MINDtouch embodied ephemeral transference: Mobile media performance research

This is the post-print version of the final published article that is available from the link below. Copyright @ Intellect Ltd 2011.The aim of the author's media art research has been to uncover any new understandings of the sensations of liveness and presence that may emerge in participatory networked performance, using mobile phones and physiological wearable devices. To practically investigate these concepts, a mobile media performance series was created, called MINDtouch. The MINDtouch project proposed that the mobile videophone become a new way to communicate non-verbally, visually and sensually across space. It explored notions of ephemeral transference, distance collaboration and participant as performer to study presence and liveness emerging from the use of wireless mobile technologies within real-time, mobile performance contexts. Through participation by in-person and remote interactors, creating mobile video-streamed mixes, the project interweaves and embodies a daisy chain of technologies through the network space. As part of a practice-based Ph.D. research conducted at the SMARTlab Digital Media Institute at the University of East London, MINDtouch has been under the direction of Professor Lizbeth Goodman and sponsored by BBC R&D. The aim of this article is to discuss the project research, conducted and recently completed for submission, in terms of the technical and aesthetic developments from 2008 to present, as well as the final phase of staging the events from July 2009 to February 2010. This piece builds on the article (Baker 2008) which focused on the outcomes of phase 1 of the research project and initial developments in phase 2. The outcomes from phase 2 and 3 of the project are discussed in this article

WEAR Sustain

A presentation on the WEAR Sustain EU-funded project's progress, challenges and values on ethical and sustainable wearable technologies and e-textiles

Hacking the Body 2.0 performance

The current technology fervour over wearable technology that collects user’s intimate body data, under the pretence of medical or fitness monitoring, highlights that it is time that critical questions were raised. The ethics of corporate ownership of body data for consumerist agendas is rarely discussed beyond the fine print on these devices. More awareness and education on these issues, would potentially allow more access, ownership, and creativity in the use of one's own body data, and ways to express personal identity through this data. This project questions how body data may be able to demonstrate who we are, through movement, through our physiology. How might access to personal data enable the performer to show their identity, rather than what is subscribed by the corporation making the sensing device? How might we explore these issues while enabling people access to their own data, especially in performance contexts, in order to interact with it? We recently staged 2 performances of the 2 pieces developed for this stage of the project in London, UK (February 16th) and in Sheffield, UK (February 18th) – the first piece: 1) flutter/stutter – haptic costumes with 'tickle motor' actuation and custom vibe actuators, with sound feedback for the audience linked to the touch interaction; and 2) feel me – costumes with a mix of hacked off-the-shelf wearable tech garments with breath and heartrate sensors, with custom smart textile vibe motor actuators and a custom iPad interface for choreographic and audience interventions or 'live coding'. This new iteration of the collaborative project Hacking the Body 2.0, by media artist Camille Baker and media artist/choreographer Kate Sicchio, attempts to address the ethical issues around identity and data ownership when using wearable tech in performance. The project develops methods to use and hack commercial wearable devices, as well as making handmade e-textiles sensing devices for performance. As such, we encourage performers to access their own physiological data for personal use, but also to create unique and interactive performances. Excerpt of new video of these performances will shown and the costumes will be available (non-functioning mode) for questions and discussion

Household water treatment technologies: strategies for scale up & success indicators

Household water treatment technologies: strategies for scale up & success indicator

INTER/her: An immersive journey inside the female body - creative processes, reflections and revelations

INTER/her: Intimate Journey inside the Female Body is an immersive installation and Virtual Reality artwork focussing on reproductive diseases that for women can often experience, including: endometriosis, fibroids, polyps, ovarian and other cysts, as well as more serious cervical, ovarian, uterine and endometrial cancers. The project is an intimate immersive exploration of the inner world of women’s bodies and the reproductive diseases they can suffer. The focus of INTER/her is on female health is intended as a personal exploration, conversation starter, and community builder. This article discusses the creative methods, design process,and tools for making the multimodal interaction used in INTER/her,exploring their nature, value, and significance within the project, and what they implicate for future work in this area of art, design and research. It will discuss the making, expression and narrative elements used to represent,explore, and understand the emotional and bodily/sensorial experience designed for visitors, as well as the meaning making through metaphors used to represent different organs and ailments. It will cover the collaborative development of the team using various technologies and storytelling approaches guiding the making and communication during the 2nd lockdown of the COVID pandemic in the UK

