The Faraway Project: Margot Jacobs, Laura Polazzi, Kristina Andersen |
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The Faraway Project is a research project initiated by Margot Jacobs, Laura Polazzi, Kristina Andersen of the Interactive Institute in Ivrea. It examines a question critical to the study of telepresence: How can communications tools be used to give a true sense of presence? Their research begins not with technology but an intensive study of emotion, communication, and traditional forms for conveying presence; the ultimate goal of this research is to develop interactive concepts and prototypes for games and other interactive media that create a sense not of physical presence so much as affective presence. LAUNCH PROJECT:  Margot Jacobs, Laura Polazzi, Kristina Andersen, The Faraway Project, 2003. . |
| Margot Jacobs Margot is an interaction design researcher exploring the playful, emotional and appropriate incorporation of technology in everyday life. Her current and upcoming work at the PLAY studio {Interactive Institute, Sweden} is within a new research platform called ‘Public Play Spaces’. Projects focus on wearables and textiles, public technology systems, and community expression, in particular: TEJP {a system for public communications and audio graffiti} and Underdogs & Superheroes {design methods for social interventions in urban space}. With a background in product design and new media installations, she received a {B.S} in Industrial Design from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a {MPS} from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP), New York University. Outreach activities include organizing local creative new media collective [fringe], lecturing, tutoring postgraduate students, and co-founding BIG LOVE, a gallery space for community expression. Laura Polazzi Laura Polazzi is a user experience designer. Her main focus is on understanding people’s behaviors, needs and desires and designing concepts for innovative applications. Her professional competences include creating user profiles (personas), conducting prototype evaluation, developing concepts and information architecture for websites and investigating new trends in the design domain. She studied communication and Human-computer interaction at the University of Siena (Italy) and ergonomics (MA) at the University of Liège (Belgium). She has been a researcher at the University of Liège (Belgium), and at Interaction Design Institute Ivrea (Italy), where she developed Faraway with Kristina Andersen and Margot Jacobs. She keeps collaborating with Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, where she is responsible for user research in several innovation projects, including Fluidtime, ViVi (in collaboration with Telecom Italia) and Multipla+ (in collaboration with FIAT). As a consultant she has worked for companies such as Ideo, Grey Interactive Italia, GPF and Motorola. Kristina Andersen Kristina Andersen works with interactions and concepts to create unusual objects, protocols and experiences using iterative processes informed by games and play. She holds an MA specialising in wearable computers, an M.Sc specialising in tangible objects in virtual spaces, and was a research fellow at the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea, where in collaboration with Margot Jacobs and Laura Polazzi she worked on the FARAWAY project. Other recent projects include whisper, in collaboration with Thecla Schiphorst and Suzan Kozel, where the emphasis lies on using physiological data as input for an audio-visual environment and responsive intelligent garments. She is currently artist in residence at STEIM (Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam working on 'ensemble', a set of sensor-based wearable musical controllers developed for musical experiences for children. She is mentor at DasArts (School for Advanced Research in Theatre and Dance) and honorary visiting design fellow at the University of York. www.lockergirl.com |
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