Dott Blog - Health

Better Lives With Dementia - Group Discussion Transcript

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 11:15:00+0100

After presentations from Professor Jim Edwardson, Doctor Susanne Sorensen and thinkpublic, everyone gathered together to discuss dementia.

Below is a transcript of the discussion. You can also listen again to the group discussion. (22.3MB, 48.35mins)

John Thackara: So we discovered there was a physical impediment to our making a perfect circle of these chairs, that we would have had to unhook them all, which was beyond the powers of our limited organisation, so every day we’re making it a bit rounder, but it’s a rather strange kind of bent horseshoe at the moment. The basic concept is that we’re now going to talk to each other on a 100% equal basis.

I haven't had a chance to talk this through in any great detail with Alastair, but my suggestion is that for 15 minutes or so we would focus on the four stories that we haven't heard from – that is to say the next stage of developing services in response to the opportunities we heard.

Then if Alastair, if you could take charge for the last 15, 20 minutes in making sure we come to some kind of conclusion and answer the questions that you set us at the beginning of the afternoon. Would that be a good way to do it? Are you happy with that? [More]

Better Lives With Dementia - Speaker Transcript Part Two

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:45:00+0100

After introduction presentations by Professor Jim Edwardson and Doctor Susanne Sorensen, thinkpublic a public service and communication design agency, and senior producers of the Dott 07 project Alzheimer100 took to the stage.

Speakers Part Two:
Deborah Szebeko, thinkpublic. Listen again (4.28MB, 9.15mins)
Ian Drysdale, thinkpublic. Listen again (2.44MB, 5.20mins)
Ivo Gormley, thinkpublic. Listen again (2.78MB, 6.02mins) [More]

Better Lives With Dementia - Speaker Transcript Part One

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:15:00+0100

Dott 07’s Alzheimer100 project charted the key stages of the journey through dementia in collaboration with people with dementia and their carers. What opportunities for service design innovation exist on that journey? Service ideas that emerged from co-design workshops range from time banking to assistive technology.

This debate, organised in conjunction with the Alzheimer's Society nationally, considered how to amplify the role of citizen co-design in service innovation for health and care.

Read the transcript or listen again below. [More]

Design and Sexual Health Debate - Speaker Transcript

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:58:00+0100

The Design and Sexual Health debate looked specifically at the lessons learned from Dott 07’s DaSH project. DaSH confronted a challenge: sexual health services don’t always reach those most in need. Are our services looking after the nations’ sexual health? What’s stopping them? By engaging a wide audience the project hopes to understand the value of design in health services, and look at how new ideas for service delivery can be realistically implemented.

Read the transcript of the guest speakers below or listen to the audio files. [More]

Listen Again to DaSH Experts

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:56:00+0100

During the Dott 07 Festival we ran a series of Dott Debates; Design and Sexual Health, The Movement Dilemma, Better Lives with Dementia?, Food Systems and Cities, Low Carb Lane and Sustainability, Schools and Schooling. Guest speaker transcripts will be online shortly.

The Design and Sexual Health (DaSH) debate looked at lessons learned from Dott’s DaSH project. DaSH was a collaboration between Dott 07 and Gateshead Primary Care Trust (PCT), who worked together on design actions that would make sexual health screening and treatment services easier to access and use. The project aimed to develop a system where people would be seen by a local service within 48 hours of contact, and where the treatment path is clearly explained and suits the user’s needs. [More]

Cyborg Debate: Our Future Human Body

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 12:07:00+0100

Do robots experience serendipity? That question crossed my mind when I exited the Café Scientifique on Monday 15 October after the Cyborg: Our Future Human Body debate. I got into my car, switched on the radio and Andrew Marr was interviewing John Harris about his new book ‘The Ethical Case for Making People Better.’ Perfect timing! The content of their discussion reflected the one I’d just left and quite apart from helping to organise my thoughts about a very big subject, it managed to get me wondering about something I hadn’t thought about before – can robots experience serendipity? Well, such is the prerogative of the human mind - the questions just keep coming. Scientists and academics struggle and sometimes manage to come up with answers that silence the collective cacophony. To what extent did the panel of scientists and experts manage to do just this on Monday evening? [More]

Dott Debates - Friday 19 October

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 15:49:00+0100

It's your last chance to reserve your seat at two very interesting Dott Debates taking place tomorrow (Friday 19 October) during the Dott 07 Festival. Come along and join the debates on Design and Sexual Health and Better Lives With Dementia. Both debates will take place at the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. Full details below.

The Design and Sexual Health debate will look specifically at the lessons learned from Dott 07’s DaSH project. DaSH confronted a challenge: sexual health services don’t always reach those most in need. Are our services looking after the nations’ sexual health? What’s stopping them? [More]

The Health Zone at the Dott 07 Festival

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 16:04:00+0100

In two innovative and forward-thinking projects, Design and Sexual Health (DaSH) and Alzheimer100, Dott 07 worked with designers to tackle key problems in the areas of Sexual Health and Alzheimer’s. Stigma is a big hurdle to solving many of the problems with the current systems already in place. I mean, who wants to talk about Chlamydia at a family meal with the Grandparents - but think about it - why shouldn’t sexual health problems that affect an increasing number of our teenage population be on the menu? One can only guess that in the Netherlands, where sexual health problems among teenagers are the lowest in Europe, that the topic is discussed any time, any place, any where. [More]

Walking Heads, Lipo and Extra Ears - Stelarc's in Town!

