The Feral Drifting with Lonja Wetlands workshop involved a 4-day feral, performative investigation of multispecies relations and spatio-temporalities of care that shape the flow of life and death in Lonjsko Polje (or Lonja Wetlands), the largest protected wetlands in Croatia. Together with 19 workshop participants, we experimented with feral ways of sensemaking that invite open-ended, multisensory, and spontaneous encounters unfolding beyond the bounds of human control.Inspired by the movements and rhythms of local, other-than-human creatures, such as storks, mosquitoes, storms, and the river Sava, as well as the artistic strategies of dérive (including their flaws), we drifted with the local ecologies and invited pathways towards care-full co-habitation. To navigate through these space-times, we experimented with various performative and speculative sense-making practices including walking, listening, storytelling and forming relations.This feral investigation resulted in co-creative outcomes – or fragments – in diverse forms, such as multispecies rituals, synesthetic maps, wayfinding games, and memory seed banks that were documented as short videos and later turned into the Feral Fragments of Lonjsko Polje film. Here, we share the key processes of our collective workshop and reflect on them in relation to the notion of feral data.
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Background and aim – Patients undergo one or more medical interventions in a hospital. In the hospital, patients are surrounded by spaces and services. The output in a hospital is the patients’ outcome.To gain understanding about a holistic experience of patients, we assessed the experience and well-being of patients at specific focal points of the entire patient journey: from the arrival, to the diagnosis and the actual treatment in a hospital.Methods – This article describes three field experiments that were conducted in a Dutch hospital. First, in an age-simulation study the effect of route complexity and physical ageing was assessed during 108 wayfinding tasks. Second, in a quasi-randomized experiment the use of a motion-nature projection was assessed during a diagnostic scan (N = 97) . Lastly, in a quasi-randomized experiment the effect of a nontalking rule during an outpatient infusion treatment was assessed (N = 263).Results – A wide variety of patients visit a hospital and all patients of course bring an opinion of their own and experience their hospital visit differently. However, patients benefit from a simple building structure during wayfinding, inexpensive beamers to project nature during diagnostics, and a mix of treatment places with respect to social interest during infusion treatments.Originality – There is little discussion about the holistic experience of patients, that concerns the cognitive, emotional, physical, and social well-being of patients. In our study we applied a holistic and patient-centered approach.Practical or social implications – The well-being of patients can be significantly improved when the built, natural, and sound environment is taken into account with respect to individual differences.Type of paper – Research paper.
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Visually impaired people (VIP) can experience difficulties in navigating urban environments. They mostly depend on the environment’s infrastructure or technical solutions like smartphone apps for navigation. However apps typically use visual and audio feedback, which can be ineffective, distracting and dangerous. Haptic feedback in the form of vibrations can complement where visual and audio fall short, reducing the cognitive load.Existing research into wayfinding using haptic feedback to better support navigation for the visually impaired often relies on custom tactile actuators and the use of multiple vibration motors. Although these solutions can be effective, they are often impractical in every day life or are stigmatizing due to their unusual appearance.To address this issue we propose a more modular system that can be easily integrated in commercially available smartwatches. Based on existing research we present a tactile communication method utilizing the vibrotactile actuator of a smartwatch to provide VIP with wayfinding information that complements visual and audio feedback. Current smartwatches contain a single tactile actuator, but can still be used by focusing on navigation patterns. These patterns are based on research in personal orientation and mobility training with VIP. For example, a vibration pattern is used to represent a concept like ‘attention’, ‘left’ or ‘stairs’ directing the navigator’s attention towards audio or visual information or to the environment.In next phase of this research we will conduct several focus groups and co-creation sessions with VIP and orientation and mobility experts to further specify the requirements and test our proposed tactile method. In the future, this method could be integrated in existing navigation apps using commercially available devices to complement visual and audio information and provide VIP with additional wayfinding information via haptic feedback.
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The livability of the cities and attractiveness of our environment can be improved by smarter choices for mobility products and travel modes. A change from current car-dependent lifestyles towards the use of healthier and less polluted transport modes, such as cycling, is needed. With awareness campaigns, cycling facilities and cycle infrastructure, the use of the bicycle will be stimulated. But which campaigns are effective? Can we stimulate cycling by adding cycling facilities along the cycle path? How can we design the best cycle infrastructure for a region? And what impact does good cycle infrastructure have on the increase of cycling?To find answers for these questions and come up with a future approach to stimulate bicycle use, BUas is participating in the InterReg V NWE-project CHIPS; Cycle Highways Innovation for smarter People transport and Spatial planning. Together with the city of Tilburg and other partners from The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and United Kingdom we explore and demonstrate infrastructural improvements and tackle crucial elements related to engaging users and successful promotion of cycle highways. BUas is responsible for the monitoring and evaluation of the project. To measure the impact and effectiveness of cycle highway innovations we use Cyclespex and Cycleprint.With Cyclespex a virtual living lab is created which we will use to test several readability and wayfinding measures for cycle infrastructure. Cyclespex gives us the opportunity to test different scenario’s in virtual reality that will help us to make decisions about the final solution that will be realized on the cycle highway. Cycleprint will be used to develop a monitoring dashboard where municipalities of cities can easily monitor and evaluate the local bicycle use.
