The Workplace

KTH in Stockholm is the largest and oldest technical university in Sweden. No less than one-third of Sweden’s technical research and engineering education capacity at university level is provided by KTH. Education and research spans from natural sciences to all branches of engineering and includes architecture, industrial management and urban planning. There are a total of just over 15,000 first and second level students and more than 1,600 doctoral students. KTH has almost 4,300 employees.

KTH Computer Science and Communication is Sweden’s leading research and education institution in Information Technology, with activities at both KTH and Stockholm University. The activities of the school focus on higher education and research within the traditional core areas of numerical analysis and computer science; from theory building and analysis of mathematical models to algorithm construction, implementation and simulation. Other core areas of growing importance are technology and methods for the support of human communication and computer mediated cooperation. The applied research includes scientific computing, computer science, computer vision, robotics, neuroinformatics and neural networks, human-computer interaction, media technology, and communication through speech and music. For more information, go to www.kth.se/csc and follow the link to our “international website”.

The position will be formally held at the department of Media Technology and Interaction Design at the CSC School, in close ollaboration with the Mobile Life Centre in Kista. The Mobile Life research centre started in 2007 and has funding until 2017. After five years, the Mobile Life Centre has grown to be about 50 researchers, exploring experiential, leisure and playful mobile and ubiquitous interactions. The research is interdisciplinary, involving researchers from computer science, interaction design, sociology, psychology but also game designers, artists, dancers, and fashion experts. The Centre’s competitive edge lies in making serious research on what we might normally portray as “unserious” activities in collaboration with our industry partners Ericsson, Nokia, Microsoft Research, TeliaSonera, Company P and Bambuser. The centre has also a close collaboration with our partners from the public sector, City of Stockholm Municipality as well as with Kista Science City and STING, Stockholm Innovation and Growth. For more information see:  www.mobilelifecentre.org .

Assignment

KTH Computer Sicence and Communication (CSC) is looking for a PhD student at at the Department of Media Technology and Interaction Design/Mobile Life Centre.

The candidate will be working in the ongoing mFashion project at the Mobile Life Centre, investigating the intersection of fashion and mobile interaction design. From an interaction design perspective, the project will concern how concepts from fashion theory, and more broadly how practices of personal style and aesthetic expression, can be addressed in new mobile products and services.

This research is relevant since mobile interaction design, similar to fashion, can be seen as a social practice that affects, over time, how users select and present themselves through the appearances of the products they carry. In industry, the importance of user experience is continuously addressed by extensive design efforts regarding colours, materials and form giving of new mobile products. However, research in interaction design has not yet accounted for how users themselves, and industry, pay attention to those aspects. In this project, fashion logics is used as a resource for understanding and inspiring new mobile interaction designs as existing in a social system that creates desire, influence our taste and legitimize the products through its mechanisms.

Research questions:

• In what ways do we need to account for fashion logics in mobile interaction design?
• In what ways can we understand purchase and use of mobile technology as a form of fashion consumption?
• Where and when do mobile interaction design overlap with fashion design and fashion industry?
• What are the unexplored fashion areas that would be interesting to combine with mobile interaction design?

Previously, the project has looked at the theoretical discussion of aesthetics in HCI field, as well as studied representations of mobile phones in online fashion media. We have also experimented with the concept of ‘fashion accessory’, suggesting that an outfit-centric view of fashion accessory urges us to design devices that can match a whole look instead of focusing only on accessorises of devices themselves. With the new candidate, the project will be open for new directions along this broad topic.

This is a four-year time-limited position that can be extended up to a year with the inclusion of a maximum of 20% departmental duties, usually teaching.  Doctoral students must be registered at KTH. The starting date is open for discussion, though ideally we would like the successful candidate to start as soon as possible.

Employment

Form of employment: Time-limited
Work time: Full time
The salary follows the directions provided by KTH
Start date: According to agreement
Number of positions: 1

Qualifications

A suitable background for this position would be a Master’s Degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Product Design, or Media Technology with specialization in Interaction Design. In addition to the traditional academic merits with a strong degree project, deep personal interests in aesthetics, fashion and contemporary culture are regarded as advantageous qualifications.

Applicants must be strongly motivated for doctoral studies, possess the ability to work independently and perform critical analysis as well as possessing good levels of cooperative and communicative abilities.

Application

Application deadline: March 5, 2012
Employer's reference: D-2012-0032

Applications via email are to be sent to Susanne Bergman:  susanneb@csc.kth.se .

Write reference number in the email subject. (CV, etc. should be sent as an attachment, as pdf-files.)

We also accept hard copy applications sent to:

KTH, CSC
Att. Susanne Bergman,
Lindstedtsvägen 3, 4th floor,
SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden

Application shall include the following documents:

1. Curriculum vitae, including links/descriptions of previously conducted interaction design projects that may be relevant to the position
2. Transcripts from university/university college
3. Brief description of why the applicant wishes to become a doctoral student within the mFashion research project
4. Please observe that all material needs to be in English, apart from the official document.

We are currently gathering information to help improve our recruitment process. We would, therefore, be very grateful if you could include an answer to the following question within your application: Where did you initially come across this job advertisement?

Contact(s)

For enquiries about Ph.D studies and employment conditions please contact:

Eva-Lena Åkerman, HR Manager
Phone: +46 8 790 91 06
Email:  ela@csc.kth.se           

For enquiries about the project please contact:

Ylva Fernaeus, PhD
Phone: +46 708 76 3301
Email:  fernaeus@csc.kth.se                      

Union representative

Lars Abrahamsson, SACO
Phone: +46 8 790 7058
Email:  lars.abrahamsson@ee.kth.se