Sitting under a highway: exploring the integration of place mindfulness and immersion in audiovisual art practices.

Postmodern society is characterized by an increasing disconnect with our inhabited spaces. The \textit{glocalization} efforts made by commercial interests and the emphasis on the utilitarian conceptualization of the world affect local culture, contributing to a thinning out of the relationships with our lived places. Making reference to the standing-reserve theory of Heidegger; the geophilosophy of Edward Casey; Zen meditation; soundscape composition and other audiovisual art practices, I suggest that artistic processes informed by the attentive exploration of a geographical location may contribute to create awareness about the nature of this disconnect. Sitting under a highway is a research-creation project presented as an interactive audiovisual virtual and presential space. By wearing a head-mounted display, a hand tracking device, headphones and an electroencephalography band, the audience experiences photorealistic 3D visuals and spatial audio that are the product of an artistic practice centred on the attentive aesthetic exploration of a physical place

Soundscape and the Experience of Positive Silence

This body of work employs a practice-based research methodology to explore the experience of silence as positive, of benefit to the individual and, by extension, wider society. The research is positioned within the related fields of Sound Art and Sound Studies with the practice component including soundwalks, sound installation, exhibition and phenomenological enquiry initiated through listenings and reflections. Current research in this area has explored the value of silence through quiet space studies, acoustics and psychoacoustics as well as research in the field of psychology around the human experience of solitude, mindful awareness and distraction. This doctoral research draws upon the insights of these disciplines to inform both the artworks and thinking that cohered into the themes explored in this commentary. Solitary and shared silences characterised by thresholds, masking, sounds of nature, simplicity, familiarity, safety and quality of attention are explored. In so doing, psychological theories of extended mind, construal level and psychological distance are considered in relation to the web of interactions between individual and soundscape. In all, these investigations revealed auditory distraction as a feature of the soundscape that consistently undermined the experience of silence as positive. Acknowledging the growing influence of the ‘attention economy,’ the work explores the psychoacoustic basis for auditory attention and concludes by forwarding practical strategies for working with distraction that have been developed and refined through listening exercises and participatory arts practice

Exploring and Designing Embodied Mindfulness-based Interactive Technologies For Mental Wellbeing

Mindfulness practices have become increasingly popular due to their significant benefits for mental wellbeing. However, the required skills to sustain and regulate attention are challenging to develop. Both the benefits and the challenges of mindfulness training have attracted a growing Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) interest in designing interactive technologies for mindfulness. Most mindfulness-based technologies employ metaphorical mappings of mindfulness states to support awareness of such states and facilitate attention regulation, although the rationale for such mappings is seldom articulated. This thesis addresses this shortcoming, drawing on first-person experiences and embodied metaphors of mindfulness practices to design novel multi-sensory technologies for mental wellbeing. This work concentrates on focused attention mindfulness (FAM) practices which involve sustaining selective attention moment by moment on a chosen object, and are considered the most widely accessible among novices. In particular, the research presented in this thesis is structured around two distinct FAM practices, in 6 different but interrelated studies. On the one hand, mandala colouring illustrates a nonstatic FAM practice with an external object of attention. On the other hand, sitting meditation represents a static FAM practice with an internal object of attention. The first and second study investigate in-depth mandala colouring, respectively, by interviewing 21 people who regularly engage with this practice and through an autoethnographic and heuristic evaluation of the 14 top-ranked mandala colouring apps. Findings informed the development of Anima, a peripheral colour palette materialising EEG-based mindfulness states onto colours for mandala colouring. In the third study, Anima’s design solutions were evaluated with 12 experienced participants. The fourth study follows a research-through design and material speculation approach to understand the role of body during meditation with 24 experts. This is extended in the fifth study, in which the 16 most popular meditation apps are evaluated through auto-ethnography. An identified opportunity of designing for the physical sensations that arise during meditation was considered through the design of the WarmMind, that provide warmth patterns on the upper body. The WarmMind prototype was evaluated in the fifth study, through a user study with 10 participants experiencing thermal metaphors for mapping meditation states on the upper-body. Besides the technological design contributions of Anima and WarmMind, the contributions of this thesis include the concepts of intricate confines to scaffold mindful movement to support non-static FAM practices with an external object of attention, and interoceptive interaction to facilitate focusing inwards during meditation to support static FAM practices with an internal object of attention; as well as a framework built on embodied metaphor theories to designing meditation technologies. Collectively, these studies highlight the value of the human body in mindfulness-based technologies in HCI, as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to designing around mindfulness for mental wellbeing in HCI

