Contextual design research towards a new relationship among space, people and technology in a smart city

Assunta Matassa University of Torino matassa@di.unito.it

CITY | DATA | FUTURE 25th Sept. 2014 - Venice

The HYBRID SPACE is a place in which technologies, physical and digital infrastructure and

citizens cohabit.

Smart city is synonymous with a connected city, conceived for sustainability and energy efficiency.

The HYBRID SPACE is a place in which technologies, physical and digital infrastructure and

citizens cohabit.

Smart city is synonymous with a connected city, conceived for sustainability and energy efficiency.

How investigate the new hybrid space focusing on human beings?

EXPERIMENT

Components

• People

• Urban space: Torino

• Wearable computing

• Bicycle

METHOD

Contextual semi-structured interviews about:

• use of bike

• relation with environment

• adoption of technologies

RESULTS

• Cycling as a new symbiotic experience

• A deep relation with space and time

people, feelings, emotions, moods in the space

Coming back to definition of hybrid space…

Using bike, people are able to define a new emotional cartography in urban space

2. Technology improves the capability of human

being

1. Body becomes a new interface to interact in

space

• Encourage people’ awareness about the role of space in their life

• Support people to sustainable behaviour

• Give new meanings to resilient space

• Design body technologies for improving relation between human and space

THE CHALLENGES

Critical design approach helps us to focus on body and technology and encourage people to enter in a more intimate contact with inside and outside

space

Critical design approach stimulates a creative sensibility in people to perceive their relation with place creating a bridge

between them

What we expect to obtain

A definition of hybrid citizen, able to establish a deep bond stressing feelings, emotions, moods in the space leveraging body experience and wearable computing

• People, technology, space: orientation and different direction

Open Issues

• The Body is Obsolete?

Stelarc speaks of the obsolete body. He

means that the body must to be considered

as an extendible evolutionary structure

enhanced with the most disparate

technologies, which are more precise,

accurate and powerful.

"Technology is what defines the meaning of being human, it's part of being human.

Especially living in the information age, the body is biologically inadequate

[…]Electronic space becomes a medium of action rather than information".

Thanks to

Doisneau and Stelarc

for images!

Assunta Matassa University of Torino Computer Science matassa@di.unito.it

Thank you for your attention!

CITY | DATA | FUTURE 25th Sept. 2014 - Venice