Ways of walking: understanding walking's implications for the design of handheld technology via a humanistic ethnographic approach

It seems logical to argue that mobile computing technologies are intended for use “on-the-go.” However, on closer inspection, the use of mobile technologies pose a number of challenges for users who are mobile, particularly moving around on foot. In engaging with such mobile technologies and their envisaged development, we argue that interaction designers must increasingly consider a multitude of perspectives that relate to walking in order to frame design problems appropriately. In this paper, we consider a number of perspectives on walking, and we discuss how these may inspire the design of mobile technologies. Drawing on insights from non-representational theory, we develop a partial vocabulary with which to engage with qualities of pedestrian mobility, and we outline how taking more mindful approaches to walking may enrich and inform the design space of handheld technologies

Resonance as a design strategy for AI and social robots

Resonance, a powerful and pervasive phenomenon, appears to play a major role in human interactions. This article investigates the relationship between the physical mechanism of resonance and the human experience of resonance, and considers possibilities for enhancing the experience of resonance within human–robot interactions. We first introduce resonance as a widespread cultural and scientific metaphor. Then, we review the nature of “sympathetic resonance” as a physical mechanism. Following this introduction, the remainder of the article is organized in two parts. In part one, we review the role of resonance (including synchronization and rhythmic entrainment) in human cognition and social interactions. Then, in part two, we review resonance-related phenomena in robotics and artificial intelligence (AI). These two reviews serve as ground for the introduction of a design strategy and combinatorial design space for shaping resonant interactions with robots and AI. We conclude by posing hypotheses and research questions for future empirical studies and discuss a range of ethical and aesthetic issues associated with resonance in human–robot interactions

Overhearing: An Attuning Approach to Noise in Danish Hospitals

Denmark is building new and improved super hospitals, based on a vision of improving overall quality by switching the focus from hospitals for treatment to hospitals for healing, guided by research in the field of evidence-based design and healing architecture. Users mention noise as one of the main stressors and research has discovered that noise levels in hospitals continue to rise. Noise has therefore become a central point of concern, recommending strategies to reduce measurable and perceived noise levels.However, these strategies do not support the need to feel like an integral part of the shared hospital environment, which is also a key element in creating healing environments linked to a reductionist framework underlying the field. This framework regards broad concepts such as noise and silence as objects with quantifiable properties, and assumes that these properties can be understood independently of the perceiver as a bodily and situated subject. The aim of this dissertation is accordingly to develop an alternative framework capable of accommodating the multi-sensory, affective and atmospheric conditions that influence the experience of noise, with a view to complementing the existing approaches in the field.  Consequently, the dissertation develops an ecological framework capable of accommodating these issues, established by viewing sound and listening through the lens of atmospheres. The attuning approach highlights the reciprocal relationship between the way in which atmospheres condition shared rhythms that shape us, but also the way in which we can tune them in different ways. In the context of sound and listening, this creates the potential of ecological overhearing as an atmospheric mode of listening capable of reconfiguring habitual background and foregrounding relationships. Attuning strategies should thus provide opportunities for diverse acoustic situations and possibilities for active choice-making to meet different and shifting needs through an enactive approach in order to enhance empowerment and ecological overhearing. Embedding diverse enactive sound installations and interactive sound technology in hospitals can facilitate such zones of overhearing. These zones become places for ruptures that strengthen the possibilities for engaging in counter-attunements of existing negative atmospheres. In this way, zones of overhearing not only provide continual sense of presence without demanding full attention, but also create ample opportunities for the restoration of  attention.The dissertation takes an experimental practice-based approach through artistic- and constructive design-research and comprises six peer-reviewed papers (Part IV), framed by a general overview article (Parts I-III) that develops the theoretical and methodological foundation for the papers, and provides a synthesis and discussion of their main findings. The practice-based work is founded on a range of experiments, but focuses on two main experiments: Light, Landscape & Voices and KidKit, and the way in which they elicit sensitivities within the topic of investigation. This contribution also concerns the concrete development of installations through the experiments. These installations are in themselves manifestations of and challenges to hypotheses about the topic I aim to address.

SAXOPHONE LIVE EXCHANGES. AN EXAMINATION OF INTERCONNECTIVITY IN ART PRACTICE THAT DEVELOPS NEW WAYS OF WORKING THROUGH DIALOGUE BETWEEN ART, MUSIC, SOUND, RHYTHM & TONALITY.

I am an internationally exhibited UK mixed-media, multi-disciplinary artist based in Lincoln and London. My artwork incorporates migration, ecology and dialogue through nonhierarchical methods of working. I work with the development of sound, words, saxophone playing, photography, silent/non silent video, and share my art practice in co-productions and collaborations. The artistic practice-led research project was initiated in order to discover how specific artists’ tools and media can impact and expand my own art practices when saxophone playing. Through this art practice-led Phd I aimed to discover, critique and understand what are the notable changes in tonality and rhythm that occur in my improvised saxophone playing, when in dialogue with another’s art practice during a live performance. During this research visual and sound files were collected through a series of three live events, working with three different art practitioners to produce case studies that could be used in an art practice research framework. Each art practitioner was chosen for their use of different media: visual or sound materials. The artists included a fine artist; an artist working with spoken language (performed by avatars), and a sound artist who utilised sound files, electronic sound devices and computer software. The case studies documented the live production of an ‘art work’ and the resulting written reflection analysed the changes made in my saxophone playing techniques. This artist research project is practice-led, and not only resulted in me making my own work but also involved an in depth analysis of the video and sound recordings made during the live performances. I set up the use of dialogue and not-knowing as a method to induce risk taking, the results of which were later used in live performances with performers and musicians. When comparing the three case studies, I was able to recognise how and when my playing responded to other art practitioners’ tonal shifts and rhythmic actions. As a result, I was able to apply this new knowledge into my own art practice. The contribution to new knowledge is in how artistic practice-led research produced critical insight into the development of tone and rhythm in my improvised saxophone playing. Demonstrating how different art practices produced different responses both from each other and those using a music score. Furthermore, through discussion with art and music practitioners, these practitioners have adapted dialogue and other aspects from the findings, that include not-knowing as an apparatus and tool in their practice. As this is an artistic practice-led research project it is essential that the reader listen to the practice as they navigate the thesis. I have embedded the video and sound files throughout the chapters, to illustrate my points. The three live events formed case studies establishing interconnections between Bracey, Dutton and McArthur, and my saxophone sound. The live events can also be listened to or watched in their entirety through the following links

