Interaction in motion: designing truly mobile interaction

The use of technology while being mobile now takes place in many areas of people’s lives in a wide range of scenarios, for example users cycle, climb, run and even swim while interacting with devices. Conflict between locomotion and system use can reduce interaction performance and also the ability to safely move. We discuss the risks of such “interaction in motion”, which we argue make it desirable to design with locomotion in mind. To aid such design we present a taxonomy and framework based on two key dimensions: relation of interaction task to locomotion task, and the amount that a locomotion activity inhibits use of input and output interfaces. We accompany this with four strategies for interaction in motion. With this work, we ultimately aim to enhance our understanding of what being “mobile” actually means for interaction, and help practitioners design truly mobile interactions

Interaction in motion: designing truly mobile interaction

The use of technology while being mobile now takes place in many areas of people’s lives in a wide range of scenarios, for example users cycle, climb, run and even swim while interacting with devices. Conflict between locomotion and system use can reduce interaction performance and also the ability to safely move. We discuss the risks of such “interaction in motion”, which we argue make it desirable to design with locomotion in mind. To aid such design we present a taxonomy and framework based on two key dimensions: relation of interaction task to locomotion task, and the amount that a locomotion activity inhibits use of input and output interfaces. We accompany this with four strategies for interaction in motion. With this work, we ultimately aim to enhance our understanding of what being “mobile” actually means for interaction, and help practitioners design truly mobile interactions

Expanding exertion gaming

While exertion games - digital games where the outcome is determined by physical exertion - are of growing interest in HCI, we believe the current health and fitness focus in the research of exertion games limits the opportunities this field has to offer. In order to broaden the agenda on exertion games, we link the existing fields of sports and interactive entertainment (arguing these fields have much to offer) by presenting four of our own designs as case studies. Using our experiences with these designs we highlight three key strategies to guide designers in the creation of richer exertion game experiences: designing a temporal trajectory through games with reference to the way exertion changes over time, designing for the inevitable and not necessarily negative effects of pain in exertion games, and designing for the highly socially situated nature of exertion gaming

Empowering Expression for Users with Aphasia through Constrained Creativity

Creative activities allow people to express themselves in rich, nuanced ways. However, being creative does not always come easily. For example, people with speech and language impairments, such as aphasia, face challenges in creative activities that involve language. In this paper, we explore the concept of constrained creativity as a way of addressing this challenge and enabling creative writing. We report an app, MakeWrite, that supports the constrained creation of digital texts through automated redaction. The app was co-designed with and for people with aphasia and was subsequently explored in a workshop with a group of people with aphasia. Participants were not only successful in crafting novel language, but, importantly, self-reported that the app was crucial in enabling them to do so. We refect on the potential of technology-supported constrained creativity as a means of empowering expression amongst users with diverse needs

Grandma Smith and Grandpa Cooper Clarke: Investigating the godparents of punk poetry: Patti Smith and John Cooper Clarke

It is often said (on the backs of books, or on the internet – so it must be true) that Patti Smith is the godmother of punk poetry and John Cooper Clarke the godfather. In this paper I want to investigate what it is about their literature that we can read in relation to Punk as a philosophy, aesthetic and cultural movement and all the other adjectives we might associate with the term. However, I won’t only be considering poetry, in fact, following the success of her biographies, I will also be considering Patti Smith’s prose work (so I am not sticking to the rules at a punk conference, is this a surprise to anyone?). Another aspect of this paper is to explore the recent popularity of both of these artists/writers/musicians – whose careers each span each of these titles, and to think about how we can understand and interpret that in relation to our considerations of all things punk today. Therefore, I hope to address the issue as to the notion of inspiration (hence godparent) versus influence/heritage (thus grandparent)

Expanding exertion gaming

While exertion games - digital games where the outcome is determined by physical exertion - are of growing interest in HCI, we believe the current health and fitness focus in the research of exertion games limits the opportunities this field has to offer. In order to broaden the agenda on exertion games, we link the existing fields of sports and interactive entertainment (arguing these fields have much to offer) by presenting four of our own designs as case studies. Using our experiences with these designs we highlight three key strategies to guide designers in the creation of richer exertion game experiences: designing a temporal trajectory through games with reference to the way exertion changes over time, designing for the inevitable and not necessarily negative effects of pain in exertion games, and designing for the highly socially situated nature of exertion gaming

Tanks, Guitars, and Wands: Feminine Subjectivity and Phallic Cultural Spaces in Three Contemporary Texts

Applying postmodern theory to three contemporary texts, Rachel Talay’s 1995 film Tank Girl, Patti Smith’s 1975 Horses album, and Hermione Granger’s character in the Harry Potter series, I argue that marginally feminist, or seemingly non-feminist texts can do feminist work when postmodern theories are applied. Through Tank Girl’s reversal of the male gaze, her co-optation of Water and Power’s tank, and mockery of traditional forms of overly-aggressive masculinity, Tank Girl is a critique of phallic power spaces and the social power we assign to them. On her album, Horses, Smith occupies the theoretical space of the archetypal male rock performer and in doing so breaks the archetype: as a women inhabiting male rock space successfully, Smith deconstructs the cultural notion of rock performers as only male. In representing various femininities through her musical performance, Smith opens up space for women’s subjecthood in rock outside the virgin/whore dichotomy that permeated the rock scene of the 1960’s and early 1970’s. In part three I examine the Golden Trio (Harry, Ron, and Hermione) using Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s theory of the “erotic triangle” as a basis for examining the interactions between the friends. I argue Rowling constructs Hermione as a subversive character who challenges traditional gender stereotypes. Like Smith, Hermione’s occupation of multiple, non-traditional feminine subject positions allows for readers to identify with a broader collection of subjectivities

