Exploring the Display in Disaster Recovery
    Connor Graham
    Lancaster University Infolab21, South Drive Lancaster LA1 4W
    
    Vincent O!Brien
    University of Cumbria Lancaster Campus Lancaster, LA1 3JD
    
    Mark Rouncefield
    Lancaster University Infolab21, South Drive Lancaster LA1 4W
    
    c.graham@lancaster.ac.uk ABSTRACT
    
    vincentobrien@mac.com
    
    m.rouncefield@lancaster.ac.uk
    
    This paper considers how people close to the earthquake in Sichuan in May this year engaged with different kinds of displays immediately afterwards – their home computer, mobile phones, public noticeboards, the television. We present examples of such interaction and describe instances of content presented on them. We then consider the potential role of and design issues with displays in the longer term in the context of one earthquake-affected community.
    
    Categories and Subject Descriptors
    H5.m. Information interfaces and presentation (e.g., HCI): Miscellaneous.
    
    Touching and upsetting stories emerge from such terrible events. One newspaper story reported on a mother found buried in a position to protect her child with the message on the screen of her mobile phone: “my dear baby, if you can survive this, please remember that I love you.”6 A YouTube video reported on a family who had lost their only son through the earthquake7. Such stories not only point to the ubiquity of ordinary technologies and their ability to record and report on tragic events – through a text message in the first example and video in the second – but also the willingness to embellish news stories (the veracity of the first story has been questioned 8) and engage in self-indulgent voyeurism with little significant or lasting outcome for the individuals and community concerned. Such events place a huge strain is placed on public infrastructure (e.g. mobile phone networks, the Internet, roads), both in terms of physical damage and heightened use. For example, rural areas close to the earthquake could not be reached for several days after the earthquake via the mobile phone network 9. Remote areas could not be reached by road due to damage10. Coordination among and mobilisation of relief agencies also presents enduring problems. In HCI and CSCW some work has focused on these, short-term aspects of recovery – namely coordinating relief efforts and mobilising people (e.g Palen and Liu, 2007; Johnson, 2005). Government policy and initiative tends to focus on the rebuilding and maintaining of public infrastructure – for instance the US$146 billion targeted for relief efforts will fund “health, education and other basic services” as well as “housing construction, industrial development, environmental protection and big-ticket infrastructure projects”11. These are all very real, pressing and legitimate concerns that form essential background for the main body of this paper’s focus on displays and community and direct our attention to the importance of different genres of ‘broadcast’ and ‘usergenerated’ public information being available immediately after such a traumatic event via different channels. Here we wish to adopt the analytical view that these ‘different channels’ are intimately connected to the notion of a display and argue for the importance of considering a notion of ‘community’ when
    
    General Terms
    Design, Human Factors
    
    Keywords
    Natural disasters, ordinary technologies, displays, community
    
    1. INTRODUCTION
    The earthquake in Sichuan, China that occurred on May 12, 2008 killed over 69,000 people and injured over 370,0001. The event also marked an astounding recovery effort on the part of the Chinese people with the government spending US$441 billion dollars on relief and reconstruction and sending 50,000 troops and armed police to the most badly affected areas2. The earthquake marked unprecedented access by journalists to affected areas3, at least for a time, to report on this effort. Chinese television and radio stations continually broadcast news of the disaster and user-generated content – such as video captured at the time of the earthquake, reports of individuals’ heart-wrenching experiences and anti-government opinions – littered the Internet via online newspapers (e.g. the search “Sichuan earthquake” returns 644 documents on the China Daily site), YouTube video clips (e.g. the same search of the YouTube site returns approximately 3,700 hits4) and personal blogs (the same search retrieves 28,844 using Google’s ‘blog search’ function) – some blogs even referred to predictions that the earthquake would occur5.
    
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    http://shanghaiist.com/2008/05/19/heroic_tales_of.php http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmmgWoENFIY http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200805b.brief.htm#020 http://english.people.com.cn/90001/6409078.html http://estate.chinanews.com.cn/sh/news/2008/05-12/1246756.shtml http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2008/11/china-to-spend-us-146-billion-onquake-reconstruction/
    
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sichuan_earthquake http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Sichuan_earthquake http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/05/world/fg-rollback5 http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sichuan+earthquake&s earch_type=&aq=2&oq=sich http://www.caijing.com.cn/2008-05-19/100063293.html
    
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    considering the emotional consequences of such a disaster as well as issues with long-term recovery.
    
