Panel Statement
Panel: Pervasive Media: Practice, Value, Culture
There is an emergent language of Pervasive Media. A set of jargon, vernacular and descriptive terms that surround the production of these new experiences is being generated by the producers, designers, artists, academics, critics and users that surround Pervasive Media. This has developed in response to the lack of the correctly nuanced language in other media production. This current research develops work that was carried out during the Mobile Bristol project, where various design dimensions of mobile media were identified, such as sociality, place, or genre. Through workshops with practitioners and academics based at the Pervasive Media Studio the key concepts and the details of the language that is used to describe the experience and production of these pieces of pervasive media. At first a number of archetypal and successful projects were explored, getting people to experience them and then discuss them, often with the designers and artists themselves present. Following on from that a number of key concepts were identified, such as play and space, and these were examined more generally and compared across projects. This work is leading towards the production of a ‘Pervasive Media Cookbook’ that will present key projects in pervasive media as well as a critical look into the specifics that set Pervasive Media apart from other media experiences.
- Dr. Constance Fleuriot is a researcher at the Digital Cultures Research Centre, based in the Pervasive Media Studio. She is working with Jon Dovey on an AHRC funded Knowledge Transfer Fellowship investigating the language, aesthetics and value of pervasive media. She founded featherhouse, an independent content agency specialising in digital, social and pervasive media, which in 2010 launched fashion popcorn, a new network for creative people working in film, fashion and digital media. Constance was a founding member of staff at the Pervasive Media Studio, working on public engagement projects for the studio, attempting to draw in people of all ages and backgrounds. As a Research Associate at Bristol University, Constance was one of the principal investigators on the Mobile Bristol Project investigating the social impact of emerging pervasive and mobile technologies. Since then she has been working as a freelance consultant in user research and locative media design, and facilitating location-based mixed-media projects with a variety of user communities. She worked on the development of the Futurelab createascape website, a resource for pupils and teachers on how to use HPlabs mscape software in an educational setting. She still runs mscape workshops, mainly with schools, but has experience in teaching mscape to people of all ages. Constance’s interests encompass showing people how to be creative producers with pervasive technology and not just consumers. She is also interested in exploring what might be embedded or hidden in pervasive technology applications, whether deliberate or due to the assumptions of the designer.