Social Media

Today we had  Dr Avram Gabriela and were discussing social media, the concepts, application and impact. A good web site to explore these ideas is at the Interaction-Design.org website. There is a good video that interviews Tom Erickson who is an Interaction designer for IBM. Tom talks about the ways in which as a society we interact with one another and the many different levels in which we do this and how this needs be taken into consideration when designing.

The primary goal for social computing is to create online applications or places  that will have some elements of the real world included in them.  The general term is about a group of people, collectively computing something like the price, auction or adding to Wikipedia, collectively bidding etc. Social media is more about people having a rich communication between one another whereas social computing like ebay has not a rich communication like in bidding or other sites. 

This brings us to the notion of the web 2.0 which is about the development of web based communities and hosted services such as social networks and wiki’s which allow communication and coloration between many users. The term refers to the way users are changing the use of the world wide web. On this last note I came across an interesting video were Clay Shirky speaks out against social networking, in particular FaceBook. He talks about were to draw the line between personal and public on line and how our privacy in many ways is being invaded.

Finally today I was trying to clarify what Interactive media is to me so that I can better understand my design approach to my research area. I feel that interaction to me is the ability for a person to engage and express themselves with another person or an object however interactive media involves the same engagment but with the support of existing technology to enhace the interaction process in an easier and more enjoyabe experience.

An example of ways in which an interactive approach using computers is used whithin  therapy  is the use of Google SketchUp with children who may have autism. Advancment in technology/software has enabled interaction to become easier to facilate those who might find self expression and interaction difficult.

From Cathy Malchiodi’s research I found that Sketch-Up has been more successful in aiding children with autism than using the traditional approach. She stated that,

 “The results of Sketch-Up impress me because they not only underscore that people with autism tend to respond through visual and/or spatial intelligence, but also that using a computer drawing program is actually much more gratifying than a pencil on paper for most participants.”

This I feel underpins my original idea about interactive media that it is taking our interactions and ways of expressing to newer levels of interactivity using technology to enhance the interaction process and make it become a more enjoyable experience.


Finally I have just updated my video diary which can be followed on my student video diary blog page. I will also link the video to this page as part of my daily posting however for the extensive archive of videos please view my video blog page. 

This is the first week back to semester two of doing the Masters in Interactive Media at the University of Limerick. Last semester I documented my progress using a video diary that I embedded on my website http://cambellp.richie.idc.ul.ie/index.html. However, I found that once a week was not enough to map my new findings and so I decided to create this blog so that I could update my research and what I am learning through out this second term daily. I will continue to do my once a week 3 min video diary to touch base with my main findings, thoughts and feeling of the week, however I intend to use this blog and have my videos posted at the end of the week along side another blog which I will dedicate solely to the video diary which can be viewed at http://studentvideodiary.blogspot.com/. 

This week was mainly touching base with all the tutors and exploring the new electives that we can choose from. The three main classes are the Interactive Media work Workshop with Mikael Fernstrom, Principles of Interactive design with Dr Avram Gabriela and Professional Issues in Interactive Media with Dr Joe Griffin. The electives are broad from business to programing and contemporary art in conjunction with interactive design. Between this evening and tomorrow I will choose my elective and that will be me set for the term.

I have been thinking now in closer detail about what my final design area will be and at present I feel more inclined to look at the area of computer supported art therapy as opposed to an interactive art project. Both areas would be great starting points for a dissertation, however  I feel that I will stay now with the art therapy area and continue the research that I have started. 

For today I came across a link that made me consider new ways of displaying art work in a very interactive approach. Considering one of my earlier observations were I worked as an assistant in using art for therapeutic purpose in a hospital with patients with mental illnesses, one of the problems was the display of the work that they created. It was the case that the work of the patients only got displayed once a year at an exhibition and after this it went into storage. My concern was that through my observations I found that the patients were more enthusiastic and happier (which could help in the treatment of mental health) when their work was present in the environment that they spent most of their time. My earlier observations were only at a surface level and it is clear that much more in-depth observation and research would be required to understand if a new interactive approach to displaying patients work would be beneficial to their their recovery or not. When I came across the link below it sparked off new thought on how an interactive space can be used for the display of large amounts of archived work. I feel this was a cleaver solution to help people view large amounts of data that could be otherwise never seen and could be potentially developed further within more everyday situations like a DVD store or tourism office to provide information clearly and efficiently to the wider community.   

http://www.movingbrands.com/?category_name=lcfg08-work#img6