    3. APPROACH
    This paper is grounded in one of the author’s experiences of being involved in a close family member’s response to the news of earthquake in Sichuan and then visiting Chengdu city 6 weeks after it happened (23rd, 24th, 25th, 30th June) and areas badly affected by the earthquake around the same time (26-27th June) and then again on 26th and 29th October. During the visit to Chengdu the author interviewed 3 people concerning their experiences. Over the two days visiting areas outside Chengdu that had been badly affected by the earthquake the author visited a small town community, three temporary schools, one temple and a church community. During the second visit in October the author visited the small town community affected by the earthquake twice to probe the effects of the earthquake. The final visit to this community on 29th October involved discussing video clips that two members of the community had captured via a mobile phone and a digital camera. The interviews and visits resulted in photographs and video clips.
    
    2. DISPLAYS AND COMMUNITY
    There is a burgeoning literature on displays and community (e.g. Greenberg et al., 2001; Taylor et al., 2007; Foth et al, 2008). In this paper we wish to draw on and apply Bowers and Rodden’s (1993) discussion of “exploding the interface” and Mynatt et al’s (1997, 1998) discussion of networked communities. Bowers and Rodden’s (ibid) argue that the notion of the interface is “intimately tied” to notions of “separation” (e.g. between ‘the user’ and ‘the computer’), “attribution” (e.g. of particular properties to ‘the user’ and ‘the computer’), “problematisation” (e.g. issues with the interaction between ‘the user’ and ‘the computer’) and “localisation” (e.g. the “site” where problems need to be solved). They also argue that: “Interfaces are the provisional and temporary sites where these12 trajectories collide and problems get articulated.” They conclude concerning this view of the interface that: “If this means ‘exploding’ the interface into many fragmentary sites where ‘interfacing’ goes on, then so be it.” The key point here is that we cannot assume they important divisions invoked by the term ‘interface’ (e.g. people vs computers) but need to question these ‘separations’ etc. Mynatt et al (ibid) describe 5 basic characteristics of networked communities – that they are mediated through technology, persistent, involve multiple interaction styles and that they support real-time interaction and authorship from multiple users. They also describe three further characteristics that “support the evolution of networked communities into socially cohesive spaces”: a sense of shared space with agreed boundaries, social organization and particular affordances; the management of the traversal through the real and the virtual via identity and representation, relationships and reshaping activities and; the inevitable evolution of the community through technosociality, learning, history and change. As demonstrated by Taylor et al. (2007), ‘the interface’ can play an important role in sustaining and developing a community – in their case a village community in the North of England. In a similar fashion to Bowers and Rodden (ibid) this paper adopts the perspective that different displays are sites where particular work gets done and particular things are worked out. As with their definition of ‘interface’ our use ‘display’ does not assume particular properties, relationships, problems and localities. Instead we examine and exemplify different forms of displays – mobile phones, the television, work and home computers and public noticeboards – used in the aftermath of the Sichuan earthquake. We present examples of these different displays, grounded in evidence from fieldwork and our own experience. Our intention is to explore the current and potential use of displays in the possible development of different aspects of a (networked) community responding to tumultuous events in the long-term.
    
    4. EXPLORING THE DISPLAY
    In order to investigate the role and use of the display around the time of the earthquake we use extracts from interviews and observations in earthquake-affected regions.
    
    4.1 Television
    Figure 1 below shows temporary accommodation erected in a small settlement associated with a fertilizer factory outside Mianzhu – a city of over half a million people about 30 km from the epicentre of the earthquake. One of the authors interviewed some people in a makeshift room shared by all family members, asking them about their experiences.
    
    Figure 1. Temporary living areas in Mianzhu Author: And the television has the television been available here? Translator: Yes, in the evening. They have a TV here. [Figure 2] Author: So…did you watch the television a lot during the time of the earthquake? Translator: Yes, normally television news, definitely will watch it. Author:…So did you watch it to keep up-to-date with the… Translator: Yes, they need to know all the informations and also need to know how they get through this period.
    
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    They are referring to “technical, organisational, procedural, social, political and even emotional” issues here.
    
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    Translator: Mobile phone. But that didn’t work. The man in the couple then described how: “It was extremely important for him to stay in touch with what happened…”. He noted how: “…when the earthquake happened only his mobile phone could work so he…and his head of the company…he happened to be in Beijing at that time and he called him from Beijing…his boss was able to tell him about this because they didn’t know where the earthquake happened…It’s because they couldn’t call each other – they didn’t have any information.” This incident, slightly bizarrely, shows how a person further from the epicentre of the earthquake (in this case his the man’s boss) had more detailed information about the incident that those actually experiencing it, the immediacy of mobile phone communication and its importance for contacting others.
    
