Landscape Parkour

Based in Copenhagen, Team Jiyo are a big name in the Parkour world and have managed to promote the sport and it's image across the world. The trailer below shows a extract from a film developed with Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG Architects. It explains how Ingels "is fascinated by the way Team JiYo convey architecture and takes the team to his buildings, to explore and unfold their skills, that may be just as groundbreaking as the architecture itself". There are many other sample films by Objective Cinema which show freerunners interacting with their environment.



MY PLAYGROUND WS TRAILER from Objective Cinema on Vimeo.


Another collaboration with Landscape Architects Kragh & Berglund highlights Team Jiyo's desire to teach the sport to younger generations. A dedicated Parkour Park in Ørestaden, Copenhagen allows the development of Parkour skills without the safety concerns and legal problems associated with full Parkour. They stress how it doesn't devalue the sport by containing it to a 'training area', but it widens the access to it instead.

One thing I'd like to understand is the motivations behind wanting to do Parkour, the aims and aspirations within the sport (is higher more difficult and therefore better?) and also looking into being able to map the 3D paths taken by freerunners to build up a better picture of spaces used.


On flickr, a group of freerunners have built up a pool of geotagged photos in the Parkour Training Spots Group, which logs areas of Parkour 'interest'.

Probing

As one of my many summer jobs I have found myself being employed to take part in and conduct consumer research. I have done this work before and have never really questioned the methodology of it. However this summer, since doing my own research, I can't help thinking what a massive waste of money and time it is.

I was not surprised to read in Buy.ology that it has been proven that people lie in consumer research. Respondents say what they think the correct answer should be, or they can be swayed by other members of the group or the interviewer. Sometimes they are unable to articulate or understand how they feel towards a product.

It seems to be like this because no one cares. The interviewer and the interviewee are in it for the money incentive. Next week I will be running interviews on soya milk and I can say I don't particularly care about soya milk and I'm pretty sure the people I convince to answer a couple of questions for a fiver won't care either!

When thinking about my own research it is clear that this style of research is not right for my project. This led me to look into probes. A probe is a personally made pack of items introduced into someone's life developed for research. The probe can be adapted and manipulated by the recipient to tell their story and reveal information about the topic the researcher is interested in.

Gaver wrote an article on cultural probes that really focuses on the richness of the data you are able to collect. Although the data may not be quantitative, the investment of time from the researcher and the participant is apparent in the results obtained.

I am now in the process of making my own shopping bag, to act as a probe as the next part of my investigationinto the behaviour of window shopping.

Instant Places

I'm currently rewriting my Expresion of Interest, and intend to shortly begin what is essentially a design activity, proposing a number of systems to promote spontaneous interaction within the school. In the course of some further reading I came across this article from IEEE by a team from Microsoft.

There project used people in a bar's own private Bluetooth devices to drive a display screen, based purely on the names they assigned their smart phone or laptop. At its most basic, the display would show the name as a form of avatar, but could also read tags to draw in photo streams from sites such as flickr, and in later implementations could filter tags based on popularity within a time frame and place relevant information to the fore.

Ultimately whilst never setting out what users were meant to do or to achieve, the project created a system where by users could create an online space through their interactions rather than by design. The notable thing from my point of view is the recorded upsurge in activity before and after the project went live; people in a purely social context wanted to join this rudimentary social network.

I think a similar system could be an interesting proposal within the school and go a long way towards promoting the sort of spontaneous interactions I believe could be of benefit to students. I would be interested in looking at expanding the idea to look at drawing avatars together to trigger more tangible interactions, and could also see some interesting mapping emerge from such a project.

Wrap It and Map It.

To wrap up my observation studies I have created a series of abstract maps that depict my collected data. I had to establish categories that I could make quantitative estimates from. I settled on; age and sex of shopper, attraction to window, speed of passer by, number of bags leaving the shop and amount of time people spent outside the shop.

I used a Newcastle city centre map to create the maps.

I edited the key with my new categories, deleted unneeded information and used the stores logo to highlight the collected data.

The maps may not be instantly legible as a conclusion to an ethnography study but it is backed up with detailed observation which I shan't bore you with! Instead I have tried to sum up what I learnt, observed or concluded about each shop in one sentence.

Fenwick’s- people who shop in Fenwick’s watch the weather forecast in the morning and own waterproof coats.

hmv- young people browse, older people buy.

Ann Summers- the walk in and out says everything i.e. the women's shy skuttle or the confident strut and the man’s "I'm having sex at the moment" swagger.

Primark- a constant sea of brown bags and a smoking area for people with prams

Apple- the 'shop' of the future where you don’t shop!

Freerunning regeneration

Recently I've been involved with a volunteer project which aims to get local teenagers in Gateshead to engage in the design of their local environment. This could subsequently lead towards successful regeneration of underdeveloped sites in Gateshead. The group, called Space Invaders, are led by recent architecture graduates who are part of the ArchiGRAD scheme, and the project itself "is part of NE-Generation and funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to create a lasting cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games across the UK."

