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A day off in the cyberpark – how the growing synergies between nature and technology will soon affect our workplaces and leisure time Keynote presentation by Dr Sue Thomas, Visiting Fellow, The Media School, Bournemouth University www.suethomas.net Seminar 11: ''Affective Digital Economy: Intimacy, Identity and Networked Realities'' ESRC Seminar Series: Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights Friday November 29 2013, University of Leicester
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A day off in the cyberpark – how the growing synergies between nature and technology will soon
affect our workplaces and leisure time
Sue Thomaswww.suethomas.net
@suethomas#technobiophilia
Seminar 11: ''Affective Digital Economy: Intimacy, Identity and Networked Realities''ESRC Seminar Series: Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights
Friday November 29 2013, University of Leicester
Do you use nature images as screensavers or wallpapers?
Images (c) Carolyn Black 2013
Metaphors of nature in cyberspace
Biophilia The innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes E.O.
Wilson 1984
TechnobiophiliaThe innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike
processes as they appear in technology
Voluntary Attention
• Voluntary attention is an ancient response to external alerts, fuelled by adrenalin and necessary for survival in a wild world.
• But such knee-jerk responses may not be useful in today’s world, so we need directed attention to inhibit them.
Image: San Hunter with bow and arrow By Charles Roffey
Involuntary (Directed) Attention
Without directed attention you may be rash, uncooperative and less competent.
But too much directed attention leads to Directed Attention Fatigue (DAF). Symptoms include aggression, intolerance, and insensitivity to social cues.
Attention Restoration Theory (ART)R&S Kaplan, The Experience of Nature, 1989
Nearby Nature Restorative Settings• Being away - setting is physically or
conceptually different from one’s usual environment
• Extent - a setting sufficiently rich and coherent that it engages the mind and promotes exploration
• Fascination (soft & hard) - content or mental processes that engage attention effortlessly & allow you to rest your mind.
• Compatibility - good fit between your inclinations and the kinds of activities supported by the setting.
How ART works in our connected livesBeing Away
physically or conceptually different from one’s usual environment
Extent sufficiently rich and coherent that it engages the mind and
promotes exploration
How ART works in our connected livesSoft Fascination
content or mental processes that engage attention effortlessly & allow you to rest your mind.
Compatibilitygood fit between your inclinations and the kinds of activities
supported by the setting.
Nearby Nature can be found...
• in the images and sounds with which you choose to personalize your technologies
• in the objects that remind you of the natural world such as plants, window views, beautiful craft objects
• in regular practices such as meditation, walking or gardening.
Biophilic Design “Connects buildings to the natural world, buildings
where people feel and perform better” (Kellert)
What you can do indoors
1. Pay attention to the view from your window
2. Use indoor plants to your advantage
3. Connect with animals4. Switch to biophilic
computer kit
What you can do outdoors
1. Go outside!2. Create an outdoor
office3. Grow things4. Use your smartphone
to enhance your outdoor experience via apps, GPS etc
What you can do online
1. Visit a virtual world2. Play a video game3. Add biophilic design to
your online spaces4. Practice connected
awareness e.g. Online meditation
Pause for thought• Biophilia is an ancient influence
in our lives which affects our interactions with the world, including technology.
• How can we build upon this insight?
• Can we harness and develop our technobiophilic instincts to address issues of attention, distraction, and isolation?
• What should we be doing to make our online lives integrated, healthy, and mindful?
http://vimeo.com/27874539
So how will the growing synergies between nature and technology affect our workplaces and leisure time?
http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/02/24/digital-dualism-versus-augmented-reality/
Digital Dualism
Digital dualists believe that the digital world is “virtual” and the physical world “real.”
This is a fallacy. Instead, I want to argue that the digital and physical are increasingly meshed.
Nathan Jurgenson, Digital Dualism versus Augmented Reality, 2011
http://www.iftf.org/our-work/global-landscape/ten-year-forecast/2009-ten-year-forecast/#sthash.aN6G3qn9.dpuf
What will the future be like?• As physical and digital realities are
seamlessly integrated, cyberspace is not a place that people go; it’s a new layer in their reality. (IFTF 2009)
• Dynamic physical environments tailored to meet individual and community health and well-being needs.
