Rachel’s current research explores how we can design technologies for a responsible and sustainable future. Rachel is currently running workshops for the Fixing the Future research project at the University of Nottingham. 

Rachel has recently collaborated with Prof Theano Moussouri from UCL and Associate Professor Caroline Locke from the University of Derby, exploring how environmental and socially engaged artworks can impact on our connections and relations to nature, community and wellbeing. She is in the process of developing a longitudinal participatory research methodology for studying the 30 year Future Machine and When the Future Comes project. This research was included as a case study in the BRAID Dynamic Archiving project in collaboration with Prof Gabriella Giannachi (University of Exeter) and Prof Steve Benford (University of Nottingham) and as part of the AI: Responsibility Reimagined project with Dr Alan Chamberlain. 

Research Background

Rachel has previously worked as a Research Fellow at Horizon Digital Economy where she remains a Research Associate, and a Visiting Research Fellow at Manifest Data Lab, Central St Martins, University of Arts London. 

In 2014, Rachel Jacobs completed a PhD in Ubiquitous Computing for the Digital Economy at the Horizon Doctoral Training Centre, University of Nottingham – The Artists’ Footprint: Investigating the distinct contributions of artists engaging the public with climate data.

Her research interests are informed by her interdisciplinary practice, investigating how artistic and scientific processes converge and diverge through the design of interactive data experiences. She regularly collaborates with climate scientists and has had an ongoing collaboration with Professor John King (British Antarctic Survey), as part of the Performing the Future and Future Machine projects, since 2018. She publishes her research in arts and humanities, HCI, climate science and social science journals and presents at festivals, events and academic conferences.

Publications

https://direct.mit.edu/leon/article-abstract/57/3/264/120455/A-Republic-of-Learning-Making-for-Times-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Gibson, R., Babbage, C.M., Wagner, H.G., Price, D.J., Martindale, S., Chadborn, N.H., Ito-Jaeger, S., Darzentas, D.P., Webb, H., Jacobs, R. and Atabey, A., 2023, July. “It’s not just for the Past but it’s for the Here and Now”: Gift-Giver Perspectives on the Memory Machine to Gift Digital Memories. In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 987-1001). https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3563657.3595962

2019 Republic of Learning Workshop Series, Bookleeter
https://www.manifest-data.org/post/republic-of-learning-booklets

2019 Jacobs R., Marland, P. and Benford S,. In Walking, Landscape and Environment. Routledge. pp. 168-186
http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/148885/

Jacobs, R., Abbott, F., Urquhart, L. and Price, D., 2019. Performing the future: an artist-led project engaging with risk, uncertainty and environmental change. Journal of Risk Research, pp.1-15.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13669877.2019.1569104

Jacobs, R., Schnädelbach, H., Jäger, N., Leal, S., Shackford, R., Benford, S. and Patel, R., 2019, May. The Performative Mirror Space. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-14).
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/3290605.3300630

Jacobs, R. and Leal, S., 2018. Digital Participation Through Artistic Interventions. In Digital Participation through Social Living Labs (pp. 37-54). Chandos Publishing.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780081020593000034

Vallejos EP, Baker C, McGarry J, Joyes E, Carletti L, Bartel H, Jacobs R, Gale-Feeny A, Higginbottom R. What is home? An art-based workshop to explore the physical, relational and wellbeing properties of Home. Journal of Applied Arts & Health. 2017 Dec 1;8(3):341-55.
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/intellect/jaah/2017/00000008/00000003/art00006

2017 Jacobs R, Howarth C, Coulton P. Perspectives on Scale: Art/Science
Collaborations Across the Local and Global, Forests and City, Communication and Collaboration on Climate Change Special Issue, The International Journal on Climate Change: Impacts and Responses

2016 Jacobs R, Benford S, Luger E, Howarth C. The Prediction Machine: Performing Scientific and Artistic Process. InProceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems 2016 Jun 4 (pp. 497-508).
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2901790.2901825

2015 Benford S, Greenhalgh C, Anderson B, Jacobs R, Golembewski M, Jirotka
M, Stahl BC, Timmermans J, Giannachi G, Adams M, Farr JR. The ethical implications of HCI’s turn to the cultural. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI). 2015 Sep 8;22(5):24.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2775107

2014 Coulton, P., Jacobs, R., Burnett, D., Gradinar, A., Watkins, M. and Howarth,
C., 2014, November. Designing data driven persuasive games to address wicked problems such as climate change. In Proceedings of the 18th International Academic MindTrek Conference: Media Business, Management, Content & Services (pp. 185-191). ACM.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2676467.2676487

2013 Jacobs R, Benford S, Selby M, Golembewski M, Price D, Giannachi G. A
conversation between trees: what data feels like in the forest. InProceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2013 Apr 27 (pp. 129-138). ACM. (Honourable Mention Award)
https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.1145/2470654.2470673

2016 Jacobs R. The Artists’ Footprint. Leonardo. Oct;49(5):461-.
https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/LEON_a_01302?journalCode=leon

2014 Jacobs R. The Artists’ Footprint, PHD Thesis, University of Nottingham
http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14450/3/artists_footprint_ethesis.pdf

2012 Blum J. Flintham M. McAuley D. Jacobs R. Watkins M. Lee R. Shackford R.
Selby M. Leal S. Giannachi G. Timestreams: Supporting Community Engagement in the Climate Change Debate, Digital Futures Conference (Best Paper Award)

2011 Jacobs R. Giannachi G. Benford S. Performing Natures’ Footprint, VISUAL
AND PERFORMING ARTS, Edited by Stephen Andrew Arbury, Aikaterini Georgoulia, Athens Institute for Education and Research
https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10871/17579/Atiner.pdf?sequence=2