This study was centered on the “Campus” of L’École de design Nantes Atlantique, an intranet centralizing several online services, sustaining the cohesion of all our pedagogical activities: webmail, planning, phonebook, project follow-up, further teaching material, photo gallery… and a public instant messaging application, the “Mégaphone,” which is quite popular among our students. The Campus has now become absolutely indispensable and brings together the activities of over 700 students, teachers and coordinators. It is visited by an average number of 250 users a day.

The dataquarium installation was developed as an exhibition in the entrance hall of l’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique, in the form of a fish tank (aquarium). This first experiment aims to help us visualize in real-time the incoming and outgoing data flow from our intranet (http://campus.lecolededesign.com), and to provide a metaphorical virtual representation of its users. The environment (setting and flora) is dynamically generated according to daily stats relating to the number of users visiting the website of l’École de Design Nantes Atlantique (http://www.lecolededesign.com), the bandwidth used, incoming and outgoing e-mails. Users connected to the intranet move about in the shape of three different varieties of fish attributed to three different types of users: students are represented by butterfly fish, professors and coordinators by clown fish and… a hypothetical caretaker – the Managing Director of l’Ecole de design Nantes Atlantique (?!) – appears as a Henochius fish.

These short texts coming from the “Mégaphone” or from the text message area (as far as the on-line version is concerned) gradually crumble to pieces on which this virtual aquatic fauna then feeds.
The fish behave in a randomly autonomous way. Doted with a text message area, the online version enables users to send information so as to command their avatar to perform such or such action within the aquarium (speed, slow…).
Finally, thanks to a management-console-like interface, users are free to modify their personal data (e-mail, website Url) and to customize the default texture of their fish (bitmap format image). The “W” key is used to display/hide the name of the fish and the “Z” key enables users to shift the camera view angle and zoom on the fish.

Illustration of the dataquarium as installation and as website :

Online version : http://datatainment.lecolededesign.com/dataquarium/
Dataquarium was made by Diane Faidy and Julien Dumail in collaboration with Gregoire Cliquet

Teaching:
- Computer basics: A story of Human-Computer relationships
- Internet basics: From TCP/IP to Web and Social Networks
- Interaction design methodology
- Software: Virtools (realtime 3d)

Projects leader:
- “Jump’in”: User interfaces for “comUputing” in mobilty / Orange (2007)
- “iTheque”: Tangible Media Centers / (2006)
- “WIZ”: Vizualisation of large datasets / France Telecom R&D (2004)
- “Senior Interface Design”: Senior User Interfaces / Packard bell (2003)

http://turing.lecolededesign.com/gcliquet/
g.cliquet[@]lecolededesign.com

2nd Semester 2007/2008

Studying Hypermedia Design at l’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique (France).

1st Semester 2007/2008
Studying Hypermedia Design at IDAS, Seoul (Korea).
Experimentation and creativity development on interactivity and multimedia design.

2005-2007
Studying Hypermedia Design at l’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique (France).
Consolidation on technical skills, mastery of the computer as a tool. Creativity development on interactivity
and multimedia design.

2004-2005
Learning the basics in creation and innovations at L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique (France).
June, 2004
Baccalauréat specialised in science subject, equivalent to A levels

Work experience

July 2007 to August 2007
Hypermedia Designer: Developing media contents for GNFA ( web based automobile’s training ).

August 2006 to November 2006
Freelance work: creation of website for Marymail (artist, www.marymail.fr), Carmiany (under wear shop, www.carmiany.fr), Pompes Funèbres Lannionnaises (undertaker’s, www.pompesfunebreslannion.fr ).

July 2006 to August 2006
Two month training period in Regart.net, Paris, France. Developing media contents for the Flashxpress community, (flashxpress.net)

Language skills

English: good working knowledge
Spanish: basic working knowledge

Information Technology skills

Software
2D graphic: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.
3D graphic: Discreet 3DSmax (modelisation, skinning, texturing), Virtools.
Sound: Adobe Audition, Cubase.
Motion: Adobe Flash and Director (animation and script), Adobe Premiere.

Programming
HTML/CSS (excellent working knowledge)
PHP/SQL (good working knowledge)
Processing (good working knowledge)
Action Script (good working knowledge)
Virtools (good working knowledge)
Lingo Director (good working knowledge)
Javascript scipting for Illustrator and Indesign Software (good working knowledge)
Using Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Methodology skills

Design methodology of project.

Responsabilities

Elected School representative at «L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique» (chair of the school’s student association)

Hobbies

Technology
Web based Os and the web applications, nomad hardware and interactive technology.
Music
Drummer in a pop music group, self-taught guitarist.
Sports
Automobile sport, badmington and table tennis.

References

Grégoire Cliquet in charge of Hypermedia studies at L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique.
g.cliquet [at] lecolededesign.com
Guylaine Monnier head of an Adobe Certified Center, Regart.net, Paris, France.

