Interaction Design

In the 2021 4th semester interdisciplinary module "Remote Materialities", interdisciplinary teams designed and realized speculative scenographies with animated robotic arms. This year's theme was “Twilight”, literally a half-light, that can describe a moment of transition or a state of decline. Caught in the twilight, we can not know if we are waxing or waning, coming or going. Yet, we can celebrate and investigate this moment of flux, oscillating between apprehension and elation, big and small, local and remote. As an interface between digital and physical, remotely controlled robotic arms were our engines of inquiry for these spaces in future scenarios of materiality, perception, creativity and living.

This module combines both theoretical and practical inputs in an interweaving format, with lectures by tutors and guest speakers, text studies and discussions in order to build a critical and creative approach towards HRI (human-robot interaction) and state-of-the-art robotics within a spatial context. Those conceptual explorations were complemented through remote experiments with a simple robotic platform installed in a scenographic situation. Critical and creative approaches combined in the course allowed students to develop concepts about robotics, understood as “more of a bridge, than a destination” (Lord David Puttnam) to a broader understanding of our relationships with technology and the physical world.

Lecturers:

Luke Franzke, Maria Smigielska & Lisa Ochsenbein

Guest lecturers: dr. James Bern, dr. Mihye An & Emmanuelle Chiappone- Piriou

Students:

Felix Brunold, Aathmigan Jegatheeswaran, Tim Oechslin, Nora Waldispuehl, Dimitris Giannoulas, Lino Fischer, Mai Watanabe, Chanel Liang, Kilian Ettlinger, Meret Jans, Samuel Marti, Manuel Wirth and Ramona Rüttimann