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SMART materials & systems: Has embracing uncertainty become vital to commercialisation?
Get PDFAs humans we have a tendency to seek to confirm data and to avoid disconfirming data. COVID-19 that has thrown plans large and small into disarray, but well before then, the pace of change was already challenging the ability of SMART materials and systems to achieve full scalable commercialisation. While plans may not be feasible, what is possible and indeed necessary is planning. In this presentation I will present a toolkit that takes account of and even embraces uncertainty as a planning method directed at a more effective route for commercialisation and market growth
Development and initial qualitative evaluation of a novel school-based nutrition intervention – COOKKIT (Cooking Kit for Kids)
Get PDFBackground: Excess weight and an unhealthy diet are risk factors for many cancers, and in high income countries, both are more prevalent among low income families. Dietary interventions targeting primary-school aged children (under 11) can improve healthy eating behaviours, but most are not designed to support the translation of skills learnt in the classroom to the home setting. This paper assessed attitudes and approaches to cooking and eating at home, and the potential to enhance engagement in healthy eating through the COOKKIT intervention. Methods: COOKKIT is an intervention to deliver weekly cooking classes and supportive materials for low-income families to maintain healthy eating at home. Preliminary qualitative interviews were conducted with teachers and parent–child dyads from a range of primary schools in the UK to explore attitudes, barriers and facilitators for healthy eating and inform the development of COOKKIT. Following implementation, ten children (8–9 y/o) participated in post-intervention focus groups, alongside interviews with teaching staff and parents. Results: Thematic analysis identified five themes under which to discuss the children’s experience of food, cooking and the impact of COOKKIT: Involving children in planning and buying food for the family; Engaging children in preparing meals at home; Trying to eat healthy meals together in the midst of busy lives; Role-modelling; and Balancing practicalities, information and engagement when delivering cooking classes. Conclusions: Results suggest COOKKIT provides engaging and easy to follow in-school resources for children and school staff with take-home kits facilitating continued engagement and reinforcing lessons learned in the home environment. Importantly, participants highlighted the combination of healthy eating information, applied practical skills and low costs could support families to continue following the COOKKIT advice beyond the intervention, suggesting further evaluation of COOKKIT is warranted
Monsoon as method
Get PDFThis paper is a reflective discussion of the research method developed by a small research team over a 5-year period as it intra-acted with the south Asian monsoon in three south/southeast Asian cities. It reflects on how the team’s practice was transformed from being research on or about the monsoon as a discrete unit of analysis, to research in the monsoon and with its agential materiality. The paper first outlines the theoretical resources from cultural geography, anthropology, feminist theory, posthuman theory, and science and technology studies that the project drew from. After this theoretical section, the paper then discusses the practical implications of the method and the two emergent strands of research (‘weather matters’ and ‘construction matters’) that were followed in Chennai, Dhaka, and Yangon. The final section of the paper reflects on the extension of the method into the formatting of a book and an online exhibition. The paper concludes by arguing that what the method offers to cultural, weather-based research in monsoonal and other climes, is a situated, non-formulaic method that recognizes the affordances of the Earth’s agency, of matter and of other-than-human lives for generating knowledge of and ways of being in changing weather-worlds
Human-centred AI design methods to understand intelligent systems design empowered by multisensory experience with textiles
Get PDFConceiving intelligent systems with human-robot interaction is difficult without first-hand knowledge of design tasks. This poster presents ideation results from a workshopon new forms of human-robotic collaboration primed with human experience of multisensory experiences with textiles. Twenty-five Intelligent System Design students were presented with traditional and contemporary design methods regarding the human experience of textiles, along with the latest research in AI and robotic evaluation of multisensory textile properties. Putting theory into practise, participants then engaged in individual tactile subjective assessments of a selection of fabrics with paper-based bipolar scales followed by group reflection on the process. This led into the brainstorming portion of the workshop with the prompt — How can AI collaboration in material assessments advance the applications intertwining with material tangibility? In order to have a range of ideations - participants voted on application domains and self-organised into groups with specific application focuses. The domains were (in order of popularity) – (1) Well-being and Care, (2) Gaming / Metaverse, (3) Craft, (4) Mobility Design and (5) Product Design. This poster presents a collection of ideas centred around these domains produced by the groups. The practical implications of this workshop was to demonstrate how a human-centred design process focused on multisensory experiences presented in theory and then through tactile practise can contribute towards ideation within intelligent systems design