Little creatures

As the Internet becomes increasingly embodied and made physical, our relationship with it inevitably changes. The Internet has also changed our relationship with each other, particularly as an enabler for collective endeavour. A project from Evan Raskob and Fiona French has brought all of this together, in the form of group-designed, digitally-enabled beings

Hacking the Body 2.0 performance: Flutter/Stutter

Flutter/Stutter is an improvisational dance piece, part of the Hacking the Body 2.0 project, that uses networked soft circuit sensors to trigger sound and haptic actuators in the form of a small motor that tickles the performers. Dancers embody the flutter of the motor and respond with their own movement that reflects this feeling. This research explores using the concept of hacking data to repurpose and re-imagine biofeedback from the body. It investigates understandings of states of the body and hacking them to make new artworks such as performance and costumes. Through performance we aim to communicate to the public new ways to engage with their bodies and technology with intimacy and sensation embedded in wearables

A household water treatment implementation framework: lessons learnt from the diversity of implementation worldwide

Household water treatment (HWT), the use of simple accessible technologies for treating water within the home, is gaining momentum globally. As estimates of worldwide users top 1.1 billion and efforts focus on scaling up existing HWT programs, there is a need to document lessons learned from HWT implementation to date and disseminate them among new and existing implementers. CAWST’s review of current implementation practices coupled with years of experience working with implementers worldwide has demonstrated that while no one standard model exists, successful program implementation shares common factors. These factors have been developed into an implementation guidance framework, focused on five key areas; creating demand, ensuring supply, monitoring and improving implementation, building human capacity, and sustained financing

Extended senses and embodying technology symposium and exhibition September 2022

This cross-disciplinary Symposium and Exhibition brought together practice-led research from the cultural and creative industries sectors to explore ways of extending and expanding the body through new and emerging modalities and technologies. This created a network gathering of artists, creative industry experts and academics investigating and exchanging knowledge on the current state of the intersection between our embodiment, our senses and the technologies of today. Running alongside the Symposium in the Stephen Lawrence Gallery and Project Space we presented the Extended Senses Exhibition, showcasing a range of diverse innovative creative works emerging from within this crossover, focussing primarily on our living bodies as the key site of knowledge production. Explorations within immersion, haptic engagement and body interfacing were included, showing inspiring methodologies for our future understanding of the hybrid blending of the virtual and the physical. Artworks included interactive installations, VR and AR experiences, digital video, animation, films and an online performance, together creating innovative interactions of the body with sound, light and image. Co-Chairs • Ghislaine Boddington (University of Greenwich) • Camille Baker (University for the Creative Arts / RCA) "Both the Symposium and Exhibition were aimed at enabling a first gathering of practitioners and researchers to explore the ways in which the human body, as the primary site of knowledge production, is extended and expanded through new and emerging modalities and technologies. The events were designed to encourage and nurture networking, knowledge exchange and a deepening of understanding of where practise-led research fits into the cultural and creative industries landscape, a landscape which has fast evolved in the last 5 years into accepting that the body is indeed the prime interface for digital technologies in the 2020’s and onwards. The combined participation of artists, creative industry experts and interdisciplinary academics ensured that the exchange of knowledge and ideas in this area reflected the most current state of the intersection between our embodiment, our senses and the technologies of today." This Symposium and Exhibition was part of knowledge exchange outputs from the School of Design and the Faculty of Liberal Arts and Sciences, University of Greenwich. - Post event outputs and documentation Seven papers from this Symposium have now been published in a special edition of Intellect Discovery, Virtual Creativity (Volume 12, Issue 1, 2022 - Extended Senses: Embodying Technologies) including an editorial overview article by the co-chairs ‘Extended Senses: Embodying Technology’ • Authors: Camille Baker, Ghislaine Boddington – Editorial Overview plus 7 journal articles by various presenters and artists involved in the Symposium and Exhibition • Source: Virtual Creativity, Volume 12, Issue Extended Senses: Embodying Technology, Jun 2022 All the Extended Senses Symposium presentation recordings (23) are archived online at Greenwich Research Scene as a Playlist for use onwards by lecturers, researchers and students at University of Greenwich and beyond