ENCORE events
All in twice: My experiences at Encore as a visiting researcher
Hello, I’m Pelin from Istanbul, Türkiye. I’m a doctoral student at Istanbul Technical University and just finished my research period at Aalto University, Department of Design as a visiting researcher. This is my second time coming to Aalto for research purposes and I feel extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to visit Finland twice, which allowed me to experience both Finland's summer and winter. I have experienced the brightness of the nights and the darkness of the days and witnessed very impressive views and cultural practices from the Helsinki area to Lapland.
But more importantly, I feel grateful that I was able to conduct my research under the guidance of the Encore research group, and I feel blessed that I was able to overcome the difficulties, darkness, and loneliness of the Finland experience with the friendliness of Encoreans. From dumpling night to New Year's party, from smoking sauna to diving in -20-degree water, I had very enjoyable activities, thanks to the Encore members. From the day I arrived until the day I left, I felt like a member of this group, not a visitor. The fact that the Encore research group combines international identities so much has been an instructive and easy-to-adapt process for me, one that can teach and experience new things every day.
I can say that being in such a professional, yet friendly working environment helped and inspired me in carrying out my PhD study. Happily, I was at Aalto at every stage of my thesis study, which focuses on design education. Being able to participate in design studios, conducting studies with the participation of design teachers, and receiving feedback from both my host Tuuli Mattelmäki and Encore members enabled me to learn novel things about this education model, which was different for me and improved my study a lot, as well as giving inspiration for new ones.
Just a week after my second research experience at Aalto, I am looking forward to my next visit. I am already missing the people and the warm atmosphere at Encore.
Pelin Efilti
January 2024
Doctoral Thesis
Panopticons of Convenience: The Internal Politics of the Smart Home
- Nils Ehrenberg
Venue: Undergraduate Center, Lecture Hall F304, Otakaari 1, Otaniemi
Date: 16.6.2023
Time: 12:00
This thesis explores digitalisation, smart home technologies and how they may affect the power structures of the home. It proposes to view smart homes as emerging panopticons of convenience, where surveillance is accepted in return for conveniences. Digitalisation and smart technologies rely on the continuous collection of data which are used to examine and judge the behaviour of the residents, making it possible to interpret smart technologies as Foucauldian disciplinary technologies. This understanding is explored through three case studies that examine how smart technologies affect autonomy, agency, and equality. The studies - presented in four publications - use primarily interview data and thematic analysis to investigate narratives of technology in the home. The first case study explores privately owned homes; the second - rental homes, and the third explores IT helpdesks as quasi-public services and the limits of support for those who are marginalised by the process of public digitalisation.
The thesis contributes to the discourse on smart home technologies through a Foucauldian understanding of smart home technologies as disciplinary technologies and conceptualising smart homes as panopticons of convenience, where convenience implies less or lighter housework.
Contact: Nils Ehrenberg
Tutorial on UCD Sprint: Inclusive Process for Concept Design
Tutorial at NordiCHI 2022 October 8-12, 2022, Aarhus, Denmark
Integrating User-Centred Design (UCD) methods into the first phases of software development projects has its challenges. An international team developed a new process called User-Centred Design Sprint (UCD Sprint for short) to support the project team during concept design. The team runs a tutorial at NordiCHI’22 conference to introduce the UCD Sprint process. Participants practice two less-known methods from the sprint: User Group Analysis and Setting User Experience Goals. By the end of the tutorial, participants know why, when, and how to use the UCD Sprint process. This tutorial appeals to researchers and developers working in the concept design phase of designing software products.
Contact: Virpi Roto
Uroboros Festival of eco-social art & design October 5-8th 2022, in Prague (CZ) and online.
This year, the festival follows the main theme Shedding the Skin and presentsa 4-day program of experimental sharing sessions, exhibitions, workshops, interspecies meditations, forest walks, social presencing, AI embroidering, theatre plays, camp fires and much more. The festival is organised in collaboration with the CreaTures (Creative Practices for Transformational Futures) project.
Full festival program & details: https://www.uroboros.design/
Contact: Dolejsova Marketa
Research Forum showcases projects by Aalto University research groups and one by a group of students. The aim of the event is to extend and connect the themes of the In Search of the Present exhibition at EMMA to ongoing research activities at Aalto University.
