NOTE: This is our old site, it is kept here only for archival purposes. To know more about arki visit this site: http://arki.mlog.taik.fi/

Joanna will be presenting work around Urban Mediator in one of the sessions of YTK JUHLASEMINAARIN (18.9. - 19.9). The complete program is here: http://www.tkk.fi/Yksikot/YTK/YTK40v_ohjelma.html ...more

A collection of some of my early papers and presentations is available as pdf files here: ...more

Its been a busy spring! Besides some new faces, here in arki we have been working hard to get ready a couple of things. ...more

After doing some spring cleaning I have made available online the results of ADIK project. Of Special interest is the final report that documents the exploratory activities, the workshops and the prototypes, point your browsers to here: http://arki.uiah.fi/adik/

Six principles for making new things by Paul Graham. I especially like, to cite:

"""I like to find (a) simple solutions (b) to overlooked problems (c) that actually need to be solved, and (d) deliver them as informally as possible, (e)starting with a very crude version 1, then (f) iterating rapidly. """

and

"""And launch as soon as you can, so you start learning from users what you should have been making."""

Seems consistent with what we do at ARKI.

Helsinki Living Lab -project is coordinated by Art and Design City Helsinki and Forum Virium Helsinki. The objectives of this project are to develop and produce the Living Lab concept in Arabianranta-Kumpula region, to make it available for companies to utilize in their own product development both as service providers and utilizers, to promote the development of research methods for universities and to promote Arabianranta-Kumpula region as one of the key areas in both Helsinki Living Lab and European Network of Living Labs. Nearly 20 actors representing companies, research units, developers and consultants are involved in the project. ...more

Following the agenda of the conference in Helsinki: The Good the Bad and the Irrelevant (organized by Media Lab Helsinki's Arki research group), this second conference aims at creating new knowledge about users’ creativity and facilitate their empowerment in a broadband information society. ...more

The Celtic project Encompas (Enabling Community Communications – Platforms and Applications) organizes a workshop “Connectivity at Home – User centric application design and deployment” on 6.9. 2006 from 9.00 – 18.00 in Lume Centre, University of Art and Design, Helsinki. ...more

The academic semester is over! Work contines in the research front.. but I leave you with a couple of images of Media lab demoday


ICING project test and show the Urban mediator embrio, which makes it possible to get/and add links and information about specific spots of Arabianranta.

ADIK project showed alpha version of DailyWorks; a framework to explore the limits and possibilities of digital tools that could assist communities and families in the management of everyday life activities.

And last but not least our brave MA students from Media and Design research focus area showed 6 amazing demos that explored social media through varios aspects. ...more

ARKI research group has had the pleasure to welcome Japanese researcher/designer Kazuha Kato as Visiting Researcher from December 2005 to March 2006. Kazuha was especially interested in widening her experience and understanding of co-design.

Kazuha presented us some of the work she had previously done as a designer at the Real World based Interaction Group - RWIG (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology - AIST). We also had the pleasure to meet two of her colleagues: Yasushi Maruyama, Ph.D and Yoshiyuki Nakamura, PhD.

Yoshiyuki Nakamura explaining CoBIT: small and inexpensive information terminals that can provide sound information to user with no plug-in power source.

"Implanting the chip was a relatively simple procedure but highly symbolic to Mr. Donelson, a 21-year-old computer networking student so enthralled with the link between technology and the body that he has tattoos of data-input jacks running down his spine. They are an allusion to an imagined future when people might be plugged directly into computers. His new chip, complete with a miniature antenna and enclosed in a glass ampoule no bigger than a piece of long-grain rice, has a small memory where he has stored the words "Embrace Technology."" ...more

This one day seminar of the EMUDE proyect will take place at University of Art and Design Helsinki on friday 10th of February. The topic is "Creative Communities and Innovation " social innovation as a driver for technological and system innovation

Speakers include John Tackara from Doors of perception, Ezio Manzini and Kari-Hans Kommonen from our research group

Registration and programme can be found here

Joanna's MA thesis, "Mediaattori - Urban Mediator: a hybrid infrastructure for neighborhoods", has won the City of Helsinki prize for best thesis whose subject is related to the city of Helsinki. (Helsingin kaupungin opinnäytepalkinto Helsinkiä käsittelevistä opinnäytetöistä) ...more

Last week Kari-Hans was visiting the Faculty of Art and Design of the UBA -Universidad de Buenos Aires in Argentina; as guest in their XX Jornadas de investigación de la UBA 2005 (Research days).

This visit was supported by the Finnish embassy in Buenos Aires; thanks to the Kind invitation of Profesor Beatiz Galan who is responsable for the Design Research area in the faculty of Arts and Design. Profesor Galan has a very nice repositore of design projects and cases of "Design with a social agenda"; that she has been working with her students in the past years since Argentinian economical crisis. The website of her course on theory and practice of design is very nice and offers a lot of resources for design research (in spanish only). ...more

During 2005 ARKI, as coordinator of the the Media and Design Research focus area (MDR) of the MA program in Media lab, is organizing several activites for the MA students:

- Innovating in the emerging rich media blogsphere -Workshop (Petri Kola)

- Video Reportage -Workshop (Taku Koskela)

- Study Project -Mediaspaces and Media@Home concepts and demos- (KHK; ABC; SM)

- Design Research Seminar (KHK; ABC; SM)

- Concept Design Surgery -Workshop (KL, ABC)

- Digital Design in Society - Lecture Series (KHK)

More info can be found from MDR focus area website and Media lab's course pages ...more

The Helsinki Institute of Science and Technology studies (Marja Vehviläinen) is organizing a PhD seminar on Agency in Technically Mediated Society, with the participation of Lucy Suchman among others. The first day is open to all interest parties. ...more