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All Outputs (107)

Creative Informatics Final Report (2024)
Report
Terras, M., Osborne, N., McDonald, C., Henderson, D., Pirie, E., Tyndall, A., Sulaiman, Y., Smyth, M., Panneels, I., Speed, C., Bates, C., Black, S., Jones, V., Zeller, F., Murray, V., Dale Steyn, I., & Smythe, J. (2024). Creative Informatics Final Report. Edinburgh: AHRC

This Creative Informatics Final Report summaries the work of Creative Informatics, a partnership project which has been supporting creatives in Edinburgh and South East Scotland from 2018-2024. We look back over the different strands of the programme... Read More about Creative Informatics Final Report.

Materialising data – getting to grips with slippery concepts (2024)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Smyth, M., Panneels, I., McDonald, C., & Helgason, I. (2024, May). Materialising data – getting to grips with slippery concepts. Presented at P/references of Design. Cumulus Budapest 2024, Budapest, Hungary

Data is ubiquitous in the 21st century, we voraciously create and consume it, it can be the driver of innovation and the lens through which we view the world. But data is a slippery, shapeshifting material that can take a myriad of forms which makes... Read More about Materialising data – getting to grips with slippery concepts.

Digital and data literacy (2024)
Book Chapter
Osborne, N., Helgason, I., Lechelt, S., Michielin, L., Panneels, I., Parkinson, C., Smyth, M., Ross, J., Sulaiman, Y., & Warren, K. (2024). Digital and data literacy. In Data Driven Innovation in the Creative Industries (71-100). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003365891-4

In this chapter we explore models for training and upskilling people in the creative industries in data, technology and entrepreneurial skills, situating this in the wider skills and training context. We will particularly look at the challenges of de... Read More about Digital and data literacy.

Future Tense - The Challenge of Imagining Alternative Futures (2023)
Book Chapter
Smyth, M. (2023). Future Tense - The Challenge of Imagining Alternative Futures. In Designing in Coexistence – Reflections on Systemic Change (77-88). Croatian Architects’ Association

So why is it so difficult to imagine futures? Not the futures set in galaxies far far away, but the ones connected to the present that lie tantalisingly just beyond the horizon. Futures still tethered to variants of today’s infrastructure. This essay... Read More about Future Tense - The Challenge of Imagining Alternative Futures.

Digital Skills for the Creative Practitioner: Supporting Informal Learning of Technologies for Creativity (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Helgason, I., Smyth, M., Panneels, I., Lechelt, S., Frich, J., Rawn, E., & McCarthy, B. (2023, April). Digital Skills for the Creative Practitioner: Supporting Informal Learning of Technologies for Creativity. Presented at CHI '23: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Hamburg, Germany

The creative industries play an important role in economic, cultural and social life, and in many creative disciplines much of the workforce is made up of individual practitioners including freelancers, sole traders and small or micro enterprises. Th... Read More about Digital Skills for the Creative Practitioner: Supporting Informal Learning of Technologies for Creativity.

Digital Skills for the Creative Practitioner: Supporting Informal Learning of Technologies for Creativity (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Helgason, I., Smyth, M., Panneels, I., Lechelt, S., Frich, J., Rawn, E., & Mccarthy, B. (2023, April). Digital Skills for the Creative Practitioner: Supporting Informal Learning of Technologies for Creativity. Presented at CHI '23: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Hamburg

The creative industries play an important role in economic, cultural and social life, and in many creative disciplines much of the workforce is made up of individual practitioners including freelancers, sole traders and small or micro enterprises. Th... Read More about Digital Skills for the Creative Practitioner: Supporting Informal Learning of Technologies for Creativity.

Distance: digital immersive technologies and craft engagement (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Panneels, I., Helgason, I., Smyth, M., Darzentas, D., Hocking, L., & Shillito, A.-M. (2023, April). Distance: digital immersive technologies and craft engagement. Presented at Cumulus Conference: Connectivity and Creativity in times of Conflict, Antwerp, Belgium

The DISTANCE project (digital immersive technologies and craft engagement) is a novel practice-led experiment in the use of immersive technology to enable dispersed craft practitioners to apply their haptic skills and material knowledge in a digital... Read More about Distance: digital immersive technologies and craft engagement.

Speculating Futures in an Age of Nostalgia (2023)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Smyth, M. (2023). Speculating Futures in an Age of Nostalgia. In Connectivity and Creativity in times of Conflict: Cumulus Conference Proceedings Antwerp 2023

This paper will present an exploration of the relationship between the past and the present and how that interaction influences design thinking when speculating about possible futures. It will argue that the growing influence of nostalgia, supported... Read More about Speculating Futures in an Age of Nostalgia.

There Be Dragons: Navigating the uncharted data territories of creative practice (2023)
Report
Panneels, I., Helgason, I., & Smyth, M. (2023). There Be Dragons: Navigating the uncharted data territories of creative practice. Creative Informatics

This report documents the work of the Creative Informatics Creative Horizons 4: There be Dragons project.

The There Be Dragons project starts from the premise that data can empower creative businesses to do more and to do it better. Data can be u... Read More about There Be Dragons: Navigating the uncharted data territories of creative practice.

