Since 1970 Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) has been approached primarily from the perspective of cognition and perception. In particular, designers are very busy creating (graphical) user interfaces for our small rectangular screens and almost forget that a person consists of more than hands and eyes. When physical interactions arose from the 90’s onwards, due to developments in, for example, tangible interfaces, embedded media and gestural interfaces, designers had to think more about how people deal with technology not only mentally but also physically. If you expand this context to interacting in – and with spaces, it becomes even more important to design not only context aware but also bodily aware.
For me, this was one of the reasons why I was looking forward to a workshop on Embodied Design Research, a possible fourth method for my design research. The workshop is based on the idea that participants also contribute a lot through the way in which they physically and expressively participate in iterations and teaches you through the Embodied Design Research approach to deepen the insights that you can get through bodily awareness. You reflect in-action on ways in which you can address the body of yourself and your participants in your design research and how physical resources contribute to this.
The embodied design research framework describes three dynamic dimensions in which the form and interaction can be analysed: physical involvement, dynamic quality and experienced meaning.
Physical Involvement refers to affordances that we get through material or sensory properties, (bio) mechanical aspects, dimensions, etc. Dynamic Quality is about properties in the movement and is divided into course of time, play of forces and spatiality. Experience Meaning refers to the functionality that comes to expression, emotions and moods that come into play, characters and roles that arise, etc.
To practice this bodily awareness even more after the workshop, I chose to use the framework to analyze “ADA”, an interactive work of art by Karina Smigla-Bobinski. ADA is an interactive art-making machine. Filled up with helium, floating freely in room or moved by visitors, a transparent, membrane-like globe, spiked with charcoals that leave marks on the walls, ceilings and floors. The three dynamic dimensions are immediately reflected in the movements of the object (physical resource) and the visitors who (try to) control it.
“ADA – analog interactive installation / kinetic sculpture / post-digital drawing machine” by Karina Smigla-Bobinski on Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/277880735
For a number of moments from the video I have described how the dynamic dimensions (PI, DQ, EM) play a role:
00:28
The ball has charcoal ‘handles’ that we can grab hold of. The helium makes it light enough, despite its size. (PI) Trying to remain standing on the spot, visitors want to spin around and try to speed up. (DQ) Marking the floor with charcoal stripes (PI, EM) The visitors try to keep control (EM), but have to let go at some point given the size and awkwardness of the thing. (PI) Tension and Release. (DQ)
00:46
Team play! (EM) The resistance of the plastic ensures that the rotation becomes possible. (PI) With two it is slightly easier to make the ball spin quickly. As a result, the acting visitors themselves move more and irregularly through the space. (DQ) The audience increases the space by staying at a distance, hardly moves (DQ) but looks attentively, encourages, cheers and applauds! (EM)
01:15
The ball is used for an ‘attack’ and a visitor must take it. (EM) This is possible because the softness of the ball due to the plastic and the helium cannot cause ‘real’ damage. Apart from some charcoal stripes. (PI) Because the visitor is clamped against the wall we enter his personal space. Direct contact, fragmented spinning. But he extends himself and receives the attack with open arms. (DQ, EM)
01:47
This last fragment feels more like a dance. Calm. Smooth movements in the space. (DQ) The ball as an extension of the body by holding onto the charcoal handles and allowing it to gently float in the air through the helium (PI). Get close and push away. The dancer in control, moving on the spot and through space. (DQ, EM) Throwing both herself and the ball against the wall, leaving marks everywhere. (PI, DQ, EM)
What I also find very fascinating about this artwork is that the charcoal stripes left behind are a literal translation of the touches and movements. But because the patterns of lines and points become more and more complex as the number of the audience playing-in increases, it leaves traces that neither the artist nor visitors can decipher.
Moving forward
The workshop and analysis of the video helped to roughly put down a number of initial ideas for using the method in my own research.
One possibility is to observe people and their current movements in (different) spaces. What information can be gathered from these movements and how do these movements change when you make adjustments to colour, light or, for example, emit silence? Can the space also sense and interpret these movements or these layers of information and use this data for something?
A second idea is to have spaces interpreted by performing artists or dancers and thereby visualize their identity. By asking them to do the same based on ideas about ‘living’ spaces, it is possible to show how they differ from each other.
As a third possibility, I could have architects and interaction designers discuss the concept of a ‘living’ space by portraying it with their bodies. They can use movement, space and objects to explain possible actions and interactions. Capturing this creates an ‘xplain to be’ prototype that can be used for further exploration or discussion.
Although these ideas have not yet been developed into applicable methods, this exploration has allowed me to reflect on how Embodied Design Research and bodily awareness can play a role in my design research or future designs.
Brief research before and during the writing of this post also provided me with many (and probably too many) interesting entries for possible follow-up research into topics such as Space and Place, Embodied Cognition, Embodied Design and Embodied Interactions, to name a few. But, before I delve into these examples and scientific articles, it is probably smart to define a more specific design question.
Feature image, Karina Smigla-Bobinski “ADA – analog interactive installation / kinetic sculpture / post-digital drawing machine” (2014) at the Microwave International New Media Arts Festival, Hong Kong. Photo by artist https://www.flickr.com/photos/smigla-bobinski/16039376551