Peach - Presence Research in Action

Edinburgh Napier University has had a workshop accepted for the FET 09 conference in Prague in April. Presenters from NU, and from FIT and Umea University, Sweden, will explore issues relating to technology, the body and the urban environment.

The Body and the Urban Space : designing for connection between the augmented human and the intensely technological environment

The urban space of the future will be saturated with both visible and hidden media that gather and transmit information. How we as physical beings connect with, interpret and shape the increase of data residing in our environment will be a significant challenge. The forms in which this data will be presented, and how we decide to conceptualise it, is as yet unknown. Will the technologically enriched environment adapt to accommodate human/city contact points, and, in response, will we choose to adapt and augment our own bodies in order to navigate around, and communicate with and through, this information landscape?

Aims

The aim of this session is to generate a list of themes and directions that can be used to inform future research. The session is designed to be both open and forward looking, while also being focussed and structured. It is intended that the session should be creative, fast flowing and positive in nature in order to generate novel, informative ideas and suggestions.

• Dr Michael Smyth, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
• Ingi Helgason, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
• Dr Rod McCall, Fraunhofer FIT, Sankt Augustin, Germany
• Dr John Waterworth, Umeå University, Sweden

http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/fet/2009/