Cultural Usability research project

University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH, Media Lab 2000-01

Cultural Usability is a preliminary research project funded in 2000-01 by the University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH and conducted at the Media Lab. The project develops critical approaches to new media design by creating exchanges between cultural studies, sociology of technology, design research and technology development. 'Cultural usability' is a working hypothesis for a design practice that takes into account the larger socio-cultural context of use, reaching beyond the functional interests of contemporary usability research and interface development.

In addition to work by the two researchers, the project involves seminars which aim at bringing a critical orientation to the study and practice of design. Among its results, the project proposes a framework of further research directions and collaboration.

Project researchers

Minna Tarkka’s professional activities include writing, production and education within media, art and design. As professor at the Media Lab, University of Art and design (1996-2000), she has been responsible for developing the department’s interdisciplinary MA in New Media programme. Currently she is involved in research concerning the discursive and rhetorical aspects of interactive design.

Heidi Tikka is a practicing media artist and researcher at UIAH Media Lab. Her work explores visual technologies and the subjectivities they constitute; the dislocations produced by her installations deconstruct spectatorship as a spatial and bodily experience. In the context of feminist analysis, she has inquired into spatialities, distance and representation. Currently she elaborates on the notion of affectivity in interface design and media art, approaching it as a series of boundary breakdowns in intersubjective as well as subject-object relationships.

Cultural Usability seminar

During Fall 2000, the researchers led a seminar for media design students. The work consisted of lectures and discussions as well as readings of key texts in critical theories of technology, cultural studies and social study of technology. The student participants brought these approaches to bear on design practice, in case studies dealing with interface design and classification, software design approaches, collaborative environments, virtual communities, and the design of mobile and augmented spaces.

Online publication and public seminar

The project will disseminate its results in an online publication, which will contain articles, case studies and demonstrations of critical design practice and theory. To initiate an exchange of ideas with the wider research and design community, the project organizes a one-day seminar at the university’s Lume centre in late Spring 2001. See the seminar’s preliminary programme here.

Contacts

Information on Media Lab / UIAH:

Founded in 1871, the University of Art and Design Helsinki UIAH is among the largest art and design universities in Europe, with 11 departments and degrees offered in BA, MA and Doctor of Arts. The Media Lab, founded in 1993, has rapidly grown into an interdisciplinary, research-driven community, with over 100 MA and doctoral students and several research projects in digital media.