Week 2 Semester 2

This video is part of a series that I am posting as a blog about my weekly experience of doing a masters in Interactive Media and Design at the University of Limerick.

The CraftCube initiative presents new and exciting ways of displaying, interpreting and accessing contemporary craft with a focus on new technology. The aim of the research-based CraftCube series is to champion and expose to a broader audience practice-based research that explores the boundaries of contemporary craft and its relationship with digital technology. The freestanding CraftCube is a complete, experiential display environment containing objects and dynamic interpretation. It is compact, lightweight and suitable for display in museums and galleries, libraries, higher education galleries, corporate environments or at events, conferences and festivals.

This cube houses a collection of pieces that reveal a trajectory of digital jewellery research into memory and memory loss designed by Jayne Wallace. The selected works are reflective pieces based on source material gathered from care staff at Alzheimer’s Society day care centres and people living with memory loss as well as in-depth co-creative research with an individual living with dementia.

Viewers enter the CraftCube to interact with the pieces and uncover the personal stories around them. The cube is being designed directly with Jayne , creating a personal and visually engaging environment for her work. Key to the design is viewer interaction with the works and interpretation.

Interactive art therapy

A multi-touch coffee table based on FTIR technology. Software on the table replicates real world properties of finger painting, allowing therapists to set up un-supervised sessions for people with dementia. The coffee table is similar to the Sage project, but includes a compliant surface and infrared camera in the unit. Software written in C#. Further information can be viewed at Tom Batindale's blog page. 

Patrick Olivier's blog space was the main resource page that led me to todays findings. It can be found here, Patrick Olivier.     

Art Therapy Easels

Hand crafted of solid oak and walnut these multi-touch artists easels are fully adjustable and include a high resolution, super sensitive multi-touch screen based on FTIR. Built for various projects involving gaze detection and un-supervised therapy. Three of these systems are currently on trial with real clients in Toronto, Canada. You can read further at Art Therapy Easels. 

BinCam

I was on the website of Cultural Lab Newcastle researching for articles that are associated with my end of year project when I came across the BinCam project. It is a project that aimed to increase individuals' awareness of their food, waste and recycling behavior. 

How the bin works is that photos are tagged using a crowd sourcing service and uploaded to the BinCam application on a social network site. This is to encourage playful engagement and to make a reflection upon a user's personal bin data. Another interactive element is that people can review and share communications about the bin-related behavior of themselves and others. 

The Link to the website can be found at Digital Interaction at Cultural Lab. 

BinCam is a collaborative research project between the Digital Interaction group in Culture Lab at Newcastle University, LiSC at the University of Lincoln and the University of Duisburg Essen.