Masters Theses opportunities

Hello.

I don't know if the place to publish this is in this or the companion blog. I guess here is better or it will disappear in the volume of traffic due to your weekly updates on the companion blog...

The message below comes from one of our guest lecturers in the course - Airi Lampinen

/Daniel

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Dear Future of Media Students,

we are looking for students who would like to write their Master's thesis at Mobile Life (mobilelifecentre.org) on topics related to our Homes & Cities project where we collaborate with IKEA, Ericsson, and Stockholm city. Based on your mid-term presentations, I think some of you might be interested in the topics we are working on -- and I'm convinced you'd make for great collaborators for Mobile Life!

In Homes and Cities, we are rethinking the smart city (& home) with on liminal spaces, that is, spaces that are at the boundary of home and city, the private and the public. These could include playgrounds, courtyards, tvättstugas, and more. We are interested in (a) exploring how people use such spaces and adapt them to fit their needs and (b) designing for these spaces by bringing personal and city infrastructure and data together.

At this point, we are primarily looking for students to work on these two topics:

1. Novel ways of food sharing (and/or growing) in local urban neighborhoods: urban farming, guerilla gardening, eating together with strangers, sharing left-over food to reduce food waste... The domain is broad and can be shaped to fit the student's interests. The thesis could be a combination of inquiry into current practices and design work on what kind of (mobile) technologies could enable/facilitate the interactions related to food sharing.

2. Windows as displays: a more design-oriented project of approaching apartment/building windows as a design space at the boundary of home and city. Next to the (during this season) common christmas star, what else would people be willing to display in their window? How could this be a way to interact with neighbors or people in the street? Could it also be a way to more actively manage what others can see about the tenants & their home (even in some ways akin to a social media profile page)?

Beyond these lines of work, you are also welcome to be in touch about your own idea if you'd like to pursue it in collaboration with Mobile Life researchers. In particular, further topics related to homes, cities, and the sharing economy are of interest to us.

If you are interested, please be in touch with Airi Lampinen (airi<at>mobilelifecentre.org) for more information. You can also come and chat with me on Dec 17 at the final presentations event.