Latest news about the Lift conference

Postoned: Lift Asia 10

Laurent Haug — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 11:13:13 +0200

We decided to postpone this year's Lift Asia for several reasons explained below. We are committed Korea, and will continue exchanging ideas with the world's most dynamic continent. We just need a bit of time to take a break after the marathon we just finished (both Lift10 and Lift France 10 happened in the past 9 weeks) and refine the nature of our presence in Asia.

Why we postpone

Several reasons have come into play, among them:

^{Dan Dubno on the Lift Asia stage in 2008. Photo by echo4ngel.}

• Calendar
Because the CICG was already booked in February, we had to move Lift10 to May, which meant we ran two conferences (Geneva, Marseille) in a short period of time. Korea is the most demanding event of all as it requires long trips. We push the date to give ourselves a breather, and take time to deliver a high quality event to our community.

• Reformat
We have a feeling that what we can bring is a spotlight on great ideas and people, but also more bridges between Asia and the rest of the world. Several directions are being thought of right now: making smaller events based on organized trips (we would take 50 people to visit Korea's coolest startups, buildings, etc), a livecast between our different locations where each continent shows off it's cool ideas. Something will emerge, and you will be the first to know.

• Involve our Global community
We need to find a better way to involve our global community. Traveling to Korea takes a while, and not everybody can afford the ride. A few courageous Lifters have made the trips (kudos to guys like Jan Ondrus, Xavier Bertschy or Grégoire Furrer), but we have to develop more ways to keep those who can not travel involved.

What is next?

We are committed to Asia and Korea, and will continue developing our presence on that continent. Until we schedule a major event again (very likely in the Autumn of 2011), you will see our Asian connections materialize in talks (latest: Mr. Oh at Lift10), our support to local Lift@homes, and a continuous monitoring of the trends and innovation of Korea.

Our next major event will therefore be Lift11 in Geneva.

For ticket holders

We will refund all tickets. Sorry about the inconvenience this might cause you, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us for questions and support.

Euronews on Lift France 10

Sylvie Reinhard — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:05:46 +0200

Check out the two clips Euronews did on Lift France 10. We had an amazing time in Marseille, the official Lift France 10 videos will be published in a few days.

Amit Zoran @ #lift10 : Designing hybrid objects

Martin_Leroy — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:48:43 +0200

Amit Zoran is a designer and student at Smart Cities Group of the Media Lab at MIT, where he has worked on many design projects, including mixed objects at the intersection of technology and culture.

He dedicated his research work in developing hybrid objects, a fusion between traditional and digital elements like his famous Guitar Chameleon . This electric instrument is an evolving and adaptable device, with a interchangeables oundboard to convert the acoustic guitar, not only digitaly but also in a physical manner. The quality of this guitar is connected to the physical property of materials that compose it, hence the idea to make them partly interchangeable.

He also designed Cornucopia (the horn of plenty), a 3D printer support. This machine addresses each of the fundamental processes that are central to the kitchen, mixing ingredients (through the "digital fabricator" who can assemble flavors and textures in the manner of Boris Vian's Pianococktail ), their physical and chemical processing (via the "mixer Virtuoso") and presentation (via the "robot head"). The idea behind the design of these devices is to imagine a "gastronomy digital optimizing both the potential for creative expression and personal digital as the kitchen. These instruments are not intended only to extend the range of what we can cook, but also to make them available digitally, collaborative, networked ...

These two examples of the more recent work Ami Zoran illustrate the particularity of its approach. His presentation will provide an opportunity to explore the question of hybridization: how culture meets technology and how the design is the crucible.

Haakon Karlsen Jr on FabLab at Lift France 10

Martin_Leroy — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 06:41:42 +0200

Haakon Karlsen Jr runs the 5-year-old MIT FabLab in Lyngen, up North in the Norwegian Alps. He also chairs the Fab Foundation, which co-ordinates the international network of Fab Labs.

“Few people tend to visit rural northern Norway from other parts of the world. Thanks to the Fablab network, we have been able to welcome the world's foremost and most imaginative experts, entrepreneurs and inventors

in Lyngen, allowing us to innovate in education, research, development and commercialization. But we also bring something that we have to the network: A sense of welcoming, of respect, and tolerance."

"In the Fab Foundation, we have struggled with the definition of "'What is a Fab Lab' for some time, and come up with this: Fab Labs are a global network of people who want to cooperate. The machines that equip them are tools to make this happen. In the beginning, a Fab Lab was a place for rapid prototyping. But more and more, Fab Labs turn into community centers where people come with all sorts of questions, projects and desires.

