Entrepreneur

Giles Lane, Proboscis

Academic Partner

Prof. George Roussos, Birkbeck, University of London

Project Title

Embodying Meaning

Project Description

Giles Lane’s residence with Birkbeck saw him exploring methods of representing data sets via a range of senses beyond the visual. The intention of the project was to use tools such as 3d printers to present the depth and shape of data, allowing researchers to have a deeper engagement with the material. Furthermore, it was hoped that a more tactile approach to data would add emotional interpretations to existing analytical methods.

The residency was split into two stages, in the first Lane hosted informal presentations and engagements with a select number of staff, these engagements helped uncovered future directions of data manifestation research. In the second stage Lane devised and delivered a ‘paper prototyping workshop’ titled Embodying Data which was run with PhD students on the 25th of November.

Embodying Meaning concluded with Proboscis looking into developing 3d printed data manifestation objects out of anonymised Parkinson’s sufferers’ data. By working with medical researchers there is the potential of assessing how they might gain insights from this sort of data presentation.

Through the residency Lane has created lasting links with staff from Birkbeck’s Computer Sciences department and the Dragon Hall Tech Hub, a local community youth technology training initiative. Staff from Birkbeck and now volunteering at the tech hub. Lane also helped forge a relationship between Birkbeck and Alastair Somerville a tech pioneer and consultant, thanks to this Somerville delivered a series of Sensory User Experience Workshops at the university in 2015.