Contact

Website:http://clickonme.free.fr
Email:j.dumail[@]lecolededesign.com
Google profile and shared Stuff

Education and qualifications

2007
Exchange student in IDAS (International Design school for Advanced Studies) in Seoul, Korea for one semester. Studying in Media Design in three different courses : Digital Media Studio, Virtual Space Design and Experimental interaction.

2005-07
Hypermedia Design Specialisation (2nd and 3rd year at the Ecole de Design de Nantes).

2004-05
1st year at the School of Design in Nantes
Learning the basics in creation and innnovation

2004
Baccalaureat, equivalent to «A Levels» specialised in Sciences and Engineering

Work and projects experience

Dataquarium
The « dataquarium » is a real-time and virtual representation of the evolution of an intranet (from l’Ecole de Design de Nantes). The environnement is dynamically generated depending on the number of mails sent, or users connected the day before, while the fishes represent the user connected in real-time.
Developpement of the application (Virtools©) and the back-office interface.
In collaboration with Grégoire Cliquet and Julien Dumail, 2007
http://datatainment.lecolededesign.com/dataquarium/

Jump’in
Project in partnership with Orange.
Design of an application offering diverse way of communication (IM, mail, sms, calls, …) and a social network visualisation on mobile phones.
In collaboration with Heidi Ghernati and Yumi Choi, 2007

Library
Design of an online bookmark application, based on information visualisation of the urls.
In collaboration with Julien Dumail, 2007

Training period
In a communication agency located in Sautron (44), working on the agency identity, creating 2d and 3d animations.
Period of 2 months, 2006

Etcaetera Production
Graphism and webdesign for an association giving value to cinematographical creation.
Realised in 2006

Skills

Multimedia Software
Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign
Macromedia Dreamweaver, Flash, Director
3d Studio Max
Carrara

Programming
XHTML, CSS, PHP and MySQL
Virtools
Lingo
Action Script
Processing

Languages
French (mother tongue)
English : TOEIC (755 points)

Hobbies
Piano, guitar
Judo (black belt)
Water sports : swimming, diving, sailing

Trips
Korea, China
England, Ireland, Cyprus, Brazil, Morocco, Tunisia

References

Grégoire Cliquet, in charge of hypermedia specialisation in l’Ecole de Design de Nantes.
g.cliquet[at]lecolededesign.com

Contact

d.faidy[at]lecolededesign.com
http://turing.lecolededesign.com/~dfaidy/

Definitions
data: “data” is to be understood as part of a basic material malleable at will that can be shaped just like clay into a form or a volume laden with meaning and emotion. Data can either be presented in a quite elementary way: in binary, hexadecimal, decimal patterns… like digital data produced for statistic purposes (”log” files on web servers, for instance), or they can be aggregated in a meaningful (informative) way, which means considered as a message/message fragment (a comment on a blog, for instance).

(enter)tainment: Since playing games is said to be very significant in the evolution of species and especially in the evolution of mammals (1),  we should overstep the usually mostly derogatory views on game-playing and rather strive to see it in a different, anthropological light by focusing on its cultural and teaching-oriented dimensions [Huizinga, 1938]. Reaching far beyond all competitive or collaborative logic, games are metaphors of the real world in that they transpose formal, customary behaviors and enable individuals to increase their creativity whilst fostering their social skills and, in the greater picture, contributing to the very development of civilization [Caillois, 1957]. As Chris Crawford says, the ability of games to bring together distinct entities makes them key elements of interaction design [Crawford, 03]. Game playing promotes dialogues between human beings and machines as shown by Apple’s tremendous success: “The Macintosh is just a toy.” As a new “hyper-social” society composed of “digital natives” is currently surfacing, games appear as a great opportunity to transcribe the behaviors and actions of individuals within an informational environment (cyberspace).

Datatainment stems from experiments conducted in the field of mapping whereby it first and foremost aims at representing the digital territory. To do so it borrows from graphic semiology (2) and transcends the founding principles of information mapping [Bertin, 67]: in this case variables are materialized by dynamic symbols, be they metaphorical, explicit or personified; maps (the media) – traditionally used to contextualize data or messages – turn into “environments” within which data and messages can evolve easily. But the true specificity of datatainment lies in its implementing interaction modes that break free from usual functionality and accessibility requirements so as to enable users to experience situations drawing inspiration from the notion of gameplay.

Context
The birth of the Web 2.0 (3) and the subsequent increase of all related online content-oriented applications has brought about a rise in the amount of resources available to Internet users, promoted knowledge-sharing, woven social relationships out of shared knowledge and opinions… Some thinkers see this phenomenon as the expression of a “collective intelligence” [Levy, 97]. It also appears as a huge exploration field that can easily be exploited by confronting and extracting the information and the spurs left – consciously or not – by Internet users (data mining). As F. Ghitalla ’s studies (4) have shown, collecting information, analyzing how it is interconnected and mapping it out (information visualization), prove very efficient on a strategic level. In the political field for instance they enabled him to predict that the French would say “no” to the European Constitution through the referendum held on May 29th, 2005 whereas most poll agencies announced that the Treaty would be heartily welcomed by the French. In the economic field “Crowdsourcing” (5)  enables one to observe the trends of such or such market, the dynamics of competition seen from a user’s point of view, this time (6).  In the field of data research the crossbreeding between browser history, correspondence and Internet user behavior has played a quite significant part in Google’s quickly achieved fame.

