A day off in the cyberpark – how the growing synergies between nature and technology will soon

affect our workplaces and leisure time

Sue Thomaswww.suethomas.net

@suethomas#technobiophilia

Seminar 11: ''Affective Digital Economy: Intimacy, Identity and Networked Realities''ESRC Seminar Series: Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights

Friday November 29 2013, University of Leicester

Do you use nature images as screensavers or wallpapers?

Images (c) Carolyn Black 2013

Metaphors of nature in cyberspace

Biophilia The innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes E.O.

Wilson 1984

TechnobiophiliaThe innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike

processes as they appear in technology

Voluntary Attention

• Voluntary attention is an ancient response to external alerts, fuelled by adrenalin and necessary for survival in a wild world.

• But such knee-jerk responses may not be useful in today’s world, so we need directed attention to inhibit them.

Image: San Hunter with bow and arrow By Charles Roffey

Involuntary (Directed) Attention

Without directed attention you may be rash, uncooperative and less competent.

But too much directed attention leads to Directed Attention Fatigue (DAF). Symptoms include aggression, intolerance, and insensitivity to social cues.

Attention Restoration Theory (ART)R&S Kaplan, The Experience of Nature, 1989

Nearby Nature Restorative Settings• Being away - setting is physically or

conceptually different from one’s usual environment

• Extent - a setting sufficiently rich and coherent that it engages the mind and promotes exploration

• Fascination (soft & hard) - content or mental processes that engage attention effortlessly & allow you to rest your mind.

• Compatibility - good fit between your inclinations and the kinds of activities supported by the setting.

How ART works in our connected livesBeing Away

physically or conceptually different from one’s usual environment

Extent sufficiently rich and coherent that it engages the mind and

promotes exploration

How ART works in our connected livesSoft Fascination

content or mental processes that engage attention effortlessly & allow you to rest your mind.

Compatibilitygood fit between your inclinations and the kinds of activities

supported by the setting.

Nearby Nature can be found...

• in the images and sounds with which you choose to personalize your technologies

• in the objects that remind you of the natural world such as plants, window views, beautiful craft objects

• in regular practices such as meditation, walking or gardening.

Biophilic Design “Connects buildings to the natural world, buildings

where people feel and perform better” (Kellert)

What you can do indoors

1. Pay attention to the view from your window

2. Use indoor plants to your advantage

3. Connect with animals4. Switch to biophilic

computer kit

What you can do outdoors

1. Go outside!2. Create an outdoor

office3. Grow things4. Use your smartphone

to enhance your outdoor experience via apps, GPS etc

What you can do online

1. Visit a virtual world2. Play a video game3. Add biophilic design to

your online spaces4. Practice connected

awareness e.g. Online meditation

Pause for thought• Biophilia is an ancient influence

in our lives which affects our interactions with the world, including technology.

• How can we build upon this insight?

• Can we harness and develop our technobiophilic instincts to address issues of attention, distraction, and isolation?

• What should we be doing to make our online lives integrated, healthy, and mindful?

http://vimeo.com/27874539

So how will the growing synergies between nature and technology affect our workplaces and leisure time?

http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/2011/02/24/digital-dualism-versus-augmented-reality/

Digital Dualism

Digital dualists believe that the digital world is “virtual” and the physical world “real.”

This is a fallacy. Instead, I want to argue that the digital and physical are increasingly meshed.

Nathan Jurgenson, Digital Dualism versus Augmented Reality, 2011

http://www.iftf.org/our-work/global-landscape/ten-year-forecast/2009-ten-year-forecast/#sthash.aN6G3qn9.dpuf

What will the future be like?• As physical and digital realities are

seamlessly integrated, cyberspace is not a place that people go; it’s a new layer in their reality. (IFTF 2009)

• Dynamic physical environments tailored to meet individual and community health and well-being needs.

• New tools to quantify the effects of social norms, platforms to broadcast this information

• Environments designed for ambient health and well-being.

• Higher empathy, connectedness and productivity

The Blue Gym

“A growing body of evidence suggests that time spent in or near natural water environments, such as the coast, rivers, lakes and inland waterways, can promote health and wellbeing.”

European Centre for Environment and Human Health, University of Exeter

http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/google-facebook-twitter-linkedin-perks-infographic/

Biophilic Workplaces 1

Workplace Perks Google London

Biophilic Workplaces 2

New Apple HQ New Twitter HQ

There is this longing.....Leisure and Health

Image by James Corner Field Operations and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, courtesy of the City of New York

The High Line, NYC

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/13/moscow-new-park-hotel-rossiya

Moscow gets a breath of fresh air

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/4162/a-garden-bridge-across-the-thames.html

Thomas Heatherwick’s proposed new bridge over The Thames

Escale Numérique (Digital Break)

Wifi outdoors

Bringing parks indoors - Arts in Hospital, Dorset County Hospital

Video Games & Virtual Worldse.g. Flower/Second Life/Walden/Skylander

New Nesta £1m fund

• Many of the UK's public parks face an uncertain future with a reduction of up to 60 per cent in public subsidy looming, putting their management and maintenance at risk.

• While public subsidy will remain a big part of the picture, new approaches to managing parks are needed.

• There are already examples of successful parks business models in the UK and internationally.

• These include new models of management, funding and organisation, often involving community, social and private enterprises.

• But more must be done. The most promising areas worthy of further exploration for ensuring public parks continue to thrive are: changes in park management and maintenance, new organisational structures, more diverse funding sources, and identifying new uses for parks.

COST Action

Fostering knowledge about the relationship between Information and Communication

Technologies and Public Spaces supported by strategies to improve their use and

attractiveness

Carlos Smaniotto Costa

is to create a research platform on the relationship between information and communication technologies (ICT) and the

production and use of public open spaces, and their relevance to sustainable urban development.

The impacts of this relationship will be explored from

social, ecological and urban design perspectives

Main objective

expertise tools

knowledge

Urban management and development 4

Landscape design and planning 5

Urban sociology, behaviour research and public health

4

Educational psychology/minority research 5

Communication 5

Creative and cultural industries 2

ICT developers 4

Urban gaming and participatory mobile artworks 4

Possible new partners …Unseen Pro Ltd (winner of grant "Technostart" by the Ministry of Economy)

BG

SMARTSY - a start-up company on ICT development FRAlcatel-Lucent (Bell Labs Research) - network providersNational Digital Research Centre, a consortium of commercialization projects, including app developers

IRL

Promotion of local tourism BE/PL

Past View - App developers for urban gaming ES…

Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e TecnologiasDepartment of Urban Planning Lisbon - Portugal

Participants' expertises & Networking

18 partners / 13 counties

Coordinate and enhance research efforts in how to deal with opportunities and/or risks of ICT usage in public spaces, and the meaning for design practice,

Enhance and test research methodologies into a new context, considering the social function of public spaces,

Establish links and promote collaboration among experts and expertise areas, e.g. ICT, creative industry, design practice, health consultancy.

Form self sustained empirical knowledge on use of ICT by place users, and via experimental research gaining empirical knowledge and synthesising the impacts of ICT on public spaces into a set of guidelines for city planners, urban developers, urban policies, regulatory and decision-making bodies.

Synchronise academic and industrial research that may result from the intersection of ICT and public space and their relevant users, (and therefore promote existing and establish new links with industrial partners in new commercial applications).

Goals

Working Groups

Digital methods

Urban ethnography

Conceptual reflectionCreating CyberPark

Networking & dissemination

A day off in the cyberpark?Technobiophilic Design will connect technology to the natural world to help people feel and perform better

Thank you

Sue Thomaswww.suethomas.net

@suethomas#technobiophilia