Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Jewish Display Silver After The Age Of Exploration, Vivian Mann

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

Although there is literature on the impact of the discovery of the Americas on the European silver supply and the production works in silver, no one has examined its impact on the commissioning of silver by hevrot, particularly the Hevrah Kaddisha, both for their own use and as donations to the synagogue. This paper will examine in what ways Jewish patronage was similar to those of guilds and Christian confraternities and it what ways they differed.

This presentation is for the following object(s):

• Beaker of the Burial Society of Worms. Johann Conrad Weiss (active 1699-1751), Jewish Museum in New York, …

The Phoenix, The Exodus And The Temple, Limor Mintz-Manor

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

This presentation investigates the symbols of the Sephardic congregation in Amsterdam, mainly the Phoenix and the Pelican that symbolize the resurrection of Jesus in catholic Christianity, alongside the unique exegesis by several congregants of the Exodus narrative. The analysis of the symbols, images and the architecture of the congregation's synagogue, shows that they had played a major role in the construction of the "new" identity of the congregation. By utilizing them the congregation established the "resurrection" narrative of the Sephardic Jewry and its new beginning in Amsterdam. The rich cultural background of these symbols and images, both in the Iberian …

The Image Of The Jewish Wedding In The Works Of Eighteenth Century German Hebraists, Shalom Sabar

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

A relatively considerable number of images pertaining to the Jewish wedding survived from medieval to early modern Germany. These are to be found in Hebrew illuminated manuscripts, illustrated books of customs (Minhagim-Bücher), decorated Torah binders (Wimpeln), and selected wedding artifacts. However, the most captivating and curious visual evidence on the various stages and customs of the Jewish wedding in Germany is not found in Jewish sources but in the work of eighteenth century Christian Hebraists. Despite the clear anti-Semitic overtones in their work, the images inserted in their books provide rare and significant insights into Jewish practices, folk beliefs and …

Jewish Consumption And Material Culture In The Early Modern Period, Emw 2007

Early Modern Workshop: Resources in Jewish History

At the 2007 Early Modern Workshop, speakers discussed the representation of Jews and their way of life in art and the use of various types of images and objects by scholars trying to learn about Jewish rituals, customs, and culture: images from Christian sources (Shalom Sabar), beakers (Vivian Mann), cloth and textiles used to make parokhet (Rachel Greenblatt). Can symbols used in synagogues and books tell us much about the values of the Jewish community? What role did ideology play in public representations of the Jewish community (Limor Mintz-Manor)? Scholars discussed the usefulness and pitfalls of using inventory records, focusing …

Session 11 - “Dangerous Things”: A Symbolic Domain For Killer Bees, Daniel E. Lebas

International Symposium on Technology and Society

Viewing usage of words in culture as key symbols, Sherry B. Ortner's indicators were applied to an analysis of the lay-public’s use of "killer bee", "Africanized Honey Bee", and "honey bee". While conducting social impact study in southern Nevada, the author noticed that informants were not associating "killer bee" with "honey bee" imagery. Interviews were conducted with residents in the community of Boulder City, Nevada focusing upon symbolic linkage between the expressions: honey bee, killer bee and Africanized Honey Bee. It was determined that people do not link these expressions together in the same symbolic domain. Ethnohistory of the human/bee …

Session 2 - Societal-Consciousness In The Computing Curricula: A Time For Serious Introspection, Daniel Moix, Srini Ramaswamy

International Symposium on Technology and Society

This paper addresses the growing need for inculcating appropriate ethics within the computing curriculum by fostering the development of a societally-conscious ethical framework among our students to address the use of information technology vis-à-vis government, business and society. We propose a new integrated model based approach (IDEA) and suggest its adoption to encourage students on reflecting upon the social and ethical ramifications of technology, beyond the narrow, project focused tunnel vision that currently (subliminally) exists in many computing curricula, and in particular, in today’s profit-focused, consulting and contract-based software industry.

