Efstathia Kostopoulou

Community Memories Documentation and Experience in Localities: The Physical and Digital Interfaces

VisAge: Augmented Reality for Heritage, 2014-2016, UCL

First and second supervisors 

Abstract

In the digital turn there has been a significant effort documenting local stories and memories as oral histories, but also various artifacts such as photographs that relate local or national memory to the built environment of neighbourhoods and localities. This research focuses on the memory of places and ways of telling stories through material and digital tools and practices, by drawing on mediation, space and archives. It explores how we design and meaningfully engage with digital-physical interfaces for local memories to be experienced in site specific ways. 

There is a main hypothesis that situated experience of archives in public space, mediated by hybrid practices of both a material and digital nature, can stimulate communities’ creativity and allow more possibilities for engagement and participation. The research takes into account selected case studies and their agents, and though primarily qualitative methodology, tries to address best practice for the appropriation and experience of local memories as activation of the digital archive narratives in (urban) space. This research aims to contribute to the design interface, physical urban and digital, with the provision of local memory.

Biography

Efstathia Kostopoulou is an architect from Greece, with an Advanced Architectural Studies MSc from The Bartlett, UCL where she is currently studying for her Architectural Space & Computation MPhil/PhD. Her research interests include urban design and heritage, infrastructure, media architecture and the publics and her research looks into affective digital and physical experiences that relate public spaces to local memory and culture. Efstathia further works as a project manager commissioning and facilitating a number of projects and events in East London, focusing on public spaces with respect to sustainability, heritage and culture.

Publications

  • Kostopoulou, E. and Fatah gen Schieck, A. (2020). Designing for Hyperlocal: The Use of Locative Media to Augment Place Narratives. In Aurigi, A. and Odendaal, N. (eds) Shaping Smart for Better Cities, Elsevier, London.
  • Kostopoulou, E. (2020). Combining Physical, Digital and Embodied Practices to Tell the Stories of Places. Poster presentation in ACHS 2020: Futures, London.
  • Kostopoulou, E. (2019). Community memories Documentation and Experience in Localities. Poster presentation in Beyond Conference, The R&D for the Creative Industries, Assembly, Edinburgh
  • Kostopoulou, E., Javornik, A., Koutsolampros, P., Julier, S., and Fatah gen. Schieck, A (2018). Mediated Spatial Narratives: Experiencing Archival Material and Shared Memories in Urban Space. In Proceedings of Media Architecture Biennale 2018, Beijing, China, November 2018 (MAB’2018), 10 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3284389.3284395
  • Kostopoulou, E. (2018), Rethinking the Urban Memorial. In Proceedings of the 25th EVA Berlin Conference, Berlin, Germany.
  • Kostopoulou, E., Fatah gen Schieck, A., Javornik, A., Koutsolampros, P. and Julier, S. (2018). The Use of Augmented Reality for Situated Heritage Experience: the Whitechapel Case Study. Poster presentation in the 4th SEAHA International Conference, London
  • Javornik, A., Kostopoulou, E., Rogers, Y., Fatah gen Schieck, A., Koutsolampros, P., Moutinho, A.M. & Julier, S. (2018) An experimental study on the role of augmented reality content type in an outdoor site exploration, Behaviour & Information Technology, DOI: 10.1080/0144929X.2018.1505950
  • Chrysikou, E., Kostopoulou, E., Savvopoulou, E. and Fatah gen. Schieck, A. (2017) Medical Architecture on the Social Valorisation of Psychiatric Patients: Employing Transdisciplinary Approaches between Architecture, Physical and Mental Well-being Disciplines “Architecture Connects”, the AAE 2017 conference: International peer reviewed conference of the association of architectural educators, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, 06 Sep 2017 - 09 Sep 2017. 11 Aug 2017
  • Memarovic, N., Fatah gen Schieck, A., Schnadelbach, H., Kostopoulou, E., North, S., Ye, L., & Fatah gen. Schieck, A. (2016). Longitudinal, cross-site and “in the Wild”: a study of public displays user communities’ situated snapshots. Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Media Architecture Biennale. ACM. doi:10.1145/2946803.2946804
  • Julier, S. Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Blume, P., Moutinho, A., Koutsolampros, P., Javornik, A. and Kostopoulou, E. (2016). VisAge:Augmented Reality for Heritage. In Proceedings of the 5th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays (pp.257-258).
  • Memarovic, N., Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Schnadelbach, H., Kostopoulou, E., North, S., & Ye, L. (2015). Capture the Moment: “In the Wild” Longitudinal Case Study of Situated Snapshots Captured Through an Urban Screen in a Community Setting. ACM Digital Library.
  • Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Moutinho, A., Kostopoulou, E., Freeman, R., Senevirathne, S., Grover, C. (2014). Augmented Urban Experience through Mediated Spatial Narratives, UrbanIxD: City. Data. Future Symposium 2014, Venice, Italy. ISBN: 978-0-9562169-3-9
  • Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Schnädelbach, H., Motta, W., Behrens, M., North, S., Ye, L., Kostopoulou, E., (2014) ‘Screens in the Wild: Exploring the potential of Networked Urban Screens for Communities and Culture’. In PerDisp’14: The International Symposium on Pervasive Display, Copenhagen, Denmark. (video) http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2611009.2617199
  • Memarovic, N., Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Kostopoulou, E., Behrens, M., & Al-Sayed, K. (2014). ‘Attention, An Interactive Display Is Running! Integrating Interactive Public Display Within Urban Dis(At)tractors’. Screencity Journal, issue 4, Special Issue on Spaces, Images, Communication: Improving New Urban Models, 2014.
  • N. Memarovic, A. Fatah gen Schieck, E. Kostopoulou, M. Behrens (2014), ‘Exploring the Effect of Spatial Layout on Mediated Urban Interactions’, In Proceedings PerDisp’13: The International Symposium on Pervasive Display, California, USA.
  • Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Al-Sayed, K., Kostopoulou, E., Behrens, M., Motta, W. (2013), ‘Networked architectural interfaces: exploring the effect of spatial configuration on urban screen placement’, 9th International Space Syntax Symposium, Seoul, October 31-November
  • North, S., Schnädelbach, H., Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Motta, W., Ye, L., Behrens, M., Kostopoulou, E. (2013), ‘Tension Space Analysis: Exploring Community Requirements for Networked Urban Screens’, In Proceedings of the 14th IFIP TC13 international conference on Human-computer interaction (INTERACT 2013), Marco Winckler (Ed.), Vol. Part x. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.                                                            
                                                            