Has the collective experience of the pandemic reset our relationship with the future? (2022)
Journal Article
Smyth, M. (2022). Has the collective experience of the pandemic reset our relationship with the future?. DOC - Design and Society, 1(1),

The fusion of architecture and cultures that comprised the cityscape of Blade Runner (1982) was a key part in how the narrative humanised the vision of the future, it provided a backdrop in which characters displaying human emotions played out a stor... Read More about Has the collective experience of the pandemic reset our relationship with the future?.

Speculative and Critical Design: approaches and influences in education (2022)
Journal Article
Helgason, I., Encinas, E., Mitrovic, I., & Smyth, M. (2022). Speculative and Critical Design: approaches and influences in education. Interaction Design and Architecture(s) IxDetA, 5-7. https://doi.org/10.55612/s-5002-051-001psi

As guest editors of this special edition we are delighted to present this selection of papers responding to our call about Speculative and Critical Design in education. The response to the call demonstrates that interest in this approach is increasin... Read More about Speculative and Critical Design: approaches and influences in education.

The Tree and The Room: Co-Designing DIY WiFi Networks with Emergent Local Metaphors (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Smyth, M., Helgason, I., Lapidge, L., & Hausel, K. (2021). The Tree and The Room: Co-Designing DIY WiFi Networks with Emergent Local Metaphors. In Design Culture(s) | Cumulus Conference Proceedings Roma 2021, Volume #2 (3823-3837)

The use of metaphor for communicating conceptual models of interactive systems has a well-documented history in Interaction Design practice. Although metaphors can primarily be understood as linguistic devices, designers incorporate t... Read More about The Tree and The Room: Co-Designing DIY WiFi Networks with Emergent Local Metaphors.

Echoes of Futures Past - Speculations and Fictions from History (2021)
Book Chapter
Smyth, M., Auger, J., & Helgason, I. (2021). Echoes of Futures Past - Speculations and Fictions from History. In I. Mitrović, J. Auger, J. Hanna, & I. Helgason (Eds.), Beyond Speculative Design: Past-Present-Future (24-67). SpeculativeEDU, Arts Academy, University of Split

Speculative Design in Education: Mapping the Landscape (2021)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Helgason, I., Mitrović, I., Hanna, J., Auger, J., Encinas, E., & Smyth, M. (2021). Speculative Design in Education: Mapping the Landscape. In Design Culture(s). Cumulus Conference Proceedings Roma 2021, Volume #2

This paper presents findings from a recent European-wide study on the use of Speculative Design approaches within education. The study included a survey of design educators and interviews with Speculative Design practitioners. This data has contribut... Read More about Speculative Design in Education: Mapping the Landscape.

The value of mass-digitised cultural heritage content in creative contexts (2021)
Journal Article
Coleman, S., Terras, M., Thornton, P., Smyth, M., Schafer, B., Drost, S., …Speed, C. (2021). The value of mass-digitised cultural heritage content in creative contexts. Big Data and Society, 8(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/20539517211006165

How can digitised assets of Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums be reused to unlock new value? What are the implications of viewing large-scale cultural heritage data as an economic resource, to build new products and services upon? Drawing up... Read More about The value of mass-digitised cultural heritage content in creative contexts.

Creative Informatics Guide for Online Events (2020)
Preprint / Working Paper
Elsden, C., Chan, K., Erskine, P., Helgason, I., Lechelt, S., Osborne, N., …Speed, C. (2020). Creative Informatics Guide for Online Events

Creative Informatics is a research and development programme based in Edinburgh, which aims to bring the city’s world-class creative industries and tech sector together. We are a collaboration between University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier Univers... Read More about Creative Informatics Guide for Online Events.

Ethnographic Fictions: Research for Speculative Design (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Helgason, I., & Smyth, M. (2020). Ethnographic Fictions: Research for Speculative Design. . https://doi.org/10.1145/3393914.3395872

Ethnographically informed research that investigates people's lived experiences, emotions, attitudes and behaviours inevitably draws primarily on current and past situations. Design practice is naturally concerned with using research to inform the cr... Read More about Ethnographic Fictions: Research for Speculative Design.

Speculative and Critical Design in Education: Practice and Perspectives (2020)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Helgason, I., Smyth, M., Encinas, E., & Mitrović, I. (2020). Speculative and Critical Design in Education: Practice and Perspectives. . https://doi.org/10.1145/3393914.3395907

This full-day, interdisciplinary workshop will address the use of Speculative and Critical Design (SCD), Design Fiction, and related practices, including those that use provocation, ambiguity and activism, within undergraduate, postgraduate and profe... Read More about Speculative and Critical Design in Education: Practice and Perspectives.

How Can We Balance Research, Participation and Innovation as HCI Researchers? (2019)
Presentation / Conference Contribution
Lechelt, S., Elsden, C., Helgason, I., Panneels, I., Smyth, M., Speed, C., & Terras, M. (2019, November). How Can We Balance Research, Participation and Innovation as HCI Researchers?. Presented at The Halfway to the Future Symposium 2019, Nottingham, UK

This paper reflects upon the growing expectation for HCI research projects to collaborate closely with partners in industry and civil society. Specifically, we suggest that this type of engagement is often prefigured around the agendas, needs and cap... Read More about How Can We Balance Research, Participation and Innovation as HCI Researchers?.