Session 1 - Cold War Technoscience In Nevada: The Nevada Test Site Oral History Project, Mary Palevsky

International Symposium on Technology and Society

During the Cold War, the United States conducted over 1000 nuclear weapons tests. Of those, 928 took place at the Nevada Test Site (NTS). One hundred tests were in the atmosphere and 921 underground at the 1375 square mile site located 65 north of Las Vegas. Nevada Test Site Oral History Project (NTSOHP) researchers have conducted over 300 hours of interviews with individuals affiliated with and impacted by the NTS, documenting the diversity of experience among many communities of voices including: weapons scientists, test site officials, laborers, contractors and support personnel, the military, American Indians, communities downwind of the NTS, …

Why Design:Labs?, Thomas Binder

Nordes Conference Series

For some years I have together with my colleagues used the design lab as a shorthand description of open collaborations between many stakeholders sharing a mutual interest in design research in a particular field. We see the design:lab as a suitable and coherent format for design research organized as a participatory inquiry. Initially we did not put too much thought into calling this format a laboratory, and many colleagues have reacted to the label as foreign and awkward to design. In this article I will develop what I see as useful in this label, namely the emphasis on a transparent, …

Investigation Into Company-Specific Design Structures To Raise Design Awareness, Manuela Lackus, Mario Kolar

Nordes Conference Series

This article focuses on design processes and the constituting structures within medium-sized and large scale companies. Intensive literature review, several cooperation projects and expert interviews revealed that there is a strong need for organisations to better understand the role of design for the success of development and production processes. Mentality differences as well as a missing knowledge in the field of design management competency could be identified as key factors for sustainable improvement.

Applying Probes As An Inspirational Research Tool For Fashion Design, Leena Lundgaard, Ulrik Martin Larsen

Nordes Conference Series

In general fashion design is a design fi eld where users are seldom directly involved in the design process. It is only when developing very specifi ctypes of garments like uniforms or high performance athletic wear, fashion designers will consult end users to gain knowledge about specific demands or specifications. In this article we will report from a project where we have developed and used probes as an integrated part of the design process.

Man Bites Dog: Two Paradoxes As Agents Of Knowledge: Artefact-Accident/ Hospitality-Hostility, Martin Avila

Nordes Conference Series

Design deals with the making of the artificial, and produces new knowledge by introducing new artefacts –that may or may not be physical threedimensional products. Further understanding of these man-made creations would provide us with insight into what is accessible (hospitable) to decipherment, that is, to the sharing of knowledge. Awareness of the paradoxical relations artefact-accident and hospitalityhostility can increase our insight into the articulations between artefacts, people’s individual representations and cultural laws. This would enable the further development of theoretical models for understanding complex situations for the refinement of design practices; a privileged dimension where much knowledge production remains …

New Representation Techniques For Designing In A Systemic Perspective, Nicola Morelli, Christian Tollestrup

Nordes Conference Series

Global production is challenging industrial production to generate solutions that adequate global production to a local systemic conditions. In some case the challenge consists in producing highly individualised and localised solutions, which require new forms of cooperation with local actors, including local service providers and final users. In some case the level of involvement requested to the new actors is high, they can therefore be considered as co-workers in the production of the final solution and the overall view of the production system should be extended to include them as co-producers.

The Social Dimension In Construction Of Designerly Knowing, Petra Falin

Nordes Conference Series

The reflection based on literature presented in this exploratory article aims at understanding the special characteristics of knowing involved in design practice and particularly the yet somewhat undefined social dimension in its construction. Interpretation of the nature of design practice suggests that although designerly knowing is often the kind of knowing inseparable from the knower, it is not developed in individual isolation but as a result from social actions and active processes expanding and transcending personal and organizational limits. The understanding gained through varied social practices is seen as the basis for growth of designerly knowing.

Storytelling And Repetitive Narratives For Design Empathy: Case Suomenlinna, Jonas Fritsch, Andrea Júdice, Katja Soini, Phillip Tretten

Nordes Conference Series

Today it is widely established in design research that empathy is an important part of creating a true understanding of user experience as a resource for design. A typical challenge is how to transmit the feeling of empathy acquired by user studies to designers who have not participated in the user study. In this article, we show how we attained an empathic understanding through storytelling and aroused empathy to others using repetitive narratives in an experimental presentation bringing forth factual, reflective and experiential aspects of the user information. Taking as a starting point our experiences with the design project Suomenlinna …

To Reflect On Interaction Form, In Practice, Hanna Landin

Nordes Conference Series

How to teach reflective skills within form in interaction design to students with a background mainly in computer science and only to a small degree in design? As part of ongoing work on answering that question one example of an exercise is presented and concluding remarks made.