    Motta, W., Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Schnädelbach, H., Kostopoulou, E., Behrens, M., North, S., Ye, L. (2013), ‘Considering Communities, Diversity and the Production of Locality in the Design of Networked Urban Screens’, In Proceedings of the 14th IFIP TC13 international conference on Human-computer interaction (INTERACT 2013), Marco Winckler (Ed.). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg. (short paper)
  • N. Memarovic, A. Fatah gen Schieck, E. Kostopoulou, M. Behrens, and M. Traunmueller, (2013), ‘Moment Machine: Opportunities and Challenges of Posting Situated Snapshots onto Networked Public Displays’, in the 14th IFIP TC13 international conference on Human-computer interaction, In Press. (poster).  
                                                                                                                                            
    Behrens, M., Fatah gen. Schieck, A., Kostopoulou, E., North, S., Motta, W., Ye, L., Schnädelbach, H. (2013), ‘Exploring the Effect of Spatial Layout on Mediated Urban Interactions’, In Proceedings PerDisp’13: The International Symposium on Pervasive Display, California, USA.
     

Exhibitions

  • 2019: Trellis: Public Art exhibition, working with artist Lucy Harrison, for the UCL Culture, EPSRC funded project ‘No Smell, No Dirt, No Trouble’, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. Watch on YouTube
  • 2018: Participation in the festival ‘Now Play This’ with ‘Drawing By Lines’ project, Somerset House, London
  • 2016: ‘Well Built: Designing for Health and Wellbeing in Architecture’ exhibition contributor, Museum of Architecture, London
  • 2013: Participation in the exhibition ‘Digital Futures: Urban Open Space’ with ‘Screens in the Wild’ project, V&A, London
  • 2013: Participation in the exhibition of Digital Shoreditch 2013, with ‘Screens in the Wild’ project, Shoreditch Town Hall, London  
     

Participations

  • 2022: Kostopoulou, E. (2022, August 24-26).  Locative Media & the Activation of the Archive in Public Space [Conference Presentation]. DIGITAL ARCHIVES, BIG DATA AND MEMORY conference, Aalborg University, Copenhagen, Denmark
  • 2021: Academic Mentor for the Creative Cities Challenge, a Global Innovation initiative_ Participating as one of four ECRs representing The Bartlett, UCL - Find out more
  • 2020: Online MAB Meetup|Futures Implied: new horizons in Media Architecture
  • 2020: Online at London Design Festival with ‘Hybrids of Remembrance’_as part of The Bartlett Media+Architecture research participation.
  • 2018: 3D laser scanning of the Church of the English Martyrs in London (capturing team) - View laser scan project. 
     

Links

Image: VisAge: Augmented Reality for Heritage, 2014-2016, UCL