

HOW MIGHT DESIGN AND SOCIAL SCIENCE SPEAK TO EACH OTHER’S PRACTICES? HOW MIGHT SOCIAL SCIENCE AND DESIGN REMAKE ONE ANOTHER’S OBJECTS?

SPEAKERS INCLUDE: PELLE EHN, BILL GAVER, MIKE MICHAEL, BILL MOGGRIDGE, HARVEY MOLOTCH, MICHELLE MURPHY, LUCY SUCHMAN, NINA WAKEFORD.

EXPLORING INNOVATIVE WAYS OF FURTHER ENTANGLING DESIGN AND SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES THROUGH A RANGE OF OPEN ISSUES: SPECULATION/ANTICIPATION; PARTICIPATION/IMPACT; DISCIPLINE/CONTAMINATION; MAKING/METHOD.

THIS CONFERENCE IS LIMITED TO 60 DELEGATES.
TO REGISTER, PLEASE CONTACT: SOCIOLOGY@GOLD.AC.UK.
£15.00 FULL PRICE | £10.00 CONCESSIONS

SPONSORED BY: CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF INVENTION AND SOCIAL PROCESS, INTERACTION RESEARCH STUDIO, INCUBATOR FOR CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO TECHNOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY, DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY.

[download pdf poster]

Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots have been nominated for the TRANSMEDIALE AWARD 2010 from a pool of over 1500 entrants. CDER are being shown at transmediale.10 along with other nominees, as part of the festival programme.

The theme for this years festival is FUTURITY NOW! and event literature leads with a quote from William Gibson; ‘The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet’. As in previous years, the main body of the festival programme takes place at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, with off-shoots all over Berlin.

The festival runs from the 2nd to the 7th of February, and the winners of the TRANSMEDIALE AWARD 2010 will be announced on Saturday 6th in the auditorium of HKV.

Crossing Over opens tonight at the Royal Institution of Great Britain. The exhibition takes place throughout the newly refurbished building, located at the north end Albemarle Street near Green Park, London (directions here).

Material Beliefs joins Anne Brodie, Alex Bunn, Eggebert-and-Gould, Kathleen Rogers, Carl Stevenson and Phoebe von Held as exhibitors. Curated by Artakt the show explores exchanges in art & biotechnology, here’s a flyer with more information.

Come along and see the work, and join us also for an evening of discussion about our experiences of collaboration between biotechnology and design on the 22nd October, more details here.

Natural History is showing at Selfridges Wonder Wall exhibition space. It features the work of Kelly McCallum, Melanie Georgacopoulos, Eric Klarenbeek and also Biojewellery.

As a speculative project, rather than a realised product, it’s great that Biojewellery has been invited into a retail environment like Selfridges, and I accompanied Steve Jackman to film conversations with shoppers.

We spoke with anyone who was brave enough to chat to camera, about the work on show in the exhibition, and more generally about collaborations between designers and engineers, impressions of biotechnology, and the relationship between science and the public.

We’ll shortly be posting a short film with excerpts of these conversations, thanks for those who stopped and gave their consent! Thanks also to Dominique and her colleagues at Selfridges, and Jane and Lucinda who organised the exhibition.

Thanks to Dezeen who went to see the show at Selfridges and took these images…

Material Beliefs took plasticine and felt tips to the Guerrilla Science Camp (full programme here) at the Secret Garden Party.

Our session was all about how bodies and products become connected through new technologies. Some initial slides showed images of everyday hybrids – including gamers and karaoke singers – enveloped within the tools of their pursuit.

Then we broke out the craft materials for some freestyle sketching, more here…

The kidney bed is a domestic dialysis unit. The sleeper has fallen from the bed after a heavy night on the sauce, assured that her blood will be spring-cleaned by morning.

Material Beliefs will be appearing at “This Happened“, on Friday 19th September at the Design Museum. This is part of the Design Overtime festival. Here’s how Chris, Joel and Andreas describe This Happened:

This happened is a series of events focusing on the stories behind interaction design. Having ideas is easier than making them happen. We delve into projects that exist today, how their concepts and production process can help inform future work.

