Introducing Janis Lena Meissner (Master of Science and the Universe!)…

I had the pleasure of interviewing Janis today, and what a pleasure it was! Janis has previously studied at The Vienna University of Technology, with an academic background in media informatics. Janis’ initial foray into the world of HCI began during her BA, and was resurrected 5 years later on her MSc programme. Janis explained to me that she found it interesting to reflect upon the changes in the field of HCI over the last decade, and also the ways in which this is portrayed in the literature. Although Janis’ background has meant that she has been rather immersed in HCI literature for a while, she had not necessarily stepped back and questioned the field and its complexities until now. 

Janis is particularly motivated to find out more about research through design, which is a concept she explored during her MSc. Janis conducted a participatory design project with urban knitters which resulted in an augmented interactive yarnbombing installation. She sought to disentangle and pull out (pardon the knitting puns!) the background stories behind textile artefacts. She later referred to these as ‘embedded narratives’ which I felt was a particularly nice term.

Though Janis feels that research through design is an area of HCI that she is keen to explore further, she feels that the academic literature has focussed too much upon the theoretical aspects. Janis would prefer to see more concrete examples within the papers. Further to this, Janis mentioned the contentious definition of research through design as a concept and the fact that a lot of the literature struggles to ‘pin down’ what does and doesn’t count as it. This said, Janis has found Interactions Magazine useful and has identified some work that went some way to clarifying the concept.

Janis made reference to her interest in UbiComp and Tangible Computing and how she hopes to build on her MSc work and also take inspiration from existing work of other groups. We spoke about producing objects that could really tell the stories of and for individuals. Janis then interestingly flipped this ‘on its head’ and suggested placing an object in a public space for said individuals. I like this idea as it suggests an intersubjectivity in how people create and share narratives. From this, Janis suggested these public objects could be an opportunity for a celebration of otherness and difference.

The first paper I have identified for Janis is FishPong: Encouraging Human – to Human Interaction in Informal Social Environments, by Yoon et al. Fishpong consists of a coffee tabletop TUI to play a fish-themed video game using magnetically controlled coffee cups. The idea of the project was to encourage interactions between strangers in a public environment (the coffee house). This fits in quite nicely with Janis’ interests in tangibles, public spaces and the notion of fear often associated with chatting to strangers (which was something else Janis identified as a point of interest). I would also point Janis towards Hybrid Craft: Showcase of Physical and Digital Integration of Design and Craft Skills. This article discusses an exhibition which showcased 15 projects that demonstrated an integration of digital and traditional craft. I would suggest that Janis talks to Alla Myzeleve, an Art History Professor at Bloomsburg University. Alla has recently written a paper called ‘Creating Digital Materiality: Third-Wave Feminism, Public Art, and Yarn Bombing’ which I cannot seem to access anywhere but looks perfect for Janis!