silvia lindtner - research

Geographies of change: Digital Participation & Game Play in urban China
Dissertation Research
In 2007, I conducted ethnographic research on digital media as sites of cultural production, with a focus on online game play in urban sites such as the Internet cafe and student dormitories. I found online gaming, rather than constituting a virtually or spatially bounded site, to be woven into webs of cultural meaning, social connection, politics and economic change. The spread of Internet access and the increasing popularity of digital media in China has been used as an indicator of social change and economic progress shaped by global flows. It has also been described as being limited by local forces such as information control. This research offers an alternate framing of digital media appropriation, focusing on the practices and experiences of Chinese youths. This research reveals digital media as sites of exploration and imagination of selfhood and identity admits rapid changes.

In 2008 and 2009, I conducted ethnographic research to study digital media practices among young IT professionals working for international corporations in Chinese cities. The research was conducted in a series of clubs designed to facilitate social networking among like-minded professionals in the IT and creative industry through digital forms of entertainment. Findings speak to practices of socio-technical distinction making, the cultural appropriation of digital technologies and digital media as site for translocal imagination. The research contributes to debates of global technology development, productive play and digital media participation.

Findings from this research are published as a Games and Culture Journal article, a book chapter, and several conference papers.

mopix: mobile photo sharing amongst youths in Orange County
In collaboration with Judy Chen, Paul Dourish, Gillian Hayes and Julie Rico.

mopix is a mobile phone application that allows location-based photo sharing to take place within the immediate spatial and social contexts of thee photo's origins. Photos taken with mopix are geo-tagged and automatically shared with public displays. We developed mopix on Nokia N95 mobile phones and Nokia N800, which function as public displays and allow interaction through touch screens. The system design was developed concomitantly to ethnographic research in Venice, California, and thus heavily influenced not only by social theory and previous work on photo sharing, but also by findings from the ethnographic research (see description below). Over the last year, we finished the implementation in Python on both devices and conducted a 2 months long user study in a gated appartment community in Orange County. Preliminary findings evidence that photo sharing constitutes a socio-technical space where new connections where forged, while at the same time evolving in relation to pre-existing social and cultural values of the youths.

Findings of this research have been published in the proceedings of the conference on Ubiquitous Computing and are accepted as a journal article in the TOCHI Human Computer Interaction journal 2012.

Street vendors in Venice, California: crafting play spaces and consumer-producer relations
In collaboration with Julka Almquist.

Over the last three years, I have been conducting ongoing ethnographic field research on public street culture in Venice, California, focusing in particular on a local vendor and artist community. Last year Julka Almquist joined these efforts and has brought a fantastic new lens to the project from the perspective of planning, policy and design. Built in 1904 on Abbot Kinney's vision for an amusement park along the beach, Venice is famous for its beachfront sport facilities and its skateboard and surf culture. With its art studios, galleries, graffiti, and wall-painted advertisements, it is an internationallu-celebrated tourist spot. Originally, I got intersted in the boardwalk of Venice (a walking/biking/skating strip along the beach that Venice is most well known for) as my field site because of its reputation as a place "where about anything goes" and "freakshow." Although Venice is best known for its carefree and laissez-faire attitude, performing, vendoring and selling art work on the boardwalk is highly regulated. What counts as "art" and who is considered legimitate member of the the Venice community is subject to both formal and informal regulations. Julka and I have been participating in the vendor culture of Venice as participant observers, taking on the role of street vendors ourselves.

Findings of this research have implicated the concept and design work of a mobile photo sharing application, mopix, and are published as a peer-reviewed paper in the HICSS conference, 2008.

Fish'n'Steps: encouraging physical acitivity with a social computing game
In collaboration with James Lin, Lena Mamykina, Hank Strub

A year before I entered graduate school in fall 2006, I began researching and developing computing technologies to stimulate proactive behavior towards a healthier and more active lifestyle. I collaborated on this effort with an international research institute in Princeton, NJ (Siemens Corporate Research), which provided access to national and international health care providers, patient records and existing technical systems in clinics. A sedentary lifestyle is a contributing factor to chronic diseases, and is often correlated with obesity. In recent decades, obesity has become a problem on the scale of a world-wide epidemic. The 1999 National Health and Nutrition survey (NHANES) estimated that 61% of US adults are either overweight or obese. These people suffer from both deleterious health consequences and the corresponding psychological stigma. The most effective approaches to treating people for being overweight or obese usually begin with lifestyle improvements, and continue to more invasive treatments such as pharmaceuticals and even surveys. Through both qualitative and quantitative research, I designed, implemented and tested a software prototype to encourage increase in physical activity and to raise awareness about unhealthy behavior displayed during daily routines and habits. The prototype, called Fish'n'Steps, was implemented as a social computing game, which linked an individual's daily foot step count to the growth and activity of an animated virtual character, a fish in a fish tank.

Findings of this research are published as a peer-reviewed paper in the proceedings of the ACM conference on Ubiquitous Computing, 2006.