Contact: Teija Vainio and Severi Uusitalo
Workshop at CHI 2022
Automation has been permeating our everyday lives in various facets. Given both the ubiquity and, in many cases, the indispensability of ubiquitous automated systems, creating engaging experiences with them becomes increasingly relevant. This workshop provides a platform for researchers and practitioners working on (semi-)automated systems and their user experience and allows for cross-discipline networking and knowledge transfer. In a keynote talk, paper presentations, discussions, and hands-on sessions, the participants will explore and discuss user engagement with automation for operation, appropriation, and change.
Contact: Virpi Roto
Internal trainings for Aalto community
MIT's Otto Scharmer's lecture and a panel discussion on future working life and skills
What kind of skills are needed when working life requires more collaborative interaction and transformative learning?
The Capacity Building of Creative Radicals project experiments with new interaction methods that help building a more creative culture at Aalto. Based on Otto Scharmer's Theory U, the project aims to further radical changes, risk-taking and new thinking towards sustainable development.
The project will kick off with Scharmer's lecture that is open to all Aalto employees. During the spring of 2022, interested Aalto community members will have an opportunity to try out methods of transformative learning in two workshops.
Contact: Kirsi Hakio
Automation Experience at the Workplace
Workshop at CHI'21 - Online - May 7th 2021
Automation pervades manifold workplaces taking up an increasing part of human tasks and transforming work dramatically. It emerges in different appearances (e.g., from scripted tasks over digital agents to physical robots) with various scopes (e.g., office, production, maintenance).
This online workshop focuses on skilled workers and professionals who increasingly encounter new forms of automation in specialized and demanding work environments. Taking a human-centered perspective, opportunities and challenges for establishing effective forms of collaboration and for building up meaningful relationships with automated systems are explored.
Contact: Virpi Roto
NordiCHI’20 course on Service Design for User Experience Designers
Are you a UX expert needing Service Design skills? An educator teaching Service Design for HCI-oriented students?
In this course, you will learn essential logic, tools and methods of Service Design, which can bring a more holistic and systemic perspective to your UX and interaction design work. The course will walk you through how Service Design goes beyond mere designing of digital services but promotes a holistic perspective to developing human-centered and viable service journeys and systems.
More information at https://blogs.aalto.fi/chisdcourse/
Contact: Virpi Roto
Decoding The Smart City
Workshop at NordiCHI 2020, October 25-29, 2020, Tallinn, Estonia
Have you been using, researching, or developing assessment methods and tools for smart city projects and would like to learn more? Or are you someone who decides what assessment methods and tools are used and is wondering how they can be put to use in a smart city context? If so, this workshop is for you! We welcome submissions from practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and designers.
More information: https://blogs.aalto.fi/smartcity/
Contact: Teija Vainio
Exhibition
Miltiadis, Constantinos co-curated for the 2020 Ars Electronica Festival themed
"In Kepler's Garden" which form is of Mozilla Hubs virtual environments, and it includes 11 rooms by 21 artists:
Shammas, Demetris, Emiddio Vasquez, Myrto Aristidou, and Constantinos Miltiadis. WADS (↑ ← → ↓). September 2020. Mozilla Hubs virtual environments.
7 Experiences – Aalto Experience Summit to endorse Experience Research as a multidisciplinary research field
Human experiences are studied in many disciplines, but the related theories, methodologies, and concept definitions are not actively shared across the disciplinary borders. Our goal is to establish a more solid multidisciplinary foundation for experience research. How to characterize experiences, how to communicate them to others, how to understand others’ experiences, how to create new experiences? Methods and theories from different fields of sciences and art are needed in this enterprise.
7 Experiences Summit is a place for different disciplines to meet and share perspectives on experience research.
The summit will take place 1–2 September 2020 online, and at Aalto University, Finland.
Contact: Virpi Roto and Markus Ahola
Experimental Food Design for Sustainable Futures
2-day workshop, July 6-7 2020, ONLINE as part of the Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) conference
The two-day online workshop Experimental Food Design for Sustainable Futures experiments with food as bio-design material and socio-culturally potent, aesthetically rich starting point from which to critically reflect on social and ecological uncertainties. Participants will co-design scenarios and artifacts, engage in foraging walk-shops around their kitchens, and propose imaginative approaches to nurture sustainable transformations.
Contact: Markéta Dolejšová
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