6 research outputs found
Architecting play
From the grotesque pavilions hidden in sixteenth century Italian gardens to the temporary structures in public space in the 70s and recent digitally augmented environments, architectures of play have long been designed to engage explorative experiences. The uncertainty of play allows us to probe new behaviors, to poke into the boundaries of subjectivity and to interact with people, things and systems in unexpected and unfamiliar ways. In this essay, we explore how an interactive system, situated in public space, may foster explorative activities and enable the transformative power of play. Through the analysis of several computer-augmented architectures, we examine what interactive qualities might enhance the transformative power of play. Beginning with the Fun Palace, an early attempt to use cybernetics in order to encourage visitors to experiment with their habits, we move to contemporary projects including some of the author's own work. The latter takes the advantage of existing public locations in order to insert exploratory play into everyday life. Through analysis of these projects, we discuss whether such environments raise our responsibility toward others within our surroundings; whether they enable us to transform our own established behaviors; and whether they empower us to reclaim public spac
Amplifying Actions - Towards Enactive Sound Design
Recently, artists and designers have begun to use digital technologies in order to
stimulate bodily interaction, while scientists keep revealing new findings about
sensorimotor contingencies, changing the way in which we understand human
knowledge. However, implicit knowledge generated in artistic projects can become
difficult to transfer and scientific research frequently remains isolated due to
specific disciplinary languages and methodologies. By mutually enriching holistic
creative approaches and highly specific scientific ways of working, this doctoral
dissertation aims to set the foundation for Enactive Sound Design. It is focused
on sound that engages sensorimotor experience that has been neglected within
the existing design practices. The premise is that such a foundation can be best
developed if grounded in transdisciplinary methods that bring together scientific
and design approaches.
The methodology adopted to achieve this goal is practice-based and supported
by theoretical research and project analysis. Three different methodologies were
formulated and evaluated during this doctoral study, based on a convergence of existing
methods from design, psychology and human-computer interaction. First, a
basic design approach was used to engage in a reflective creation process and to extend
the existing work on interaction gestalt through hands-on activities. Second,
psychophysical experiments were carried out and adapted to suit the needed shift
from reception-based tests to a performance-based quantitative evaluation. Last,
a set of participatory workshops were developed and conducted, within which the
enactive sound exercises were iteratively tested through direct and participatory
observation, questionnaires and interviews.
A foundation for Enactive Sound Design developed in this dissertation includes
novel methods that have been generated by extensive explorations into the fertile
ground between basic design education, psychophysical experiments and participatory
design. Combining creative practices with traditional task analysis further
developed this basic design approach. The results were a number of abstract sonic
artefacts conceptualised as the experimental apparatuses that can allow psychologists
to study enactive sound experience. Furthermore, a collaboration between
designers and scientists on a psychophysical study produced a new methodology
for the evaluation of sensorimotor performance with tangible sound interfaces.These performance experiments have revealed that sonic feedback can support
enactive learning. Finally, participatory workshops resulted in a number of novel
methods focused on a holistic perspective fostered through a subjective experience
of self-producing sound. They indicated the influence that such an approach may
have on both artists and scientists in the future. The role of designer, as a scientific
collaborator within psychological research and as a facilitator of participatory
workshops, has been evaluated.
