I'm a Phd student at INCITE with Dr Nina Wakeford. I'm interested in DIY/ grassroots technology and am currently in the write-up phase of an ethnography I conducted in 2006/ 07 about my experiences participating in a volunteer community wireless network in Australia. For info on this, other INCITE researchers and projects see the INCITE blog.

My interest in visual culture of new technology builds on my M.A Visual Culture (2001/02) at the University of Westminster, UK. Prior to this I did a B.A Coms in NSW, Australia. Between studies I've had various proper jobs (about eight years) in advertising and related creative industries in Sydney and London and I continue to work as a freelance researcher.

Some research projects I've been involved in:

Edges of homes: For three weeks in January 2006 I conducted fieldwork with Genevieve Bell and Mike Payne, of Intel's Domestic Designs and Technologies Research Group, in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia. We explored the edges of homes; how people conceptualise this in terms of physical and virtual architectures, social and spatial boundaries and the movement of people and things across and within these spaces. More of the INCITE blog.

Intel internship: For three months, over summer 2004, I had an internship in Portland, OR, with Genevieve Bell of Intel's People and Practices Research Lab (PAPR) - she is now director of a new business group: Domestic Designs and Technology Research. During this time I explored experimented with visual elucidations of ethnographic data and insights generated by the Inside Asia project.

Inside Asia: I worked as an RA for Genevieve Bell in 2003 for eight weeks on the Australian component of the seven Asian country, two year Inside Asia research project. During that time we traveled from Newcastle to Maitland, to Sydney to Canberra, to Wagga Wagga (yup), to Melbourne, to Ballarat, along the Great Ocean Road to Adelade - driving 3000km, visiting, living, eating, shopping, riding on the back of quad bikes on farms in search of missing bulls (true!) with 20 families, as we explored how culture shaped technology use.

UT: From 2001-2003 I worked with an interdisciplinary team (filmmakers, interaction/information architects, artists, designers) on a location based wireless application system called Urban Tapestries. We developed and designed a prototype for people to embed multi-media information in places via hand held devices. The project was sponsored by France Telecom, Orange, Apple, DTI etc. We made a variety of short animations, bodystorming models and ran creative labs and a public trial which is documented on the blog.

Other things: Mapping Perception, Sonic Geographies, Cell

You can contact me here
Kat Jungnickel.