Eva Petersson Brooks is an Associate Professor, and the head of the Department of Architecture, Design and Media Technology at Aalborg University in Denmark. She is the general chair of DLI 2016, the 1st EAI International Conference on Design, Learning and Innovation (2-4 May, Esbjerg, Denmark), co-located with ArtsIT 2016 (read the interview with its general chair here). We talked with Eva about how emphasis on thoughtful design and playfulness can improve ICT and the environment, in which new tools and applications for nearly all facets of society are created.
The Full Paper Submission Deadline for DLI 2016 is 24 January 2016.
What is the central topic of DLI 2016 and why is it important? What is this event’s vision?
The central topics of DLI 2016 are related to the cross-cutting/cross-fertilising fields of design learning and innovation towards creating, shaping, incubating playful learning designs, tools, technologies, experiences, processes and outcomes. In this way, the intention is to encourage exchange of ideas and to provide a platform for researchers, students, and practitioners who have an interest in this topic to meet, to share their knowledge, to network, and enjoy inspiring, challenging, and interesting time together.
Design, learning, and innovation frame the world of ICT, while play and playfulness open doors into an increasingly engaging world. Whether it is about developing tools, technologies, environments, as well as content and approaches that can spark and nurture a passion for learning and transforming domains such as education, rehabilitation/therapy, work places, and cultural institutions, design, learning, and innovation is a powerful catalyst in empowering individuals to participate, communicate, and create to be able to exceed their own limits in a playful way. Such is the spirit behind driving the DLI 2016 conference. Making this spirit explicit and visible is crucial to identify how specific tools, technologies, methodologies and solutions shape opportunities for how people can learn and engage with the demands of life.
Since DLI is co-located with ArtsIT 2016, conference on Interactivity & Game Creation, how would you describe the ways in which these two events complement each other?
DLI 2016 and ArtsIT 2016 share an interest in cross-disciplinary work including IT, games, play, creativity and innovation (to mention a few) and to create opportunities for people with such different backgrounds and interests to meet and exchange ideas. In other words, the conferences have a joint interest in becoming a catalyst for knowledge exchange and fertilization of new ideas, networks, new research topics, etc. The conferences share an interest in games and play and complement each other by focusing on these topics in different ways, for example through the lenses of arts, design, interaction, and learning.
What are the biggest challenges that Design, Learning and Innovation are currently facing?
Today, challenges in the fields of design, learning, and innovation are often approached by trans-disciplinary teams and solutions, such that tools, technologies, methods and theories developed for other purposes are mobilized to be utilized in unlocking new frameworks for understanding these fields and thereby opening up to partnerships that can enrich learning in formal and informal learning practices. DLI 2016 intends to foster such dynamics.
What are your expectations for DLI 2016?
I expect a few days full of life, happy and inspired participants, dynamics, interesting presentations – a boiling pot full of knowledge, experiences, and joy. We will do our best to create conditions for three great days worthy to be a part of.
DLI 2016 will be co-located with ArtsIT, Interactivity & Game Creation 2016.
Read the interview with the general chair of ArtsIt 2016, Tony Brooks, here.