• New tools to quantify the effects of social norms, platforms to broadcast this information
• Environments designed for ambient health and well-being.
• Higher empathy, connectedness and productivity
The Blue Gym
“A growing body of evidence suggests that time spent in or near natural water environments, such as the coast, rivers, lakes and inland waterways, can promote health and wellbeing.”
European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter
http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/google-facebook-twitter-linkedin-perks-infographic/
Biophilic Workplaces 1
Workplace Perks Google London
Biophilic Workplaces 2
New Apple HQ New Twitter HQ
There is this longing.....Leisure and Health
Image by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, courtesy of the City of New York
The High Line, NYC
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/moscow-new-park-hotel-rossiya
Moscow gets a breath of fresh air
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/4162/a-garden-bridge-across-the-thames.html
Thomas Heatherwick’s proposed new bridge over The Thames
Escale Numérique (Digital Break)
Wifi outdoors
Bringing parks indoors - Arts in Hospital, Dorset County Hospital
Video Games & Virtual Worldse.g. Flower/Second Life/Walden/Skylander
New Nesta £1m fund
• Many of the UK's public parks face an uncertain future with a reduction of up to 60 per cent in public subsidy looming, putting their management and maintenance at risk.
• While public subsidy will remain a big part of the picture, new approaches to managing parks are needed.
• There are already examples of successful parks business models in the UK and internationally.
• These include new models of management, funding and organisation, often involving community, social and private enterprises.
• But more must be done. The most promising areas worthy of further exploration for ensuring public parks continue to thrive are: changes in park management and maintenance, new organisational structures, more diverse funding sources, and identifying new uses for parks.
COST Action
Fostering knowledge about the relationship between Information and Communication
Technologies and Public Spaces supported by strategies to improve their use and
attractiveness
Carlos Smaniotto Costa
is to create a research platform on the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICT) and the
production and use of public open spaces, and their relevance to sustainable urban development.
The impacts of this relationship will be explored from
social, ecological and urban design perspectives
Main objective
expertise tools
knowledge
Urban management and development 4
Landscape design and planning 5
Urban sociology, behaviour research and public health
4
Educational psychology/minority research 5
Communication 5
Creative and cultural industries 2
ICT developers 4
Urban gaming and participatory mobile artworks 4
Possible new partners …Unseen Pro Ltd (winner of grant "Technostart" by the Ministry of Economy)
BG
SMARTSY - a start-up company on ICT development FRAlcatel-Lucent (Bell Labs Research) - network providersNational Digital Research Centre, a consortium of commercialization projects, including app developers
IRL
Promotion of local tourism BE/PL
Past View - App developers for urban gaming ES…
Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e TecnologiasDepartment of Urban Planning Lisbon - Portugal
Participants' expertises & Networking
18 partners / 13 counties
Coordinate and enhance research efforts in how to deal with opportunities and/or risks of ICT usage in public spaces, and the meaning for design practice,
Enhance and test research methodologies into a new context, considering the social function of public spaces,
Establish links and promote collaboration among experts and expertise areas, e.g. ICT, creative industry, design practice, health consultancy.
Form self sustained empirical knowledge on use of ICT by place users, and via experimental research gaining empirical knowledge and synthesising the impacts of ICT on public spaces into a set of guidelines for city planners, urban developers, urban policies, regulatory and decision-making bodies.
Synchronise academic and industrial research that may result from the intersection of ICT and public space and their relevant users, (and therefore promote existing and establish new links with industrial partners in new commercial applications).
Goals
Working Groups
Digital methods
Urban ethnography
Conceptual reflectionCreating CyberPark
Networking & dissemination
A day off in the cyberpark?Technobiophilic Design will connect technology to the natural world to help people feel and perform better
Thank you
Sue Thomaswww.suethomas.net
@suethomas#technobiophilia