Workshop on human-centred AI design methods to understand “Textiles Hand”
Get PDFThis collaborative workshop aims to co-generate tactile-based sensorial data for AI design tools. The project teams experienced in AI design methodologies and sensory materials assessment will deliver a material centric design workshop to understand embodied and tacit knowledge of the textiles world. With the contribution of participants, the new design methods to integrate the generated data will be discussed to build on the current state-of-the-art design tools
Dataset for 'Space standards in affordable housing in England'
Get PDFThis dataset contains the dimensional data used in the article 'Space standards in affordable housing in England' published in Building Research & Information. The dataset contains a spreadsheet where the data can be found and a PDF file for guidance
Original copy
No full textOriginal Copy uses specially constructed software to explore the seen world of objects, images, and material space to uncover soundscapes and text to build atmospheric encounters and unearth dormant narratives. For this performance, Marissa Stoffer collaborates with her practice exploring the relationship between the human and the non-human looking at symbolism, language, stories, and colour. Through the act of foraging for colour she hand-dyes textiles and makes pigments from plants, specifically trees. This collaboration explores the London Plane tree, an enigmatic figure in central London's ecosystem, prominent everywhere yet often unseen.
(this excerpt comes from comes from a longer essay documenting the thinking and positioning of these images)
Get PDFAn essay for the Radical Matter Journal (Vol. 1). The essay explores the materialities of AI in relation to new formats of undulating asemic narratives structures. It employs a non-hierarchical format, poetically offering lines of flight which fire off in multiple directions. Its functionality lies in its palimpsestic logic and their connections to other texts which endlessly defer and contextualise. Footnotes act like Kafka’s doors, windows, and picture frames, and are essential in their rhizomatic portaling to different possibilities and contexts. It is suggested that a rhythmic reading should be followed by a slower de-constructive/re-constructive read oscillating between textfootnote
Making the creative majority
Get PDFThe APPG’s second research project focussed on ‘What Works’ to support diversity and inclusion in creative education and the talent pipeline, with a focus on the 16+ age category. The report identifies critical points for intervention for the creative industries, education providers and policymakers to ensure the UK’s creative industries are inclusive and equitable
How to relay relay; or, to follow Andromeda is to follow the world
Get PDFThis essay explores the concept of "relay" as a creative and interdisciplinary research methodology, analyzing its spatial, temporal, material, and translational dimensions. By positioning relay as both a method and a conceptual framework, the text examines its capacity to facilitate discovery and interpretation across diverse contexts, from everyday mark-making to astronomical phenomena. The discussion unfolds across four thematic axes: spatial relations, illustrated through the relay race, highlighting the fragility and significance of connections; material conduits, such as telegraphs and optical systems, which have historically extended communication across distances; repetition in time, embodied in anniversaries that evoke memory, challenge dominant narratives, and enable counter-histories; and interpretation, exemplified by relayed translations that mediate languages and histories. These dimensions collectively reveal relay as a medium of exchange and transformation, fostering novel insights across disciplines. The essay concludes by engaging with the Andromeda galaxy as an archetype of relay, reflecting both its mythological and astronomical significance. The light from Andromeda, relayed over 2.5 million years, is framed as an evolving archive of cosmic history. Through this metaphor, the concept of relay is presented as a dynamic process that reconfigures our understanding of connection, continuity, and emergence in space, time, and knowledge. This work challenges conventional methodologies, proposing relay as a pivotal framework for transdisciplinary research and creative practice