Kah is a design researcher interested in people, games and technology. He has most recently worked on TringTring is an energy monitoring application designed as part of the First Light House, Victoria University's entry into the 2011 U.S. Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon competition., First Lightwww.firstlighthouse.ac.nz was the official website for the First Light House. and Playing in TrafficPlaying in Traffic is Kah's current research into augmenting user behaviour in traffic through new media. The website, www.playingintraffic.co, has the initial ethnographic research into traffic behaviour..
research interests
My primary research interests are in the cross-section between games and new media and the subsequent potential social effects. Currently I'm working on integrating social science research methods to design new media artifacts to augment user behaviour.
projects
Recent Work
My most recent work revolves around understanding commuter behaviour patterns in traffic and using that knowledge to encourage pro-social behaviour in traffic. This involves a combination of visual ethnographic research through a cultural probe (primarily a small video camera), and responding to that data with a series of design solutions. I'm currently collaborating with the New Zealand Transport Authority and the Greater Wellington Regional Council.
Tring
Everything that we do in life, in society, in the world comes back fundamentally to energy and energy use. From the water that we drink from the tap to the clothes that we wear and the technology that we use, all aspects of life can be seen as intimately connected to the energy we have available to us in our society.
The consequences of climate change are starting to force governments and individuals to make a closer connection between money and energy (we can see carbon trading initiatives as the first example of this). While energy has been very cheap for a very long time it is now starting to get more and more expensive as the costs of climate change become apparent and the availability of energy sources that used to be easy to find and generate (oil, coal, nuclear) begin to disappear.
Changing Lanes
The car as an object is a shell, isolating drivers from their environment by insulating them from the sounds and smells of their surroundings. Changing Lanes is a speculative mobile-based location game designed to provide commuters with an extra sense of purpose while commuting in order to engage them with the activity of commuting, rather than disengaging.
Playing in Traffic
Playing in Traffic is a visual record of twelve commuters' travels. This video project aims to observe and record the experience of commuting, and highlight the (non) social interactions between road users. The initial records are from two perspectives, cyclists and drivers.
Playing in Traffic tracks the commutes of twelve road users (six drivers and six cyclists) through a combination of point-of-view video recordings using a small helmet or head mounted camera and a global positioning system. The commutes are filmed for a week to capture a typical representation of a commute, resulting in over 32 hours of video and over 1015 kms travelled. Cyclists account for 14 hours over 281 kms, and drivers 18 hours over 734 kms.
NZTA x GWRC
The New Zealand Transport Authority and the Greater Wellington Regional Council are collaborating on a series of educational videos to help educate and guide cyclist in Wellington, New Zealand. The BikeWise Commuter Series will be launhced online in 2012.
contact
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recent publications
- Chan, K. (2009). Understanding Empathy in Children through 3D Character Design. In Proceedings from DiGRA 2009: Breaking New Ground: Innovation in Games, Play, Practice and Theory. (London: Brunel University, September, 2009). DiGRA 2009. Click to preview .pdf.Also available at www.digra.org
- Chan, K. (2010). Playing in Traffic: pervasive gaming for commuters. In Proceedings of the 7th Australasian Interactive Entertainment Conference (Wellington, New Zealand, 22nd November – 23rd November 2010). Click to preview .pdf.Full proceedings available at www.ieconference.org
- Chan, K. (2010). In Proceedings of the 7th Australasian Interactive Entertainment Conference (Wellington, New Zealand, 22nd November – 23rd November 2010). Click to preview .pdf.Full proceedings available at www.ieconference.org
- Chan, K. (2010). Facilitating business conversations through video gaming. In Proceedings of Participatory Innovation Conference (Sønderborg, Denmark, 13th January – 15th January 2011). PINC2011. 325-328. Click to preview .pdf.Full proceedings available at spirewire.sdu.dk
- Chan, K. (2011). Visual Ethnography in Game Design: A case study of user-centric concept for a mobile social traffic game. In Proceedings of the 15th Mindtrek '11 (Tampere, Finland, 28th September - 30th September 2011).Click to preview .pdf.