Re-Public

Performative public communicaion with mobile & locational technologies

Overview

RE-PUBLIC is a large project proposal submitted to the Research Council of Norway. It represents a major shared interest at InterMedia in mobile and contextual communication.

Aims

The RE-PUBLIC project aims to strengthen research in Norway into humanistic perspectives on emerging digital communication forms & expressions & their information systems. Links are made between interaction design & information systems design & creative, social, & related commercial uses of mobile, ubiquitous technologies in communicating in public spaces.

Concepts

Research centres on the changing field of digital narrative, dramaturgy, rhetorics, art & gaming. Interaction design of mobile, wireless communication as genre & visual design will be central as will be the performativity of audiences & users of emerging mediated texts, artistic expressions & services.

Methods

Methods are from hermeneutics, interaction & Participatory Design for analysing & building of prototypes and works.

Analysis

Textually, we will study the design of content & interfaces for mobile & fixed screens. Interpersonally, we will investigate how audiences use && adapt these texts in multimodal combinations & communicate amongst one another. Performatively, we will study the generation & relations of new text types & interface designs. Humanists' competence in a variety of fields will converge with partnerships with Informatics, artists & interaction designers.

Outcomes

Four project strands include core researchers & international network members. The strands are:

Expression - new forms for artistic expression of place & performativity
Gaming - single & multi-player gaming in public
Museums - the mediation & uses of mobile artifacts & devices
Services - the growth of embedded products, services & user performance.

Strands have activities, activities also go across the Strands for interdisciplinary collaboration.

The contributions are expected to be

a new research platform for cross-disciplinary research
an innovative contribution to primary & applied research in Norway
a visible, leading project case of interdisciplinary innovation around the public performative uses of 'new media'.
a new multi-disciplinary research community via Akerselva Innovation.
new knowledge about performativity & communicating in public with mobile, locational technologies.

Publications & presentations

Publications are to include books, articles and a website.