Speculative somatics

Based on a presentation at The Undivided Mind conference at Plymouth University, this article sketches out speculative applications of somatics, the first person, phenomenological study of sensation, perception and movement. I first introduce the subject of somatics through an experiential exercise for the reader before summarizing theoretical aspects of somatic study. Drawing from the literature in embodied cognition and from personal recollections of embodied experiences, I propose how somatic approaches could potentially be used in working with immigrant communities, living in outer space, and empathizing with non-human animals

Divergent Thinking In Disaster: Examples from Typhoon Haiyan Survivors

In this presentation, delivered at Off the Lip 2015 at Plymouth University, we shared some of the ethnographic research on the creative and cognitive work needed to survive the high-stakes, high-stress, and emotionally charged situation of a disaster, in which “divergent thinking” is more just than a cognitive process: it becomes a survival skill. The presentation centred on a series of narratives based on our experiences of conducting fieldwork in the province of Leyte in the Philippines on December 2013, six weeks after Typhoon Haiyan decimated the Visayas region of one of most typhoon-prone countries in the world

Anthropology Of, For, And With Design: A Philippine Perspective

The intersection of the fields of design and anthropology emerges as fertile ground for study as societies increasingly acknowledge the tremendous impact the objects we create for ourselves have on our lives. As anthropologists and ethnographers involved in running our own design research company in the Philippines, negotiating the alignments and contradictions between the two fields of knowledge is an essential component of our everyday research practice. This paper outlines different models of the relationships between design and anthropology as systems of knowledge and practice. We first extend a theoretical framework that distinguishes between anthropology of, anthropology for, and anthropology with design (Gunn and Donovan 2013): we maintain that anthropology with design underlies an approach increasingly used in commercial industries known as "design thinking", and describe the different ways by which knowledge is generated and mobilized in each of these relationships; we further describe how the artifacts of design can be seen to either materialize, shape, or probe culturally-mediated meanings, power relations, and values. We illustrate these concepts through client-commissioned projects that our organization has conducted in the Philippines. We next examine how and when these design-anthropology relationships are realized when working with clients. While anthropology with design will likely create better outcomes for our clients, larger clients must often settle for anthropology for design; we describe how we have negotiated these tensions and present our outcomes from our engagement with them. We end with a call for the development of a local prism through which practitioners in the field of design can further engage in critical reflection of the production of artifacts, particular those created with the intent of addressing social concerns. Specifically, we call for more localized conceptual frameworks of design that can be patterned (for instance) on India's notion of jugaad, and advance an increased engagement for anthropology with design across various sectors of Philippine society

When Ideas Migrate: A Postcolonial Perspective on Biomodd [LBA2]

This paper was completed as part of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN, CogNovo, grant number 604764.Biomodd is a global series of art installations in which computer technology and ecology converge. Computer networks built from upcycled computer components are provided with living internal ecosystems. In a symbiotic exchange, plants and algae live alongside electronics and use the latter’s waste heat to thrive. Sensors and robotics provide additional interaction possibilities with the organisms. The first version of the project was completed in the US, while the second version was built in the Philippines. Using a postcolonial stance, we reflect on the challenges involved in translating the project from one context to another. We focus on issues related to heat recycling in the tropics; authenticity and hybridity; obsolescence and the convertibility of capital; cultural sampling, remixing, and appropriation; and structures for social organization. We advance Biomodd as a significant contribution to artscience collaborative initiatives in the global South

Biomodd: Exploring Relationships Between Biological, Electronic, And Social Systems Through New Media Art

This paper was written as part of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN, CogNovo, grant number 604764. Permission to archive in Plymouth University’s institutional repository given by the ICERI2014 Technical Secretariat on 14 October 2015. See cover sheet of paper.Biomodd is a collaborative new media art project that explores the symbiosis between biological, electronic, and social systems. The project started in 2007 in the United States, and has since spawned multiple versions globally. The Philippine team was led by educators from the UP Open University, who organized a course on new media art practice as a springboard for exploring and developing the project. We discuss the imaginative and abstract relationships between biological, eletronic, and social systems that learners articulated over the course of the project. We describe how local, culturally-specific narrative elements were imaginatively integrated into the physical and interactive design of the installation, resulting in a technically complex, visually poetic expression of the relationship between nature, technology, and humans

Why I'm Making Vibrating Underwear

This research was funded by Marie Curie Initial Training Network FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN, CogNovo, grant number 604764.A 7-minute presentation given at Interesting 2016, a popular event that has been organised annually in London since 2007. The Interesting series is a light-hearted but also critical response to the TED conference and to typical discourse in the advertising, technology, and start-up industry. Writer, strategist, and Interesting conference organiser Russell Davies wanted to feature "not brands, advertising, blogging and twitter but interesting, unexpected, original things... [and] fascinating people ... [who would] speak about something they care about," in a way that "replicate[s] the experience of clicking from one really good blog to another, ranging across sciences, arts, musics, jokes and whatever". See https://web.archive.org/web/20160126045729/http://www.reasonablyinteresting.co.uk/index.php/background and https://web.archive.org/web/20160917112451/http://russelldavies.typepad.com/planning/2016/09/interesting-tonight.html for more details

CogNovo: Cognitive Innovation for Technological, Artistic, and Social Domains

This paper was completed as part of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN, CogNovo, grant number 604764.CogNovo is a multi-national doctoral training programme of-fering a research network for cognitive innovation, both as a new field of artistic and scientific investigation, and as a strategy for research and innovation. We summarize the pro-gramme’s goals, themes, members, partners, and projects in this paper

Navigating cognitive innovation

This paper revisits the concept of Cognitive Innovation with the aim of helping newcomers appreciate its (intended) demarcating purpose and relevance to the wider literature on cognition and creativity in the humanities, arts, and sciences. Particular emphasis is paid to discussion of the pitfalls of sense-making and the concept's affordance. The main argument presented is that proponents of the concept face the dilemma of seeking to demonstrate its transdisciplinary nature and applicability vis-a-vis retaining its semantic distinctness. Proceeding from a classification of Cognitive Innovation as a dispositional construct, we discuss how it feeds into existing research approaches and opens up new sensibilities in related areas. The perspectives of temporality, interdisciplinary balancing, technology, and metatheories are proposed as promising areas for future elaboration of the function of Cognitive Innovation

Bisensorial: A brain-computer interface hack using tactile and auditory stimuli

Bisensorial is a prototype that was developed at Hack the Brain 2016 (www.hackthebrain.nl), a three-day hackathon in Amsterdam based on the theme of ‘hacking one's self better (or worse)’. BISENSORIAL was a fully working proof-of-concept of a technology for inducing desired mental states using touch and sound that evolved in response to EEG readings. A genetic algorithm generated patterns of auditory stimuli and tactile stimuli down a user’s back, based on readings provided by an EEG headset. The result is intended to be a personalised soundscape and ‘touchscape’ that adjusts to the user to construct the most efficient bisensorial stimuli for inducing a desired mental state. In order to both structurally encourage skin contact and freedom of motion we produced a spine structure cast in platinum prosthetic silicone that would provide a casing for the electronic components. This electronic spine is skin-like to touch and sculpturally mimics the anatomy of the vertebrae, giving the structure a visual reference regarding its function: as a sensorial device for the spinal column. The spine was integrated into a bespoke dress designed to maximise skin contact as well as provide torso support in order to relax the extensor muscles and make the tactile stimuli more perceptible