The OII programme brings together researchers interested in exploring socio-cultural, political, economic and technological impacts, constraints and affordances of the online life. Our lab members have been actively participating in the OII SDP since 2004 when current Director of the QUT Design Lab, Prof. Marcus Foth, was part of the second cohort. Other members who have experienced the benefits of the intense academic environment of the OII SDP include our current Director Dr. Jaz Choi who was selected to attend in 2007, as well as alumni Dr. Mark Bilandzic and Dr. Richard Medland in 2011, current members Glenda Caldwell and Fabius Steinberger in 2015, as well as Carlos Estrada in 2016.

We cannot wait to hear their ultimate adventure in the magical world of C.S. Lewis!

• When: Fri., 02/06/2017, 5:00 pm – Sun., 04/06/2017, 9:00 pm
• Where: Common Ground Queensland 15 Hope Street South Brisbane, QLD 4101

Homelessness hackathon will bring together designers, developers, entrepreneurs and community members to create innovative technologies to help address pressing social problems related to homelessness.

We are also directly involving those who are currently homeless and who have recently transitioned to more stable housing through a research and development project. See more information here: Re-thinking Homelessness & Co-creating Tomorrow (https://www.urbaninformatics.net/projects/dignityfirst/)

To Participate

You must register to participate. Current discount code for students: STUDENT

See more information here:
https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/homelessness-hackathon-2017-tickets-32224261634

• When: Mar 17 – 19, 2017
• Where: River City Labs, 2/282 Wickham St, Fortitude Valley QLD 4006, Australia

TechfugeesBNE will bring together designers, developers, entrepreneur,s and community members to create innovative technologies to help refugee settle into the Queensland community. Former refugees and asylum seekers who have already settled in Australia will also participate in the event, as well as leaders in related sectors who will mentor teams during the weekend.

About Techfugees

Moved by the plight of refugees in Europe, a number of technology industry people have formed a voluntary team to create the series of non-profit “Techfugees” conferences, hackathons, and work with a global network of collaborators.

Today there are now over 2,000 members of Techfugees, demonstrating a huge desire amongst the tech community to get involved with this issue.

Our events are entirely non-profit, designed to bring together tech engineers, entrepreneurs and startups together with NGOs and other agencies in order to address the crisis in ways where the technology world can bring its considerable firepower.

To Participate

You must register to participate. Registration is free!

See more information here: techfugeesbne2017.devpost.com

Register here: www.eventbrite.com.au/e/techfugeesbne-2017-tickets-29465679641

Like us on Facebook: @Techfugees Australia

Follow us on Twitter @TechFugeesBNE

The workshop offers students the opportunity to participate in social research and to better understand the role that such methods can play in urban design and community engagement. Exploring key elements of social life in Brisbane’s West End, students will learn how to integrate social research into the development of lighting design interventions.

The Social Lightscapes Workshop offers continuous, practical on-site engagement as well as lectures and teaching materials on social research. Hosted by Professor Margaret Petty along with Dr Don Slater from the LSE, Dr Joanne Entwistle from Kings College London, and Dr Elletra Bordonaro, founder of Light Follows Behaviour and lecturer at RISD, the workshop team brings together a unique breadth of expertise in light, urban space and material culture, lighting design, and social and community engagement.

The Configuring Light research group (http://www.configuringlight.org/) at the London School of Economics has developed the workshop series aimed at design and architecture students and professionals that fosters social research skills and awareness within lighting design and planning.

The workshops will guide participants through a practical approach to social research in design, exploring actual urban sites, in order to help designers develop a more structured understanding of the social spaces they intervene in through their design work.

There is no cost to participate in the workshop, but commitment to participation for the 4 days of the workshop is essential.

Please submit expressions of interest (CV and short statement of interest in participation) to margaret.petty AT qut.edu.au no later than 22 November.

