[-empyre-] Week 4 of empyre: Wearable Technologies Welcome Danielle Wilde, Sarah Kettley and Lucy Dunne

[danielle wilde]

apologies - references now added at the end of the text

   danielle

On 25 May 2011 16:38, danielle wilde <d at daniellewilde.com> wrote:

> hello everyone,
>
> thanks for the introduction, Renate. It's great to be a part of the
> conversation. Though I've only been able to follow it from a distance so
> far, it's wonderful to be exposed to the range of approaches, thinking and
> also works I wasn't previously across.
>
> I would like to begin my contribution with some musings about process. My
> current research has three aims:
>
>    1. inspiring people to move, literally, beyond their habitual limits
>    2. considering technology's potential to poeticise experience when
>    extending our dynamic moving form
>    3. broadening the way we think about our bodies and technology
>
> My field of concerns includes enchantment and ambiguity as resources for
> design, encouraging 'magical thinking' and 'making strange', as well as emergent
> performativity.
>
> with this in mind my most successful work begins with the body and, in a
> sense, designs backwards: I develop structured processes for embodied
> cognitive reflection, and thereby arrive at outcomes that I retrospectively
> describe and evaluate - the applications emerge from the artefact. The
> processes may or may not incorporate body-worn technologies. The outcomes
> almost certainly do.
>
> Kamran Sedighian and Maria Klawe identify three key elements in interaction
> design for provoking reflective thought that I find useful to focus on:
> representation, interaction protocol and feedback. Kristina Andersen
> describes them in relation to wearables through her ensemble project (a
> suite of musical dress-up clothes for children):
>
>
> • The sensors are represented by the garments in such a way that the
> garments act as larger scale image of the function of the sensor.
>
> • The physical attributes of the garments are used as clues to the
> interaction protocol in order to provide a tangible interface to the
> sensors.
>
> • The feedback consists of a tight link between physical manipulation of
> the garments and immediate [technology] response. There is no perceivable
> lag between the garments and the [technology] response.
> Thinking about body-worn technologies through such protocols during the
> design process, helps me to arrive at outcomes that are intuitive to use.
> These protocols were designed for children but I find them invaluable when
> designing for cognitive reflection irrespective of age.
>
> As has been discussed, in this conversation, wearable technologies are
> relevant to a broad range of disciplines and applications. My own work is
> examined through use in performance and both free-form and guided play (such
> as learning and abilitation contexts) - anywhere where engaging the body
> through the imagination and the imagination through the body might be of
> interest.
>
> I find that wearable works are inherently performative, irrespective of the
> application (Johannes' example of the young man in the carpark and his
> instinctual response to hug him is a wonderfully apt example). I'm curious
> if other people on the list focus on this notion of performativity beyond
> traditional performance paradigms. I wrote a short paper<http://www.daniellewilde.com/dw/publications_files/wilde_a%20New%20Performativity_wearables+body%20devices.pdf> for
> re:live Media Art History conference that posits a new performativity that
> wearables and body-worn devices make possible. It barely touches on the
> subject. I would be very interested to elicit further engagement on this
> topic, as well as on design processes and protocols.
>
> regards
> danielle
>
>
> references:

Sedighian, Kamran, and Maria M. Klawe. "An Interface Strategy for Promoting
Reflective Cognition in Children." In *CHI ’96 Companion*. Vancouver, BC
Canada, 1996.

Andersen, Kristina. "‘Ensemble’: Playing with Sensors and Sound." In *Computer
Human Interaction (CHI 2004) Extended Abstracts*, 1239-1242. Vienna,
Austria, 2004.

Wilde, Danielle. "A New Performativity : Wearables and Body-Devices."
In *Re:live
Media Art History 09*. Melbourne, Australia, 2009.
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