A Public Inconvenience (The 3rd workshop in the in-between-ness series) is a workshop about public toilets in urban environment that I surely want to attend. Organized by Arianna Bassoli, Johanna Brewer, Karen Martin, Valentina Nisi and Martine Posthuma de Boer, the focus will be on the design of this interesting (and often overlooked place):

" Technologies designed for the city often try to abstract away from the inconvenient necessities which our bodies require; or, when they are designed explicitly for public toilets, the focus is on supporting the cultural values of hygiene and privacy. What do we miss by ignoring the fact that public toilets are also the site for a variety of social practices?

'A Public Inconvenience' will explore the experience and affect of public toilets in an urban environment, in this case Amsterdam. Through observation and engagement we will consider how public toilets are shaped by, and themselves shape, cultural practices, values, and attitudes. And further, how this essential part of the urban fabric contributes to the everyday experience we have of our cities."

(Toilet seen in Saint Jean de Luz France last spring, obviously for aliens)

Why do I blog this? I have to admit that toilet is a spatial artifact that I found interesting, mostly in terms of design and the practice created there. The advent of ubicomp also makes toilets more and more the focus of complex design and there are crux issues at stake here. There are lots of issues: communication between people, statements left by people, possible analysis of body troubles, etc.

And of course, with questions asked by the organizers such as "Why would a toilet want a blog?", I definitely want to be in.