I am interested in exploring creativity and collaboration as fundamental forms of human interaction.
I argue that during creative moments in collaboration, participants become mutually engaged with each other at that moment the participants are highly focused and push at the boundaries of their shared understandings of experience and expectation. It is at these points that participants experience the positive feelings of creativity, conventions emerge, and ultimately social constructions develop which shape the way we perceive and act in the world.
Current approaches to understanding collaboration tend to focus on the tasks and artefacts involved. My research proposes that in order to understand qualitative aspects of collaborative activity we need to consider the mutual engagement evident in communication between participants. To this end I am developing a conceptual framework to characterise mutual engagement, provide a set of indicators of mutual engagement from analysis of verbal and non-verbal communication, and propose a set of interface design criteria for developing more support for mutual engagement. The utility of the framework is being exemplified through the analysis of the effect of technological mediation on remote group music improvisation in a range of settings.
I am the Principal Investigator on an 18 month, EPSRC funded project (£285k) with Oussama Metatla and Tony Stockman at QM, and the RNIB and BCAB. We will explore how we design support for collaboration where participants have differing access to modalities. Specifically, we will look at collaboration between visually impaired users and sighted users in the context of editing diagrams in the software engineering workplace. The deliverable for this project is an open-source software tool that enables collaborative diagram editing between visually impaired and sighted users.
The project draws on, and extends Oussama Metatla's research which demonstrates that auditory access to diagrams created in a collaborative context, in conjunction with shared auditory awareness mechanisms, supports participants in non-visual collaborative diagram editing and construction. The results of this project will broaden inclusion in the workplace and give the UK an advantage in the area of assistive technology.
I am working with Proboscis and Nottingham MRL on development of multi-person sonic expeditions exploring the imperceptible in the world around us. Our focus is on the creation of affective yet sonically salient interactive soundscapes.
Co-Investigator on the EPSRC funded Sustainable Software: Digital Music project. I focus on software for distributed music making systems (£1.1m; 2010 - 2014).
Co-Investigator on the RCUK Digital Economy Programme Centre for Doctoral Training in Media and Arts Technology at Queen Mary. I developed the learning pathways and a new module on interactive arts technologies, as well as being the supervisor for innovative arts/ technology internships (£5m; 2009 - 2014).
Co-Investigator on the EPSRC Platform grant Centre for Digital Music focussing on novels forms of human interaction with digital music. In addition, I have commissioned two innovative arts/ technology collaborative art works which have resulted in significant public impact, and have established collaborative research with the University of Nottingham MRL, and developed links between SMEs and QM (£1m; 2007 - 2012).
I was on the steering committee for the EPSRC funded Creator cluster asking "What key challenges face the creative industries due to the emergence of a new generation of social, pervasive and affective ICT?".
As part of the project I worked with Proboscis on a collaborative audio development of their Snout mobile sensing project.
I was PI on an EPSRC grant (First Grant Scheme) to investigate Engaging Collaborations (ref.: GR/S81414/01).
The aims of the project were two fold:
1) To investigate the nature of mutual engagement in creative
collaborations
2) To start to identify user interface features which have an effect on
mutual engagement.
The key research proposition of this project is that in collaboration there is a close relationship between features of support for communication and participants' mutual engagement. As such, we examine collaboration from a human interaction perspective rather than examining the individuals themselves (£108k; 2004 - 2006).
Principal Investigator on EPSRC Follow on Fund project. 9 month commercialisation project employing one research assistant to develop prototype software for group music making on mobile phones and to commercialise the work. (£33k; 2005 - 2006).
http://www.ist-savant.org/ - Synchronised and Scalable AV content Across NeTworks - European Project IST-2001-34814 (participant) 2002 - 2005
Founding member of Leonardo: Culture, Creativity and Interaction Design, an EPSRC funded network under the Culture and Creativity Programme.
Participant in the EPSRC Designing for 21st Century Design Cluster 'Understanding and Supporting Group Creativity within Design' whose primary aim is to exchange and stimulate new interdisciplinary research to generate a better understanding of group creativity and creative processes in design.
I had a post graduate student with a Chevening Technology Enterprise Scholarship (CTES) on behalf of the UK Government. This £5m project will initially see over 200 post doctoral researchers from outside of the EU, working on technology commercialisation projects within university departments around the country. In my case the student will be exploring the commercialisation of technology for remote group creativity.