Ian and I are working on our thesis project together as a team. We're focusing on the process of academic inquiry as it relates to Ph.D. students in the Arts & Humanities. It's a tough problem to solve, but our solution should be interesting.
As we were brainstorming this weekend, we made some interesting connections. We already had realized that our thesis essays were related, but we hadn't really analyzed how. Not only did we find that connection, we also realized that our project relates to both of our essays.
Ian's essay is on Dynamic Commonalities--how artifacts exhibit life is the bare bones 'not-doing-it-justice' summary. As for the whole connection between our topics, I had an insight (or clarification) come to me later that evening. My insight is that products, for the most part, fail to follow through and exhibit our expectations of life. We are surrounded by, operate in, and exist as adaptive systems. Products are present in the world as static artifacts--once previously other materials shaped by the designer and adapted to another form to achieve a goal--but by the time they reach their intended audience, they are essentially dead. Those individuals with the means to do so engage with these products to bring them back to life. At first this activity is personal, but in many cases it advances in demand, seeking interactions with others--to share this life and perpetuate its growth. Is there a desire for all things around us to breathe life as we do? To possess the ability to change through our active engagement? To support our activity through social interaction?
Well, I'm off to finish up the latest draft of my essay. Wish me luck.
Comments
Yours and Ian's work really does sound fascinating. I wish I'd made it to your thesis talks. I guess they weren't recorded or anything right?
I second Dana's idea about holding a special SSS of some sort to get your work to a broader audience.
Yeah, I wish more HCI folks could have caught the presentations. I would love to have heard what they had to say. We;ll have to work something out to share our stuff with you guys (and your project stuff with us).