During an event organised by the Space Invaders this weekend, I was intrigued by the amount of young people interested in street sports (skateboarding, freerunning, etc.) and yet most were disinterested in getting involved with youth groups and signing up to activities when amongst their friends.

Parkour/Freerunning in particular led me think about how Gateshead's youth are already involved with architecture, but in an unconventional way. It is a fluid and creative sport which builds spatial awareness and general athleticism, but it doesn't often gain support from local residents or police.

During discussions with Paul over a few drinks yesterday it struck me that an ever changing landscape could provide a stimulating, but contained environment for street sports. As long as it was cited centrally within the city, it would then provide a hub for the young people of Gateshead to come together and have an area that they feel they own and that they control. By linking this with digital input (such as mobile phone technologies, photos, etc,) and mechanics, the landscape could respond to their inputs.

Recently, I also visited the exhibition that Paul blogged about, Night on Breer, and the slow movement of the structures was very interesting.

wifi Mapping

Due to the lack of internet in my new flat, I have found myself wandering the streets of Newcastle, phone in hand trying to find a bt openzone hotspot so that I can do some work. In the end, I gave up and resulted to Starbucks but what this reminded me of was the project by Timo below:

Immaterials: Light painting WiFi from Timo on Vimeo.

How something like this could be translated into an architectural intervention would be great to see. In a video posted by Martyn at the beginning of the year, a guy gave a talk on how the wifi in a Library in Australia governed how people used the space and that people clustered around free wifi spots as a form of social interaction. This type of integration of wifi hotspots with public parks, small plazas would be great to see in the landscape of Newcastle.

Cybernetics

When I saw this drawing (by Gordan Pask), it reminded me of William Gaver’s explanation of the communication that a probe should have between design team and participant.

Gordan Pask(1928-1996)

Gordan Pask was one of the all-time great exponents of cybernetics, the discipline that emerged in the 1940s, in which concepts of information, feedback and control are applied to systems such as living organisms and language. Pask spent his life developing a theory of learning. His research spanned biological computing, artificial inelegance, logic, cognitive science, linguistics and psychology. In essence, Pask believed that intelligence lies in interaction, not inside a head or a computer.

Pask famously always dressed as an Edwardian dandy, with double-breasted suit, bow tie and cane.

Urban Probes and the Augmented Trashcan

After doing research on the subject of ‘probes’ I thought that it would be fitting to blog this week about a project that I find encapsulates my opinion of how I should develop the methodology. ‘Urban Probes: Encountering Our Emerging Urban Atmospheres’ (ii) creates a conversation with the Urban fabric of San Francisco on the topic of narrative told through trash (rubbish).

At the beginning of the paper, Paulos and Jenkins set out to define what an ‘Urban Probe’ is:
“Urban Probes must directly intervene to alter and/or disrupt the usage, actions, or flow within the urban focus of attention” (i p.343)

Through the creation of an artefact, Paulos and Jankins wanted to ‘unambiguosly answer urban questions’ and this was realised through the following methodology.

Observation

Procedure: A trash can was located in downtown San Francisco and the researchers undertook three separate observations (stalking’s) where the trash can’s users behavioural patterns and route of travel in relation to the trash can was documented.

Results: The information gathered was analysed to conclude that a quarter of the people who used the trash can did so for matters other than depositing waste.

Observation (stalking) Results

Intervention

110 hand written, stamped addressed postcards were dropped around the city of San Francisco for numerous aims yet the one that interested me the most was their aim to investigate ‘to what degree are people interested in traces left behind by others? Will the items create narratives?

Each post card had its own unique fictional storey with three evenly distributed subject matter covering a scale between personal to private.

Interviews

Interviews were conducted with professional such as architects and city planners. In addition, street interviews with the general public were conducted across a sample of 20 people, covering a broad range of age categories.

Artefact Production: Augmented Trashcan

As trash is placed into the bin, the weight and images of the trash is recorded and an image of this is projected onto the walkway. Over time, the collage of trash images gradually fades away.

My Thoughts

I personally find the end artefact a little disappointing however, the conversation that the research team had between themselves and the general public of San Francisco through the use of probes is very inspiring. In his paper (i) Gaver states that the probe should be about generating the conversation that Paulos and Jenkins achieved and the methodology is something that I may be able to follow for my linked research project.

(i) Gaver, B., Dunne, T., and Pancenti, E. Cultural Probes. Interactions 11, 5 (Sep. 2004), 53-56

(ii) Paulos, E. And Jenkins, T. 2005. Urban Probes. In Proc. CHI’05. NY:ACM Press, 341-350

Design Workbooks

Having now read Gavers "Making Spaces: How Design Workbooks Work", I have some thoughts to share. The article essentially describes the process of creating what most architecture students would already know as a sketchbook. What is of more interest, Gaver also discusses some of the short comings of such documents, one of which being that they actually require quite a lot of work to read as a well organised, coherent document.

