Mattias Jacobsson - Simply Research

This years CHI was my third in this series. And it was in my view the best one yet. It had all the elements that make a top-notch conference interesting: Esteemed seniors getting upset over their prodigy’s rather provocative way of conducting research, A paper on “if industrialism never happened” Steampunk awesomeness, my (and freshly escaped) supervisors book release party with a guy shoveling nails and what not up his nose, many colleagues presenting everything from Jacquard loom revisits to how playful people at Vanuatu were with their recent familiarization with the mobile phone, the look on people’s faces when discovering that the conference proceedings came on a DVD rather than a USB-key, Richard Shusterman’s neat introduction to the philosophy of Somaestethics, Stu Card’s reflections on the role of engineering in the field, Batya Friedman’s SIG-CHI Social impact talk where she explains how she dealt with her legacy crisis, the wonderful CHI’2012 Android app that made all the session planning manageable, hands on with digital artifacts - Interactivity Session in which I myself participated, and last but not least all the wonderful people that inspire me so much that I still manage to stay loyal to a research career. At least until next CHI.

At this years open house I showcased both the LIREC project as a whole and the latest progress in the ActDresses experiment. Had a very good chat with Mats Sommarström from Celective Source about possibilities in the leisure and ‘ubiquitous’ robotics area. Came to realize that grounded life essentials and nurturing without expectations would be an interesting path to explore. Today there will be writing, moving stuff, a meeting, and even more writing. The weather is lovely now!

We had a writers workshop today for the few of us submitting to NordiCHI this year. Got really good feedback but realized that there are so many question marks. Good and interesting data although the question is how to tackle it and weave it into the larger discussion in a super constructive way. Tomorrow and Friday will be work-marathons!

I’ll think twice before I say that something is super cool again. And Evernote’s speech-to-text functionality is just that - super cool!

Before I start reading Art as Experience, I would like to state a few things that puzzles me. For myself I would engage in artistic work for myself and not so much for others. In the creative process that is. Then of course letting others reflect on the pieces is always nice, but if I were to only please others I would get nowhere. This is a recent realization but for me personally an important one. In other words - I can only develop if I keep opening up and stay true to myself rather than please others. Art as experience to me is more about how I as an artistic me would experience the crafting process rather than being the exhibition attendee. Looking forward to this reading session!

Back from a few days of Snowboarding with the family. Next time I would like to test that internet of sports app that my colleagues are working on. Also talked to Jordi about equipping our boxing sack with accelerometer sensors. So after lunch I will interview our next Always On subject, looking forward to it :)

What else…  oh got a thesis project to finalize my thesis this fall from Kia. I will make it up to her somehow. It’s a promise! Will be awesome to finally pull myself through the scientific needle eye! First things first - three texts to write up.