Manchester Science Festival + @SalfordUni #msf14

Last night was the preview of Manchester Science Festival, a really fun event which saw audience members impersonating chaffinches and witnessed Bez from Happy Mondays present a 3D printed version of his head, while getting quite riled up about fracking - he's in a debate within the fest on 28th. Slightly surreal, as it should be. It's great to be joining University of Salford, Manchester this month, which is the Lead Educational Sponsor of the festival! Ethan was the official photographer for the night and produced, by far, the best impersonation of a Chaffinch.

I am taking part in a debate the same night called 'Playing God', which also features the Prof Steve Fuller and Dr Anna Bergqvist. It's also billed within the Manchester Salon series.

My Summer

Here's what I got up to for part of this summer...  

Project Daedalus needs a Producer & Research Assistant

As I start at Salford University, there is an opportunity for a talented producer and research assistant in a new Digital R&D For the Arts project for which I am the research lead. The fund is jointly awarded by Nesta, AHRC, and Arts Council England. Please find the details below:

"An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced academic researcher and creative producer to join Project Daedalus, a new, Nesta project led by Abandon Normal Devices (AND), Marshmallow Laser Feast (MLF), and the University of Salford (UoS). Project Daedalus aims to liberate geographic constraints on artistic experiences and live events, using quadrotor technology (flying drones), combined with custom-made applications, to test new ways of engaging audiences remotely with content in real-time. Project Daedalus will test the limits of non-linear storytelling by creating interactive environments, which allow audiences to engage remotely by creating and sharing content in real-time.

The position will be based across Salford’s School of Environment & Life Sciences (ELS) and AND’s office in Manchester, with some presence in Media City Salford, an exciting, state of the art destination, which fosters new, creative connections between scientists, the media and various publics. In 2014, the School of ELS invested into 6 new appointments, including a Chair in Science Communication & Digital Media, with which this post will be associated.

AND is a catalyst for new approaches to art-making and digital invention, commissioning ground-breaking projects which challenge the definitions of art and moving image. Inviting artists to hijack the imagination, by developing projects which abandon traditional settings and partnerships, with a distinct emphasis on creative enquiry and provocations, AND brings together an eclectic mix of academics, filmmakers, scientists and anarchists to actively push the boundaries of audience experience and arts production.

Informal enquiries in the first instance to Professor Andy Miah email: email@andymiah.net"

If you would like to apply, please use this link You can also find out more on the research side of the role here

Application deadline: 18th October, 2014.

Hours: 0.5 FTE, 12 months

Ethics, Science, Technology, and Engineering: A Global Resource

This month sees the launch of a second edition book, for which I have written an article on Sports. Here's an excerpt from my chapteR:

"This debate parallels broader transformations to the world of health care and medicine that are reshaping the human condition. As societies become better equipped to deal with age-related illnesses, the lines between therapy and enhancement blur, and the feasibility of keeping athletes free from doping becomes harder. In short, we all may be doped in the future, in order to ensure longer, healthier lives. One solution for sport may be a separation of “enhanced” and “unenhanced” athletes into distinct competitions, but the result may be that audiences lose interest in unenhanced athletes because enhanced superhuman athletes will deliver the most extraordinary spectacles. Alternatively, as prosthetic technologies improve, the category of doping changes. The inclusion of Oscar Pistorius within the London 2012 Olympic Games program—not just the Paralympic Games—spoke to this wider shift in how we understand the terms abled and disabled, as prosthetic and bionic limbs become better than their biological counterparts."

The full reference for the text is:

Holbrook, J. Britt, and Carl Mitcham, eds. Ethics, Science, Technology, and Engineering: A Global Resource, 2^nd edition. 4 vols.Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2015.

Project Daedalus

Ok, there are grants, and there are grants. This one is pretty, pretty, pretty, damn cool. We've called it Project Daedalus, after the creative father of Icarus, artist, crafter, mindful of technology's limits. Project Daedalus is an experiment into digital enabled flying technology. Myself, along with the truly amazing Abandon Normal Devices and Marshmallow Laser Feast won funds from the Digital R&D in the Arts programme, funded by Nesta, AHRC, and Arts Council England. Here's the one pager. And here's something MLF made with drones a couple of years ago. Mindblowing..

Filming athletes with Google Glass at #Nanjing2014

While here in Nanjing, we have developed a series of films testing Google Glass with athletes. Here's what the IOC Young Reporters came up with... Archery

Basketball

Beach Volleyball

Climbing

Equestrian

Fencing

Football

Handball

Opening Ceremony

Skateboarding & Skating (inline)

Tennis

Let the Selfie Olympic Games Begin

I have been in Nanjing for 4 days now and we have done our intensive training. Time to get out in the field. The 35 Young Reporters are extraordinary, so talented. I look forward to seeing what they can produce. Follow their output here.

