EASST was fairly massive, with 41 tracks in all, comprising over 800 papers, so is was great to have and opportunity to get together on Saturday and chat with others curious about STS and Design, in an impromptu session devised by Lucy Kimble and Nina Wakeford.

Here’s a pdf of papers in our track, and here’s a set of abstracts. Those papers were:

Tursday September 2
Session 1: 13.30-15.30 Networks of Engagement & Pedagogy
Designing Public Engagement with Science: Citizens, Idiots, Parasites – Mike Michael
Speculative design and the issue of public participation – Emily Dawson
Circulating speculative design – public engagement and practitioner promotion – Tobie Kerridge
Chasing the Carrot or The Not-Implications of STS for Design – Katharina Bredies
Experimental Processes – A Study of Design for ‘Future Digital Manners’ – Ann-Christina Lange

Session 2: 16.00-18.00 Construction of Users & Publics
Enacting Users, Mediating Publics – Alex Wilkie & Andy Boucher
Democratising technology and innovation: the role of the “participant” in Living Labs – Wouter Mensink, Benoît Dutilleul, Frans A.J. Birrer
Combining engineering design and STS: designing technology and society – Hanneke Miedema
Performing future waste practices in a shopping center – Joachim Halse
The Agency of Design in the Innovation Process – Diego Compagna

Friday September 3
Session 3: 9.00-11.00 Events and Materiality (5)
Attending to the Media and Materiality of the Objects of Speculative Design – Carl DiSalvo
Communication-Mediated Computation: The ‘Hmmm’ Environment as an engine for Participatory Speculative Design – Nathaniel Savery
Speculative design by practice: A robot case study – James Auger, Laurel Swan, Alex S. Taylor
Ambivalent Animal – Geoffrey Thomas
Artifacts from the future of domestic living: Engaging innovation by means of speculative design – a preliminary investigation – Tau Ulv Lenskjold

I gave a paper about Designing Debate, which was a reflection on what designers might mean by debate, particularly when their practice gets entangled with upstream forms of public engagement with science and technology. The session I contributed to was kicked off by Mike Michael who framed Stenger’s discussion of the idiot in the context of speculative design and public engagement. My paper was followed by Emily Dawson’s reflection on the kinds of publics who are indeed engaged by speculative design. So there was a fair amount of discussion of Material Beliefs here, and Biojewellery, which was fascinating to see. Here’s the transcript for my paper.

Above: Closing plenary session with Amade M’charek and Mike Michael

BEN PIMLOTT BUILDING – LECTURE THEATRE GOLDSMITHS, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON

HOW MIGHT DESIGN AND SOCIAL SCIENCE SPEAK TO EACH OTHER’S PRACTICES? HOW MIGHT SOCIAL SCIENCE AND DESIGN REMAKE ONE ANOTHER’S OBJECTS?

SPEAKERS INCLUDE: PELLE EHN, BILL GAVER, MIKE MICHAEL, BILL MOGGRIDGE, HARVEY MOLOTCH, MICHELLE MURPHY, LUCY SUCHMAN, NINA WAKEFORD.

EXPLORING INNOVATIVE WAYS OF FURTHER ENTANGLING DESIGN AND SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES THROUGH A RANGE OF OPEN ISSUES: SPECULATION/ANTICIPATION; PARTICIPATION/IMPACT; DISCIPLINE/CONTAMINATION; MAKING/METHOD.

THIS CONFERENCE IS LIMITED TO 60 DELEGATES.
TO REGISTER, PLEASE CONTACT: SOCIOLOGY@GOLD.AC.UK.
£15.00 FULL PRICE | £10.00 CONCESSIONS

SPONSORED BY: CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF INVENTION AND SOCIAL PROCESS, INTERACTION RESEARCH STUDIO, INCUBATOR FOR CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO TECHNOLOGY AND ETHNOGRAPHY, DEPARTMENT OF DESIGN, DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY.

[download pdf poster]

The theme for this years festival is FUTURITY NOW! and event literature leads with a quote from William Gibson; ‘The future is here. It’s just not widely distributed yet’. As in previous years, the main body of the festival programme takes place at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, with off-shoots all over Berlin.

