Impact! exhibition at the RCA
Posted: March 20th, 2010 | 1 Comment »Spent two days at the RCA in London. A good opportunity to have some time to discuss with James Auger, Anthony Dunne and their class, give a talk to them and explore the “Impact!” exhibition.
This exhibition is another highly interesting example of interdisciplinary collaborations between design and scientific research, as already discussed about this other project. As described on the web platform, 16 researchers have collaborated with designers from the RCA under the coordination of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). Designers worked with them to produce conceptual designs (videos, photographs, interactives, prototypes, props and system diagrams and illustrations).
What’s interesting here is to reflect upon the role of design. As described by Anthony Dunne, who curated the exhibition:
“Design can shift discussions about the impact of science on our daily lives away from abstract generalities to concrete examples grounded in our experience as members of a consumer society. It can facilitate debate about different technological futures before they happen, create dialogues between different publics and the experts who defines the policies and regulations that will shape the future of technology, and help ensure that we pursue the most desirable, and avoid the least desirable.
The design projects in this exhibition offer an alternative view of how science could influence our future. The purpose is not to offer prediction but inspire debate about the human consequences of different technological futures, both positive and negative.
There are no solutions here, or even answers; just questions, ideas and possibilities. They probe our beliefs and values, they challenge our assumptions, and they help us see that the way things are now is just one possibility – and not necessarily the best one.“
Some projects were more revealing to me than others, I guess my choice reflects a personal choice rather than a judgement on their quality. Perhaps the most inspiring to me is the one called “Happylife” by James Auger and 3 other scientists. It basically explore the uses thermal imaging to analyse emotional states in a domestic context. This technology embedded in a HAL9000-like eye of Sauron can detect heat signatures (as shown on a video on the left on the picture below). Doing this, the system assesses a person’s physiological state and turn the changes into movements/dials on a family dashboard (with barometer-like displays). This project questions how imperceptible body parameters could reveal emotions such as guilt. What is highly intriguing (and smart according to me) is that the dashboard does not have any label… leaving its interpretation to the people who will live with it. How would this change social interactions in the family home? Would this electronic device enable family members to infer new things about their relatives? Would the device detect patterns invisible to people? All these issues are suggested by beautiful vignettes that I did not capture with my camera.
This Happylife project evolved from James and Jimmy’s ideas about this notion of artifacts that would detect cues about our behavior and pre-empt what we feel and desire. Autonomous and adaptive devices have explored by science-fiction writers and researchers desperately want to implement them (sometimes urged by politics who find it could be a convenient solution against terrorism for instance). In their own words, here is how they frame their design research about this topic:
“The potential for this to go much further with the application of face recognition, thermal imaging and expression monitoring is obvious. The design challenge here is to explore how this might happen. How might products and services react to humans if they were aware of their mood.“
Another project I enjoyed as the one called “The 5th dimensional camera” by Anab Jain, Jon Arden and three other researchers. It explores the notion of quantum mechanics and the possibility to access multiple dimensions. The project consists in a fictional camera that can capture “glimpses of 450 parallel universes suggested by quantum physics“. By presenting such images, the two designers aimed at highlighting the “the strange processes at work within quantum computation to the wider public, and explore how they might impact our beliefs, our values and indeed our fabric of reality“. To understand more the implications of such potential, the exhibit featured different narratives of test subjects who employs the camera in their own different ways.
Why do I blog this? these are quick and selective notes about the exhibit to keep a trace of what echoed with my interests. The two projects I mentioned as well as Anthony Dunne’s framing are relevant IMHO in terms of how design research can operate and what sort of artifacts could be designed in such context. We’re close to the idea of design fiction here.
People interested in this can also look at other write-ups by Richard Banks or building_space_with_words.
Dear Mr Arden – My name is Frank Samaritano, and I have experienced something that is very valid to your research. Below I copied one of my letters to other scientists. Last year I did catch the attention of David Pares, whos been researching the Bermuda Triangle, and was very interested in what I disclosed to him. The other scientist who I have also been in communication with, is Rob Bryanton, who is someone that I consider not only very knowledgable, but more importantly not “ego” controled. Like I said, below is a letter that I caught the attention, and I do have much more that is very pertinent for the future discoveries. Okay, I would love to hear back from you so that I can give you more on my findings. Although I am not certified in the science field, like all else that takes place in findings, it takes each other to make the break throughs. The other part of my drive is that the world is in dire need of understanding the power of collective consciousness, because of the way that things are headed. This following took place over a year ago (2009).
My name is Frank Samaritano and I live in New York. I realize that you must get bombarded by so many e-mails on personal accounts, so its not so easy to write a letter which will overide the others; but it doesnt change the fact that my personal story is something of great importance and validation to your research. It is something that involves what they have been trying to prove for some time now on the existance of multi-universes, bubble theory and so on.
I am 44 now and it occured over 20 years ago. The event that took place was right here in N.Y, and the other important fact is that there was another eye witness next to me. What happened that day is still very clear in my mind, and I can also add that it was a unique gift of knowledge that revealed itself, and not a trick of the mind. Again, I have always known the importance of what happened that day, and recently I have been trying to get this event known to the scientific world, and thats where you come in.
Here is a brief account of what took place that day, and the other fact that I want you to know is that the witness still lives in N.Y and I have not talked about it with him for many years, although I know that he didnt forget it, “BELIEVE ME”. It took place during the winter and there were a bunch of friends who were enjoying playing in the snow. I also want to make it a point that I and the witness have never abused alcohol or drugs, just to get that out of the way. We were both sliding on tire tubes, while being pulled on the street. We eventually let go at about the same time and then we both came to a stop.
We were both just a few feet away from each other and thats when a common friend of ours was coming down the street heading towards our direction. The driver was purposely making his car fish tail in the snow, as we watched him. Thats when the cars rear end slid a little too far and caused the car to head toward the tree on the sidewalk. At that moment we both watched and I witnessed the car hitting the tree, the rear of the car lifting off of the ground at about a 45 degree angle. I clearly witnessed the front of the car as the impact crushed the front grill, while the hood of the car bent in half. The other detail was that the windshield became smashed and continued outward, while the drivers head was also hitting it.
By this time we knew that it was not good and we both ran toward the accident, which by the way was no more than 40 feet away from us. Within the first 3 strides, I was in shock at what I now saw and I came to a complete stop, while looking in amazement and disbelief. Within the next second, at most, the other eye witness also stopped running and was yelling out that he couldnt believe what just happened. He was in totally disbelief also and in his excitement wanted me to verify what I just saw, and he clearly wasnt going to believe anything realistic / normal took place. I also was sure on what I witnessed and made him clarify it to me first, on exactly what he saw.
Mr. Jain, he recanted every detail of what I witnessed exactly. Again, this was not a trick of the eyes, or some subconscience induced event. What we both witnessed, that made us both stop in our tracks, was that the car was in its previous condition, with just a scratch on the front bumper. The driver was not injured and couldnt believe or understand what we saw. There were others at the park who also remember what we stated we saw, and still remember it today. So please, if you can, I would love to hear back from you, because I know there are other details and much more findings, which are without a doubt pertinent to your research.
Thank You kindly
Frank Samaritano