Design for Hackability

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Lalya GayeFuture Applications Lab, Viktoria
InstituteGöteborg, Sweden www.viktoria.se/lalya
Research Focus Ubicomp triggering new
aesthetic practices by enabling people to
transform their everyday life into a raw material
for creation and personal expression Design for
HackabilityUsing Ubicomp to enable everyday
resources available at hand to be repurposed for
participating in peoples aesthetic practicegtgtgt
Providing entry points to hacking everyday life
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Projects Context PhotographyMaria Håkansson,
Sara Ljungblad, Lalya Gaye (FAL, Viktoria
Institute)Panajotis Mihalatos (Art Technology
program, IT-University in Göteborg) www.viktoria.s
e/fal/projects/photo A context camera captures
the invisible context (e.g. noise level) of a
scene with sensors (e.g. mic) and translates it
visually into the resulting still picture, as you
are taking it
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Projects Context PhotographyMaria Håkansson,
Sara Ljungblad, Lalya Gaye (FAL, Viktoria
Institute)Panajotis Mihalatos (Art Technology
program, IT-University in Göteborg) www.viktoria.s
e/fal/projects/photo Adding a new dimension to
digital photography by providing more parameters
to play with than the ones characteristic of
analogue photography Parameters are available
resources originating from the photographers
immediate surroundings or from herself e.g. loud
noise or... scream! Elements of serendipity
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Projects Sonic City Lalya Gaye (FAL, Viktoria
Institute), Ramia Mazé (Play, Interactive
Institute),Daniel Skoglund (8Tunnel2), Margot
Jacobs (Play, Interactive Institute), Lars Erik
Holmquist (FAL, Viktoria Institute) www.viktoria.s
e/fal/projects/soniccity Walker creates a
real-time personal soundscape of electronic music
by walking through and interacting with urban
environments Technology Wearable using
sensor-based information to control real-time
processing of urban sounds and turn them into
music
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Projects Sonic City Lalya Gaye (FAL, Viktoria
Institute), Ramia Mazé (Play, Interactive
Institute),Daniel Skoglund (8Tunnel2), Margot
Jacobs (Play, Interactive Institute), Lars Erik
Holmquist (FAL, Viktoria Institute) www.viktoria.s
e/fal/projects/soniccity Everyday urban
environments turned into an interface for
creating live electronic music remixing urban
sounds Mobility as musical gesture - paths
become scores context gtgtgt musical structure -
music is articulated by ad hoc bodily
interactions Walker improvises to engage in duet
with everyday settings
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Projects Tejp Margot Jacobs (Play, Interactive
Institute) Lalya Gaye (FAL, Viktoria
Institute) www.playresearch.com/projects/pps/tejp
Low-tech experiments with means of creating
location-based personal layers in public space -
Audio tags audio traces whispered to by-passers
when leaning towards a wall space of intimacy in
public space - Glitch loud interference glitches
reveal hidden layer of mobile phone communication
in public space
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Projects Tejp Margot Jacobs (Play, Interactive
Institute) Lalya Gaye (FAL, Viktoria
Institute) www.playresearch.com/projects/pps/tejp
Towards more embodied interaction, away from PDA
screens gtgtgt more context-specific personal
expression Physical space mediates interaction
between users and information layers Parasiting
re-using elements of physical environments as
intrinsic part of functionality acting on the
fringe
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The Everyday as Hackable Creative
Resource Designing for HackabilityUsing
Ubicomp to enable everyday resources available at
hand (right away, in context) to be repurposed
for participating in peoples aesthetic
practice gtgtgt Providing entry points (technically
conceptually) to hacking everyday life
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• The Everyday as Hackable Creative Resource
• Designing for HackabilityProviding entry points
  by approaching everyday activities, artifacts
  environments as resources to
• samplehold e.g. I/O brush (Ryokai et al
  CHI2004)
• use as controllers/interface e.g. Sonic City
• parasite e.g. Tejp
• reveal e.g. Context Photography (at DIS2004!)
• amplify e.g. Activity Wallpaper (Skog at
  DIS2004!)
• modify ?

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• Opportunities Challenges
• As end-user, the hacker needs to improvise on the
  spot to overcome and exploit the immediacy,
  heterogeneity and sometimes unpredictability of
  everyday resources gtgtgt creatively dealing with
  constraints
• As designer, how do you take into consideration
  aspects of
• urgency
• contextuality
• heterogeneity
• effort
• personal meaning
• embodiment ?

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Thank you! Lalya Gayewww.viktoria.se/lalya
lalya_at_viktoria.se Future Applications Lab
Viktoria Institutewww.viktoria.se/fal