		\| about me \| research \| teaching \| publications \| CV
		Multi-sited Design: Translocal D.I.Y. (Do it yourself), hacker and Internet counter culture in urban China Dissertation Research Labels of free culture and open innovation have come to dominate the discourse and imagination of the social and political change promised by digital technologies. Hackerspaces and co-working labs across the U.S., Europe and Asia share a commitment to Silicon Valley ideals of free culture and maker culture to stimulate new technology innovation. They produce not only knowledge about modes of material making, but also cultural imaginaries of alternate futures for organizational structure, international collaboration and technoscientific exchange. I explore how transnational imaginations of free culture and open innovation are mobilized in a co-working and hackerspace in Shanghai, China. Through ethnographic research I track how technology design plays a role for imaginations of Chinese modernity, ideas of innovation and DIY culture across sites in Shanghai, Silicon Valley and Europe. This research provides new insights into the role of design and digital participation in multi-sited ethnography and para-ethngographic engagements. I have presented findings from this research at a series of academic venues including the AAS conference March, 2011, the Digital Media and Learning conference March, 2011, the STS conference on "Governing Futures" in September 2011. A peer-reviewed conference paper that builds on this research has just been accepted for publication in the Proc. of the ACM conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Work, 2012.
		Geographies of change: Digital Participation & Game Play in urban China Dissertation Research In 2007, I conducted ethnographic research on digital media as sites of cultural production, with a focus on online game play in urban sites such as the Internet cafe and student dormitories. I found online gaming, rather than constituting a virtually or spatially bounded site, to be woven into webs of cultural meaning, social connection, politics and economic change. The spread of Internet access and the increasing popularity of digital media in China has been used as an indicator of social change and economic progress shaped by global flows. It has also been described as being limited by local forces such as information control. This research offers an alternate framing of digital media appropriation, focusing on the practices and experiences of Chinese youths. This research reveals digital media as sites of exploration and imagination of selfhood and identity admits rapid changes. In 2008 and 2009, I conducted ethnographic research to study digital media practices among young IT professionals working for international corporations in Chinese cities. The research was conducted in a series of clubs designed to facilitate social networking among like-minded professionals in the IT and creative industry through digital forms of entertainment. Findings speak to practices of socio-technical distinction making, the cultural appropriation of digital technologies and digital media as site for translocal imagination. The research contributes to debates of global technology development, productive play and digital media participation. Findings from this research are published as a Games and Culture Journal article, a book chapter, and several conference papers. mopix: mobile photo sharing amongst youths in Orange County In collaboration with Judy Chen, Paul Dourish, Gillian Hayes and Julie Rico. mopix is a mobile phone application that allows location-based photo sharing to take place within the immediate spatial and social contexts of thee photo's origins. Photos taken with mopix are geo-tagged and automatically shared with public displays. We developed mopix on Nokia N95 mobile phones and Nokia N800, which function as public displays and allow interaction through touch screens. The system design was developed concomitantly to ethnographic research in Venice, California, and thus heavily influenced not only by social theory and previous work on photo sharing, but also by findings from the ethnographic research (see description below). Over the last year, we finished the implementation in Python on both devices and conducted a 2 months long user study in a gated appartment community in Orange County. Preliminary findings evidence that photo sharing constitutes a socio-technical space where new connections where forged, while at the same time evolving in relation to pre-existing social and cultural values of the youths. Findings of this research have been published in the proceedings of the conference on Ubiquitous Computing and are accepted as a journal article in the TOCHI Human Computer Interaction journal 2012. Street vendors in Venice, California: crafting play spaces and consumer-producer relations In collaboration with Julka Almquist. Over the last three years, I have been conducting ongoing ethnographic field research on public street culture in Venice, California, focusing in particular on a local vendor and artist community. Last year Julka Almquist joined these efforts and has brought a fantastic new lens to the project from the perspective of planning, policy and design. Built in 1904 on Abbot Kinney's vision for an amusement park along the beach, Venice is famous for its beachfront sport facilities and its skateboard and surf culture. With its art studios, galleries, graffiti, and wall-painted advertisements, it is an internationallu-celebrated tourist spot. Originally, I got intersted in the boardwalk of Venice (a walking/biking/skating strip along the beach that Venice is most well known for) as my field site because of its reputation as a place "where about anything goes" and "freakshow." Although Venice is best known for its carefree and laissez-faire attitude, performing, vendoring and selling art work on the boardwalk is highly regulated. What counts as "art" and who is considered legimitate member of the the Venice community is subject to both formal and informal regulations. Julka and I have been participating in the vendor culture of Venice as participant observers, taking on the role of street vendors ourselves. Findings of this research have implicated the concept and design work of a mobile photo sharing application, mopix, and are published as a peer-reviewed paper in the HICSS conference, 2008. Fish'n'Steps: encouraging physical acitivity with a social computing game In collaboration with James Lin, Lena Mamykina, Hank Strub A year before I entered graduate school in fall 2006, I began researching and developing computing technologies to stimulate proactive behavior towards a healthier and more active lifestyle. I collaborated on this effort with an international research institute in Princeton, NJ (Siemens Corporate Research), which provided access to national and international health care providers, patient records and existing technical systems in clinics. A sedentary lifestyle is a contributing factor to chronic diseases, and is often correlated with obesity. In recent decades, obesity has become a problem on the scale of a world-wide epidemic. The 1999 National Health and Nutrition survey (NHANES) estimated that 61% of US adults are either overweight or obese. These people suffer from both deleterious health consequences and the corresponding psychological stigma. The most effective approaches to treating people for being overweight or obese usually begin with lifestyle improvements, and continue to more invasive treatments such as pharmaceuticals and even surveys. Through both qualitative and quantitative research, I designed, implemented and tested a software prototype to encourage increase in physical activity and to raise awareness about unhealthy behavior displayed during daily routines and habits. The prototype, called Fish'n'Steps, was implemented as a social computing game, which linked an individual's daily foot step count to the growth and activity of an animated virtual character, a fish in a fish tank. Findings of this research are published as a peer-reviewed paper in the proceedings of the ACM conference on Ubiquitous Computing, 2006.