Research lockets

So, I'm back from CHI 2011 and an extended weekend in Vancouver. A very intense week divided between preparing and giving two presentations whilst also trying to attend panels and talks within the conference. The weekend before the main conference I attended the "HCI, Politics and the City" workshop. It was probably the most fun workshop I have ever attended, and I particularly enjoyed the effort made to get us HCI researchers out talking and working with activist groups around Vancouver. The group I was in went for a cycle ride around Vancouver whilst also getting to know members of the Velopalozza group. I think it was the perfect mixture of fun with work. We were tasked with exploring how technology might better help the group recruit people to both organise cycle rides, as well as participate in cycle rides. I'm not sure that we fully satisified the needs of our clients,  but nevertheless it was certainly a thought-provoking couple of days.

Today is my second day back at work, and I'm surprised that I'm not more jetlagged. This was the first time I have returned from North America and not had to sleep during the day after the flight, so maybe this is the secret to not feeling tired for weeks after travelling. I think today has been a good research day. I feel as though I'm making progress on the project, thinking through how we can work with family tree historians to understand their experiences of research. I've been in contact with a number of potential participants for the first round of work on the PATINA project and its been interesting just having quick chats with people about the sort of research that they're engaged in as well as how they came to be doing such work. I now have a couple of interviews set up and so will need to spend some time next week pinning down exactly how these initial meeting should progress. I want to try and use some of the techniques discussed in Sarah Pink's "Sensory Ethnography" and particularly think about how people can prepare for the interview in the same way that I am prepapring so as to make the interview more of a collaboration and conversation. 

I've also been playing around with the idea of a research locket, a probe-like object to support the exploration of the emotional labour of research. (Something that I've been exploring also through interviews with researchers.) I like the idea of someone wearing their research, or at least their feelings about the current state of their research. Now, on the one hand I could look to add some technology to a locket so that it can record audio which might represent someone's feelings about their work. But, maybe this is too complicated. Maybe the probe should be non-technological with individuals simply placing words or colours in the locket depending on their feelings? I'm not sure yet, but I've put a bid on a locket on ebay to have a play around with over the next couple of weeks. I wonder what I would put in a locket today to reflect my experience, I definitely feel that I am making progress on the project and I'm excited about being here in the Culture Lab, but I feel also a little torn between a number of different interesting possible research directions. I feel that I am in a struggle with myself to fully focus on one area of research. What I want to do is capture something of this experience but in a way that is tangible rather than written. 

Posted by on 20 May 2011
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