Creative Science Foundation - CSf

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Jimmy2nd International Workshop for Science Fiction Prototyping
Creative Science 2011 (CS’11)
Nottingham – UK. 25th-26th of July 2011

 

 

Presentations: The CS’11 Proceedings were published by IOS Press as part of the Proceedings of the Intelligent Environments 2011 (IE’11) Workshops. It contains printed versions of the following:

  • Preface of the CS’11 Workshop proceedings
  • ‘Meet The CS’11 Authors
  • An Introduction to CS’11 & SF Prototyping‘ by Brian David Johnson (Director of Future Casting, Interactions and Experience Research, Intel Labs, INTEL Corp, USA). Brian’s talk was based on this CS10 paper.
  • KEYNOTE – What Happens Next? Science Communicators and the Future Tense, Sumit Paul-Choudury (Editor of NewScientist.com, London, UK) <abstract> <presentation>
  • INVITED TALK – Love and God and Robots, Brian David Johnson (Director of Future Casting, Interactions and Experience Research, Intel Labs, INTEL Corp, USA) <abstract> <SF-Prototype>
  • Interaction Space, Gary Graham (Leeds University Business School, UK) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • The Spiritual Machine, Hsuan-Yi WU (Digital Marketing Planner, Delta Electronics Inc, Taiwan), Vic Callaghan (School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Essex University, UK) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • Living the Past in the Future (Erkan Bostanci, Adrian Clark, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Essex University, UK) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • The Ministry of Interfaces, Yevgeniya Kovalchuk (School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, University of Essex, UK) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • Song of Iliad, Tiina KYMÄLÄINEN, (School of Art and Design, Aalto University, Aalto, Finland) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype> ***CFf Award for Best SFP***
  • The Lonely Companion Hazel Grain, (Independent Artist, Bristol, UK) <abstract> <SF-Prototype>
  • Meltdown, Neil McBride (Centre for Computing an Social responsibility, De Montfort University, UK) <abstract> <video presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • The End of Hearing, Marek Kultys (Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design, University of the Arts, London, UK) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>. There is also a short film which introduces and accompanies this project.
  • Nickelbricking, Toby Moores, Mike Atherton, (Sleepydog Limited, Media Production, Market Harborough, Leicestershire, UK) <abstract> <SF-Prototype>
  • Happy Eggs, Xinyi Jiang (Design Ethnographer, University of Dundee, Scotland) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • Internet of Mysterious Things, Paul McCullagh (Computer Science Research Institute, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • The Magician’s Assistant, Kevin Tassini (The Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, USA) <abstract> <SF-Prototype> <presentation> plus a <video> used to illustrate aspects of the talk.
  • Social Stomach Denisa Kera (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore) Marc Tuters (Humanities, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • Surprise Payload Rack: A User Scenario of a Conceptual Novelty Intervention System for Isolated Crews on Extended Space Exploration Missions, Regina Peldszus (Design Research Centre, Astronautics & Space Systems Group, Kingston University London, UK) <abstract> <SF-Prototype> <presentation>
  • Half a Century of Renovating, Markus Scholz, Yong Ding, Predrag Jakimovski And Hedda R. Schmidtke (TecO, Karlsruhe Institute Of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany) <abstract> <SF-Prototype> <presentation>
  • The Decadence of Mimetic Science: Against Nature 2.0. Derek HALES, (Architect, Art, Design and Architecture, University of Huddersfield, UK) <abstract> <SF-Prototype>
  • Schrödinger’s Notebook, Clarissa Ai Ling Lee (Literature Department, Duke University, USA) <abstract> <presentation> <SF-Prototype>
  • INVITED TALK – When authors and scientists collide. Rob Appleby (High Energy Particle Physics Group, University of Manchester, UK) <abstract> <presentation>
  • OPEN FORUM The ‘Forest of Stories’ – A Documentary Project, Christine Cynn (documentary filmmaker, London) <overview>
  • INVITED SESSION –  ‘Social Precognition’, Product Innovation and Technology Policy, Robert Dingwall (Dingwall Enterprises/Nottingham Trent University)) <abstract> <presentation>
  • COMPETITION DISCUSSION – Jimmy; Searching For Freewill , Simon Egerton (Monash University, Sunway Campus, Malaysia), Marc Davies (School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Essex University, UK) <abstract> <paper> <presentation>
  • Where Next ?- An Open Discussion chaired by Brian David Johnson (Director of Future Casting, Interactions and Experience Research, Intel Labs, INTEL Corp, USA)

Two short films were made at the event. The first was a short CSf/CS11 doccumentray, filmed  by Christine Cynn, the second, a set of interviews with CS11 participants that was recorded by an Intel film crew who followed Brian David Johnson around CS’2011.

