Margins and Migrants

Alan DixTalis and University of Birmingham

http://alandix.com/academic/talks/margins-and-migrants-2016/

Tiree

Tiree Tech Wave10–14 March 2016

University ofBirmingham

today I am not talking about …

• intelligent internet interfaces• visualisation and sampling• small device – large display interactions• fun and games, virtual crackers,

artistic performance, slow time• physicality and product design• creativity and Bad Ideas• modelling dream, regret,

the emergence of self

… or even lots of lights

http:/www.hcibook.com/alan/projects/firefly/

REF !!!

… and certainly not to mention …

Tiree Tech Wave

a hands-on making and meeting event exploring the edges of technology on the

wild edge of Scotland

About Tiree

poor mobilephonecoverage

750 residents20,000 summer visitors

680!

Tiree Tech Wave

for the participantsopen agenda in an open environmentdesign challenges at the margins

for the communityadditional visitors in low seasonIT essential for future of the islands

walking Wales

1058 miles (1700 km) around around the margins of Wales

Welsh Coast Path

opened May 2012linking existing pathsa single way marked routewith Offa’s Dyke encircles Walesthree full traversals in 2012 (one running)

vision

personalencircling, encompassing, pilgrimage, homecoming,

practicalIT for the walker & IT for local communities

philosophicalreflections on walking and space, locality and identity

researchpersonal agenda and living lab

no hard boundaries

research – practicepersonal – philosophical

19th century science or Mediaeval?

walking for war

Napoleon in Russia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_invasion_of_Russia

The Long March

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long_March

Roman Legions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_legion

walking as political activism

Salt March (India) Jarrow March (UK)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salt_March http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2257003/Last-Jarrow-Marchers-walked-300-miles-London-poverty-protest-dies-aged-96.html

walking as pilgrimage

Caminohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James

Char Dhamhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilgrimage

walking in the humanities

poetry & Romanticism(19th century)

psychogeographyall method?

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/b/british-watercolours-developing-landscape-subjects/ http://en.wikipedia.org/

wiki/Psychogeography

walking because you have to …

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Famine_(Ireland)#/media/File:Famine_memorial_dublin.jpg

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/06/10/eu-to-propose-migrant-plan-as-1000-migrants-arrive-in-greece-in-one-day/

community and locality

an interstitial community

caravan site (nearly) in centre of townbut behind, in the gapssemi-permanent residents

locality? parallel communities in same place

community and cohesion

abandonment and dissolution:Rhyl – dustbin of LiverpoolDee estuary – even the pubs closed

internal strengthPenmaenmawr – in the face of adversitycommunity enterprise: shops, pubs, arts

language and culture

intimately linkedeven for the non-Welsh speaker!

changed in my lifetimebut under threat again

technological implicationsnot just translations ... media choice etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capel_Celyn

mapsreclaiming the local map within technological space

mapping never easier ... so long as it is ‘standard’

“Post-Renaissance maps cover the surface of the world with an homogeneous Cartesian grip”

Barbara Bender

local maps – local concerns

IT at the margins

at the margins

social marginality:poor, old, rural

information marginality:poor connectivity, old

devices

IT deepens the divide... but can IT help in the

margins?

IT in the margins

lessons from each otherHarris Tweedhole in the wallsimple SMS

an old dream ... the electronic village shop

what now?

www.hole-in-the-wall.com

connectivity

I expected it to be bad ...

but it was worse

... not a recent issue ...

1994 maybe first

HCI & mobile

journal paper

always connected?

mobile signalabsent or weak

broadband ...not so broad

masts point to seanot land ...yachts = money

https://explore.ee.co.uk/coverage-checker

infrastructure or privilege?

what is the greatestBritish invention?

infrastructure or privilege?

19th century – Penny Postthe amazing inventionrevolutionised communication

Today – Internet50% of Welsh schools say

poor connectivity hampers education

http://www.victorianweb.org/history/pennypos.html