    Figure 2. The family’s television in the makeshift room In Chendgu city a couple described how they kept up-to-date with the latest news on the earthquake: Translator: When they came back home they switched on the TV and also the broadcasting, the radio…He [the man] couldn’t sleep and almost 24 hours he was on TV and just, he uses everything together as, as much as possible. Thus the broadcast media – television and radio – were essential to these people for getting essential information about the earthquake.
    
    4.4 Public notices
    There are many examples of public notices playing a role in the field data collected. These varied from banners encouraging people (see Figure 3 below) on the roadside and in public places, to information about local police forces (Figure 4) to public health information (Figure 6) to regular community noticeboards advertising items for sale (Figure 7) and listing people.
    
    4.2 Internet
    Internet access in the settlement in Mianzhu was limited – it could only be accessed through a computer in the factory office. An author asked the couple in the city about Internet access during the aftermath of the earthquake: Author: So for example…did he use the Internet to find particular information that wasn’t coming through the television? Translator: Yes he would do that. Translator: Of course they discussed over the phone and on the Net…with friends far away they used email. Blog is very slow a lot of people wouldn’t choose it. So the fastest way is the telephone calls. A writer whose family lived in Mianzhu described how people used blogs to express opinions about the earthquake. He described one instance where a blog posting had criticised a poem written by a government-sponsored poet and how this posting had been blocked. Figure 3. Roadside banner on the way to the earthquakeaffected area The banner roadside in Figure 3 reads: “Ling Long tyre enterprise whole-heartedly supports the rescue effort in the earthquake area. Resist the earthquake, rescue people. United together we become a great wall.”
    
    4.3 Mobile phones
    The writer in Chengdu described how he could not contact his family for several days because the mobile phone network was not operational. The family living in temporary accommodation in Mianzhu confirmed this: Translator: It [their mobile phone] didn’t work at that time but the next day it was getting better. The couple in Chengdu confirmed this again when the author interviewing them asked them about what they did after the initial shock of the earthquake: Author: When things settled down what was the first thing you reached for, what was the first form of communication you tried to use?
    
    Figure 4. Information outside a temporary police station The information boards in Figure 4, outside the ‘Branch office of the public security bureau’ (or police station), display information such as key personnel involved in the area. This
    
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    police station was situated in a large area of temporary housing created in the aftermath of the earthquake to house people whose homes were unsafe or destroyed. The sheer size of the temporary housing area is indicated by the need to create a map of the area (Figure 5) and post in on a large board next to the ‘new town’.
    
    permanent characters in while. On the noticeboard itself and on an adjacent board were notices advertising items for sale and lists of people’s names.
    
    5. DISCUSSION
    The field data from the Mianxhu settlement and the city of Chengdu points to multifarious displays indeed being located at ‘fragmentary sites’ each providing different levels of immediacy – the instantaneity of the mobile phone against the sluggishness of a blog – and and affordances – blogs as channels for opinions against the television as a channel for information – supporting different kinds of work – the “information work” (Strauss et al., 1985) done by static displays against the “sentimental work” (ibid) and “contact work” performed by mobile phones. All these displays are indeed “provisional” (Bowers and Rodden, 1993) – in the sense that the relevant separations, attributions, problemisations and localisations change and evolve. An important separation here is between variously connected peripheral, dislocated members of a community affected by the earthquake and those who are ‘core’ and ‘local’. The ‘variously connected’ include those with a tight coupling with the community – the city writer trying to find out if his family are safe – and people with an avid interest in the details of the earthquake – the city couple – and the various displays that ‘reach in’ and that support ‘reaching out’ change their role as a result. What the perspective that we have adopted here directs us to is issues of interlacing different media channels, different forms and genres of content and the expressiveness of different media channels and how particular ICTs (and displays) might play a role in supporting the various communities affected by the disaster in the longer term. These kinds of concerns extend beyond ‘formal’, short-term “information work” and “articulation work” associated with disaster relief, rescue and remedy (e.g. Palen and Liu, 2007) towards longer-term, continuing recovery, grieving and remembering. The settlement outside Mianzhu represents a community whose peripheral members maintain contact through mobile phone calls and which is persistent and enduring despite the changes enforced through the earthquake. A key difference between Chengdu and the settlement outside Mianzhu is that physical situated displays had an important role in the rural community while this was not evident in the city. What we can observe is the ‘retreat’ of the display into personal space in the city (e.g. computers in the home) and away from public areas. Another important difference is the degree to which different people “reached out” (Grudin, 1990) via various displays to the communities affected by the disaster as opposed to the disaster “reaching in” (Bowers and Rodden, 1993) to the homes of people via television, radio and the Internet. Considering how and why this community might become a “networked community” through leveraging the different displays already in place presents both challenges and opportunities. Challenges concern justification given the enormity of other needs, the robustness of public and private infrastructure and exactly how ‘interlacing’ might work, the forms of media content that might be appropriate and the levels of expressiveness they support.
    
