Futuresonic

Futuresonic
Urban Festival of
Art, Music & Ideas
Manchester, UK

Creative Contribution

What was the significant innovation in approach or thinking behind the project/artwork? How can this be recognisably attributed to the involvement of creative practice?

The power-aware cord is an electrical power-strip in which the cord is designed to expose the electricity rather than hide it. The power-aware cord is designed to support awareness of energy consumption and promote more efficient use of energy. Electroluminescent wires molded into a transparent electrical cord produce patterns of glowing and pulsating colors to signify varying levels of energy being used.

The significant innovation in this project was to turn a mundane technological artifact into a site at which energy usage is translated into ambient light. Here, people are encouraged to reflect upon their energy usage. The designers of the power-aware cord argue that the use of light rather than numerical output is a more ‘natural and intuitive’ means of representing energy usage. In addition, the power-aware cord differs from other domestic energy display technologies in that individual electrical appliances are fore grounded rather than entire household energy usage.

Collaboration

What were the disciplinary contributors to the project? What model of research / development was followed? What were factors leading to success / problems?

The power-aware cord was designed and produced by two designers, Anton Gustafsson and Magnus Gyllenswärd. It is one outcome of the STATIC! research project funded by the Swedish Energy Agency (STEM). Here, two design studios, Power Studio and Design Göteborg collaborate with members of the Swedish Interactive Institute.

Those who participate and collaborate in the STATIC! project employ design led research techniques and interaction design to produce prototypes of energy aware consumer technologies. More specifically, the design research conducted by STATIC! members is user-centered people, families and communities that represent future users are involved during various stages of the design process. Design research techniques and methods include cultural probes and interviews. ‘STATIC! Probes’ consisted of disposable cameras and logbooks. Research participants were asked to document their domestic lives and return the probe materials by post.

Values

What were the outcomes of the project? How were these disseminated to outside stakeholders? What models of value are implied by this project? What was the Impact of the work?

The outcome of the STATIC! took various forms. First, there are the prototypes and visualizations of the artefacts. Second, the project team presented papers at relevant seminars and conferences, from HCI conferences such as ‘Technology as material in design’ at the IT University Göteborg to the ’Sustainable Design’ symposium Mälardalens Högskola, Eskilstuna : Third, STATIC! participated in the 2005 Swedish Design Year Exhibition commissioned by the Swedish Government. Finally, over twenty articles were produced, four masters thesis completed and two Ph.D. thesis written in relation to the project.

The STATIC! project promotes design led research, especially user-centered research, and the deployment of prototypes, scenarios and proposals to facilitate the discussion of design related issues around energy use ‘early in the product development process’.

In the paper ‘The Power-Aware Cord: Energy Awareness through Ambient Information Display’ Gustafsson and Gyllenswärd report that user feedback gained from interviews of research participants was positive with one research participant stating that she would use the device to teach her children about electricity.

Links and Resources

http://www.tii.se/static/poweraware.htm