Home

Professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering
Distinguished University Teaching Professor
University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, USA
personal website
ivlab website

Designing Mixed-Reality and Tangible Data Experiences with Artists and Indigenous Communities

Where: Bat 660, Digiteo Moulin, Amphitheatre
When: November 21st: 14:00

Abstract

As the ways we work with computers become increasingly tangible, blending the physical and digital worlds, the field of computing has an opportunity to learn from and partner with communities with deep expertise in traditional, physical ways of knowing our world. This talk will describe co-design processes, artifacts, and lessons learned from two projects that explore this potential. The first is a collaboration between technologies, visual artists, and climate scientists. The goal is to discover how skilled artists and designers working with physical art media (e.g., paint, clay, found objects) can "sculpt" accurate, data-driven climate science visualizations with an expanded visual vocabulary that has benefits for both scientific discovery and public discourse. The second is a collaboration with a community of climate and economic refugees from Micronesia who have settled in a rural town in Minnesota. Now, in a landlocked region far from their home islands, we are partnering in their efforts to maintain their culture, reviving knowledge of building and sailing canoes and the traditional celestial navigation systems that have always provided a sense of where they are and where they are going. In both projects, designing for tangible computing, including both physical inputs and physical outputs, has been the key to creating experiences that are inviting, dignity-affirming, and useful. I look forward to discussing research in the computing areas of designing user experiences, data physicalization, immersive visualization, tangible and embodied user interfaces, and mixed-reality environments through the lens of these collaborative projects that challenge us to rethink the current goals and users of computing in society.

Bio:

Dan Keefe is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and a Distinguished University Teaching Professor at the University of Minnesota. His research on data visualization and interactive computer graphics and has been recognized with awards, including the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the UMN Guillermo E. Borja Award for Research and Scholarly Accomplishments, the 3M Non-tenured Faculty Award, and multiple best paper and similar awards at top international conferences, such as IEEE VIS, IEEE VR, and ACM Interactive 3D Graphics. His teaching and mentoring have been recognized by the UMN Morse-Alumni Undergraduate Education and Bowers Teaching Awards. Keefe was the General Co-Chair of the IEEE VR Conference in 2014 (Minneapolis, MN) and 2015 (Arles, France) and a founding Co-Chair for the IEEE VIS Art Show in 2011 (Providence, RI) and 2012 (Seattle, WA) that now continues as part of the IEEE VIS Arts Program. In addition to his work in computer science, Keefe is also an accomplished artist and has published and exhibited work in top international venues for digital art. Before joining the University of Minnesota, Keefe did postdoctoral work at Brown University jointly with the departments of Computer Science and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and with the Rhode Island School of Design. He received the Ph.D. in 2007 from Brown University’s Department of Computer Science and the B.S. in Computer Engineering summa cum laude from Tufts University in 1999.