URBAN INFORMATICS RESEARCH LAB

We are an internationally recognised research and development lab. As a key part of the QUT Design Lab, our vision is to go beyond disciplinary boundaries to generate and harness actionable knowledge focusing on urban contexts. As such, our team consists of researchers and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds across people, places, technologies: humanities and social sciences; design, planning, and architecture; human-computer interaction, information technology and computer science. We are always keen to connect with individuals and organisations who share the passion for transdisciplinary research and development to together create better urban futures. For more information, see www.urbaninformatics.net

PHD SCHOLARSHIPS @ QUT

QUT offers a limited number of scholarships to research students of exceptional research potential. To be eligible, you need to have a minimum first-class honours (H1) or equivalent and be undertaking a PhD, masters by research, or professional doctorate project that is closely aligned with our current key research areas. For more information about the current scholarship offerings at QUT, see www.qut.edu.au/research/scholarships-grants-and-funding/annual-scholarship-round  

In the Urban Informatics Lab, we are looking for curious and passionate people with excellent track records in academic research. We are currently seeking candidates interested in projects around:

• Co-creative urban futures
• Civic participation & hacking
• Social entrepreneurship & urban change
• Self care & mutual aid
• Community engagement & placemaking
• Enabling smart cities & smart citizens
• Participatory data visualisation
• Media architecture
• Playful cities
• [One blank slot: Do you have a radical idea you’d like to propose? Insert here]

Please note that more broadly, the QUT Design Lab has five priority research areas:

• Social Entrepreneurship
• Design, Health, and Wellbeing
• Design & Community
• Design and Sustainability
• Design, Culture, and Environment

INTERESTED? NEXT STEPS

1. Check if you are eligible and other requirements for application: www.qut.edu.au/research/scholarships-grants-and-funding/annual-scholarship-round  
2. Email Dr. Jaz Hee-jeong Choi (h.choi[at]qut.edu.au), Director of the Urban Informatics Lab with the following:
   • Your cv
   • A brief outline of your proposed project in the format outlined here
3. We will then review your submission and contact with you to further discuss the next steps.

1. SEMINAR: Multispecies Ethnography & More-Than-Human Design

Thursday, 28 July 2016, 5pm | Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point campus, B Block Room 122

Our impact on the earth has been so significant that scientists have proposed that our current geological era be renamed the Anthropocene, or Age of Humans. Regardless of whether or not the change is officially made, researchers across the social sciences and humanities are finding the concept a fruitful lens for “staying with the trouble of living and dying together” (Haraway 2010) in a wounded world. Despite, or perhaps because of, its problem-solving imperative, design has played a significant role in creating and maintaining many of the material and cultural problems associated with this new era. Even when product and object-centred design is replaced with people-centred and service design, human needs and desires are privileged above all else. But what if we refuse to uncouple nature and culture? What if we deny that human beings are exceptional? What if we stop speaking and listening only to ourselves? This presentation focuses on multispecies ethnography as a means to understand relations between humans and nonhumans, and question the potential of animism and vitalism to help us forge new relations. More-than-human design is then introduced as complementary ways of thinking, doing, and making that emphasise the practice of care and imagination—and challenge us to work with, not against, vulnerability, humility and interdependence.

Register online:
https://more-than-human-qutdesign.eventbrite.com.au

2. WORKSHOP: A Good Death? Storytelling Workshop 

Friday, 29 July 2016, 9am – 4pm |  Queensland University of Technology, Gardens Point campus, D Block, Room 214

This workshop is part of a larger ethnographic research project into the deaths of farm animals. It has two primary aims: 1) To gain a broader understanding of what people consider a ‘good death’ for farm animals; and 2) To develop and assess a set of creative storytelling methods. Participants will be introduced to concerns about farm animal death, and presented with a range of visual and material narrative techniques. A set of storytelling constraints and a set of related farm animal figurines will be provided, and participants will use their own phones/cameras to create a brief image-based narrative that communicates their perspective on what constitutes a ‘good death’. The final narratives will be shared with the group for discussion, and after the workshop, anonymised narratives will be posted on the More-Than-Human Lab website, each with an anonymous questionnaire. This workshop has been approved by the Victoria University of Wellington Human Ethics Committee. Participation is completely voluntary, and participants may withdraw themselves and their information from the study, without having to provide a reason, by the end of the workshop session. All consenting participants are required to sign forms.

