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About MM Admin

Some say it dreams in binary, and that it talks in hexadecimal... All we know is that it is our admin account. There for turning things off and on again, as well as general announcements. View all posts by MM Admin →

New media as memory aids? Interview with SMH

28 February 2014PublicationsMM Admin

Past Saturday, the Sydney Morning Herald featured an article on the potential overload of photo material we collect and share nowadays. The text, which ran in last Saturday’s weekend special, includes the viewpoints of several people, including our project leader Elise van den Hoven. While some caution against collecting massive amounts, others perceive it as a boon; with such an expansive record, they’ll always know what they did at any earlier time. It’s just that they need some tool to retrieve the desired moment’s capture. The journalist, Evan Williams, also spoke with someone who deliberately cut back on her capturing and sharing habits after feeling overwhelmed. These differing viewpoints highlight the individual differences and challenges of digital media for remembering. We’ll certainly talk more about that in the future, but for now the Sydney Morning Herald has their article available online.

Signing of KTP and joint degree contracts

9 January 2014Project memoriesMM Admin

Last month our PhD students signed their joint degree contacts, one step in the process of bringing together University of Technology, Sydney and Eindhoven University of Technology. Both universities have now signed a Key Technology Partnership, which means there are increased opportunities for academic exchange and collaboration between the two distant places. Our project is one of the ways such collaboration can take place and in all modesty we hope to be a poster child for others interested in developing relations. Today UTS Newsroom gave us front page attention with the photo (by Clare Donald) shown on top, although the actual signing of the contracts took place last month. The article further discusses the reasons for both universities to agree on this partnership, both citing a shared research focus and mutual benefits.

In practice, having these contracts in place means that nearly all pieces of the puzzle are in place to complete the PhD projects with a shared degree from both universities. Of course, what we haven’t yet discussed on these pages is the actual work to feature in those projects, but a new year brings new promises and hopefully interesting blog posts.

TU/e Cursor interview with Elise

1 December 2013PublicationsMM Admin

Last week Cursor, the newspaper for Eindhoven University of Technology, published its interview with project leader Elise van den Hoven, as part of their series on the person behind the researcher. The interview, originally conducted via Skype, discusses the Materialising Memories project and the things that make it unique and difficult when working from Sydney on a collaborative project like ours. The interview has only been published in the Dutch paper edition of Cursor, but we have a PDF spread for your reading pleasure.

UTS magazine interview with Elise

8 October 2013PublicationsMM Admin

The October issue of U:mag, the primary paper magazine of the University of Technology, Sydney, features a nice interview with project leader Elise van den Hoven. Interviewed by Fiona Livy, she talks about the reasons for starting the Materialising Memories project, as well as the challenges we all face when it comes to our digital content.

“You can’t put memories in a device; they can only stay in your head because they’re yours, they’re personal and they keep on changing. A lot of people still think if you take a photograph you ‘catch’ the memory, which is nonsense. I’m looking at how we can shape our environments to support remembering better.”

It’s a good read, so if you happen to be near UTS head for a stand and pick up a copy of the latest U:mag. Everyone else, fear not: the article is also available online and we have a digital copy of the interview in U:mag ready for download as well (alternatively, you can view the full magazine in digital format). If you like the project and you happen to be around Eindhoven or Sydney, feel free to join as a participant for studies we’ll be doing in the future. Just let us know via the Contact page.

Our project featured in the media

27 August 2013PublicationsMM Admin

Just yesterday Cathy Morris of mX Sydney, a free news paper available at most public transport hubs around Sydney, interviewed project leader Elise van den Hoven. The interview made it to the front page, vying for attention with Batman! In the interview Elise discussed the general problem area of our project, specifically the abundance of photos we collect but have difficulty retrieving at a later point in time. We made sure to grab a copy of the article for your reading pleasure.

Last week UTS News Room paid attention to the Materialising Memories project as well. The university’s journalists featured the project on the News Room website, including a discussion of the partnership between UTS and TU/e. Similar reports were published by Eindhoven University’s Cursor and Bits & Chips, a news source for the Dutch and Belgian high-tech industry. In the coming months one of UTS’ news channels will publish another interview with Elise, so more mentions in the media will surely follow.

TU/e signs Memorandum of Agreement with UTS

3 July 2013Project memoriesMM Admin

Eindhoven’s university newspaper confirms that our project will be the first to have a joint PhD programme to mark the newly signed agreement between TU/e and UTS. Project leader Elise van den Hoven has held positions at both universities for some time now, and Berry Eggen will become adjunct professor at UTS to further support the partnership. Each university will be home to two of our PhD candidates. From the article:

De TU/e wordt ‘Key Technology Partner’ van de University of Technology, Sydney (UTS). Het voornemen tot een verbond met de Australische universiteit werd dinsdag bekrachtigd met het ondertekenen van een Memorandum of Agreement. Als onderdeel van de samenwerking komt er een gezamenlijk ‘PhD programme’, dat per direct invulling krijgt in de vorm van het Vidi-project rond persoonlijke herinneringen dat dr. Elise van den Hoven op beide locaties zal leiden.

Group portrait after signing of the MoA between Eindhoven University of Technology and University of Technology, Sydney, with: Elise van den Hoven (project leader), Innes Ireland (UTS), Attila Brungs (UTS), Lawrence Wallen (UTS), Aarnout Brombacher (TU/e), Berry Eggen (TU/e), Thea Brejzek (UTS). Photo by Bart van Overbeeke.

The complete article by Cursor’s Tom Jeltes can be found online (in Dutch). Both photos by Bart van Overbeeke.

Official project kick-off

2 July 2013Project memoriesMM Admin

Today the project got its official start in front of a small audience, consisting of all the team members, plus a delegation from UTS and others who showed interest. Each of us introduced her or himself by explaining why we chose to bring a specific artefact that triggered memories for us. Elise then explained the core reasoning behind the project; no one brought a hard disk or other digital storage device, while many of us have valuable memories attached to media stored on such devices. Here the Materialising Memories project can make a difference and we hope to show our work to the community in the next few years!

Mendel adjusts his book, one of each team member's artefacts that brings back memories. — Mendel adjusts his book, one of each team member’s artefacts that brings back memories.

The top image shows the group of people related to the project. Standing, left to right: Innes Ireland (UTS), prof. Attila Brungs (UTS), prof. Panos Markopoulos (TU/e), Mendel Broekhuijsen (PhD candidate, TU/e), Annemarie Zijlema (PhD candidate, UTS), Ine Mols (PhD candidate, TU/e), Doménique van Gennip (PhD candidate, UTS), prof. Berry Eggen (TU/e). Sitting: Elise van den Hoven (UTS & TU/e), prof. Lawrence Wallen (UTS). Photo by Iris Soute.