Material Beliefs will be taking about design and engineering collaborations, alongside Yuri Suzuki, Daniel Brown and Dominic Harris.

Attendance is free but places are limited. Registration will open on Friday 5th September, with tickets allocated on a first come basis. More details soon, see Design Week for coverage of the event.

above: a previous This Happened, image from futureshape

Steve Jackman has been filming events and interviews for Material Beliefs, and editing short films along the way – some are online already here. In addition, Steve has taken part in “Science on Film“, a joint initiative from the Documentary Filmmakers Group and the Wellcome Trust.

Science on Film is a unique opportunity for filmmakers and biomedical scientists to collaborate on an intensive film production and training scheme taught by leading broadcast professionals and scientists

ilms will premiere at a special gala event in London with leading TV and science figures in attendance. They will also be entered for the Wellcome Broadcast Development Awards and showcased on Channel 4’s FourDocs.

Steve worked with Bala Sirigireddy on their short film Blood Sample, here’s an online version (flash required) of their film, and here’s a list of all the films from the initiative.

There are a series of events to launch films, so you can hear form the participants, as well as watch the outcomes on the big screen:

Thurs 24 Jul – 12 noon – at the Crown & Two Chairmen
Fri 25 Jul – 11am – at the Curzon Soho Mini Cine
Tues 29 Jul – 5pm – at the Curzon Soho Mini Cine

Also, Steve mentions:

‘Science on Film… Where Next?’, looking in broader terms at the future of science on film. David Dugan (dir/producer, made lots of episodes of ‘Horizon’, etc) will be speaking, along with two Science on Film participants and Rachel Hillman (Wellcome Trust). Mon 28th Jul, 1pm at Foyles Bookstore, lasts about 90 mins.

The Future of Docs event, taking place (same day I think) at 5pm at the Apple Store. someone from DFG will be speaking, as may someone from Wellcome. Guessing that some SOF films might be shown…

Stand by also for more short documentaries from Steve for Material Beliefs!

Yesterdays Observer carried an article by Lucy McDonald about the Material Beliefs event at the Dana Centre.

Cafe Scientifique events provide an environment where science can be discussed informally over drinks. There’s comment here from Duncan Dallas, who talks about the success of the format, which was set up in Leeds in 1998:

For me the whole point of science cafes isn’t to promote science or make more kids become scientists, but it is about being able to discuss topics which are revolutionary.

The article contrasts the popularity of the science cafes with the drop in uptake of physics at A-level, “from 43,416 in 1991 to 28,119 in 2005″. There’s cause for concern here, but where initiatives like the Science Learning Centres respond to issues in uptake of science in schools, and the provision of science learning for young people, science cafes are for those who left school some time ago, and address their continuing relationship with science through the broader role it plays in their society. Quotes in the article from the evening attendees reflect this:

It’s all really relaxed and you don’t feel intimidated about challenging speakers beliefs or scientific research. Science is becoming more part of out lives, and I want to hear about it from the experts.

There’s no dull theorising so it was rally accessible, it’s better than staying in and watching television every night.

Elio and Tobie met with Tony Cass to discuss his role as Deputy Director and a Research Director in the Institute of Biomedical Engineering at Imperial College London.

Having originally trained as a chemist, Cass is also a Professor of Chemical Biology at Imperial, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. We focused on his work within the institute, which is based in a new facility.

Click here to see the interview…

Jimmy and Tobie recently visited theBristol Robotics Laboratory, based at a new facility in Bristol Business Park. The lab focusses on bio-engineering and intelligent autonomous systems, and aims “to understand the science, engineering and social role of robotics and embedded intelligence” (more on the BRL home page).

Chris Melhuish is the director at BRL, which has over 50 members of staff and students. With this in mind, rather than focus on a single researcher, a number of staff and students were kind enough to talk about their roles at the BRL. Thanks to Peter Walters, Peter Jaeckel, Paul Bremner, Christopher Bytheway, Craig Chorley and Ioannis Ieropoulos for providing accounts of their work. Thanks also to Claire Rocks andEmily Dawson fromUWE’sScience Communication Unit, who helped set up the visit, and provided an account of public engagement with engineering research. More about the Walking With Robots network here, which is the focus of this discussion.

Much more here…