The Live Experience of Free Improvisation – Professor Chris Atton, School of Arts and Creative Industries
This presentation is concerned with the relationship between performers and audiences as a territory for behaviour. Normative practices of musical performance and audience behaviour are generally understood to be regulated within the social order of live performance situations. They also tend to be specific to particular genres. By contrast, and taking the live performance of freely improvised music as a case study, the presentation explores how interactions between performers and audiences may be considered not merely as predictable outcomes of a musical genre but as essential constituents of that genre. This is particularly relevant in the case of free improvisation, where music-making and reactions to it are less stable and more unpredictable than in other, more popular genres.
UrbanIxD: Human Interactions in the Hybrid City – Shenando Stals, School of Computing
This demonstration showcases a suite of Speculative Design Fictions consisting of two Black Mirror-style short films and a comic, which are based on research conducted in the field of Urban Interaction Design. This research investigates people’s emotional relationship with places in the city that are meaningful to them on a personal level (e.g. the pub where they met their partner or the dark alley where they got mugged), and explores how those person-place relationships could potentially inform the design of new technological devices and services for smart cities. The aim of these provocative conversation pieces is to speculate about what our life in a smart city of the (near) future might look like, and to engage citizens unfamiliar with the concept of smart cities in thought, reflection and discussion on the potential desirable and undesirable implications of smart city technology on our relationship with places in the urban environment.
Developing The Lions’ Gate Garden as a Locative Augmented Reality Game for Actions on Climate Change – Callum Egan, School of Computing
The Lions’ Gate is an in-development interactive permaculture gardens project based at Merchiston campus.
This visual representation details the concept of an Augmented Reality game-based application that will demonstrate the principles and ethics of permaculture, introduce users to plant-lore, and recipes and highlight actions to Climate Change based on a sister project the researcher has been working on – 52 Actions for Climate Change.
The concept is an instantiation of a Blended Space.
Digital Ethnofiction: A relationship orientated mode of enquiry with care experienced learners – John Morrison, School of Computing
The research focuses on themes of agency and representation in the context of university policy designed to support inclusion and achievement for care experienced learners. The following high-level design goals are explored through the prism of playful, fictional, participatory and emancipatory values, inspired by Jean Rouch’s lens-based ethnographic practice. A key aim is to approach the topic of care identity and access to tertiary education from new qualitative perspectives using digital media.
- What factors support care experienced learners in being authors of their own narrative and representation?
- What factors afford the research process to continue as an ongoing dialogue with stakeholders and wider audiences.
Buurtzorg in Scotland: A stakeholder analysis of the Forres (Varis Court) Health and Social Care Project – Professor Brian Howieson, and Dr Stacey Bushfield, The Business School
In November 2018 Health and Social Care Moray decided to decommission and close permanently Leanchoil (community) hospital. In anticipation the board had invested in alternative models of care prior to the closure. Drawing on the Buurtzoorg model, the Forres Health and Social Care project — located in the Hanover Housing Association development — offers an opportunity to redesign the social care services and test out a new model of in-patient care provision. This presentation discusses the findings of an in-depth qualitative analysis that sought to understand the perceptions of key stakeholders of the initiative in relation to the aims of the Buurtzorg model of care. The research was completed after the initiative had run for a year alongside the Leanchoil (community) hospital and had just recently became the sole inpatient provision in Forres. Those at the core of the pilot project were found to have bought into the principles, but implementation had been more difficult than first anticipated due to cultural, political and embedded issues. The presentation will consider the lessons for future care projects and the wider health and social care agenda.
“From wood decaying fungal research in Sri Lanka to Aspergillus niger across continents” – Dr Renuka Attanayake, University of Kelaniya and Dr Maciej Kaczmarek, Edinburgh Napier University
After obtaining MSc and PhD from Washington State University, USA in Plant pathology and one-year training on molecular plant breeding I returned to Sri Lanka accepting duties as a senior Lecturer of the Department of Plant and Molecular Biology, University of Kelaniya. My research interests are on population genetics of fungal plant pathogens, specially S. sclerotiorum on various hosts ranging from canola, cabbage beans peas. We found evidences of out crossing in the pathogen populations. Other research I am involved in is on fungal species diversity of decaying woods in Sri Lankan dry zone forests and search for plastic degrading fungi with the aid of two recent grants from TWAS and ICGEB. Recently a collaborative research project on “Comparative genomics of Aspergillus niger strains to uncover the genetic basis of the recent appearance of a particularly aggressive lineage” was initiated with the collaboration of Prof Ian Singleton and Dr Maciej Kaczmarek of the School of applied sciences, Edinburgh Napier University. This collaboration was possible due to the research grant scheme, TRANSFORM 2018- An Education Reform project –Improving research capability in Sri Lankan Higher Education Sector. Due to lack of genotyping facilities in Sri Lanka no full genome data handling is possible and this project will help developing human resources and the project is the reason I am here today in this conference. It is ultimately planned to distribute the knowledge among colleagues and students and generate long term collaborations.
Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) Stand
Drop by to discuss opportunities for Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP) and hear about how Dr Judy Brown, East of Scotland KTP Centre Manager, can help support academics in applying for a KTP.
RIO Stand
Drop by to discuss opportunities for external funding, and to hear about how RIO can support your research.
Public Engagement Stand
Drop by to chat to Dawn (University Public Engagement Officer) about how you can get involved in public engagement, and how RIO can support you.