Wed 18 April 4pm Modelling with Metaphor and Transdisciplinary Research

Teatime session in the Transdisciplinary Common Room (TDC), Fletcher Quad. Join us at 4pm. There's always a pot of tea on the go.

Jackie Calderwood

A sociable, participatory introduction to Clean Language and Symbolic Modelling, with the invitation to explore our visions for a flourishing TDC. ‘Clean’ refers to the body of work initiated by counseling psychologist David Grove, and includes techniques utilising language, space and emergent knowledge. Taking a systemic approach, ‘Clean’ combines flexible, focused questions with client-generated metaphors which together facilitate self-modelling, information mining, change-work and rich communication.

Jackie Calderwood is in the third year of a practice-based PhD with the IOCT. Since encountering ‘Clean Language’ two years ago she has been learning, applying and interrogating the potential of ‘Clean’ as an arts methodology and research tool.

For (optional) background information have a look at these TedX talks:

Annette Crisp: Avatars in Teaching

 Avatars in teaching- the early experiences of a non technologist

Annette Crisp, Senior Lecturer in Policing, Psychology and Criminal Justice

Annette  explored both the possibilities and problems involved  in trying to bring together aspiration and actuality in developing  new  tools for teaching in an area where technology has not formerly been associated with success!

The use of avatar animation software with full lip synch capabilities was explored as a way of engaging students in crime scenarios and background theory. The session led to the formation of a constructed learning group to develop research under the aegis of the IOCT.

The presentation can be found here: http://www.slideshare.net/martinrieser1/avatars-in-teaching-the-early-experiences-of-autosavednew

TDC Update: Spring into Summer

Rosemarie Fitton and her students are redesigning the TDC

The Transdisciplinary Common Room (TDC) is a living experiment in finding ways to build transdisciplinary collaboration across faculties and with external partners.  Membership currently stands at 130 staff and postgrad students within DMU plus 9 Associate Members drawn from our partners the RSA and the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership. Our recent audit of transdisciplinary working attracted 115 respondents. We are currently evaluating that data and will report on it next semester.

Andrew Hugill The Ins and Outs of Transdisciplinary research

Andrew Hugill gave a concise and challenging talk on the origins of academic disciplines and applications of transdisciplinary research. He highlighted the mis-alignment of the current REF and university structures with those support structures necessary for the research team collaborations needed in facing the grand challenges of the 21st Century. Europe is further ahead on this and the expectation is generally that multi-disciplinary teams are the normal mode for large projects.

  Find the talk on Slideshare Here:
http://www.slideshare.net/martinrieser1

Tue 20 Mar 12pm The Ins and Outs of Transdisciplinary Research

Discussion of the various modes of interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, and their consequences for individuals, disciplines and universities.

Prof Andrew Hugill, Director IOCT

Wed 28 March 12pm 'Avatars' in teaching- the early experiences of a non technologist

Annette will explore both the possibilities and problems involved  in trying to bring together aspiration and actuality in developing  new  tools for teaching in an area where technology has not formerly been associated with success!

Annette Crisp, Senior Lecturer in Policing, Psychology and Criminal Justice

Wed 21 Mar 12pm CoLab: Bridging the Gap between Designers and Engineers in New Product,

This talk examines issues in multi-disciplinary design and proposes the use of CoLab to better inform choices for visual representation methods.

Eujin Pei

Fri 23 March 12pm ‘The strategic significance and dangers of computer technologies for the future of the species’ A provocation by Lord Frank Judd

The year is 4000 AD. An alien species arrives on earth. The advance guard starts to probe what confronts it. They establish that there has been an advanced form of life on the planet. The more they look the more the indications are that it reached amazingly high levels of technological achievement and communication. It seemed to have become mesmerized by the speed of communication and the accumulation of information but its ability to evaluate and digest the information had withered. It all evidently collapsed.

A Provocation by Lord Frank Judd

With Respondents
• Josie Fraser, ICT Strategy Lead (Childrens Capital) Leicester City Council
• Suhail Debar, formerly of Islamic Relief
• Dr Thilo Boeck, Centre for Social Action, HLS

Matthew Taylor at TDC

Pre-discussion

In full flow

Thu 15 March 12pm Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the RSA: Nudge & Aspiration

Arguably, society faces a growing gap between our aspirations and the trajectory on which we are currently set. We need tomorrow’s citizens in aggregate to be more engaged, more resourceful and more pro-social. Matthew will discuss how we can become the people we need to be to aspire to the future we say we want. In partnership with The RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce)

Wed 14 March 2pm Seminar: Two different cultures building stories together: Hollywood and transmedia storytelling

NOTE DIFFERENT TIME

Carolyn Handler Miller has decades of experience writing for both Hollywood and digital media. This talk discusses the love/hate relationship between traditional Hollywood and the digital media world, and examines the cultural misconceptions and difficulties that have to be overcome. She also draws on her own experience to describe the challenges (and unexpected pleasures) that traditional screenwriters face when they are first thrown into writing interactive digital media projects.

Tue 13 March 12pm The role of ebooks in the learning and teaching landscape

This session will start with viewing a presentation from Nicky Whitsed, Director of Library Services at the Open University on “The future is mobile: the role of ebooks in the learning and teaching landscape”, which includes an overview of the OU’s e-book platform and how the OU is delivering course materials via iTunes [video from E-books and E-content 2011]. I hope this will lead to a discussion of ways that e-books are already being used in learning and teaching, and future developments.

Alison McNab, Directorate of Library and Learning Services

Wed 7 March 12pm Storyworlds, Toby Moores

At Sleepydog we use Storyworlds to help us tackle complex problems. This talk will be a personal exploration of some of those Storyworlds:

• A future San Francisco to explore near-future tech and support a crime drama
• A transmedia music brand that works across TV, games, web and print
• A strategic planning model to support our business in a rapidly changing landscape.

This will be a loosely structured conversational session.
Toby Moores, Sleepydog

Tue 6 March 12pm Multi-media, Multi-modal and Multi-disciplinary research

I will briefly present some of my current research project that involves research in multi-disciplinary subjects. -VR Interactive Environments for the Blind -Sound of Proteins -Multimedia and Audiology Network -BlindSpot

Lorenzo Picinali, Faculty of Technology