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CONTENTSintroduction 4

1 the ubicomp evolution 7 2 ubiquitous humanity 32

3 ubicomp resources for the present 59 Light Through Culture experience

3.1PROXIMATE ALTERNATIVES FOR THE FUTURE 623.2 ENGAGING EXPERIENCES INTO “ECOLOGIES OF TECHNOLOGIES” 653.3 PROACTIVE PEOPLE IN A SOCIAL, HUMAN “SPACE” 683.4 APPROACHES TO THE WINTER SCHOOL 723.5 HISTORICAL ARCHIVAL RESEARCH ON THE SANTA MARIA DELLA SCALA 803.6 LIGHT THROUGH CULTURE: THE WINTER SCHOOL 943.7 SOLVING SPACE COMPLEXITY 114

2.1 INTRODUCTION 32 2.2 SCENARIOS FOR AMBIENT INTELLI-GENCE IN 2010 352.3 THE FOUR SCENARIOS. CRITI-CAL FACTORS REVIEW 372.4 TOWARDS NEW DIRECTIONS 50

1.1 AN OVERVIEW 8 1.2 THE HERITAGE OF UBIQUITOUS COMPUTING

1.3 DESIGN CONTRIBUTION 101.4 TOWARD SOCIAL ASPECTS 131.5 UNDERSTANDING PHYSICAL COMPUTING 211.6 TODAY’S TREND 24

bibliography 123

conclusions 118

acknowledgements 128

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Experience of an interna-tional school of design, Light Through Culture...A critical discussion of the UbiComp landscape to Un-derstand ...how the Space we de-signed communicates its story and culture by its own

The thesis is based on the experi-ence of an international school of design, Light Through Culture. The school took place from the 26th of February to the 16th of March at the Complex Museum of Santa Maria della Scala, in Siena. The aim of the school was to give an innova-tive formative experience to Master students and to experiment new teaching methods in design. Twelve students have realized a path of interactive installations on the theme of the via Francigena, approaching the last innovative lighting technolo-gies and using light as tie among tradition, culture, technology and innovation.

introduction

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I will treat the Light Through Cul-ture as experience in the light of the evolution of the concept of Ubiquitous Computing.

The design school experience will be inserted within a critical discussion of the very UbiComp landscape to understand how the use of this theory could be discussed through the light and through culture perspective. The aim of my work is to understand how the space we designed communicates its story and culture by its own, thanks to a design of experience centred on users. Initially, I will retrace the growth of the Ubiquitous Computing until today. I will show how design and HCI (Hu-man Computer Interaction) have tainted the research in UbiComp and what the today’s trends in interactive environments are, focusing on contaminations in art and architecture. Subsequently, I will dedicate the second chapter to an analysis of some “Scenarios of Ambient Intelligence” promoted by the

ISTAG (Information Society Tech-nologies Advisory Group) of the European Commission. The aim is critically discussed within the techno-centric vision of the world promoted by these scenarios and comparing them with the recent theoretical positions in HCI’s research, centred on the promo-tion of human values to “being human” technology. This analysis will try to understand how the adoption of this last approach could rethink ISTAG’s scenarios. During the analysis I will intro-duce the experience of the design school explaining how the school is closer to the HCI’s vision. In the final part of my dissertation, I will deeper get into the experience of the design school within the cri-tique that some authors recently moved to the old vision of Ubiqui-tous Computing.

I will argue about the need of proposing a new constructive critique and a modern revision of the UbiComp theory, comparing the work of Paul Dourish about the importance of the concept of “space”, the design of a new

spatiality and an “UbiComp of the present” in design of UbiComp technologies; with the recent theories of Yvonne Rogers about mov-ing the research towards engaged UbiComp experi-ence. I will introduce some general examples to sup-port the theories.

Finally, I will describe step by step the Light Through Culture experience. First, I will report the historical archives research about the Santa Maria della Scala Mu-seum and places in which the school was settled. Then I will critically discuss the experience of the school to understand how the space communicates its story and culture by its own in the form of experience, adopting a responsible and balanced use of UbiComp technologies for promoting a vision centred on people human values.