Designing For Inquisitive Users: A Pragmatist Perspective On Users In Experience-Oriented Interaction Design., Peter Dalsgaard

Nordes Conference Series

This article presents a perspective on users of experience-oriented interactive systems based on a pragmatist foundation. The perspective is characterized by the interrelated aspects of experience, inquiry, and conflict. The consequences of this perspective for understanding users in the design of experienceoriented interactive systems are discussed on the basis of case-studies of two Nordic experienceoriented installations. The contribution of this article is a critical reconceptualization of users as inquisitive co-creators of interactive experiences, and reflections on consequential design implications.

Team Directed, Project Based Education: A Case Study Of An Entrepreneurial, Trans-Disciplinary, Design Studio Abroad, Helen Sanematsu

Nordes Conference Series

This is a report from the trenches. This article offers a critique of a pilot project undertaken by Art Center College of Design, in Pasadena, California. In the summer of 2005, I (along with 1 other Art Center instructor) accompanied 14 Art Center students to participate in a unique, trans-disciplinary, design and project based “start-up” studio in Copenhagen, Denmark. The 14 design students came from various fields (the trans-disciplinary part), who were challenged to produce a professional project (the design and project based part), with no pre-existing working structure (the start-up studio part). How did this project work? What was …

Designing Cultural Probes To Study ‘Invisible’ Communitie In Brazil, Andrea Júdice, Marcelo Júdice

Nordes Conference Series

The objectives of this article are to describe how and for what reasons probes can be applied for working with marginalised communities and to discuss the complexities involved in create probes for people with poor skills in reading and writing. People in these communities have a low level of education and a high level of health problems, live below the poverty line in slums, and are considered “invisible” by other, professedly “developed” communities. The applied Probe Packages were developed on the basis of information received from health area specialists and ethnographic data. We conclude that, despite the time consumed, the …

Interaction Design And Service Design: Expanding A Comparison Of Design Disciplines, Stefan Holmlid

Nordes Conference Series

While product design and interaction design are establishing themselves as ordinary practices, service design is still largely not well understood. Moreover, interactive artefacts are being introduced into service settings in a larger degree than before. We tend to rely on these artefacts as one, or sometimes the sole, possibility to do banking, to declare our taxes, etc. In this article we seek to identify common ground and differentiation in order to create supportive structures between interaction design and service design. The analysis relies on two frameworks, one provided by Buchanan, defining orders of design, and one provided by Edeholt and …

Mapping The Meaning Of Knowledge In Design Research, Kristina Niedderer

Nordes Conference Series

Knowledge plays a vital role in our life in that it reflects how we understand the world around us and thus determines how we act upon it. In this sense, knowledge is of particular importance for designers because they act to shape our world. Conventionally, knowledge creation has been assumed by (design) research. However developments of using practice within research have pointed to knowledge creation within and through practice. This has raised the question about the meaning, role and format of knowledge in both research and practice, and about the compatibility between both. In due course, the research presented in …

Framing Innovation In Co-Design Sessions With Everyday People., Salu Ylirisku, Kirsikka Vaajakallio, Jacob Buur

Nordes Conference Series

This article presents how the framing of co-design events in the emerging field of User-Driven Innovation can be facilitated to deliver relevant design results. The new challenges stemming from the open design briefs are discussed in the light of a concept design project with ageing workers.

