Workshops
Academic Workshops
We are thrilled to announce exciting Academic Workshops that will be held on the 8th of October at Tampere University in the scope of Academic Mindtrek conference 2024 (8th-11th October, 2024). Please consider joining!
Please note that participants must be registered to the Academic Mindtrek conference with a ’visitor/author’ pass or a ’workshop’ pass.
AI as a Citizen: Eliciting Smart City Future Stories through Human-AI Collaborative Fiction Writing
ORGANIZERS
Margarita Osipova (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany), Jordi Tost (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany), Oğuz ‘Oz’ Buruk (Tampere University, Finland), Konstantina Marrra (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany), Britta F. Schulte (Hochschule Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany), Jeffrey Bardzell (Pennsylvania State University, USA), and Eva Hornecker (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Germany)
Smart cities are becoming an inevitable trend in the design of urban futures. With the speed of technological advancement, by the time that smart city visions come into life, the urban environment could already be seen as a co-living space of humans and technological entities, such as AI or robots. This raises the question whether these visions should get already co-created by people and technology, given AI is seen as a potential tool for decision-making processes in data-driven city visions. In this workshop, we aim to explore how visions of smart city futures can be co-speculated by people and AI through the collaborative process of co-writing fiction. Through writing short speculative stories, we want to encourage participants to critically reflect on their own expectations about smart city futures as well as what values these should preferably be based on, and to also reflect on the potential biases that AI might bring into the process of futuring. In this exploratory and creative workshop we will engage constructively with the concept of smart cities from a more-than-human perspective. We deliberately encourage participants with a wide variety of interests to take part in this workshop. Topics can include inclusion and exclusion, sustainability, feminist design, critical design, writing and storytelling in their relation to the design of smart cities.
To register your interest, please send a short statement of interest to the first author in which you outline why you are interested in the workshop, how it relates to your work and what you would hope to get out of the workshop. We would additionally appreciate information about your background on cities and countries you lived in and are open to share your experience. This will help to ensure a diversity of perspectives on city life brought to the discussion during the workshop. Please further indicate your affiliation and whether you plan to attend the workshop in person or online. Register by the 5th of October 2024: konstantina.marra@uni-weimar.de
For the call for papers, please check: urban-future-now.pubpub.org/mindtrek-24
Digital Technologies and Human Consciousness: A Futures Workshop for Exploring Potential Implications
ORGANIZERS
Terho Ojell-Järventausta (Tampere University, Finland), Anatolii Belousov (Tampere University, Finland), Mila Bujić (Tampere University, Finland), Joseph Macey (Tampere University, Finland) and Juho Hamari (Tampere University, Finland)
Over the past decades, digital technologies have permeated many everyday tasks and practices, reshaping human behaviour and causing unintended consequences. The emergence of artificial intelligence, extended reality, brain-computer interfaces, and nanotechnology have increased the likelihood of a future in which the impact of digital technologies reaches an unprecedented degree by expanding human consciousness. As such, the societal implications of such developments require an urgent evaluation. In this workshop, we will approach these through futures clinique method to identify drivers and obstacles of change and potential societal implications through different future scenarios of digitally induced altered states of consciousness (DIAL). The workshop’s contributions comprise novel future scenarios that will aid in identifying potential benefits of DIAL and strategies for mitigating risks. It will provide a platform for exploring the implications of these emerging technologies through a novel perspective (DIAL) that is not currently prominent in the discourse but must be considered to mitigate unintended consequences.
Participants are expected to fill in the pre-application form in addition to registration for the conference: survey.tuni.fi/lime/779354?lang=en
The Deep Body: Exploring users’ insides through design fiction
ORGANIZERS
Harun Kaygan (University of Southern Denmark), Çağlar Genç (Tampere University, Finland), Oğuz ‘Oz’ Buruk (Tampere University, Finland), Ida Kathrine Hammeleff Jørgensen (University of Southern Denmark), and Linas Kristupas Gabrielaitis (Tampere University, Finland)
In this workshop we would like to explore one specific way in which users’ bodies are imagined in design: what we call “the deep body.” In this context, the deep body refers to all the different ways in which design activities engage with users’ bodies with the consideration that it has a certain internal dimension, a layered quality, be that literal or metaphorical. That kind of understanding can resonate with design for self-tracking of internal bodily processes; introspective approaches to design, as in somaesthetics; and more-than-human approaches to human body, among others. We invite candidates to submit a single-page pictorial or paper (i.e., position papers, case studies, design fictions, speculative and critical designs). The submissions are expected to present a current or a future vision about how the view toward bodies in design are or could be deepened in relation to one or more of the three workshop themes:
(1) Defining ‘Bodies’ and ‘Depth’: What is a body and what does it mean to have a ‘deep’ understanding of bodies in design?
(2) Dealing with Depth through Designs: In what ways do we and can we achieve a “deep” understanding of bodies through design? What can we design to do so?
(3) Methods for Understanding Deep Bodies in Design: What kind of design methods are there, could there be to understand and address bodies in their
depth?
To register, we invite candidates to fill out the form (https://forms.gle/hyKyyoppNdELa3FD6) before October 7th.
Please find more information about the workshop at: sites.google.com/view/thedeepbody/home
Workshop on Building Accessible Futures: Accessibility Education at Tampere University and Hands-on Experience Using Tools and Technologies
ORGANIZERS
Tero Avellan (Tampere University, Finland), Pauliina Baltzar (Tampere University, Finland), and Markku Turunen (Tampere University, Finland)
As the importance of accessibility continues to grow, there is a need to develop education and raise accessibility awareness through engaging hands-on experiences. In this interactive and collaborative workshop, we will explore accessibility and related tools with participants. The first part of the workshop will focus on our experiences of accessibility education and collaboratively define the context of accessible futures. In the second part, we will work towards developing a shared understanding of accessibility and identify the challenges and opportunities. Then, the workshop will transition into hands-on experience using various tools and technologies to enhance accessibility. This will provide participants practical insights into applying accessibility principles, including assistive technologies and simulation tools, to experience accessibility challenges. In the third part, by the end of the workshop, participants will leave with a deeper understanding of accessibility and practical experience. Join us in building a future where accessibility is at the forefront of design and innovation.
The workshop is only in person, and participants are expected to register and answer a few questions by the 5th of October 2024. Please find more information about the workshop and registration at: forms.office.com/e/GRkMGqRDz2