Invited Talk 2 Presenter: Sumit Paul-Choudury (Editor of NewScientist.com)

Title: What happens next? Science communicators and the future tense

Brief Biography: Before becoming editor of newscientist.com, Sumit worked as a financial journalist for Risk magazine, the Economist Intelligence Unit and ERisk. His writing has appeared in publications ranging from the Daily Telegraph to Marvel Comics and the New Musical Express, and he has advised a wide variety of organisations on communications and online strategy. Sumit has a first class degree in physics from Imperial College London and a master’s degree in mathematics. He enjoys music, travel and ideas.

Talk: There are relatively few scientific or technology breakthroughs whose significance is immediately and widely apparent. Without context, most scientific or technological developments run the risk of seeming trivial or irrelevant in the eyes of the general public. Historical context helps explain the nature of a discovery or innovation; but explaining its significance frequently requires a degree of extrapolation, notably descriptions of potential consequences and ramifications.

Science communicators thus almost always need to include an element of forecasting in their presentations of research findings — typically based on researchers’ own thinking about where their work may lead. This talk will illustrate the various ways in which reporting is done in the future tense; present some examples of how it works (and where it fails); outline the constraints on this approach; and suggest some similarities with the SF prototyping process.

Awards

  • Intel Sponsored Registrations – We are greatly indebted to Intel who have made available a number of sponsored registrations (ie payment of registration fees) to be awarded to authors of Science Fiction Prototype (SFP) stories, that have achieved an “EXCELLENT” standard, as judged by the IE11 reviewing committee.
  • CSf Prize – A Samsung P1000 Galaxy Tab and a certificate will be awarded to the writer of the best Science Fiction Prototype, as judged by the reviewers.
  • Morgan & Claypool Prize – We are pleased to announced that Morgan & Claypool Publishers‘ will be giving the ten best Science Fiction Prototype (SFP) stories, as judged by the workshop attendees, a signed copy of Brian David Johnson’s book “Science Fiction prototyping: A Framework for Design“. Morgan & Claypool Publishers will be giving the ten best Science Fiction Prototype (SFP) stories, as judged by the workshop attendees, a signed copy of Brian David Johnson’s book “Science Fiction prototyping.

Workshop participants should use this form to submit assessments.

CS’11 Programme: The CS11 programme, with details and times of presentations, can be downloaded from here. The overall IE11 Workshop schedule is available here (the schedule for the combined conference and workshops is available here).

Workshop Organisers (alphabetical listing):

  • Victor Callaghan (University of Essex, UK)
  • Graham Clarke (Essex University, UK)
  • Simon Egerton (Monash University, Malaysia)
  • Sumi Helal (University of Florida, USA)
  • Brian David Johnson (Intel Labs, USA)
  • Kar-Seng LOKE (Jalan Lagoon Selatan, Malaysia)
  • Regina Peldszus (Kingston University, UK)
  • Anasol Pena-Rios (Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico)
  • Angelica Reyes (Technical University of Catalonia, Spain)
  • Data Tolentino-Canlas (University of the Philippines, Diliman)
  • Minjuan Wang (San-Diego State University, USA)
  • Chui Yin Wong (Multimedia University, Malaysia)
  • Hsuan-Yi Wu (Delta Electronics, Taiwan)
  • Xiaoxia Zheng (University of Essex, UK)

 

