New Semester
After the interlude between semesters, which was used to review the research plan to submit for scholarship applications, the classes of the second semester have started in the beginning of last month. There are two mandatory – Media Technology and Media Lab – and two elective courses enrolled in this semester, which considers a shift in focus and hosting from the theory of social sciences (lectured at FCSH/UNL) to the more practical aspects of design and technology (lectured between FCT/UNL and FE/UP).
Electives
For the electives, given the impossibility due to several distinct constraints to participate in the structured classes that were most fit to my research proposal (as Artificial Intelligence of FCT/UNL, and Interactive Narratives of FE/UP), it was decided to conduct independent work supervised by two distinct scholars – Cristina Ponte, also the main supervisor of my doctoral work, and Ana Figueiras, PhD instructor of iNova Media Lab focused on data visualisation.
With Cristina the goal will be to contribute to the digital platform CriA.On, intended to share knowledge to a non-technical readers about the risks, challenges and opportunities of children’s presence online, in both the production of content and the design of the interface. With Ana the focus will be in the development of the literature review for the Thesis Plan of my doctoral work.
Media Lab / Media Technology
The two mandatory classes are connected – Within Media Technology the students are challenged to identify, justify and and specify the requirements of a proposal for a multimedia system, while in Media Lab it is incited the prototyping of that same system. Worries arose about using this doctoral work’s product as the subject of this course, as an effort to bring a blank canvas to the co-design stage is being made. It was decided to focus on the prospection of the solutions for the communication and collaboration to be considered in the platform proposed, as this would always require my participation as a specialist in the co-design stage.
The first classes considered intensive courses on co-design methods and techniques, taught by professionals of the Fraunhoffer Portugal AICOS group. They included the topics of cultural and technological probes, the participatory design process and evaluation methods.
