Ep. 6 - Panel 1B - Part 2 - Mapping invisible cities - Phil J. Ryan (UCD)

NPPSH Conference

This paper explores the insights provided by the old media of novels, to informatic strategies implementable through AR technologies, using Invisible Cities (2010) by Italo Calvino. The social systems that must be traversed in basic everyday life can be labyrinthine and opaque to all but the most indoctrinated. The individual’s experience of the world is guided our by memories and communications with others. Society attempts to create collective actions strategies through which to communicate information, but all too often systems are set up for a normative level of intellect and ability. Managed subjectivity is a vital aspect of literature, as books act as partnerships between authors and readers. There are lessons to be learned from this developed medium which have huge value in guiding good design in new frontiers. Using Critical Disability Theory (Pothier and Devlin, 2006) and concepts such as emotional design (Norman, 2004), and civilising processes/habitus (Bourdieu, 1977; Elias, 2012) the paper argues for inclusive design approaches. The paper attempts to bring lessons from traditional mediums’ narratives to inform the design of informatic strategies for AR/VR/MR. Invisible Cities follows Kublai Khan and Marco Polo as they discuss 55 distinct cities all of which are Venice, all discovered through the consideration of different fundamental aspects of perceptions and human life. These all co-exist layered on top of and intertwined with each other. Every individual experiences the world through their own lens, influenced by their physical and emotional condition, and their context in the world. Phil J. Ryan is a PhD student in Inclusive Design & Creative Technology Innovation candidate based in SMARTlab, University College Dublin. He works on sociologically informed technological solutions to problems of population movement. He researches migration, bureaucracy, user experience, and inclusive design. His dissertation is titled ‘Bureaucracy Map: An inclusively designed dynamic informatics system for institutional navigation.’