Integrating passive ubiquitous surfaces into human-computer interaction

Mobile technologies enable people to interact with computers ubiquitously. This dissertation investigates how ordinary, ubiquitous surfaces can be integrated into human-computer interaction to extend the interaction space beyond the edge of the display. It turns out that acoustic and tactile features generated during an interaction can be combined to identify input events, the user, and the surface. In addition, it is shown that a heterogeneous distribution of different surfaces is particularly suitable for realizing versatile interaction modalities. However, privacy concerns must be considered when selecting sensors, and context can be crucial in determining whether and what interaction to perform.Mobile Technologien ermöglichen den Menschen eine allgegenwärtige Interaktion mit Computern. Diese Dissertation untersucht, wie gewöhnliche, allgegenwärtige Oberflächen in die Mensch-Computer-Interaktion integriert werden können, um den Interaktionsraum über den Rand des Displays hinaus zu erweitern. Es stellt sich heraus, dass akustische und taktile Merkmale, die während einer Interaktion erzeugt werden, kombiniert werden können, um Eingabeereignisse, den Benutzer und die Oberfläche zu identifizieren. Darüber hinaus wird gezeigt, dass eine heterogene Verteilung verschiedener Oberflächen besonders geeignet ist, um vielfältige Interaktionsmodalitäten zu realisieren. Bei der Auswahl der Sensoren müssen jedoch Datenschutzaspekte berücksichtigt werden, und der Kontext kann entscheidend dafür sein, ob und welche Interaktion durchgeführt werden soll

Embracing first-person perspectives in soma-based design

This article belongs to the Special Issue Tangible and Embodied InteractionA set of prominent designers embarked on a research journey to explore aesthetics in movement-based design. Here we unpack one of the design sensitivities unique to our practice: A strong first person perspective-where the movements, somatics and aesthetic sensibilities of the designer, design researcher and user are at the forefront. We present an annotated portfolio of design exemplars and a brief introduction to some of the design methods and theory we use, together substantiating and explaining the first-person perspective. At the same time, we show how this felt dimension, despite its subjective nature, is what provides rigor and structure to our design research. Our aim is to assist researchers in soma-based design and designers wanting to consider the multiple facets when designing for the aesthetics of movement. The applications span a large field of designs, including slow introspective, contemplative interactions, arts, dance, health applications, games, work applications and many others

Self and no self: Buddhism as pedagogy in contemporary performance art

Self and No Self: Buddhism as Pedagogy in Contemporary Performance Art is a practice-based investigation into the development of an autobiographical performance art practice based on Buddhist meditation. Specifically, the performance work, entitled Sutra: Five Works for Performance, is a response to trauma testimony and the performance art event as a catalyst for transformation. The performance projects are examined alongside literary and performance theory in order to further understand the ways in which Buddhism is absorbed and expressed in contemporary Western performance culture. The practical work asks the question, What is the role of Buddhist practice in the creation and performance of autobiography? The thesis investigates this further through an examination of literary theory that pertains to Sutra such as trauma and affect theory. Specifically, the work of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick contributes to an understanding of the workings of the genre through her notion of the ‘beside.’ Contemporary artists whose work is directly influenced by Buddhist philosophy and/or practice is also examined as a way of foregrounding the intertextuality of the genre. Beginning with John Cage as the ‘father’ of Buddhist-influenced performance art, artists include the Happenings and Fluxus movements, Marina Abramović, Meredith Monk and Ann Hamilton as exemplars in the field. To the degree that contemporary Western Buddhist art can be said to reflect as well as influence new expressions of religious faith, it can also be said that they question fixed views of institutionalized religion and foster inter-religious as well as secular dialogue on shared humanitarian principles which are the key components of Buddhistinfluenced arts praxis. It makes the conclusion that the framing of Buddhistinfluenced performance art within the context of contemporary Western society takes on an implicit pedagogical value beyond mere entertainment or commodified experience

5th International Conference on Time Perspective

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