Leonardo, Interdisciplinarity and the Future

Ann Light

Sheffield Hallam University

/ Queen Mary University of London

LeonardoNet aspired to develop a network of researchers at the intersection of human-computer interaction, the arts and humanities to explore theoretical and practical cross-fertilisation.

It was funded by the EPSRC under its Culture and Creativity Programme for two years. The final report is being written as I speak.

Having judged this form of radical interdisciplinarity to be potentially useful in designing technologically mediated interactions, we set out to exploit it by finding tools that could make it work.

In cyclical fashion, having created the means to engage in interdisciplinary discussion, our exchanges led us to identify the need for further radical interdisciplinarity.

As our tools, we produced artefacts to engage with and talk across.

• Workshops• Artworks

We held four workshops. Each was a starting point for engagement. Each stimulated thinking about collaboration and the shape of some future output.

In this order, we ran:• The Clustering gathering• An Ideas Bazaar• The Chindogu Scrapheap challenge• Critical Design makeovers

We sponsored artworks. Sharing out £10,000, we supported the initiation, development and exhibition of some eight collaborative works. Each was required to involve multiple disciplines and institutions in its genesis and deliver interactions.

The four I shall feature here are:• TIDES• Threshold• Weegie• The Literary Fridge

The themes that emerged from both the artworks and the research discussions:• Time • Space• Life• Culture

Time alone raises:• Duration• Interruptability• Granularity• Sustainability• Lifecycles• Cradle to cradle design•

The meaning of technology rests with people, not individual interactions with interfaces. The challenge will be to adopt a holistic view of the person as engagement with technology takes them through varied roles and identities, and to support them at the heart of a technologized environment:

ArchitectsChemistsEconomistsEnvironmentalistsPhilosophersPoets…

…Zoologists