The design studio as a centre of synthesis

Studio one: a meeting in a studio located in a London University Design Department. The ‘Interaction Design Studio’ (IDS) undertakes enquiries into human-computer interaction (HCI) and is recognised as a leading centre of ‘practice-based’ research. The meeting has been convened to resolve the specification of a five-core shielded cable, resembling a common telephone coil, that connects a microphone handset to the main enclosure of a sound-based and interactive research device called the ‘Babble’. The role of the handset is to allow users to contribute spoken messages to the sound output of the device — a talk-radio like internet appliance that vocalizes energy and environmental related online content drawn from a variety of sources, notably Twitter©. The intended users of the appliance are members of UK-based energy communities who are expected to assimilate the device into their everyday lives in the deployment phase of the research project. The aim of the deployment is to explore the issues at stake in energy demand reduction and how local communities enact low-carbon living and how these enactments can be communicated and potentially reconfigured.