Domestication As Design Intervention., Sara Routarinne

Nordes Conference Series

The article reports a study in which design prototypes where domesticated in different households in order to collect responses to them. These responses were then compared to the intentions that were articulated by the designers in a previous study, and embedded in the design of the design prototypes. The results indicate that some of the intentions were found whereas others were not. For example, the scenarios for use presented by the designers were not realized in actual use. Nevertheless, the more abstract intentions articulated for these prototypes were found. On the one hand, the results suggest that design prototypes act …

Inquiry Into Libraries: Design Approach To Children’S Interactive Library, Eva Eriksson, Peter Gall Krogh, Andreas Lykke-Olesen

Nordes Conference Series

This article reports on a design process of pervasive computing installations for a children’s interactive library. The design process involved a wide range of decisive parties of the domain and the process was designed so that the collectively developed design concepts could suit the needs and interests of the many parties. Narratives and sketches were used for inquiries and communication, and the concepts and their iterations illustrate the process ofdesign and how the physical qualities of the environment and the artefacts played a central role in the development of the concepts.

Personal Theory Towards A Model Of Knowledge Development For Design Practitioners, Grete Refsum

Nordes Conference Series

What does theory mean for design practitioners?

Ethical Implications Of Design Practices: The Case Of Industrially Manufactured Patient Clothing In Finland, Sonja Iltanen

Nordes Conference Series

In the following article, we describe the actors and practices influencing design of patient clothing in Finland. We also discuss the ethical dimensions and issues that can be identified in this process and in decisions concerning patient clothing. In our data, designing patient clothing is represented as a highly complex net of conflicting needs. According to our findings ethical issues in patient design were associated with ethical principles of efficiency, beneficence, privacy and autonomy.

Design Education: Student And Market Expectations, Eva Brandt

Nordes Conference Series

In resent years the two main design schools in Denmark (Danmarks Designskole1 and Designskolen Kolding2) undergo many changes. The overall goal for both is to obtain status as a university, and they will be evaluated in this regard in 2010. Transforming a vocational school with long handicraft traditions into a research based institution for higher education is demanding. Danmarks Designskole is in the middle of this process, many activities are initiated, both employees and students are involved, and from outside representatives from various design professions. The design process has many stakeholders with various interests and opinions. The aim it is …

Super Studio: Clarity And Ambiguity In Probes, Lisa Nugent, Sean Donahue, Ilpo Koskinen

Nordes Conference Series

This article describes how Super Studio, an annual design class given at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, has used cultural probes not only to bring clarity to the research object, but also to shape a pre-design research space through leveraging several types of ambiguity. The research model strengthens the analysis and interpretation of data from probes, while fostering design projects that reflect the daily realities (and the desires) of the population studied. Further, it provides a specific means for reconfiguring data as design interventions through the exhibition format. As the article's case study illustrates, the fluidity of …

Conducting Form: The Use Of Gestural Hand Movement As A Part Of The Digital Design Tool-Set., Tavs Jørgensen

Nordes Conference Series

This article describes a practice based research project undertaken at the Autonomatic Digital Research Cluster at University College Falmouth.

Evaluating Three Tools For User-Centered Materials Selection, Ilse Van Kesteren, Sjef De Bruijn, Pieter-Jan Stappers

Nordes Conference Series

Three tools were recently developed for assisting product designers and clients in discussing userinteraction aspects of materials for new products. After using the tools, product designers are expected to start a more effective materials search than without using the tools. The first tool defines the user-interaction via pictures of product examples and the materials these products are made of (pictures tool). The second tool focuses on the sensorial aspects of materials via tangible materials (samples tool) and the third tool focuses on the sensorial aspects of materials during several phases of the user-product interaction (questions tool). In this article we …

Participatory Design Of A Cross-Media Community For Societal Action: Lessons From Avatopia, Ylva Gislén, Jonas Löwgren, Ulf Myrestam

Nordes Conference Series

A cross-media platform was designed for a community of young teenagers oriented towards societal change, a task which motivated a deeply sociotechnical participatory design process. The final outcome involved an interactive web forum featuring creative and communicative collaborative tools in a 3D avatar environment, combined with a weekly show in national public-service television. An assessment of our work indicates that a participatory design process, where participants transition into the role of mentors and norm carriers upon deployment, can be a feasible way to support subcultural community building towards »difficult« topics, even though it entails considerable resource demands. This result is …