La narrativisation des musiques populaires enregistrées : enjeux génériques et politiques des musiques rock et folk (1962-1989)

Cette recherche porte sur les processus de narrativisation des musiques rock et folk, et mobilise une méthode phononarratologique reposant sur des témoignages d'écoute d'auditeurs investis dans ces deux genres à travers l'appartenance à des communautés d'amateurs en ligne. Bien que le champ de la narratologie des musiques populaires se soit développé depuis une quinzaine d'années, les travaux s'appuyant sur des enquêtes de réception y restent en effet marginaux. Le cadre cognitiviste tendant pourtant à s'implanter dans la narratomusicologie, il m'a semblé important de réaliser une étude plus systématique permettant de mieux comprendre comment sont perçus les textes et surtout l'ensemble de l'environnement sonore d'une chanson populaire, et pourquoi ils peuvent être reçus à travers un prisme narratif. En utilisant la théorie des affordances, je cherche dans cette thèse quels éléments, relevant des paroles, de la composition musicale, de la performance, mais aussi des paramètres technologiques et de la mise en scène sonore, semblent encourager une écoute narrativisante. Je m'appuie pour cela sur un questionnaire en ligne distribué auprès de 15 communautés d'auditeurs dédiées à des artistes rock et folk, portant sur la place de la narrativité dans leurs écoutes et dans leur perception des musiques rock et folk. La focalisation sur ces deux genres, dans leurs incarnations allant des années 1960 aux années 1980, me permet de mener une approche comparative du rôle que peut jouer la narrativité dans les définitions et traditions génériques, mais aussi de la manière dont cette narrativité articule et concentre un bon nombre des enjeux politiques soulevés par les musiques populaires. Les liens étroits qu'ont pu entretenir les genres rock et folk avec des mouvements ou discours politisés redoublent l'intérêt de ce questionnement et de la méthode utilisée ici, qui laisse apercevoir comment la réception actuelle des récits rock et folk façonne l'image politique de ces genres. En mettant en regard les contributions des enquêtés avec des analyses phononarratologiques, je me suis attachée à évaluer les contrastes d'affordances sonores, politiques et narratives proposées par les chansons rock et folk, tout en gardant à l'esprit les impressions que ces affordances laissent sur leurs publics contemporains. Les résultats de cette recherche montrent que malgré quelques différences dans les processus de narrativisation des chansons rock et folk, le caractère phonographique de ces musiques les rassemble comme objets narratifs gagnant à être compris sous le prisme de l'expérientialité, dans la mesure où elles encouragent l'auditeur implicite à se positionner dans le monde narratif proposé par chaque piste. Les points de vue et types de voix narratives prenant à parti cet auditeur implicite modulent toutefois considérablement cette relation, et sont essentiels dans la compréhension des pratiques et traditions narratives et politiques des genres rock et folk, dont on peut ainsi dresser des profils distincts en dépit des nombreux échanges qui ont dynamisé l'évolution de ces deux familles musicales sur la période étudiée.This thesis deals with the narrativization of rock and folk music with a phononarratological approach relying on listening accounts gathered from listeners invested in these two genres through an active involvement in online fan communities. Although the field of narratological popular music studies has developed in the last 15 years, studies rooted in reception fieldwork are still rare. Since cognitive frameworks nevertheless tend to get adopted in musiconarratology, it seemed important to me to conduct a more systematic investigation in order to better understand how lyrics and sonic environment are perceived in a popular song, and why they can be received through a narrative lens. Using affordance theory, I seek what elements, relating to lyrics, musical composition, performance, but also technological parameters and phonographic staging, can encourage a narrativizing mode of listening. To this end, I rely on an online survey shared among 15 fan communities dedicated to rock and folk artists, dealing with narrativity's place in their way of listening and in their perception of rock and folk music. My focalizing on these two genres from the 1960s to the 1980s allows me to conduct a comparative approach to the role narrativity can play in generic definitions and traditions, but also to the way narrativity structures and concentrates a range of political issues brought up by popular music. The close links that have existed between rock and folk genres and politicized movements or discourses heighten the relevance of my line of questioning and of my method, which sheds light on how contemporary receptions of rock and folk narratives shape these two genres' political images. By combining the listeners' comments with phononarratological analysis, I try to gauge the contrasts between rock and folk songs in terms of sonic, political and narrative affordances, while keeping an eye on what impressions these affordances leave on contemporary listeners. My results show that despite some differences between the narrativization processes encouraged by rock and folk music, their phonographic nature brings them together as narrative objects that should be viewed through the angle of experientiality, insofar as they incite the implied listener to position themselves in the storyworld suggested by each track. However, some types of point of view and narrative voice alter this relationship and are essential in the understanding of the narrative and political practices of rock and folk music, from which two distinct portraits can be painted despite the numerous exchanges that have stirred their evolution during the period I studied