Lecture at Aalto Media Factory http://mediafactory.aalto.fi/internet-of-things/ November 26th 2013

1. PRESENCE & PARTICIPATION
IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURES
Lorenzo Davoli

2. DESIGNERS ATTENTION IS SHIFTING
from:
New product and services
To:
Infrastructures and
their foundations
Societal needs
are changing
Infrastructures need
to serve
new functions
New Design
competencies, tools and
processes

3. 1 - PROLOGUE:
Example of IoT infrastructure development
2 - TRANSFORMING INFRASTRUCTURE
Enabling user led innovation and participation
3 - TRAJECTORY
Sketch of a possible methodology and process
4 - HACKING DELIVERY SERVICES
Ongoing work on logistic infrastructure

4. 1 - PROLOGUE:

5. SATIN PROJECT
www.satinportal.se

6. PROCESS
User Centered approach
Different interaction styles prototyped and
tested and evaluated with users
Low Fi - Hi fi prototypes testing to what extent
people could create functionalities with these
interfaces.
Agent “based” interface test - physical mockup
Results: people able to use the interface but
unable to make sense of and with it

7. RADICAL INNOVATIONS REQUIRE
NEW FOUNDATIONS:
Satin example of traditional top down infrastructure:
Technological driven, efficiency and usability
Influence on the Design Space:
The underlying infrastructures that generate it
Context provide meaningfulness:
Existing diverse, local,specific practices and needs
New work practices
from concrete to abstract to inform design of inf.

8. TRANSFORMING
INFRASTRUCTURES

9. INFRASTRUCTURES:
Infrastructures are socio-technical fabric of societies, they
co-evolve together: from modern states to global markets
Post industrial society developing new contextual sensitivity
and local flexibility needs.
New interactivity, change in location/activity relations,
increased awareness and consumers power.
Prevalent top down design approaches and standardization
criteria unable to meet these needs
Industrial systems Inherently slow to change

10. ALTERNATIVE FORM OF PRODUCTION AND
CONSUMPTION ARE EMERGING:
Sustainable & Collaborative Services
Small scale & distributed
Flexible manufacturing techniques / information
technology as enablers
Fulfill needs industrial system are not able to
satisfy
Foundations for a more responsive and
resilient infrastructure
Pictures:
Hiriko Car, source: www.hiriko.com / Very Good
& Proper, source: Domus Web “Generazione
D2C” / Azienda Agricola Lago Scuro source:
www.cascinalagoscuro.it / Smart Citizens
Barcelona, source: www.smartcitizen.me /
Distributed
systems

11. FROM:
DESIGN ALTERNATIVE PRODUCT AND SERVICES
TO:
HOW TO OVERCOME SCALABILITY AND DIFFUSION
CONSTRAINTS EXERTED BY THE INDUSTRIAL REGIME
THEY OPERATE WITHIN

12. STRATEGY: MAKING INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS RECEPTIVE
RECEPTIVE/SUPPORTIVE TO BOTTOM UP INNOVATION
Engineering Qualities:
Closed; Reliable; Generalized
Designed for Stability and Control;
Slow to Change
Top Down
New Feedback loops
What is a design practice that is not
top down or bottom up ?
Diverse; Distributed Socially Driven;
Local; Flexible; Small Scale;
Redundant..
Bottom Up

13. TRAJECTORY:

14. IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY:
FROM LITERATURE
Naturalization/ Exclusion:
G.Bowker & S.L. Star
Commoditization/Mean-end divide:
A.Borgmann
Figuration/Configuration:
L.Suchman
Transparency / Open Service Innovation:
H.Chesborough
Public/Habits:
J.Dewey
Black boxing/Unbundling
T.Hughes - B.Latour - D.Haraway
S.Graham & S.Marvin
& more...
}
INVISIBILITY OF
INFRASTRUCTURES

15. IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY :
DESIGN DISCIPLINE - FIELD
Co.Design
Pictures:
Green Button Etnography Source: http://blogs.parc.com/
Debtoscope project Source http://slightchanges.com

16. IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY :
DESIGN DISCIPLINE - FIELD
System Design For Sustainability - PSS
Picture Left : Cape Town Sustainable Mobility project; source Ceschin
2012 “The introduction and scaling up of sustainable PSS “

17. IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY :
DESIGN DISCIPLINE - FIELD
New infrastructure
Formal infrastructure
Participatory Sensing / Tracing Infrastructures
Pictures:
Le Montre Vert, Green watch-CIty Pulse project source http://www.fing.org/?La-Montre-verte-City-pulse-Green&lang=en/
MIT SenseablecIty Lab “Trash Track” Project source http://senseable.mit.edu/ /
MIT Senseablecity Lab, “Forage Tracking” project source http://senseable.mit.edu//
Informal Infrastructure

18. IDENTIFYING A TRAJECTORY :
DESIGN DISCIPLINE - FIELD
Surface
Re-Configurations
Niche Solutions
Formalization
Reveal bottom up services
to “formalize them”
- SDS/PSS
- Co.Design
Area of impact
regime / infrastructure
- SDS-PSS
- Co.Design
- P.Sensing
- SDS/PSS
- P.Sensing

19. METHODOLOGICAL GAP:
INFRASTRUCTURES AS CO.DESIGN MATERIAL
Current method act only on their surface
or fringes of existing regimes, limiting the
impact of their final designs.
Standards and protocols driving formal
institutions are often inaccessible to users
and designers and therefore impossible to readjust according to new needs.
User led innovation require a transparency
To open up infrastructures for re-interpretation and
design, certain interventions might be necessary
Will people come out with innovative/alternative
ways of using infrastructures if given this
material?

20. METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK:
3.
4.
CONFIGURATION
RE-CONFIGURATION
2.
FIGURATION
1.
- LOCAL PSS
PARTICIPATION
OPEN INNOVATION
IND. INFR.
- OPEN INNOVATION
TOOLKIT/PLATFORMS
- SHOW ROOM CASES
EXPERIMENTS
Revealing
Provides
material
to design
Tracing / Probing
Users tools to expand
understanding
of context, infrastructure
and its interpretations
Staging
Examples Analysis
Co.Design
Workshop and
prototyping
Reflection
and evaluation:
is people supported
using infrastructure
differently?

21. HACKING DELIVERY SERVICES

22. DELIVERY SYSTEMS
& POSTAL SERVICES
Freight Delivery is a wicked problem:
heterogeneity of actors/ needs lack of data
Postal Service as good example of Industrial
infrastructure and logistic service
Global efficiency local impacts and generalizations
Designed and operates in the same way in every city
Back end inaccessible from user prospective

23. METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK:
LOGISTIC AS AN EXAMPLE
1. REVEALING
Devices
Visualizations at
different scales
FIELD EXPLORATIONS
Interviews &
fieldwork practice
2. TRACING & PROBING
Field + Probes

24. 4 MAILS

25. 4 MAILS
HIGHWAY NODE
AIRPORT MAIN NODE

26. FROM A TO B
by Ruben Van Der Vleuten
http://www.rubenvandervleuten.com/

27. A metasearch engine to share paths and the
latent capacity of commercial vehicles?

28. REFLECTIONS ON THE TWO HACKS
Engaging explorations
Representation/Visualization are description and not
sufficient to prescribe action
Single interpretation of these representations not
enough > iterative design process + key stakeholders
Transparency of the formal infrastructure to be
re-purposed and re-interpreted
Hacking as co.Design: learning, skill development
and empowerment
Critical Practice

29. INTERVIEWS AND FIELD WITH
LOCAL DELIVERY SERVICES
Interviews manager drivers employees
of local branches of large delivery
companies
Follow delivery trucks and monitor their
their loads during the day
Observing protocols and technology
in use

30. EXAMPLE: EXPLORING P2P DELIVERIES

31. LOGISTIC FOR
FLODA31

32. LOGISTIC
FOR FLODA31
Small architecture firm
Small scale production
A lot of building activities on site
Current systems unable to serve their supply needs

34. SMS GATEWAY
GPS
+ GSM
Send data
Via GSM
Network
Backup
Real Time
Location
GPS tracker
DELIVERY
BOX
2200 mAh
6000 mAh
Battery
SERVER
Battery
Tilt Triggered
Camera
UI

36. User probes delivered / Infrastructure probe Shipped

37. RESULTS SO FAR....

38. INDUSTRIAL RATIONALITY?

39. INFRASTRUCTURES NATURALLY TEND TO EXLUDE ...
Closest node 40Km

40. PRESENCE & PARTICIPATION
IN THE TRANSFORMATION OF INDUSTRIAL INFRASTRUCTURES
Lorenzo Davoli