Datatainment is not meant to create analyzing tools: it is rather a mode of representation not so much helping Internet users grow increasingly aware of their own “cyber-existence,” as bringing to the fore means to take action and build a “digital social” (7) identity. Rooted in a long-term educational approach, datatainment is a means of facing the crucial need to educate people about the omnipresent information ecosystem that is also on the verge of becoming omniscient.

“Serious” Games
Video games undoubtedly took part in the development of micro-computing whereby they helped the broad public adjust to it. Their success – now going way further than merely fulfilling the need for entertainment (8) – shows how the Internet users of today have embraced video games as cultural values, going as far as making video games into essential 21st Century knowledge acquisition and knowledge transfer tools. Nowadays video games are gradually breaking free from all-too-common heroic fantasy-type quests and growing more mature, entering the “serious gaming” step. J. Alvarez [Alvarez 07] defines “serious gaming” as follows: “Computer application aiming to combine serious aspects such as – this is a non-exhaustive list – teaching, learning, communication and information with amusement-oriented features stemming from video games. This combination – achieved by implementing an “educational scenario” – endeavors to detach itself from mere entertainment. Serious gaming is a means of transposing contexts, objects, activities and actual situations to virtualize them into playful environments.  In this virtual context the user can therefore explore real life situations as a game. To do so, serious gaming relies on digital realistic models and takes the shape of a simulation device coupled with gameplay, enabling the player to follow an interactive pedagogical process (9).  Thanks to serious gaming, we can play to solve a wide range of complex issues ranging from the individual practice of a foreign language (10),  to collective protein folding (11) or to planning, organizing and rehearsing varied rescue operations (12).

Datatainment Specifiticies
The main difference between datatainment and serious gaming lies in their relationship to reality. When I play “Fold It,” the game’s interface renders behaviors and automatic responses that fully mirror the biochemical phenomena ruling over protein structure. This way, by manipulating a three-dimensional puzzle I get a chance to discover new protein structures that may bear fruit and lead to the production of an actual vaccine. Opposingly datatainment relies on resources coming from an already immaterial environment (Web); it aims to re-contextualize these resources within the same environment but in a different manner. In the end, datatainment brings the opportunity to materialize virtual spheres into real world applications via tangible interfaces or products which communicate (13).

Notes :
(1) Human beings are the mammals most prone to game-playing
(2) “Information semiology” would perhaps be more appropriate, referring to the use of maps to represent information.
(3) 7-point definition of the Web 2.0 by Tim O’Reilly
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html
French translation available at: http://www.eutech-ssii.com/ressources/view/1
(4) Several business intelligence tools dedicated to exploiting trends prevailing in the Web 2.0. can be found on the RTGI website (“Réseaux, Territoires et Géographie de l’Information”)
(5) Jeff Howe’s Website (Jeff Howe created “Crowdsourcing“) http://crowdsourcing.typepad.com/
(6) An issue I have been researching as part of my PhD (Thesis titled “Web 2.0 and Integration of the Horizontal Innovation Strategy into the Global Innovation Strategy of SMC’s”)
(7) This is a reference to  the notion of “social identity,” here applied to a “de-materialized” life.
(8) According to R. Caillois “MMORPG” (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games) rank in the “mimicry“ category because when “corrupted” (i.e. when the boundaries between game and reality are too blurry) they can be quite harmful and – among other potential consequences – lead to the player’s alienation or schizophrenic behavior (cf. table II p122).
(9) Jean-Noël Portugal, 2nd European Serious Game Summit (Lyon, France, December 2006)
(10) “English Training” or “Dr Kawashima’s Advanced Brain Training” on Nintendo DS
http://www.nintendo.fr/NOE/fr_FR/games/nds/programme_dentranement_crbral_avanc_du_dr_kawashima_2920.html
(11) http://fold.it is part of the research effort to find an anti-HIV vaccine.
(12) Such as “SWORD”: Game developed by MASA Group for firefighter training. (http://www.masa-sci.com/security.htm)
(13) Check out the “nabaztag” rabbit (http://www.nabaztag.com/fr/index.html)

Works cited:
[Huizinga, 1938] Homo Ludens (Johan Huizinga)
[Caillois, 57] Roger Caillois. “Les jeux et les hommes.” (Gallimard)
[Crawford, 03] Chris Crawford. “The Art of Interactive Design,” p.225
[Bertin, 67] Jacques Bertin. “Sémiologie Graphique, Les diagrammes, Les réseaux, Les cartes.”
[Levy, 97] Pierre Levy “L’intelligence collective, pour une anthropologie du cyberespace.”
[Alvarez 07] “Du jeu vidéo au serious game” : Approches culturelle, pragmatique et formelle.”
Thesis defended by Julian Alvarez on December 17, 2007 / Université Toulouse II (France)