Keynotes

We are pleased to announce the Keynote Speakers for EICS 2017: Paul Dourish and Gilbert Cockton.

Gilbert Cockton - Northumbria University (Tuesday, 27)

Engineering Is Worth It, But Only When Rational Ideals Accept Reflective Realities

Abstract: Engineering and Creative Design have overlapping traditions, although the latter is four orders of magnitude older than the former. The former has been more normative about design processes than the latter. Norms have differed, with creative design often celebrating the hand-made, and engineering typically exploiting mechanisation. In contrast, norms did converge with scientifically motivated approaches to creative design (e.g., Bauhaus, Ulm, Design Methods movement). The underlying values of Engineering and Creative Design have thus both converged and diverged. Empirical facts however are overwhelmingly convergent, but with only partial evidence of the rational idealised linear ideals of Engineering Design being met. Regardless of the craft space, reflective creative design, where design materials talk back to co-evolve both problem and solution framing, dominates when complete processes are studied. Agile development methodologies are a first step in moving away from the impossibility of Rational Idealised Linear Engineering Design (RILED) towards the realities of creative reflective practice. In this talk, I will present a tactical reframing of engineering ideals within the realities of creative reflective design. Engineering ideals do have potentially worthwhile roles place in creative axiological practices, but these are to support, not to direct. In this talk I will use Abstract Design Situations to contrast the major design paradigms and empirical studies to expose their limitations as a basis for outlining some worth-focused approaches to Interaction Design that can exploit engineering rigour within the realities of creative reflective work contexts.

Paul Dourish - UC Irvine (Thursday, 29)

The Stuff of Bits: Exploring the Materialities of Information in Interaction

Abstract: Much of the language of computation is based on the idea that virtual experiences are, by definition, immaterial. On the other hand, in the context of mobile and ubiquitous computing, we have been reminded of the importance of the physical world, and many in HCI over the last decade have been intrigued by the possibilities of new interactive materials. In this talk, I will explore the range of ways that we might want to grapple with the materiality of information — not just of information infrastructures, or of information-rich objects, but of digital information itself and particularly information representations. I will draw on research from anthropology, philosophy, and science studies to demonstrate how we might incorporate a sense of the material more deeply into the ways that we think about interaction with digital information.