A day off in the cyberpark – how the growing synergies between nature and technology will soon affect our workplaces and leisure time Keynote presentation by Dr Sue Thomas, Visiting Fellow, The Media School, Bournemouth University www.suethomas.net Seminar 11: ''Affective Digital Economy: Intimacy, Identity and Networked Realities'' ESRC Seminar Series: Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights Friday November 29 2013, University of Leicester

1. A day off in the cyberpark – how
the growing synergies between
nature and technology will soon
affect our workplaces and
leisure time
Sue Thomas
www.suethomas.net
@suethomas
#technobiophilia
Seminar 11: ''Affective Digital Economy: Intimacy, Identity and Networked Realities''
ESRC Seminar Series: Digital Policy: Connectivity, Creativity and Rights
Friday November 29 2013, University of Leicester

2. Do you use nature images as
screensavers or wallpapers?

3. Metaphors of nature in cyberspace
Images (c) Carolyn Black 2013

4. Biophilia
The innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike
processes E.O. Wilson 1984

5. Technobiophilia
The innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike
processes as they appear in technology

6. Voluntary Attention
• Voluntary attention is an
ancient response to
external alerts, fuelled by
adrenalin and necessary
for survival in a wild
world.
• But such knee-jerk
responses may not be
useful in today’s world, so
we need directed
attention to inhibit them.
Image: San Hunter with bow and arrow
By Charles Roffey

7. Involuntary (Directed) Attention
Without directed attention
you may be
rash, uncooperative and
less competent.
But too much directed
attention leads to
Directed Attention
Fatigue (DAF). Symptoms
include
aggression, intolerance, a
nd insensitivity to social
cues.

8. Attention Restoration Theory (ART)
R&S Kaplan, The Experience of Nature, 1989
Nearby Nature
Restorative Settings
• Being away - setting is physically
or conceptually different from
one’s usual environment
• Extent - a setting sufficiently rich
and coherent that it engages the
mind and promotes exploration
• Fascination (soft & hard) content or mental processes that
engage attention effortlessly &
allow you to rest your mind.
• Compatibility - good fit between
your inclinations and the kinds of
activities supported by the
setting.

9. How ART works in our connected lives
Being Away
physically or conceptually different from one’s usual
environment
Extent
sufficiently rich and coherent that it engages the mind
and promotes exploration

10. How ART works in our connected lives
Soft Fascination
content or mental processes that engage attention
effortlessly & allow you to rest your mind.
Compatibility
good fit between your inclinations and the kinds of
activities supported by the setting.

11. Nearby Nature can be found...
• in the images and sounds
with which you choose to
personalize your
technologies
• in the objects that remind
you of the natural world
such as plants, window
views, beautiful craft
objects
• in regular practices such
as meditation, walking or
gardening.

12. Biophilic Design
“Connects buildings to the natural
world, buildings where people feel and perform
better” (Kellert)

13. What you can do indoors
1. Pay attention to the
view from your
window
2. Use indoor plants to
your advantage
3. Connect with animals
4. Switch to biophilic
computer kit

14. What you can do outdoors
1. Go outside!
2. Create an outdoor
office
3. Grow things
4. Use your smartphone
to enhance your
outdoor experience via
apps, GPS etc

15. What you can do online
1. Visit a virtual world
2. Play a video game
3. Add biophilic design to
your online spaces
4. Practice connected
awareness e.g. Online
meditation

16. Pause for thought
• Biophilia is an ancient
influence in our lives which
affects our interactions with
the world, including
technology.
• How can we build upon this
insight?
• Can we harness and develop
our technobiophilic instincts to
address issues of attention,
distraction, and isolation?
• What should we be doing to
make our online lives
integrated, healthy, and
mindful?

17. http://vimeo.com/27874539

18. So how will the growing synergies
between nature and technology affect
our workplaces and leisure time?

19. Digital Dualism
Digital dualists believe that
the digital world is “virtual”
and the physical world
“real.”
This is a fallacy. Instead, I
want to argue that the
digital and physical are
increasingly meshed.
Nathan Jurgenson, Digital Dualism versus
Augmented Reality, 2011
http://thesocietypages.org/cyborgology/20
11/02/24/digital-dualism-versusaugmented-reality/

