Examples of mediated spaces,
windows and walls

Our design-driven research is based on prototyping and user observations from a number of design contexts, such as:

• The mediated workplace for a therapist and her patients 2008.
  In designing the workplace for a mediated therapist, who would receive and treat twenty patients remotely, mutual gaze was regarded as a crucial factor. The brief involved a mediated consulting-room where patients were received in person on the first occasion and where they subsequently met the doctor remotely six times; as well as a mediated work space for the doctor. The length of each therapy session was approximately one hour. The mediated spaces enabled remote presence and supported professional assessment (e.g. therapeutic and medical), judgement and trust based on practical knowledge through mediated dialogic interaction. Project team: Charlie Gullström, Leif Handberg and Agneta Ekman, private consultant in psychiatry.
  
  The mediated therapist treated 20 patients remotely in the spring of 2008. The user study was carried out in collaboration with Dr Ekman, private consultant.
  
  
• Mediated social interaction between participants attending scientific conferences:
  
  
  Mediated mingling at eChallenges and Nordic Cultural Commons 2008.
  
  Two different scientific conferences took place simultaneously in Stockholm in October 2008; one at the Grand Hotel; one at KTH. In order to enable social interaction between participants who would attend either conference, the conference venues were mediated. The Grand Hotel conference eChallenges was held 22-24 October. This is an annual conference in the field of information and communication technology which assembled 500 participants including 270 presentations from 35 countries. A magnificent ballroom called Spegelsalen had been allocated for poster exhibitions, networking, coffee and lunch breaks. This was considered a suitable space for mediated mingling across time and space. The Nordic Creative Commons Conference at KTH 22-23 October included 45 researchers. The conference venue was Sydöstra Galleriet, a large space that allows for formal sessions as well as informal lunch and coffee breaks. The initiative to mediate the conference venues was taken by the research group and the idea was presented and approved by each organising committee. Project Team: Leif Handberg, Charlie Gullström, Alex Jonsson, Fredrik Hansen, Stefan Axelsson, Li Kolker, Kjell Eriksson.
  
  
• The Mediated Pub enabling remote presence from York at the Stockholm Resilience Conference, 2008.
  
  
  The Stockholm Resilience international scientific conference was the launch of a new research centre aiming to advance transdisciplinary research for governance of social-ecological systems with over 500 participants. One of the contributing research groups is the Stockholm Environmental Institute, with a branch in York, United Kingdom. Several researchers in York were unable to attend the conference and in order to make it possible for York researchers to socialise with conference participants and speakers, a mediated space for socialising and mingling was designed. The Mediated Pub extended the conference from Stockholm to York and supported informal conversation and mediated interaction across time and space. Project team: Charlie Gullström, Leif Handberg, Alex Jonsson, Fredrik Hansen, Howard Cambridge.
  
  
• The three-way meeting bar in the Stockholm archipelago 2001-04
  
  
  The mediated meeting bar was designed for the Remote Affinity Project, a research project aiming to create a mediated work environment between three call-centre workplaces for the Stockholm Police, located on different islands in the Swedish Archipelago. The project was initiated by a participatory design process that resulted in the designs for a meeting bar to support mediated social interaction. Project team: Sören Lenman, Charlie Gullström, Minna Räsänen, Björn Thuresson, Bo Westerlund, Mats Erixon, Anders Wiberg. The "Meeting Bar" in Sandhamn, designed for the Remote Affinity project. Left, researcher Minna Räsänen in conversation with call-centre employees (December 2004). Right, a photo-montage illustrates the intended larger displays which on this occasion were replaced by smaller displays due to budget limitations.
  
  
• The Point 25 concert and mediated performance space, year 2004.
  
  
  
  The Point 25 Real time mediated performance space between Stanford University, USA, and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, enabled professional musicians in two different locations to perform music together. This hybrid concert venue, shared between a Swedish and an American audience, triggered a reconsideration of the concept of architecture and of artistic performances as traditionally defined in time and space. Project team: Leif Handberg, Claus Knudsen, Alex Jonsson, Emil Jancovic, Erik Runeland and more