Norman Alm's lecture on Tuesday was fascinating and perfectly timed, as I begin my own research work looking into the observable effects and impact on social connections for carers of dementia sufferers.
In his lecture, 'Facilitating Communication for people with Dementia using multi-media technology' he discussed CIRCA, one of the many projects he is involved in. CIRCA is an interactive touch-screen device to aid people with dementia - designed to help to stimulate memories, to reminisce about the past and improve their communication. He illustrated the project progression through the design cycle - from ideas generation and getting a team together, to strategies and exploration, through the prototyping stage onto final production.
He spoke at some length about the nature of research work and addressed the essential components of interdisciplinary research. In particular, he stressed the point that each member of the team needs to not only be aware of how other group members work in their field but also the understand the importance of learning more about each other as human beings. How they think and function, how they 'tell their story'.
As Richard Harper said in his seminar, when working with others we need to learn to relate to them, to listen in order to really get 'under their skin' - to try to get a deeper understanding of how they think.
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