I know from my own preliminary research that some students struggle in the initial design stage to come up with work to put down before a tutor. There is a perception that being able to talk is enough, when I'm not 100% sure that it is... There is however an unwillingness to be criticised for under developed ideas. Whilst this is problematic, I don't think that any kind of digital sketch book with bells on is ever going to over come this, its a fundamental problem that comes out of architecture being complicated.

Gaver asserts that design workbooks, even in their chaotic loosely formed guise, can generate discussion. I am though concerned that sometimes sketch books that represent a safe environment is which to explore ideas, become quite guarded. Private sanctums outside of which a greater emphasis placed on the presented "finished image" as representing an architectural idea or intention.

My mind turns back to some of my other early readings to do with self reflection, including the "Slow Technology" paper is discussed on these pages back in June. One of my own interviewee's termed the experience (in reality little more than a chat), "a great opportunity for introspection", which was a positive for me as I believe there is much to be gained from thinking about what you've done well or badly previously. We are or see ourselves as so busy, there is a risk perhaps that we miss the important lessons we should have learned.

I think that the project that I am formulating is really dual faceted. On the one hand it is about sharing, and on the other refection. The mechanism for this is spontaneous revision of past experiences, rather than attempting to capture the ongoing design process as a "design workbook" might. I could envisage more purely practical spin offs for such a system, opened up to potential employers for example, that could encourage participation and play off the competitive streak I have seen as a problem elsewhere within the school.

Reference;

Gaver, W., "Making Spaces: How Design Workbooks Work", (CHI 7 - 12 May), ACM

Serendipity Now

Writing up and reading through my initial research again, I have decided to vocalise my thought process.

I can now say with confidence that interaction within the wider architecture community is of obvious benefit to students, and that not everyone is making the most of the opportunity to "learn by word of mouth". Knowledge seems to become gathered into little pockets, held by and not shared outside of small friendship groups. I am very interested in disseminating what is already shared knowledge more widely, and am keen to explore ways of provoking spontaneous interaction within the school.

I have seen some students are more isolated than others, and feel that a system relying on spontaneity has the potential to overcome the social factors that currently pigeon hole knowledge. A tangible system based on distributing information that may be of interest, rather than being a searchable database would also seem to bypass some of the basic organisational issues that seem to plague other efforts to coordinate amongst students.

If I could design an installation that could do this, I think there would be a value to remaining academically aloof; the most popular attraction that the recent Part 2 degree show was a ping-pong table. "Parents" on the student pastoral scheme had talked of using the interactions with their children as procrastination. There is scope for a device or even a piece of artwork that could distract people from the stress of their school work, yet still be helpful. I'm starting to think of it as a form of subliminal messaging!

The questions that remain are to do with data capture, but I am wondering if that is really a huge issue. Do I need to refer to ongoing work? We already exhibit finished work to varying extents, would a wider dissemination of this completed and already catalogued work not be of potential value if it could be used to guide or inspire others? Or even as a point of reflection to the author themselves?

I had an idea a while back to explore a sort of architectural speed dating, that I think may be a useful way to explore this notion further, and for my part may be a useful way to seek feedback on any installation or system that I design.

Making Spaces: How Design Workbooks Work

Whilst searching through William Gaver articles on the ACM Digital Library, I found an article that I thought may be on interest to Paul entitled:

Making Spaces: How Design Workbooks Work, (William Gaver, CHI 2011)

Buy.ology

I have just finished reading a book called buy.ology which investigates why we shop. I felt like I needed a brief in site into the science of consumerism after studying shop fronts for 2weeks.

The book concentrated on neuromarketing. How the brain reacts to shopping, advertisements and even shop windows.

Our wants can be put down to the ‘mirror neuron’. A study of monkeys by Rizzolatti showed when a monkey picked up a nut, motor neurones would fire up in the brain. Interestingly in addition when a monkey watched another monkey pick up a nut the exact same brain activity occurred. After these findings they moved the studies to humans and found the same phenomenon to be true! Rizzolatti dubbed this the ‘mirror neuron’.

In 2006 Nintendo released the wii console. Most computer game lovers rushed and bought the game and tore open the box. However, one Nick Baily took it home, set up a camera and filmed himself opening it. The video got 71,000 hits in the first week alone, because people who didn't have enough money to buy the console got a 'rush’ from watching someone else having the experience they lusted for. There are whole websites dedicated to this concept such as www.unbox-it.com.

The same response is experienced when looking into shop windows. Picture the scene. A woman passes a shapely mannequin wearing a perfectly fitting pair of jeans and a simple white top. The mannequin looks great, relaxed, youthful and sexy. Even though the woman may have recently put on a few pounds her brain tells her "you could look like that too, if you just bought that outfit. You could be her, in those clothes."

So next time it's the end of the month, your strapped for cash and find yourself on a high street, beware the shopping devil on your shoulder. He is the mirror neurons in your brain.