The festival runs from the 2nd to the 7th of February, and the winners of the TRANSMEDIALE AWARD 2010 will be announced on Saturday 6th in the auditorium of HKV.

Material Beliefs joins Anne Brodie, Alex Bunn, Eggebert-and-Gould, Kathleen Rogers, Carl Stevenson and Phoebe von Held as exhibitors. Curated by Artakt the show explores exchanges in art & biotechnology, here’s a flyer with more information.

Come along and see the work, and join us also for an evening of discussion about our experiences of collaboration between biotechnology and design on the 22nd October, more details here.

Our session was all about how bodies and products become connected through new technologies. Some initial slides showed images of everyday hybrids – including gamers and karaoke singers – enveloped within the tools of their pursuit.

Then we broke out the craft materials for some freestyle sketching, more here…

The kidney bed is a domestic dialysis unit. The sleeper has fallen from the bed after a heavy night on the sauce, assured that her blood will be spring-cleaned by morning.

This happened is a series of events focusing on the stories behind interaction design. Having ideas is easier than making them happen. We delve into projects that exist today, how their concepts and production process can help inform future work.

Material Beliefs will be taking about design and engineering collaborations, alongside Yuri Suzuki, Daniel Brown and Dominic Harris.

Attendance is free but places are limited. Registration will open on Friday 5th September, with tickets allocated on a first come basis. More details soon, see Design Week for coverage of the event.

above: a previous This Happened, image from futureshape

Science on Film is a unique opportunity for filmmakers and biomedical scientists to collaborate on an intensive film production and training scheme taught by leading broadcast professionals and scientists

ilms will premiere at a special gala event in London with leading TV and science figures in attendance. They will also be entered for the Wellcome Broadcast Development Awards and showcased on Channel 4’s FourDocs.

Steve worked with Bala Sirigireddy on their short film Blood Sample, here’s an online version (flash required) of their film, and here’s a list of all the films from the initiative.

There are a series of events to launch films, so you can hear form the participants, as well as watch the outcomes on the big screen:

Thurs 24 Jul – 12 noon – at the Crown & Two Chairmen
Fri 25 Jul – 11am – at the Curzon Soho Mini Cine
Tues 29 Jul – 5pm - at the Curzon Soho Mini Cine

Also, Steve mentions:

‘Science on Film… Where Next?’, looking in broader terms at the future of science on film. David Dugan (dir/producer, made lots of episodes of ‘Horizon’, etc) will be speaking, along with two Science on Film participants and Rachel Hillman (Wellcome Trust). Mon 28th Jul, 1pm at Foyles Bookstore, lasts about 90 mins.

The Future of Docs event, taking place (same day I think) at 5pm at the Apple Store. someone from DFG will be speaking, as may someone from Wellcome. Guessing that some SOF films might be shown…

Stand by also for more short documentaries from Steve for Material Beliefs!

Cafe Scientifique events provide an environment where science can be discussed informally over drinks. There’s comment here from Duncan Dallas, who talks about the success of the format, which was set up in Leeds in 1998:

For me the whole point of science cafes isn’t to promote science or make more kids become scientists, but it is about being able to discuss topics which are revolutionary.

The article contrasts the popularity of the science cafes with the drop in uptake of physics at A-level, “from 43,416 in 1991 to 28,119 in 2005″. There’s cause for concern here, but where initiatives like the Science Learning Centres respond to issues in uptake of science in schools, and the provision of science learning for young people, science cafes are for those who left school some time ago, and address their continuing relationship with science through the broader role it plays in their society. Quotes in the article from the evening attendees reflect this:

It’s all really relaxed and you don’t feel intimidated about challenging speakers beliefs or scientific research. Science is becoming more part of out lives, and I want to hear about it from the experts.

There’s no dull theorising so it was rally accessible, it’s better than staying in and watching television every night.

Having originally trained as a chemist, Cass is also a Professor of Chemical Biology at Imperial, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry. We focused on his work within the institute, which is based in a new facility.

Click here to see the interview…