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 14:06:00+0100

On Tuesday evening residents of Newcastle were treated to an eye-opening, jaw-dropping and stomach-churning presentation by performance artist STELARC. The lecture, at the Centre for Life, included images and video clips of his work spanning over 30 years. Stelarc's work explores the concept of the human body and its relationship with technology. Video footage included body suspension performances in which he hangs naked from flesh-piercing hooks - not for the faint hearted, he also showed images of his own bio-material (fat and body tissue) on display in a special chamber! [More]

Cyborgs and Chardonnay at the Discovery Museum

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 16:46:00+0100

Victor Frankenstein is consumed by the desire to create life by electronic means. Schwarzenegger peels back the skin of his forearm to reveal the Terminator skeleton beneath. A robotic boy longs to become human so he can experience his mother’s love in Speilberg’s A.I. The success of science fiction fantasies arguably stems from our deepest concerns about advances in medicine, technology and Artificial Intelligence. Today, these fantasies are closer to reality than ever before. When technology merges with our body, our revulsion mingles with fascination. Remember the yuck factor with the appearance of the Vacanti mouse? A provocative new exhibition, 'Our Cyborg Future?' opened on Friday at the Discovery Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne and inadvertently puts the question to us: has real life become stranger than fiction? [More]

Cyborg Hits Tyneside

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 15:13:00+0100

'Designers are creating a world in which every object, every building - and every body - is connected to a network. These changes blur the difference between natural and artificial, mind and body, me and the world. We did not set out to design such an outcome - it's just happening. Or will, if we let it. Is this the way we want to live?

Our Cyborg Future? brings together real-life, practical enhancements made by dedicated designers and technologists from around the world. It's an opportunity for us all to talk about consequences, and the bigger picture.

Some technology we need. Some we simply desire. It’s time to discuss priorities.'

John Thackara, Programme Director, Dott 07

Our Cyborg Future? opens in the Great Hall at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, on Friday 10 August. And it's FREE entry! [More]

Our Cyborg Future?

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:55:00+0100

From robots to help elderly people to state-of-the-art devices for health, fashion and sport, prepare for the unexpected at Our Cyborg Future? The exhibition takes place at the Discovery Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne, from 10 August - 28 October 07. It will consist of 36 exhibitors from 14 countries presenting over 45 pieces. The exhibitors are made up of companies, university research labs, individual designers and artists and together makes a unique and world first insight into the closing relationship between technology and the human.

The exhibition's 3D environment has been designed by the award winning design agency Land Design. The centre piece of Land's design is giant human figure, draw in light, floating above the floor of the Great Hall. As this is a design exhibition the exhibits are grouped into the areas of the body that they are primarily used by, so where the floating figures head shadows falls on the floor you will find all exhibits relating to the head. [More]

Think Alzheimer's

Thu, 19 Apr 2007 15:29:00+0100

An extraordinary event happened yesterday at the Culture Lab in Newcastle upon Tyne. Over 100 academics, healthcare professionals, service providers and designers met with people with dementia and their carers to address the key problems around the services available for people with dementia. A huge amount is already known about dementia so, you might ask, what is so extraordinary about this gathering? Well, for the first time, Dott 07 are placing people with dementia and their carers at the centre of the design process and their knowledge will have a direct impact on any future proposals to be made. Professor Jim Edwardson, Vice-President of the Alzheimer's Society and ex-Director of the Institute for Ageing and Health says, 'it is absolutely clear that people with dementia and carers have to be the first in the design process. It's no good giving people what they don't want and can't use.' Sensible words indeed but not ones that have not been followed to date. [More]

Explorers - Sustainability and Wellbeing

Wed, 14 Mar 2007 20:37:00+0100

Date: 13 March
Topic: Sustainability and Wellbeing
Location: Robert Stephenson Centre

Most of us watch the weather forecast each evening, so would happen if we had a climate forecast after the evening news? Would we take note and change our behaviour to try and improve the situation?

If we wanted to produce a weather forecast for climate change, how would we design it? This was the task we set for our explorers.

The evening started with some quick fire rounds of speed meeting. It's a great way to break the ice and get people chatting. [More]

'There's Nothing Like a Cup of Tea' - Dementia Prompting

Tue, 06 Mar 2007 10:04:00+0100

It's not rare in these days of global communication, but in the last two weeks I've had conversations with peope on opposite sides of the world working towards a common goal. It's an indication of how acute the need is for better systems and products to help people with Alzheimer's and their carers that there seems to be an explosion of activity in the field. At Doors of Perception in Delhi I got talking to Margie Morris, a psychologist from Portland, Oregon, who is working with a think group at Intel called 'Digital Health'. Part of their work is looking at the exact issues addressed by Dott 07's Alzheimer 100 project, if on a larger scale. They've done a survey across the States looking at how the needs and problems of people with dementia can be helped through technology from 'taking their medication or taking a bath to going out to their mailbox or socialising.' [More]