Objects, Practices, Experiences, Networks (OPENSiG)
The OPENSiG was originally launched in 2007 under the name ‘Emotion, Experience and Interaction’. A special strand at the DRS conference 2008 and two successful workshops at Sheffield Hallam University (2007) and Nottingham Trent University (2010) served to define the group’s interest in broad questions about human-object interactions – focusing on Objects and engaging with social Practices, which involve Experiences with/ of objects in Networks of relationship.
Comprising artists and designers and social scientists, the intention of OPENSiG is to facilitate engagement with recent work that has emerged in non-design disciplines over recent years, which is relevant to design and in which the term ‘design’ is used. To achieve this, the group’s activities will explicitly draw together work in Design Practice, HCI, Science and Technology Studies, Art Practice, work on Material Culture in Geography, Archaeology and Anthropology and Sociology, Art History, Design History and the Philosophy of Technology.
This multi-disciplinary mix will allow participants to engage with this variety of approaches to human-object relationships. The relationship between, for instance, analytical-philosophical and experiential modes of address, framed by an understanding of how objects and technologies play out in everyday life, has the potential to influence a wide range of design.
The intellectual interaction between the SiG and these disciplines will be reciprocal. A strong relationship exists between HCI and STS researchers, drawing in individuals who cross between art and design and sociology and adopt complementary approaches and methods. This allows DRS members to participate in the international debates that draw on these cross-disciplinary relationships.
OPENSiG activities will be announced here. If you would like to be part of OPENSiG, please contact:
Prof Tom Fisher
Nottingham Trent University
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