ACT internship on Ageing, Technology and the City at Concordia University

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159HACT has obtained funding to host an international intern through the Mitacs Canada Globalink program. This internship will take place at Concordia University in Montreal over three months in the summer of 2017. We seek a senior undergraduate student to work as a researcher within ACT in collaboration with plural actors in the Montreal community to find ways of interjecting in dominant discourses about aging in the city, and to interrogate the connections between policies, technologies and aging. To apply, you can visit this page and search for our project “Eng/aging the city” with Kim Sawchuk.

My Experience at GUSEGG 2016: Transformation, Transgression and Trust

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In the Aging, Communication and Technology seminar (Ageing with Technology: “Digitally Ageing/Digital Ageism”), professors Dr. Kim Sawchuk, Dr. Line Grenier and Dr. Stephen Katz led my classmates and I through interdisciplinary approach which considers the “art of ageing” in connection to computer-mediated communications and networked societies.

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It’s never too late

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Earlier this spring, I met up with my dad as he finished hiking the final kilometres of the Bruce Trail, which is a 900 km trek through South-Central Ontario. As a master’s student with a background in leisure studies, I was curious to learn about my dad’s decision to hike this strenuous trail and to know why he decided to do it now, in retirement.

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Work Opportunity for Students, August 23rd – 26th

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Interested in social media, living labs, creativity and innovation? We have an opportunity for you this August.

Together with the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) and Communautique, Concordia is hosting Open Living Lab Days from August 23rd – 26th. We are looking for student experts to help us report on and document the panels, poster sessions, workshops, and keynotes that will take place throughout the week.

“Living labs are user-centred ecosystems that integrate research and open innovation processes through co-creation in areas ranging from energy, media, mobility, healthcare, agrifood and community development.” More info on living labs is available here and the preliminary conference program is available here. We are specifically seeking students who have knowledge in and a curiosity for innovation, creativity and lab life, and collaborative methodologies.

Details:
Pay: Stipend of $100.00 / day (up to 6 hours)
Access to conference for the 4 days and to Age3.0 on August 25th.
Must commit to working 3 day of the 4 days.
Must attend a training session (Date TBD)

If you’re interested in this opportunity, please send a short description of your interest in the conference and your availabilities for the days corresponding to the conference (all in 1 or 2 paragraphs, in email body), along with a resume or C.V. (PDF) or LinkedIn profile to communication@actproject.ca by Friday, August 5th. Cover letters aren’t necessary.

Please indicate which languages you speak and indicate which language you prefer to work in, as well as any technical skills you may have, including social media expertise, photography, filming and audio recording.

If you have questions, please email communication@actproject.ca

ACT members at the International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population

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ACT members Andrea Rosales, Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol, Margarida Romero and Eugène Loos were involved in the Second International Conference on Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population (http://2016.hci.international/itap), 17-22 July 2016, Toronto, Canada. They organized and chaired the following invited sessions: New media in the everyday life of older people and Silver Gaming.

They also presented several papers, published by Springer; J. Zhou & G. Salvendy (Eds.) Human Aspects of IT for the Aged Population. Healthy and Active Aging, Second International Conference, ITAP 2016, Held as Part of HCI International 2016 Toronto, ON, Canada, July 17–22, 2016, Proceedings, Part I and II:

  • Eugène Loos & Annemiek Zonneveld: Silver Gaming: Serious Fun for Seniors?
  • Margarida Romero & Hubert Ouellet: Scaffolding Digital Game Design Activities Grouping Older Adults, Younger Adults and Teens
  • Andrea Rosales & Mireia Fernández-Ardèvol: Generational Comparison of Simultaneous Internet Activities Using Smartphones and Computers

Age 3.0: The Creative Aging Fair is coming to Concordia on August 25

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The creative trade fair brings ageing to the forefront of public, commercial and academic discourses.Right now, Canada has more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 15, and in 40 years, seniors will make up one quarter of the country’s population.

Terms like “silver tsunami” alongside headlines like “Baby boom to ageing gloom” indicate the negative light that is often cast onto this demographic shift. However, not everyone views our ag

Right now, Canada has more people over the age of 65 than under the age of 15, and in 40 years, seniors will make up one quarter of the country’s population.

Terms like “silver tsunami” alongside headlines like “Baby boom to ageing gloom” indicate the negative light that is often cast onto this demographic shift. However, not everyone views our ageing population this way. Instead, many are imagining the creative potential of such a population.

On August 25, Concordia will host Age 3.0, a fair to explore the multiple intersections of innovation, the creative economy, emerging technologies and ageing.

The event is co-organized by the Ageing + Communication + Technologies (ACT) Project, a research group directed by communication studies professor Kim Sawchuk, and Communautique, a hub dedicated to learning, collaboration, research and experimentation in social and technological innovation.

The event will also include participation from local businesses and community organizations and the purpose of the day is to provide a space for conversations about creative ways people are thinking about growing older.

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Age 3.0 is open to academics, businesses, students and the general public alike. It will bring together researchers working on the topic of ageing from fields such as architecture, communication studies, psychology, education and fine arts to speak on panels about the ways university research can foster creative and complex approaches to ageing processes that challenge normative or stereotypical understandings of later life. A poster session will showcase the projects of graduate students from around the world.Throughout the day, Concordia’s Black Box theatre will feature lively community art interventions created by seniors organizations through collaborative research, and will feature groups and projects such as Respecting Elders: Communities Against Abuse (RECAA), the St-Henri Art Hive, The Yellow Door and the Atwater Library and Computer Centre.

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Live performances, knit-ins and multimedia presentations will occupy the Black Box theatre space (EV Building – S3.845) and visitors will be invited to interact with the installations. The ground floor of Concordia’s Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Integrated Complex (EV Building) will be home to kiosks hosted by companies and research groups working to bring ageing to the forefront of public, commercial and academic discourses.

Age 3.0 takes place on August 25 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the atrium of the EV Building of Concordia University in Montreal at 1515 Saint Catherine St. W. The event is free and open to the public. More information about the day’s events is available here. You can register at the fair for free here. 

This article was written by Kendra Besanger and Constance Lafontaine and originally published on the Concordia University website.