    Figure 5. Map of the temporary town in Mianzhu city There was also public health information placed on notices within the temporary housing area itself. Figure 6 displays information concerning how to use electricity and prevent fire.
    
    Figure 6. Public health and safety information in the temporary town The last three figures are images taken from video captured by a member of the settlement outside Mianzhu.
    
    Figure 7. Noticeboard in settlement outside Mianzhu Figure 7 shows a noticeboard entitled: “Basic moral code for every citizen” with various virtues listed below it – these are the
    
    Drawing on Mynatt et al’s (1997, 1998) key notions of boundaries, relationships and change we see two potential ways of meaningfully and purposefully engaging this community
    
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    through different interaction styles, and multiple authorship of content in the activities of a “networked community” thereby potentially engaging peripheral, distributed members in ongoing interactions across the ‘real’ and the ‘virtual’. Our concern is to distinguish proposed display content from the video segments and the heart-wrenching content alluded to in YouTube above and instead ground the potential designs in the particular community studied. We also wish to address the practical action of ongoing recovery within the community, as opposed to the need for sentimental stimulation by outsiders. In doing so we aim for any displays to ‘reach into’ the community and ‘reach out to’ peripheral members instead of merely ‘reaching out to’ the anonymous.
    
    5.1 Digital memorials
    The photographs and video collected by those affected by the earthquake presents a unique opportunity to remember the earthquake, its place in the settlement’s history and the change it caused. Figure 8 below 13 shows parents holding photographs of their dead children at a memorial service at primary school in Fuxing, Mianzhu that collapsed after the earthquake killing 128 children. Parents laid photos of their children on top of the debris that marked the remains of the school14.
    
    recordings are particularly useful where people express communication and emotion principally through nonverbal cues and actions (Rosenstein, 2002). Self-captured video, made available through displays and across devices, has the potential to communicate information, address health issues (O’Brien, 2008) and highlight difficulties in the community. As they seek out and select phenomena to include in their video recordings participants engage in an active reflection upon their lived experiences observing and framing their experiences through the video lens. This reflection is not limited to the capture and editing phases of video making but extends to the post viewing engagement with audiences during situated community screenings. Conversational interviews with the video authors provide opportunities for researchers to engage in a more dynamic research relationship that can help to erode the ‘invisible wall’ between researcher and participant encouraging the emergence of a negotiated ‘fluid wall’ that characterises participatory visual research activities (Shrum et al., 2005). Video engages with the flow of everyday life providing an insight in to the non-verbal, emotional and physical context of everyday lives. The recorded audio soundtracks enhances the visual record and deepens our engagement with the social world further, encouraging a more critically textured sociology that is both sensual and dynamic (Rosenstein, 2002). The presence, or absence, of people, their image or sounds can draw attention to the intangible ‘atmosphere’ of the disaster: the sense of emptiness, loss, grief; the challenge to the normality of noise and persistent social interaction that characterised everyday life prior to the disaster. The display of video materials represents more than a simple viewing of past events. It encourages a personal and collective emotional response from the viewing audience that can stimulate community debate and action. While video, as a tool cannot eradicate the problems that communities face the problems can certainly be shared, stated and exposed through the capture and display of the video materials (White, 2003).
    
    Figure 8. Parents holding photographs of their dead children A digital display of photos contributed by family members at a particular site may serve the purpose of reshaping the community as well as simply supporting the remembering of loved ones. The act of sending a photo to the display, via BlueTooth for example, may both be a realistically costed means of remembering (Maunders et al., 2008) and form part of a ritualised act of remembering and grieving. Graham and Rouncefield (2008) have argued that the act of sharing family photos in Chinese homes forms part of the remembering family and friends and can be understood better in terms of the longstanding Chinese tradition of ancestor worship. However, this work describes private, intimate displays of photos and ‘going public’ would likely involve negotiating some sensitivities.
    
    6. CONCLUSION
    We have briefly considered people’s experience of the Sichuan earthquake through focusing on different displays and their existing and potential role in a particular community. We argue for the need to address long-term recovery and the ensuing “sentimental work” (Strauss et al, 1985) in display design through the use of different media.
    
    7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
    Thanks to YQ for arranging transport to the affected areas, SM for helping us get there, YF for translating and LKP for driving us through at times difficult terrain.
    
    8. REFERENCES
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    5.2 Video segments
    Visual recordings provide the opportunity to embed the research subject and participants in context (Rosenstein, 2002). Video
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