WMMNA released an interview with Lalya Gaye from the Future Applications Lab, Viktoria Institute in Göteborg, Sweden.

She's an engineer and PhD graduate working in multidisciplinary projects that search to explore new territories of personal expression and creativity enabled by ubiquitous computing.

That and the fact that the northern countries are very active and successful in using new technologies made it worth to read the interview. Another good reason is that I had two entries the last days about wearable music and Lalya did research in that field too. From that base she moved to one of the hottest topics at all:

Right now the main themes we research on are mobile media, and robotic applications for everyday life. Marketing potential is not on top of our group's list, we would rather prioritise relevant and interesting findings from a research perspective. However, it does not hurt if something we do has some commercial potentials.

There are two notes I like very much: The word "design" for example might mean different things depending on if you are an computer engineer or a product designer for example.

And on the question what an "artistic approach" can offer:
I guess it could be perspectives on the usefulness and meaning of the technology? Art questions common assumptions of what technology is for and what it achieves. Ubicomp is meant to become a pervasive presence in people's lives and with this come issues of personal integrity, democracy, etc. Therefore it is important to question what form and impact this presence could have.

The institute is financed by funding mostly - if you're interested to fund research in this field.

via WMMNA