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In this paper we introduce the idea of "social contraptions", which are interactive physical devices employed as designerly explorations of social relations as mediated by physical space and artefacts. We present two independent but related design explorations that were situated in fine art and industrial research contexts. We argue that these contraptions open up for exploration some interaction issues related to the theme of ’Embodied Facilitation'. This is particularly in relation to awareness and coordination between interactants as mediated by the spatial and material configuration of the contraptions. These methods, as well as the insights gained from them can contribute to the development of the emerging field of embodied interaction.

Technology can assist people as they pursue different kinds of nature experience. Some systems developed have been made for learning, social activities, and leisure. Our aim is to explore how to make use of the theoretical frameworks of embodied interaction and technology as experience in the design and reflection process of creating an interactive system that have the potential to augment visitorsￜ experience of Tyresta national park. Design activities included contextual inquiries, sketching, prototyping and user testing. Two handheld computers and physical information boards were used in the prototype of a mobile outdoors game. The theoretical frameworks were used to set design objectives that could guide the design. When designing for nature experience we argue that one should design for an activity. The designed system should also be open for diverse ways of usage.

This paper revisits the notion of context from an interaction design perspective. Since the emergence of the research fields of Computer supported cooperative work and Ubiquitous computing, the notion of context has been discussed from different theoretical approaches and in different research traditions. One of these approaches is Embodied Interaction. This theoretical approach has in particular contributed to (i) challenge the view that user context can be meaningfully represented by a computer system, (ii) discuss the notion of context as interaction through the idea that users are always embodied in their interaction with computer systems. We believe that the particular view on users context that the approach of Embodied Interaction suggests needs to be further elaborated in terms of design. As a contribution we suggest an integrated approach where the interactional view of Embodied Interaction is interrelated with the representational view of Context-aware computing., QC 20110309

Through the adaptation of new technologies, the creative industries are proposing new forms of interaction for the distributed network. This paper considers the new media artwork Intimate Transactions as an example of a creative, experimental approach to interaction and network technology. It discusses this artwork's design of physical interaction, which includes whole-body interaction with a hands-free input device; the incorporation of choreographed interaction with its screen characters; the production of generative, multi-sensory feedback around a dramaturgical model; and the use of haptic devices to relay bodily movement across the network. It explains how this physical interaction produces a sense of flow that perceptually suspends awareness of the work’s actual site in favour of a shared virtual space. It then considers how this shared space becomes activated by multi-sensory feedback, including the physical sensation of touch. It concludes that these innovative approaches to physical interaction help to establish the potential for embodied communication and co-presence within networked space.

Through the adaptation of new technologies, the creative industries are proposing new forms of interaction for the distributed network. This paper considers the new media artwork Intimate Transactions as an example of a creative, experimental approach to interaction and network technology. It discusses this artwork's design of physical interaction, which includes whole-body interaction with a hands-free input device; the incorporation of choreographed interaction with its screen characters; the production of generative, multi-sensory feedback around a dramaturgical model; and the use of haptic devices to relay bodily movement across the network. It explains how this physical interaction produces a sense of flow that perceptually suspends awareness of the work's actual site in favour of a shared virtual space. It then considers how this shared space becomes activated by multi-sensory feedback, including the physical sensation of touch. It concludes that these innovative approaches to physical interaction help to establish the potential for embodied communication and co-presence within networked space.

Shifting Intimacies is a large-scale interactive/media artwork created during a six-month research residency in England at the Institute of Contemporary Art London and Vincent Dance Theatre Sheffield. Individuals experience 10 minutes alone with the work. They enter a large, dark space containing two circles of projected film imagery, presented within an immersive sound environment. One image floats upon a disc of white sand whilst the other falls upon a circle of white dust. Participants’ unencumbered movements are detected by an array of sensors direct and affect the subsequent realtime-composed series of filmic images and spatialised audio. Throughout the work a layer of dust (an artificial life form) slowly eats away and infuses itself deep into the imagery and consequent ‘granularised’ sound. Continual movement through the space affects resulting speed, quality, balance and flow within the work. At the end of the experience the participant is invited to climb a lit platform and cast dust back onto the images below.----- The project cross-fertlised knowledges of performance and media arts in the pursuit of an expanded and enriched range of interactive experiences for audiences, whilst promoting new opportunities to foster a better understanding of cultural and ecological co dependencies.----- Following its international premiere it has since become a successful touring production with curated showings booked into 2009/10. It has garnered strong audience and critical responses and has been a key case study for two published, scholarly papers, developing the idea of a ‘Grounded Media” form.

