A “ROBOTIC-WIKI” - Clemson University

ABSTRACT
Conventional monuments are concrete manifestations of memories without the
capacity to reflect individual interpretations of history. In an increasingly digital society,
however, there is a need for configurable monuments reflecting our contemporary, open
and complex community. “Monumental-IT” reflects the dynamic and inclusive character
of our time. Rather than static, Monumental-IT is a dynamic, robotic, intelligent
environment reconfigured or “retuned” by citizens and by historical information
accumulating on the World Wide Web. This information is periodically “coded,” altering
the multi-sensorial physical-digital “Robotic-Wiki” components of Monumental-IT.
Monumental-IT is designed to embody a new form of human-robotic interaction evolving
from the monument typology.
This research is a response to three questions: What is the monument for a world
that is increasingly digital and “free”?; How can intelligent systems “creatively”
reconcile current conceptualizations of history with monument‐making?; and, What role
can intelligent systems and Human Centered Computing (HCC) play in creating
significant, meaningful, physical, urban places for collective memories?.
This research involves designing, prototyping, and empirically evaluating
Monumental-IT. The research employs a mixed-methodological research design which
includes: quasi-experimental design, usability, heuristic evaluations, and cognitive
walkthroughs as its research methods; and multivariate statistics to validate significance
and usability with real users and experts in the domain fields of “architectural-robotics”
and human factors psychology.
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