Ensad lab, digital mobile identities

I’m pleased to announce the opening of the ENSAD Lab program ‘Digital mobile identities’. And I’m delighted Etienne Mineur joins me to lead it. If you want to have great fun, join us!

The École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (National Decorative Arts School – ENSAD) has since the 2007-2008 school year engaged in setting up an upper level research cycle for creation and innovation.
It establishes a specific research and reflection unit within ENSAD (the ENSAD Lab) on programmes linked to the domains of creation, both identified and emerging, in relation to the social, economic, technological, political and cultural contexts of the contemporary world.
The research programmes bring together teachers and research students and are by nature open to collaborations and partnerships with other educational and research institutions as well as with professionals and industrialists in France and abroad.
For 2009-2010, 11 programmes are open covering five domains: design, graphic design and typography, interactive installations and real time images, real and virtual spaces and mobilities (see detailed list hereafter).
Research students are either ENSAD graduates, university graduates with five years of studies, or professional designer/creators with the equivalent of five years of experience in the elected domain.

IDN : Identité(s) numérique(s) mobile(s) (DMI : Digital Mobile Identities)
(New programme)
Challenges and opportunities related to the mutation of the digital social network towards mobility.

Content and objectives
Under the influence of converging technological evolutions (migration of the Internet towards mobility and high speed/permanent connections, the traceability of activities, new modalities/new channels of communication, organic flows, social ties, social localisation, social radar, tangible interfaces), digital mobile identity is seeing a profound and rapid mutation.
The tacit or explicit structure, the flows, the emerging patterns and representations that qualify this identity are still to be defined in order to address a more complex social dynamic and new typologies of usage that remain to be codified so as to make this new dynamic rich and desirable.

Research themes
– tacit, declared, aggregated identity(ies): definition and management;
– new modalities of communication (multi-layered, multi-modal, tangible, social circles, amorous strategy, plausible lies, visibility, traceability, social/proximity localisation, before/during/after mobility);
– new representations of information flows: notifications, flows, trace and memory, heritage.

Purpose
A suite of interactive prototypes (forms to be defined, telephone applications, communicating objects, video games, “intelligent” clothing…), publication and colloquium at the ENSAD.

Modalities
– Each research theme will be built and articulated around a ‘UCD’ (User Centred Design) model;
– This process will be built in an iterative fashion, structured around observation, analysis and modelisation, experimentation and prototyping;
– To favour teamwork, particular attention will be given to researching complementarities in the themes studied by the students.
Gateways
In order to reinforce a transversal vision and collaborative work, a link will be made with the other programmes of the school that deal with the challenges in communication and mobility, notably in the form of workshop sessions.
Length
Two years beginning in the 2009 school year.

ENSAD Professors
Remy Bourganel, Etienne Mineur.

Partners considered
Bell Labs, Orange Vallée, Nokia.
Number of student researchers
From 4 to 5.
Candidate profiles sought
Sociologists, interaction designers, and telecom engineers.
Request for further information on the programme content

For more detail
Ensad Lad
info-idn (at) ensad.fr