"All successful Fab Labs originate from, or become, a grassroots movement. You plant the seeds, but you're never sure what will grow. Theses roots need to be connected: Fab Labs must not be strangers in their own communities - even in their architecture. They need to be integrated in the local community. Then people can come in and tell about what they need where they live. The setting up of a Fab Lab needs a strategy on how to involve the community.

"The second most important thing is people: Who runs the Lab? You need people who burn for the idea, for this mix of local and global cooperation.

The 3rd success factor is, How to make the FabLab economically sustainable in a short period? There are solutions, from small prototyping to bigger projects, such as engineering other labs, organizing workshops... And the network can help.”

At Lift France 10, Haakon will share with us his experience with Fab Labs from around the world, what makes them successful (or not), what it takes to become a Fab Lab, and what comes out of them.

Participant Guide for Marseille

Sylvie Reinhard — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 17:56:35 +0200

At your disposal here is the Lift with Fing Participant Guide with Marseille insider information and precious recommendations by the local Fing team.

In this pdf you will find, practical facts, maps and great suggestions for where to eat, drink and go out for a good time during your stay in Marseille, enjoy!

Lift conference under the design research microscope

nicolasnova — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:27:02 +0200

At the last Lift conference in Geneva, we teamed-up with frog design to conduct a new sort of partnership: a design research study of the conference itself. The point of this was to understand the participants' experience and to collect insights about what was working well and not so well about the conference.

We were interested to see if a design research approach could be relevant and bring feedback to re-design our events. frog design constituted a team of researchers with Adam Richardson, Elizabeth Roche and Eleanor Davies and Till Grusche who came to the conference and spent some time investigating the conference participants experience. Research techniques ranged from interviews to observations, workshops and diary.

Results from this study are now available on Slideshare:

Lift Conference Design Research

View more presentations from frog design.

For us, this report is full of interesting insights that help us to design upcoming events (and Lift11 more specifically).

Thanks a lot for the frog team as well as Tim Leberecht for allowing this to happen!

Jean Louis Fréchin and Uros Petrevski at Lift France 10

Elodie Darquie — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 18:10:14 +0200

Objects are one of the oldest human creation, and in comparison, digital technologies are a new born, embodying innovation and modernity. The design agency NoDesign, composed by Jean Louis Fréchin and Uros Petrevski works on the way digital technologies can change objects.

The wallpaper of augmented reality, designed by Fréchin and Petrevski, winner of the Musée des Arts décoratifs price, explains this idea. The so-called FabWall, is the product of a strategic thinking about the evolution of conception, making and distribution of wall paper. Born from the hacking of wallpaper machine, this work contains digital informations (pictures and text) which can be revelaed by a computer or an iPhone. This project takes part in a reinvention pace of the digital productive system. You will have the chance to discover the FabWall at the heart of Lift Experience in the Cabinet des Curiosités Numériques of Nod-A.

Lift Experience will gather two other creations by NoDesign : the WanoMirorwho broadcast tweets in a surprising way, and the Wablog.

At Lift France 10, Uros Petrevski and Jean Louis Fréchin will speak in the session « FabLabs : reinventing industry ». They will discuss the contribution of digital technologies to design objects and the FabLab challenge for industries.

Lift France Experience projects & artists

Sylvie Reinhard — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:50:22 +0200

Besides inspiring talks and workshop, one of Lift Conference's special treats is the Lift Experience. Think of a relaxing space where new media artists and interaction designers are invited to display pieces that address the conference topics in a different way. Learn more about the projects & artists present at LIft France here

Check & print the Lift france 10 program

Martin_Leroy — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 16:24:05 +0200

Program lift2010 en_print_hd

View more documents from slidesharefing.

Stefana Broadbent at Lift France 10

nicolasnova — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:28:04 +0200

A long-time participant at Lift Conference, Stefana is currently a visiting researcher at the Department of Anthropology at University College London. Trained originally as a cognitive psychologist in Geneva and Edinburgh, she became interested in Human-Computer Interaction. She spent 15 years working in applied research and consulting at CB&J (a company specialized in human factors and user research that was acquired by IconMedialab in 1999) and at Swisscom where she was responsible for the development of the User Observatory at Swisscom.

More specifically, she is interested in two research angles: the evolution of digital activities at home (information, leisure, communication and self expression) and the analysis of complex and highly automated work environments in aviation and process control. All of these projects had in common an ethnographic approach to capture evolving social practices and a design intent to inform and support the conception of new tools and services.

At Lift France 10, she will give a presentation about how people cope with information in the workplace. She will describe how most of these come from the massive irruption of private communication and how it influences workers' behavior.