moblog – Page 18 – frans goes blog

Provence, day 5

This day has been a composite of nature and culture. Following the footsteps of Vincent van Gogh, we visited St. Remy and Arles, seeing whether life imitates art, and/or how/to what degree. Most of the day was spent on driving through the Camargue Natural Park. Loads of pink flamingos, and other such exotic southern beasts. Nice day, even if loaded with contrasts and questions.

Provence, day 4

Today we checked out from our hotel in Aix, and took a pleasant Sunday drive into Avignon, our next home base. Avignon is a curios place, both a provincial shopping city, serving the local area; an important French cultural stage; and a monument to a certain notorios phase in the history of catholic church. The 59th Avignon theatre festival takes now place before the papal palace.

Provence, day 3

This day, we went for a morning walk among the old town markets – there seems to be everything, from new shoes to old books on sale in these narrow streets and squares. Then, perhaps half an hours drive to Marseille. A city oddly familiar from Dumas’ novels, this my first visit to here took us quickly via the old harbour up to the hill-top church (Notre Dame de la Garde), then back. (I still hate the traffic, but I am improving, I am told.)

Provence, day 2

Another warm and sunny day in the southern France. We have explored Aix-en-Provence by foot, seeing much of the Old Town, and getting rather thirsty and hungry in the process. Luckily, there are plenty of charming little restaurants to choose from. Still learning to understand the strange opening hours, though.

Provence, day 1

A bit exhaustive day, filled with a long drive from Nice up to the mountains, via the serpentine roads in the Gorges du Verdon, late at night to Aix en Provence. Finally! We really need some sleep now.

Provence, day 0

(Trying to moblog some of these holidays.) Staying in Helsinki overnight before the very early morning flight. Did shop some classic jazz for listening during those road trips. Espresso in the Srindberg’s, then dinner with Aki in “Villa Thai” in Bulevardi (meal was nice – and hot!) Now couple of hours’ sleep before France…

Vancouver

Tried to post this earlier, but battery ran out in Vancouver night. DiGRA’05 is now over, and it is time to reflect. I am interested in any feedback, either here in the newly re-released http://www.digra.org (you can freely create an account there for yourself, do take a try). I am tired, but it appears that the conference fulfilled at least most of the goals we set for it, which is great.

In the Making. The First Nordic Design Research Conference

Here are some quick notes, made during bus travels. I missed the first day (tutorials), and the last day for me was the program committee meeting, focusing on the future of Nordic Design Research Conferences (Sweden, 2007, most likely). More information on the event: http://www.nordes.org.

May 30. The first day of the conference at least to me proved to centre on two main themes. The first one was embodiment, or how to approach the sense and significance bestowed upon material reality – as was only natural for a conference with so many contributors working upon industrial design, or arts and crafts related fields. There were some nice thoughts that I should consider in my work on digital culture, and culture of technology studies, when I again find some time to continue writing on those themes. The second set of key issues centred around the relation of design and research. Design research seems to be going through similar kind of soul-searching as has been the case for other academic fields closely associated with a creative practise. In games research as well there are the tensions whether the rationale is to aim for new designs or into new research, in the scientific or scholarly sense of the word. Obviously, some of the attractiveness of these fields rise from the fruitful interactions between academia and creative professions, and industries, too. But as in several presentations today it was pointed out, it is important to remember which one is aiming for: to evaluate a hypothesis (and create generalizable knowledge), or to research in order to create designs. The concept of knowledge is slippery, and it is easy to prove that any evolution of artistic skill also involves knowledge creation. The discursive standards guiding the formation and distribution of scientific knowledge and artistic or professional knowledges are nevertheless generally separate and distinctive.

May 31. During this second day, I mostly focused on methodology sessions: ethnography, in vivo observations, etc., and to the technology domestication and other social sciences inspired presentations. There were some interesting points, but there was also a growing feeling that I had heard most of these things before. The concluding panel on the identity of design research was translated into the form of seeking inspirations for a hypothetical Nordic Design Research Centre. This appeared to lead into all sorts of vague directions, missing the potentials for really trying to understand the fundamentals of design research as an academic field, as contrasted to various design professions and their concerns. I left the session early to get into the bus which then carried me through the grey and rainy, but mostly rather nicely designed Copenhagen.

The papers of the conference are currently available for download in: http://www.tii.se/reform/inthemaking/proceedings.htm.