Apply to participate online:
https://a-good-death-qutdesign.eventbrite.com.au

BIO 

Anne Galloway is Senior Lecturer, Culture + Context Design, at Victoria University of Wellington. Leading the More-Than-Human Lab, her research examines intersections of people, nonhuman animals and technologies, and explores creative methods for public engagement around related matters of concern. Anne also spends as much time as possible at her rural home, where she shepherds small flocks of rare-breed sheep and ducks. 

twitter: @annegalloway | web: morethanhumanlab.org

We have exclusive use of the Tiki Bar at Alfred & Constance in Fortitude Valley.

There will be 80s music. And cake! Not to be missed!

http://www.dis2016.org/program/social/

Driven by curiosity, initiative and interdisciplinary exchange, the Urban Informatics Research Lab at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) is a transdisciplinary cluster of people working on research and development at the intersection of people, places and technologies with a focus on urban contexts.

The lab was founded in 2006 by Prof. Marcus Foth. Since then we have rapidly evolved into an internationally recognised research and development lab. As a key part of the QUT School of Design, our vision is to go beyond disciplinary boundaries to generate and harness actionable knowledge focusing on urban contexts. Under the leadership of the current Director, Dr. Jaz Hee-jeogn Choi, our team consists of researchers and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds across people, places, technologies: humanities and social sciences; design, planning, and architecture; human-computer interaction, information technology and computer science. 

 What binds us all together is the shared focus on the nexus of all three areas. We came up with the following definition, which was published in the CSCW 2011 proceedings on page 1. The fact that the paper appears on page 1 is actually arbitrary, but we still like to point it out

Urban informatics is the study, design, and practice of urban experiences across different urban contexts that are created by new opportunities of real-time, ubiquitous technology and the augmentation that mediates the physical and digital layers of people networks and urban infrastructures.

(Foth, Choi, & Satchell, 2011)

A main driver of our work is the motivation to deliver not just rigorous research but also real world impact. We first started off with a study that significantly shaped the social sustainability strategies of the Kelvin Grove Urban Village, the Queensland Government’s flagship urban renewal project in inner-city Brisbane. The lab has also produced a number of technology innovations, such as:

• CityFlocks – an early mobile location-based recommender system;
• DispoMaps – an iPhone app to temporarily share a map with your location details with others and then dispose of it safely;
• FixVegas – a mobile app that lets you take a photo of city assets and street furniture that require repair and submit a maintenance request to the local council;
• CapitalMusic – a mobile app to visually share what music you are currently listening to with people in your vicinity, and;
• Discussions in Space – a hybrid mobile phone and public screen application that allows passersby to contribute content via SMS or tweets.

Please join us and celebrate our 10th birthday. Cake, dancing, and great company. Who could resist this?!

The OII programme brings together researchers interested in exploring socio-cultural, political, economic and technological impacts, constraints and affordances of the online life. Urban Informatics Research (UIR) Lab members have been actively participating in the OII SDP since 2004 when current Director of the QUT Design Lab, Prof. Marcus Foth, was part of the second cohort. Other members who have experienced the benefits of the intense academic environment of the OII SDP include current UIR Lab Director Dr. Jaz Choi who was selected to attend in 2007, UIR Lab alumni Dr. Mark Bilandzic and Dr. Richard Medland in 2011, and UIR Lab Ph.D candidates Glenda Caldwell and Fabius Steinberger in 2015.
In this academically nurturing atmosphere, Carlos will have the opportunity to share his research experience on the role of internet platforms for underrepresented citizens to actively engage with reflections on the future of urban space with colleagues and experts around the world.