From a musical protolanguage to rhythm and tonality

Treballs Finals del Màster en Ciència Cognitiva i Llenguatge, Facultat de Filosofia, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2014-2015, Tutora: Joana Rosselló Ximenes[eng] Music and language are two faculties that have only evolved in humans, and by mutual interaction. As Darwin (1871) suggested, before speaking, our ancestors were able to sing in a way structurally and functionally similar to what birds do. At that stage, a musical protolanguage with beat yielded a common basis for music and language. Hierarchical recursion along with grammar and lexical meaning joined this musical protolanguage and gave rise to language. Linguistic recursion, in turn, made meter possible. Rhythm therefore would have preceded tonality. Subsequently, in parallel to the emergence of grammar, harmony and tonality were added to the meter. That beat is more primitive than meter is suggested by the fact that some animals perceive but do not externalize it. Crucially, they are all vocal learners. Externalization, either in musical rhythm or language, requires a complex social behaviour, which for rhythm is already present in the drumming behaviour of certain primates. The role of vocalizations, in turn, goes even further: their harmonic spectrum underpinned the tones of our musical scales. Thus, driven to a large extent by language, music has turned out to be as we know it nowadays.[cat] La música i el llenguatge són dues facultats exclusivament humanes que han evolucionat alimentantse mútuament. Com Darwin (1871) ja va suggerir, abans de parlar, els nostres ancestres tenien cants similars funcionalment i estructuralment al cant dels ocells. En aquest estadi, un protollenguatge musical amb pulsació es consolidà com a base comuna de la música i el llenguatge. La recursió jeràrquica, juntament amb la gramàtica i el significat lèxic, es van afegir a aquest protollenguatge musical i van donar lloc al llenguatge. Aquesta recursió lingüística féu possible el metre. El ritme, doncs, va precedir la tonalitat. Ulteriorment, en paral·lel al sorgiment de la gramàtica, l’harmonia i la tonalitat s’afegeixen al metre (compàs). Que la pulsació és més primitiva ho indica el fet que certs animals la perceben però no l’externalitzen espontàniament. Crucialment, tots són vocal learners. L’externalització, tant del ritme com del llenguatge, requereix una conducta social complexa, que ja s’observa en el conducta percutiva (drumming) de certs primats. El paper de les vocalitzacions, per la seva banda, va encara més enllà: l’espectre harmònic que presenten és el fonament de les notes a les escales musical. Així doncs, a remolc del llenguatge, és com s’arriba a la música tal i com l’entenem avui en dia.[spa] La música y el lenguaje son dos capacidades exclusi vamente humanas que han evolucionado alimentándose mutuamente. Como Darwin (1871) ya sug irió, antes de hablar, nuestros ancestros, tenían cantos similares funcionalmente y estructura lmente al canto de los pájaros. En este estadio, un protolenguaje musical con pulsación se consolidó com o la base común de la música y el lenguaje. La recursión jerárquica, junto con la gramática y el sig nificado léxico, se añadieron a este protolenguaje musical y dieron lugar al lenguaje. Esta recursión l ingüística hace posible el metro. El ritmo, pues, precedió la tonalidad. Ulteriormente, en paralelo a l surgimiento de la gramática, la armonía y la tonalidad se añaden al metro (compás). Que la pulsa ción es más primitiva lo indica el hecho de que ciertos animales la perciben pero no la externaliza n espontáneamente. Crucialmente, todos son vocal learners . La externalización, tanto del ritmo como del leng uaje, requiere una conducta social compleja, que ya se observa en la conducta percutiva ( drumming ) de ciertos primates. El papel de las vocalizaciones, por su parte, va aún más allá: el e spectro armónico que presentan es la base de las notas en las escaleras musicales. Así, a remolque d el lenguaje, es como se llega a la música tal y como la entendemos hoy en dí

The effect of electronically mediated sound on group musical interaction: A case study of the practice and development of the Automatic Writing Circle

The interaction between musicians has been one of the traditional strengths of music: it stretches to include an audience and ritual participants but has its origins in group activity, the interpersonal responses of one musician to another. This thesis examines the way that electronic media have transformed the interactions between musicians, particularly in the context of live performance. A central theme is the way in which mediatisation creates new splits within previously integrated musical situations and also merges differences usually defined by physical boundaries. The theories of Gregory Bateson on schizophrenia and Irving Goffman on Situationism are brought together to create a new understanding of the term "schizophonia". This rehabilitated concept is proposed as the key to a creative exploration of new situations and discontinuities which make up group performance in a mediatised environment. In practical terms the exploration of new musical situations is documented in the following projects: the material created for the group "Automatic Writing Circle" during its evolution over a period of six years (compositions, software, instruments), development of the Ouija Board and accompanying software, composition of the piece Lipsync and the earlier piece I slept by numbers for flute and live electronics