This paper explores the problem of embodied interaction between a service robot and a person in a hallway setting. For operation in environments with people that have limited experience with robots, a behaviour that signals awareness of the persons and safety of motion is essential. A control strategy based on human spatial behaviour studies is presented that adopts human-robot interaction patterns similar to those used in person-person encounters. The results of a pilot study with human subjects are presented in which the users have evaluated the acceptability of the robot behaviour patterns during passage, with respect to three basic parameters: the robot speed, the signaling distance at which the robot starts the maneuver and the lateral distance from the person for safe passage. The study has shown a good overall user response and has provided some useful indications on how to design a hallway passage behaviour that could be most acceptable to human users., QC 20111014

We present a tangible programming space designed for children's collaborative construction of screen-based interactive systems. The design is based on three goals for interaction and activity: supporting co-located collaborative activity, screen-based execution, and what we call behaviour-based programming. Further, we analyse the interactions within a group of 10 year olds who used the system to create a live fantasy world together. The results show how the tangible resources shaped the activity of programming so that bodily actions and positioning became prominent. This is conceptualized through the notion of embodied programming, which highlights how programming activity must be understood through its interlinking to external resources and context., QC 20120111

There has been an increasing interest in objects within the HCI field particularly with a view to designing tangible interfaces. However, little is known about how people make sense of objects and how objects support thinking. This paper presents a study of groups of engineers using physical objects to prototype designs, and articulates the roles that physical objects play in supporting their design thinking and communications. The study finds that design thinking is heavily dependent upon physical objects, that designers are active and opportunistic in seeking out physical props and that the interpretation and use of an object depends heavily on the activity. The paper discusses the trade-offs that designers make between speed and accuracy of models, and specificity and generality in choice of representations. Implications for design of tangible interfaces are discussed.

Musical interactions have the potential to increase emotional well-being, self-confidence and self-motivation. However, the ability to actively participate in creative activities involving music performance has so far been difficult for users with complex disabilities. This paper discusses placing a technology probe, using gesture based musical controls, in an existing music technology project for users with complex disabilities (conditions which affect both cognitive and motor abilities of an individual). The focus is on understanding the needs of this user group in a participatory design approach for creative music technologies that allow for tailored accessibility. Outcomes from this research show that many multi-level social interactions surrounding the technology, users, audience, and any third party facilitators exist in the context of ‘facilitated performance’. Results suggest that including facilitators in the design of Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) could allow for improved accessibility for users with complex disabilities.

Interactive films have been around for almost a century, yet they have suffered repeatedly from critical, commercial and interactional failings. We propose that brain-computer interfaces can offer interactions with narratives and encourage cinematic engagement by minimising active control. We ask what are the problems inherent to interactive cinema? Can real-time interactions via a brain-computer interface (BCI) construct cinematic content? And how do groups of individuals experience brain-controlled cinema designed for individual, shared or distributed control? Our review of related work motivates the interactional choice of using Passive BCI with real-time cinematic construction to synchronise rhythms of the viewers blinking, Attention and Meditation to the rhythms of cinema. We use the Performance Led Research in-the-Wild methodology to probe public deployments of our films, and we describe user interactions in-the-Wild during screenings of multiple designs of two interactive films: three single user, three multi user, and a live score performance. Our descriptions of BCI mappings to cinematic techniques and production strategies to produce interactive content efficiently contributes to the understanding of practical interactive cinema production. In our results we define 1) different stages of control; discovery, conscious and unconscious, 2) awareness of the affective loop, 3) a shifting prominence of engagement between the narrative, the visual qualities and the agency of users’ interactions. We offer a dynamic view of control; people’s experiences are shifting from awareness of their self, the film, and their control. Our hyper-scanning multi-user study introduces the concept of effects moving across groups, working together to produce engaging experiences, and instances of group members disrupting other’s experience by deciding to unilaterally take control of the film. Our discussion contributes to our understanding of passive interactions with narrative sys

Musical interactions have the potential to increase emotional well-being, self-confidence and self-motivation. However, the ability to actively participate in creative activities involving music performance has so far been difficult for users with complex disabilities. This paper discusses placing a technology probe, using gesture based musical controls, in an existing music technology project for users with complex disabilities (conditions which affect both cognitive and motor abilities of an individual). The focus is on understanding the needs of this user group in a participatory design approach for creative music technologies that allow for tailored accessibility. Outcomes from this research show that many multi-level social interactions surrounding the technology, users, audience, and any third party facilitators exist in the context of ‘facilitated performance’. Results suggest that including facilitators in the design of Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) could allow for improved accessibility for users with complex disabilities.

Musical interactions have the potential to increase emotional well-being, self-confidence and self-motivation. However, the ability to actively participate in creative activities involving music performance has so far been difficult for users with complex disabilities. This paper discusses placing a technology probe, using gesture based musical controls, in an existing music technology project for users with complex disabilities (conditions which affect both cognitive and motor abilities of an individual). The focus is on understanding the needs of this user group in a participatory design approach for creative music technologies that allow for tailored accessibility. Outcomes from this research show that many multi-level social interactions surrounding the technology, users, audience, and any third party facilitators exist in the context of ‘facilitated performance’. Results suggest that including facilitators in the design of Digital Musical Instruments (DMIs) could allow for improved accessibility for users with complex disabilities.