Movie Review: Her (2014)

On a flight to the USA last week, I watched Her, a film so many people told me I had to see, since it was 'on topic'. So, here's what I made of it. If you haven't seen it, be warned, there are spoilers.

Nanjing 2014 Youth Olympic Games

Next week, I head to Nanjing, where I will be the social media mentor for the IOC's Young Reporters programme at the Youth Olympic Games. 35 amazing young reporters from around the world will come together to learn how to report the Games, hearing from some of the world's best, including the current Press Chief of Rio 2016. It's going to be a lot of work, but a real blast I am sure. Here's a little montage selfie video I made of them all...

Sport Photography

Over the last 2 years, I have got to know a number of remarkable photographers via the International Olympic Committee. It seems to me that sport photography is one of the most challenging subjects to really shoot well and shoot in an original way. I was glad to have a chance to be track side at the IAAF World Junior Championships this week to spend some time thinking about this side of my photography and practising a bit. Here's what I came up with...

Google Glass at the World Junior Championships

This week, I was at the IAAF World Juniors, road testing Google Glass as a reporting tool. It was especially cool to compare stories with World Champion Ato Boldon, also a Glass owner. The young athletes at the competition were so keen to try out Glass after the media training we gave. Part of my message to them was to become early adopters, so they don't get left behind. We are witnessing a new era of digital interactions and wearable technology prototypes, like Google Glass, are just the beginning. Here is a short video showing how the athletes got on trying Google Glass for the first time.

IAAF World Junior Championships

This week, I am at the IAAF World Junior Chamionships in the USA to give social media training to athletes. Other trainers include the former world champion sprinter Ato Boldon, Olympic champion Joanna Hayes, and Canada's legendary Charmaine Crooks. Very excited Here's the programme: • Introduction and moderator Charmaine Crooks • The dos and don’ts of social media Professor Andy Miah • Being an Olympic champion – how to cope with the media’s pressure Joanna Hayes • Athletics and television – opportunities and perspectives Ato Boldon Followed by media training and questions & answers

Wakestock 2014

Last weekend, I went to the Welsh festival Wakestock as an official photographer. here are some of the goods...

Google Glass Explorer

I recently joined the Google Glass Explorer community, after having spent the last few months working on a couple of papers about Glass. Planning a little film project around the experience and a whole bunch of other stuff. Watch this space.

What's trending at #ECSS2014?

In July, I ran a social media and sport workshop at #ECSS2014. Here's a video made from the congress, where I talk a bit about social media...

And here's the prezi from the workshop...

Understanding Digital Health

I have just published a new article with Dr Emma Rich, which writes about how we should think about the rise of mHealth. It is published in the Open Access journal societies, so it's free to download. Here's the abstract:  

Abstract: This paper argues on behalf of a public pedagogy approach to developing a critical understanding of digital health technologies. It begins by appraising the hitherto polarised articulations of digital innovation as either techno-utopian or techno-dystopian, examining these expectations of technology and considering the tensions between them. It subsequently outlines how a public pedagogy approach can help mediate between these views, offering a more contextualised, socio-political perspective of mHealth. This approach teases out the nuances of digital health by engaging with the complexities of embodied learning. Furthermore, it urges caution against viewing these pedagogical forces as one of transference, or simple governance. To this end, we therefore contextualise our critique of digital health, within an attempt to reconstitute an understanding of public pedagogies of technology.

Keywords: public pedagogy; mobile health; mHealth; digital health; body; prosthetics; technology; learning

My top 10 digital platforms

This month, I was asked by All Media Scotland to collate my top 10 digital platforms. this is part of a series of top 10s they have done with media practitioners. I chose to focus on the things I have discovered in the last year or so, which are taking my practice in new directions. Here's my list on their website.  

Sochi 2014 & Social Media

This week, I was in Paris for a meeting convened by the International Olympic Committee's Head of Media Operations Anthony Edgar and outgoing IOC Press Commission Chair Kevin Gosper. It took place at AFP Paris and focused on the future of sports and news reporting. As a private meeting, it aims to set out key priorities for the IOC to consider around the future needs of the press at the Olympics. Debates were open and the climate of the meeting aimed to promote sharing among what otherwise might be seen as competing organizations. It's a really unique meeting and it was a privilege to speak there for the second time running.

Sport, Technology, & Social Media

This week, I was in Plymouth giving a public lecture on social media and sport. The lecture spanned wearable technology such as Google Glass to virtual reality simulations.

Mobile Media & Morality

Keynote talk for the conference titled Social Media Analysis: Methods and Ethics, which took place at Glasgow University. My lecture was titled Mobile Media & Morality: Cultivating Ethical Sensitivity in Social Media Research.