Speaker Biography and Abstract...

Steve Benford is the Professor of Collaborative Computing, a founder of the Mixed Reality Laboratory, and also a founder of the Horizon Centre for Digital Economy Research at the University of Nottingham. His research explores the creation of new interactive technologies to support future cultural and creative experiences, with a particular emphasis on mixed reality and ubiquitous computing. He was an investigator on EPSRC’s Equator project between 2000 and 2007 and is currently Directing Nottingham’s Doctoral Training Centre in Ubiquitous Computing for the Digital Economy. His artistic collaborations have led to the award of the 2003 Prix Ars Electronica for Interactive Art, the Nokia 2007 Mindtrek award for innovative applications of ubiquitous computing and four BAFTA nominations, while his academic publications have received best paper awards at CHI 2005 and CHI 2009.

Trajectories Through Learning Experiences

Steve Benford, University of Nottingham

For over a decade now I have been working with artists to create, tour, and study a series of mixed reality performances that illustrate various ways in which digital media can be combined with the everyday world around us.  Illustrated by examples of these works, my talk will explore how mixed reality experiences that integrate multiple spaces, timescales, roles and interfaces into complex hybrid structures can be described, and ultimately designed, in terms of different kinds of trajectory that weave together to create the overall social fabric of an experience. This theory of trajectories allows for a holistic perspective on the design of mixed reality experiences, including new learning experiences.

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