Staff Seminar Series - James Branch Seminar

In this talk James Branch, pathway leader for MA Communication Design, will discuss the practice-led research project he is currently working on as part of his studies for an MRes in Arts and Cultural Research at the University of Brighton.

This project asks the question, what is locative design? The context for the project is one in which mobile devices and ubiquitous computing proliferate and one's location data is often requested and utilised by online services. Timeto (2011) describes this as a transformation that “interests places and media at the same time…giving rise to media that become increasingly located and localities that are more and more mediated”. Media scholars and artists have engaged fruitfully with this transformation and the associated, wider issues of surveillance, privacy and power. Yet, despite the fact that many designers are currently working with locational information, there are few critical approaches to location and place aimed specifically at informing this emergent area of design practice.

This is very much a work in progress and James is keen to get feedback on the project so he will use the second half of the session to discuss the project with staff and students.