Thus, this dissertation recommends a number of collaborative methods and strategies
that can help designers to understand and reflectively create enactive sound
objects. It is hoped that the examples of successful collaborations between designers
and scientists presented in this thesis will encourage further projects and
connections between different disciplines, with the final goal of creating a more
engaging and a more aware sonic future.European Commission 6th Framework and European Science Foundation (COST Action
Space, people, networks:exploring the relationship between built structures and seamless wireless communication infrastructures
In this thesis, I investigate wireless communication from an architectural perspective. I am using design prototypes to explore possibilities for interaction and designing with wirelessness in mind. The public primarily regards wireless networking technology as a technical infrastructure that should provide a seamless flow of information across a network of base stations, access points and mobile devices. From this perspective, wireless infrastructure is evaluated in terms of network availability and speed, and is continuously optimised. Researchers explored some other perspectives on wireless communication technology: they used computational spatial analysis to measure signal propagation in space. Some ethnographic studies explored its effect on the use of public space. Wireless connectivity was also explored through the philosophical framework of radical empiricism. All this points to the fact that wireless network infrastructure is a complex topic, spanning multiple fields of expertise and interest (engineering, architecture, urban studies but also sociology and philosophy). It is rarely explored from a plural perspective, as each study typically focuses on the one aspect within its expertise. I propose a more complex view of wireless connectivity, encompassing these different perspectives through an intellectual framework that is based on the notion of architecturality. Architecturality, a property common to all architecture but exceeding the limits of built artefacts, is a measure of the effect something has on the experience of space. Through the lens of the built environment, I expose the complex transactions that take place between networks, people and space. In order to evaluate architecturality of wireless communication signals, I conducted a series of practical design experiments, involving people and interactive installations, and using data gathered from mobile devices and wireless access points. The design of these experiments relies on the principles described by human-computer interaction (HCI) researchers as seamful design. Seamful design reveals underlying structures and relationships behind what appears as a utilitarian infrastructure. The design experiments contribute to the discussion on the use of design artefacts in practice-based research methodologies, thus challenging the different agents of knowledge production and the superiority of established research traditions. The insights gained from this complex examination of wireless networks are important for architectural design, as a way to account more adequately for signal propagation through buildings. The experience of internalising wireless networks in the process of design engenders a designerâs sensitivity towards the presence of wireless communications in space. This sensitivity, similar to the one we have for the distribution of natural and artificial lighting, will be needed in the ever more challenging design of the built environment. The sensible designer can account for, and envision, more dynamic environments that are able to accommodate change and information in completely new ways
Responsive Architecture: A Place Making Design Strategy
The area of responsive architecture is at the conceptual intersection of architecture, design, and technology. It presents an opportunity to investigate the potentials for engaging place-dwellers in an interactive exchange with each other and with the built environment, and can be regarded as an experimental medium for conceptual investigation. The concept of creating responsive architecture is synonymous to creating experiences in place, and for building site-specific interventions within the built environment that use computational technologies to choreograph or facilitate engaging experiences for visitors, spectators, and place-dwellers. From this perspective, responsive architecture can be regarded as a place-making design strategy that is informed the by theories and histories of architectural design practices, and also by concepts and studies on space, place, the body, experience, and perception.
This research attempts to present responsive architecture within the context of place-making and as a place-making design strategy. It conducts an overview which reads the history of experimentations in endowing architecture with feedback and adaptability in response to presence and interaction, and contextualizes this research by performing an inter-disciplinary reading in the history of arts and science to better understand the rise of these tendencies in the light of development of other forms of creation such as theatre, dance, and the advances in science and technology. This research also conducts a theoretical overview on the concepts of space and place, and their relation to active bodies and perception.
The second part of this thesis is a research-creation component which presents a design strategy that investigates the ways in which computational and digital media can be conceptualized, diffused, and used to create engaging and interactive experiences in place. It presents a set of experiments that were conducted by the author of this research, provides a conceptual pretext for the responsive design strategies that were used in each experiment, and draws similarities and distinction from the ensemble of the experiments that investigate a certain aspect of each strategy
Architecting play
From the grotesque pavilions hidden in sixteenth century Italian gardens to the temporary structures in public space in the 70s and recent digitally augmented environments, architectures of play have long been designed to engage explorative experiences. The uncertainty of play allows us to probe new behaviors, to poke into the boundaries of subjectivity and to interact with people, things and systems in unexpected and unfamiliar ways. In this essay, we explore how an interactive system, situated in public space, may foster explorative activities and enable the transformative power of play. Through the analysis of several computer-augmented architectures, we examine what interactive qualities might enhance the transformative power of play. Beginning with the Fun Palace, an early attempt to use cybernetics in order to encourage visitors to experiment with their habits, we move to contemporary projects including some of the author's own work. The latter takes the advantage of existing public locations in order to insert exploratory play into everyday life. Through analysis of these projects, we discuss whether such environments raise our responsibility toward others within our surroundings; whether they enable us to transform our own established behaviors; and whether they empower us to reclaim public spac