Details of CS2010 Organisation

Background and Goals: This workshop will explore the use of science fiction as a means to motivate and direct research into new technologies and consumer products. It does this by creating science fiction stories grounded in current science and engineering research that are written for the explicit purpose of acting as prototypes for people to explore a wide variety of futures. These ‘prototypes’ can be created by scientists and engineers to stretch their work or by, for example, writers, school children and members of the public to influence the work of researchers. The outcomes of these interactions are then be fed back, to shape the science research and outputs. In this way science fiction prototypes act as a way of involving the widest section of the population in determining the science research agenda, thereby making science investment, and science output more useful to everyone ranging from companies, through scientists and engineers to the public, consumers and the government that indirectly fund R&D. In this way fictional prototypes provide a powerful interdisciplinary tool to enhance the traditional practices of research, design and market research. The goals of the workshop are to act as a catalyst of this new approach by acting as a forum where researchers from differing disciplines (notably science fact and science fiction) can come together to explore how to develop this area.

Participation: You are cordially invited to participate to the workshop either as a presenter or as someone simply wishing to learn more about this topic and, perhaps, join the discussion as a member of the audience. Participation is possible either by attending the workshop in person or via (a limited number of) ‘virtual attendees’ submitting prerecorded video of their presentation which will be played at the workshop (with a Skype connection to facilitate ‘live questions and answers). For presenters (science researchers or writers) we are looking for short imaginative fictional stories (prototypes) of 10-12 pages (for full SFPs) or 4-6 pages (for short SFPs) and, for both cases, a presentation of 20 minutes based on recent scientific publications (fact or fiction), which would act as motivation (or discussion) or how science research might be directed.

The SciFi Prototype Structure: Your Science Fiction Prototypes should be 10-12 pages (for full SFPs) or 4-6 pages (for short SFPs). For full SFPs, they should start with an Introduction (half a page), continue with a 1-2 page section that discusses your published work and how it relates to your story (including references to your publications). Next should be a 9-10 page story that illustrates your vision of the future (and strectches your ideas beyond the ‘here & now’), Finally, the fictional stories (prototypes) should conclude with a short summary (half to one page, say) that provides an overall comment (reflection) on your effort to use your fictional prototype as a means to motivate future technology research or product design. References should be included at the end of the paper. For short SFPs, they would be pro-rata smaller mirrors of the above. All fictional stories (prototypes) accepted will be published by IOS Press. The format of the papers should adhere to the IOS Publication Guidelines.

Submission: Fictional stories (prototypes)be submitted via the CS’11 workshop submission system (Note: on your first use of the submission system, you will need to create an account by pressing the “sign up” button and the bottom right of the login window). Any pre-recorded videos should be submitted as part of the submission of ‘camera ready’ material in the final stages (after the review of your written SciFi Prototype).

Publication: All papers accepted in the workshop program will be published in printed form together with the other workshops of the IE’11 conference as a volume of the Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments Series (ISI indexed) of IOS Press and electronically available through ACM Digital Library.

Workshop Structure: The workshop will comprise a single day event and will include:

  • Presentations (papers) from science and engineering researchers on their own scientific papers/projects depicting how they foresee their research might impact future worlds.
  • Presentations from science fiction writers depicting aspects of their stories that they feel would be feasible and useful for scientists to try to implement.
  • A panel led discussion, with the audience.

The Venue: CS’11 will run in conjunction with IE’11 at Nottingham in the heart of England and a popular tourist destination attracting an estimated 1.3 million visitors annually. Many visitors are attracted by Nottingham’s nightlife, its history, the legend of Robin Hood, Sherwood Forest and popular history-based tourist attractions including Nottingham Castle. The workshop will take place in the Nottingham Conference Centre, Nottingham Trent University (Newton Building), Burton Street, Nottingham , NG1 4BU,UK.

Important dates:

  • Paper submission:28th March 2011
    (via the CS’11 paper story submission system)
  • Notification of acceptance: 25th April 2011
  • Paper final submission (with revisions): 9th May 2011
  • Early Bird Registration deadline (cheap rates): 18th May 2011

Workshop Fees:

  1. Before 18th May 2011
    1. Regular Participant or Presenter (all non-students) = £144
    2. Student Participant or Presenter = £120
  2. After 18th May 2011
    1. All categories = £180.00

Registration:

Sign-up using the Nottingham Trent University online registration system

Poster:

If you can help us publicize this workshop, please download and display the CS’11 Poster (designed by Xiaoxia Zheng – zhengxiaoxia@hotmail.com).

 

Other Information:

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