- post-doc researcher with a focus on inclusion in processes of digital transformation
- currently teaching the courses “Computational Aspects of Digital Fabrication” and “Free and Open Technologies”
Janis joined the HCI research group of TU Wien after obtaining her doctoral degree in Digital Civics at Open Lab (Newcastle University). She holds a MSc in Media Informatics and previously worked in the IT-department of an Austrian governmental institution and as a consultant for a software company.
Janis has her research interests in productive creative practices of non-expert technology users and their ways of meaning-making with digital tools. In her dissertation she explored the sociomaterial practices of “makers-in-the-making”: people with disabilities using 3D-printers for 'empowering hacks'; charity workers, service users and quilters creating a touch-interactive e-textile blanket; organisers and users of a Men Shed combining traditional craft skills with new digital technologies. After that she explored the hidden technological labour of low-wage service workers in female-dominated professions (i.e. retail employees and mobile care workers). In all this work she has openly challenged the “non-technical” framing of non-expert users by critically highlighting counter-perspectives on digital transformation processes and issues of social justice with the design and use of digital tools. She has a particular interest in experimenting with participatory and creative research methods and how co-design can be used as a means to establish healthy give-and-take-relationships between those researching and those researched.
More Information
Contact
Social Media
- twitter: @janislena and @fempowertech
- Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Janis-Meissner
- Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WyYuAsEAAAAJ
Projects
- Versteckte Technologien? Exploring the Hidden Technological Labour of Service Workers
- CCIV - An inquiry of experts' and patients' perspectives on telemonitoring in the context of chronic heart failure
- „Making Useful Stuff“ (PhD research at Open Lab, Newcastle University)