Embodied Interaction 22
The course proposes an examination and speculation of technologies as they related to Embodied Interaction (ie. mobile computing, wearable interfaces, location-based interactions and digital fabrication...).
This examination covers societal, ethical and social influences.
This year, the course puts an emphasis on 'Embodied Fabrication', where digital fabrication methods are approached from the perspective of embodiment.
With more flexible and more accessible modes of fabrication and of generative design, and with interactive aspects of materiality and biodesign emerging in recent years, we have the opportunity to investigate ways that we can transform our physical selves and environments. This course will let us through a journey of interfacing the analog and the digital, with the body as mediator between the two.
Student Projects:
Objects and people can serve as sources of information to which attention can be paid. Attention can be shifted between them, resulting in different information being received. PARSE STRING manifests this information abstractly on strings on the body with varying colors and intensities.
SPINAL-WORDS explores the connection between voice, body and identity. The wearer of the device is immersed in a space surrounded by speakers. A wearable spine-like device tracks the performers movements and manipulates their voice in real-time. This interactive installation animates the actor to move and express themselves. The audience is invited to contemplate voice and the connection it has with the confidence and perception.
It is not uncommon to have no awareness of one’s feelings. On the other hand, emotions are something every human has an intrinsic understanding for. Seeing yourself mirrored in another person can help reconnect you with your sensitive side. EXOCELIUM is an embodiment of the vulnerability of being taken by the hand and rediscovering your own emotions.
O2TOPIA is an interactive performance showing that relationships continuously change concepts of who we are. When we attune to our entourage, humans, non-humans, plants, cyborgs and atoms, we expand ourselves and make a meaningful connection with everything around us. We can connect to them through our breath, the bridge between our out- and inside. When we breathe we make the most everyday connection with our environment. Our bodies exchange oxygen from the air with carbon dioxide from our bodies. The oxygen is taken in through the lungs, absorbed into the bloodstream, and distributed throughout the body. The carbon dioxide is released from the bloodstream and exhaled back into the atmosphere. If we take a closer look, however, the mundane turns into probably something of the most intimate and intense that a breathing creature can experience, which we embodied into our performance. With every breath we take, we enter into direct dialogue with everything around us and everything that was around us. A filled lung of air contains about 1.25x10²² molecules. Each breath means complete dissolution in the being of all and absolute individuality at the same time.
