Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
So here we are in Stratford East, the site of the Olympics 2012. And behind me in the
pub are a group of retired people who are eating and drinking merrily and they are off
to the site to have a look themselves. I'm going to ask them to show me what they have
got on their iPhone and I bet you they have more apps than I have.
My dream is to make computers engaging, accessible and exciting to as many people as possible.
I'm particularly interested in people who are getting older and retiring. So here we
are at the site of the Olympics 2012 and over here on the left is a huge stadium, beautiful
structure and to its right is a helix obelisk type thing. I'm not sure what it is but there
is a lot of creativity gone behind its inception and its design and I'm sure it's going to
be an amazing central point of the Olympics stadium. And then to the right we can see
Zaha Hadid's aquatic centre and this again is a beautiful structure, a very simple design
and it's got a sort of scallop shape to it and inside I am sure it is just as beautiful.
I think Zaha has tremendous creativity and I'd like to think that I would have some of
that in my Dream Fellowship.
I'd like old people to think of computers not as something to be feared, but as something
to look forward to using, even playful. But that requires rethinking the relationship
between ICT and aging. So far a lot of work has focused on developing technologies for
what's called assisted living. An example is an intelligent pill box that tells you
which pills to take and at what times of the day to swallow them. I want to get away from
that prosthetic device approach and instead engage old people in design and technology
themselves, using current tool kits so that they are in control of their interactions
with the technology and the environment. I'd like older people themselves to be involved
in thinking about the design and use of technology to solve problems that they care about, such
as loneliness, isolation and even what to do in the post pension era.
The dream fellowship will provide me with opportunities to think out of the box about
aging as wisdom and computers as cognitive amplifiers. In particular it will allow me
to think the unthinkable, even to rethink what it means to be human. To begin I will
look at what it means to age well and enjoy quality living in later life. But to truly
think out of the box I need to do something more. So this is where I thought I would do
something quite different. I'm going to study creativity and cooking. You might well ask
what? Well my idea is to juxtapose the challenges of aging with the understandings of creative
cooking and I plan to move back and forth between the two. I'm going to start by going
behind the scenes and observing what goes on in kitchens, for example, what goes on
in a kitchen like this one at this pub where they have to cook 30 meals and have them all
at the same time for parties like this. What kind of collaboration intense coordination
is required? I'm also going to go to some of the kitchens of the tops chefs like Heston
Blumenthal and see how he comes up with new dishes, new menus and what kinds of ingredients
he uses to do that intense creativity.
I'm going to go on a training course myself to learn about the art and science of creative
cooking. But to begin with I'm off to South Africa, a country going through massive transformation
to observe how chefs from across the spectrum work together. I then plan to organise a workshop
for people coming from quite diverse backgrounds to debate a controversial topic such as ageing
bodies, expanding minds. Based on all the new insights I will then start to conjure
up ideas for novel digital technologies to enhance the creative horizons of everyday
old people. So, I've just started my job at University College London at uCLIC and this
is my second day. I commute from Brighton and I got off the train here at Warren Street.
Walking down Tottenham Court Road I looked up and I saw this bicycle outside this store,
but actually it's a café, it's a coffee shop and I walked in as I was just intrigued. There
is something about the way in which this has been designed, there is a lot of care and
thought gone into it. If you look over here, there is a tree stump where all the sugars
and stuff are put and they also make really nice coffee and lovely tea. Then the lighting
if you look up there is just a few light bulbs. So I think there is a lot of creativity gone
into this and I'm going to come here each day to be inspired.
I'd like to be even more creative, even a bit crazy with my ideas and research. I want
to come up with new ways of thinking about things that will make a difference, so rethinking
ageing as unleashing wisdom and rethinking ICT as interactive ingredients. I want to
help with the verging ageing research agenda in the UK by doing things differently. That
means getting away from the current mind set to the ubiquitous computing to one where ageing
people themselves can tell their children and the rest of society what they can do with
state of the art computers. Let them show us how they can be more actively engaged and
in control of their interactions with computers, each other and the environment.
So I'm about to embark on my dream fellowship to rethink ageing, to rethink cooking and
rethink ICT as interactive ingredients. I'm going to blog so you can keep posted, but
for now see you later.