Jonas Anderson – SUITCEYES

SUITCEYES Presented at the Book Fair

SUITCEYES

Presented at the Book Fair, Göteborg, Sweden
on
Thursday 27 September 2018
14:30-15:15

Image of two persons putting up a poster regarding the SUITCEYES project.

Every year since 1985 a book fair is held in Göteborg Sweden, and over the years the event has become one of the largest cultural events in Scandinavia with around 95 000 visitors each year. This four-day-long book fair attracts authors, librarians, book lovers and Nobel laureates from near and far. However, by hosting many seminars and providing fora for dialogue and discussions, the fair goes beyond just books, also attracting other audiences, such as the press, politicians, researchers and the general public. As such, this fair makes a great place to reach a large and interesting group of audiences. At this fair, one can propose different types of seminars and panel discussions aiming to reach different sizes of audiences and different levels of publicity.

This year, due to the newness of the project and its results, which are not yet mature, we opted for a smaller event, by displaying the project poster and participating in a 45-minute long interview-based discussion about the project at HB’s stand. A colleague, Amanda Glimstedt, was the host and conducted the interview in which project members Nasrine Olson and Jan Nolin participated. The interview included questions about what the project is about, how and why the idea originated, the constellation of the consortium, what deafblindness is, why this project would be useful, how research is conducted in the project, what the aims and the challenges are that SUITCEYES will tackle, what the vision is for the project outcome, and what we can do to improve awareness about issues of deafblindness and more.

Image of people attending the SUITCEYES seminar at the book fair, mainly from the back The aim of this discussion was to inform the audience about the project, disseminate resent research results and raise awareness about the issues of deafblindness. Due to the nature of the talks at the stands, this event involved between 15 to 20 people. Multiple follow up questions were asked by the audience and follow up discussions pursued with interested visitors after the interview session. In connection with this event, around 25 project leaflets were also handed out to the audience.

Presentation of SUITCEYES to members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Founded in 1739, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is an independent, non-governmental organisation which enhances the status of the sciences and their influence in society by promoting science of the highest quality. While involved in many outstanding endeavours, the academy is probably most broadly known, internationally, for its role in awarding the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry and Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Memory of Alfred Nobel for Economic Sciences. The members of the academy are organised in ten subject categories or classes, one of which is the “class for humanities and for outstanding services to science”. On Wednesday 22 August 2018, HB had the privilege of hosting a visit by twelve members of this class as part of which Nasrine Olson gave a presentation of the SUITCEYES project as a main point in the day’s programme.

Picture of Nasrine Olson presenting SUITCEYES to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences — Photo by Anna Kjellsson

The presentation included an overview of the project, the consortium, and the most recent research results, while at the same time highlighting issues of deafblindness. An overview of the research in the area of deafblindness was also included, indicating that the research and related technological solutions for people with deafblindness remain limited. The presentation then revolved around how SUITCEYES brings together various competencies, research areas, and organisations (both academic and non-academic) in addressing this societal challenge. This highly competent group of visitors/professors, with a variety of backgrounds from linguistics, psycholinguistics, cognitive science, theoretical philosophy, ethnology, political science and more engaged with the topic by follow up questions and interesting discussions after the event. Even suggestions for new contacts were made which were followed up soon after the event. It was valuable to discuss the project and related issues with this group, and receive insightful feedback, by itself. However, due to the role of this organization in moving science and policy forward, we hope that introducing the group to the focus area of the project, will also result in other longer-term added value.

SUITCEYES on swedish national radio P1 “Spanarna”

The radio show “Spanarna” is a trendspotting show where a few select citizens look at possible trends in society. In relation to language and understanding over long lengths of time the SUITCEYES project was mentioned as an example of upcoming technologies to facilitate communication in a more inclusive manner. The trendspotter Per Naroskin started his train of thought in reflections based on interaction with a person with deafblindness.

The episode aired 2018-05-04

Link to the show HERE

SUITCEYES in Vetenskapsradion on swedish national radio SR P1.

The science journalist Tomas Lindblad attended the symposium at the very start of the SUITCEYES project. This resulted in an in depth commentary on february 21 where people with deaf blindness as well as caregivers, researchers and external advisors were interviewed in a 19 minutes radio special.

Link to the radio programme