SPEAKERS

BAL, Alex
BARDINI, Thierry
CHATONSKY, Grégory
CONESA, Jean-Claude
COTE, Mario
CZEGLEDY, Nina
DANIELS, Steve
DUBOIS, Jean
ELDER, R. Bruce
EPOQUE, Martine
FISCHER, Hervé
FLEISCHER, Alain
GARDNER, Paula
JOOSSE, Angela
LaBELLE, Guillaume
LANGILL, Caroline
MATHIEU, Marie-Christine
NOLAN, Jason
OUELLET, Pierre
PALMIERI, Christine
PAPON, Frédéric
POISSANT, Louise
POULIN, Denis
PRUSKA-OLDENHOF, Izabella
RODIONOFF, Anolga
SLOPEK, Edward
SNYDER, Don
TREMBLAY, Pierre
VAN ALSTYNE, Greg

Paula Gardner
Ontario College of Art and Design

- Conference Video

Paula Gardner is Assistant Dean in the Faculty of Liberal Studies at the Ontario College of Art & Design, writing and research in the areas of Communication/ Media Studies research, video documentary and mobile design. Her work broadly addresses the relationship between new media technologies and democratic practices of culture. She is co-leading the project, PORTAGE: A Canadian Mobile Experience, at OCAD, which is creating a virtual, interactive street theatre on John St, Toronto, and she is currently completing a manuscript entitled Recovery, Inc.: Depression, Power, Democracy. Her work is available at paulagardner.ca.

PORTAGE: MAKING A VIRTUAL STREET THEATRE VIA MOBILE TECHNOLOGY
Portage, The Canadian Mobile Experience is a collaborative interdisciplinary project, funded by Canadian Heritage, that is transforming the downtown of Toronto into a virtual street theatre. This paper discusses our transdisciplinary team's innovative methodologies, including fierce collaboration, iterative, rapid prototyping, and designer-led design. As well, the paper reviews how five existing prototypes reflect the project's research questions and goals, including  bridging the digital divide, testing out user's interest in mobile vs analogue technologies, creating innovative mobile products that are useful to small and medium sized industry, and finally, creating accessible, low-end mobile technology for all users.