20. What will the future be like?
• As physical and digital realities
are seamlessly
integrated, cyberspace is not a
place that people go; it’s a new
layer in their reality. (IFTF 2009)
• Dynamic physical environments
tailored to meet individual and
community health and well-being
needs.
• New tools to quantify the effects
of social norms, platforms to
broadcast this information
• Environments designed for
ambient health and well-being.
• Higher empathy, connectedness
and productivity
http://www.iftf.org/our-work/globallandscape/ten-year-forecast/2009-tenyear-forecast/#sthash.aN6G3qn9.dpuf

21. The Blue Gym
“A growing body of evidence
suggests that time spent
in or near natural water
environments, such as the
coast, rivers, lakes and
inland waterways, can
promote health and
wellbeing.”
European Centre for
Environment and Human
Health, University of
Exeter

22. Biophilic Workplaces 1
Workplace Perks
Google London
http://mashable.com/2011/10/17/googlefacebook-twitter-linkedin-perksinfographic/

23. Biophilic Workplaces 2
New Apple HQ
New Twitter HQ

24. There is this longing.....
Leisure and Health

25. The High Line, NYC
Image by James Corner Field Operations
and Diller Scofidio + Renfro, courtesy of the
City of New York

26. Moscow gets a breath of fresh air
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/
nov/13/moscow-new-park-hotel-rossiya

27. Thomas Heatherwick’s proposed new
bridge over The Thames
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/
4162/a-garden-bridge-across-thethames.html

28. Escale Numérique (Digital Break)

29. Wifi outdoors

30. Bringing parks indoors - Arts in
Hospital, Dorset County Hospital

31. Video Games & Virtual Worlds
e.g. Flower/Second Life/Walden/Skylander

32. New Nesta £1m fund
•
•
•
•
•
Many of the UK's public parks face an uncertain
future with a reduction of up to 60 per cent in
public subsidy looming, putting their
management and maintenance at risk.
While public subsidy will remain a big part of
the picture, new approaches to managing parks
are needed.
There are already examples of successful parks
business models in the UK and internationally.
These include new models of
management, funding and organisation, often
involving community, social and private
enterprises.
But more must be done. The most promising
areas worthy of further exploration for ensuring
public parks continue to thrive are: changes in
park management and maintenance, new
organisational structures, more diverse funding
sources, and identifying new uses for parks.

33. COST Action
Fostering knowledge about the relationship
between Information and Communication
Technologies and Public Spaces supported by
strategies to improve their use and
attractiveness
Carlos Smaniotto Costa

34. Main objective
is to create a research platform on the relationship
between information and communication technologies (ICT) and the
production and use of public open spaces, and their relevance to
sustainable urban development.
The impacts of this relationship will be explored from
social, ecological and urban design perspectives
expertise
tools
knowledge

35. Participants' expertises & Networking
4
Landscape design and planning
5
Urban sociology, behaviour research and public
health
4
Educational psychology/minority research
5
Communication
5
Creative and cultural industries
2
ICT developers
4
Urban gaming and participatory mobile artworks
18 partners / 13 counties
Urban management and development
4
Possible new partners …
Unseen Pro Ltd (winner of grant "Technostart" by the
Ministry of Economy)
SMARTSY - a start-up company on ICT development
Universidade Lusófona
de Humanidades e Tecnologias
Department of Urban Planning
Lisbon - Portugal
BG
FR
Alcatel-Lucent (Bell Labs Research)-network providers
National Digital Research Centre, a consortium of
commercialization projects, including app developers
IRL
Promotion of local tourism
Past View - App developers for urban gaming
…
BE/PL
ES

36. Goals
Coordinate and enhance research efforts in how to deal with
opportunities and/or risks of ICT usage in public spaces, and the
meaning for design practice,
Enhance and test research methodologies into a new context,
considering the social function of public spaces,
Establish links and promote collaboration among experts and
expertise areas, e.g. ICT, creative industry, design practice, health
consultancy.
Form self sustained empirical knowledge on use of ICT by place
users, and via experimental research gaining empirical knowledge and
synthesising the impacts of ICT on public spaces into a set of
guidelines for city planners, urban developers, urban policies,
regulatory and decision-making bodies.
Synchronise academic and industrial research that may result from
the intersection of ICT and public space and their relevant users, (and
therefore promote existing and establish new links with industrial
partners in new commercial applications).

37. Working Groups
Digital methods
Networking &
dissemination
Creating CyberPark
Urban ethnography
Conceptual reflection

38. A day off in the cyberpark?
Technobiophilic Design will connect technology to the
natural world to help people feel and perform better

39. Thank you
Sue Thomas
www.suethomas.net
@suethomas
#technobiophilia