Embodied Interaction Blog
Extra Senses
Group Members: Damaris Büchner | Pascal Jeker | Paméla Schmidinger | Yangzom Sharlhey | Lilian Lopez
Instructors: Dr Joëlle Bitton | Andrés Villa-Torres | Marcial Koch
Winter 2020 ZHdK
To try out a new form of documenting our group project we also created a google form. This short survey gives us another insight into our group work. Here the live updating link to view all our responses:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YMOM-5oYNzffoyBhTTunY2d1WyjbyB0duAgGzSRt4gA/edit?usp=sharing
Analogue Data Collection — 11.11.2020
The assignment of today was to collect data from yourself and present your data set in a performative way.
Lilian’s Hair Collection:
What I find interesting about my Hair data set, is that you can use the data points also as a fabrication material.
Yami’s Clementine Performance:
I love clementines.
They are sweet,
they are fresh,
they have a nice shape,
they have a nice color,
they are juicy,
they smell good,
they make winter nicer,
they are not expensive
and their peeling process calms me down.
I love clementines.
Paméla’s Distraction Performance:
For this assignment, Itried to record how many times I got distracted while doing another task.
In order to translate this collected data into a performance
Damaris Itching List
I collected the bodyspots which were itchy in a tally list:
First Groupe Brain Storming — 12.11,2020
This session was the first time we got together in the group to discuss our project. For that, we decided to meet up in person because we felt I would be more meaningful to meet in physical space than in a virtual space.
Our starting position was the topic of extra senses. To give our discussion a structure we tried to answer the five-question on from the wiki in relation to our topic extra senses. That is also how our post-it wall is structured.
- From your design interest/wish, reflect on what drives it: function, critique, curiosity, inspiration..?
- what is the data you will use and how do you collect it? (analog, sensor…)
- how will you map it?
- are you using a metaphor?(biomimicry…)
- how would you like to fabricate it? (technology used, materials used…)
At the end our first ideas were still very diverse and we still had to find a common interest.
Group Survey:
Data Mapping - 17.11.2020
In this session, we had a look at digital data collection about our self. Like for example insta comments, fb likes, google searches…In groups we then made a chart for one specific data set. An other group had then to interpret this chart.
Location Data
This was one of the charts we had to interpret. Because the blue rectangle was named lake Zuerich we guessed that the chart shows location-based data. We also guessed that the person is living where the biggest dot is.
Experimenting with Material — 18.11.2020
Paméla’s Remote Experiment
Today we started to experiment with different available materials. At the beginning, we did the experiments based on our
Intuition with no specific goal in mind. But then we started to define what properties our final project needs to have. Because we wanted to create a wearable that is able to sense something it would have be able to change according to the sensed data input. So towards the end of our session we started to work towards something more dynamic and tangible.
We ended our session with a group discussion about our project concept. Where we came up with the metaphor of the animal tail which can be seen as an extension to express your mood in an unconscious way. So for the upcoming session, we want to further work on this idea of expressing your feelings through a body extension in an unconscious way. This extension could work as an amplifier to communicate your feelings.
Group Survey:
Session — 19.11.2020
In order to work towards achievement, we made use of a fashion design method Pascal proposed to us: Paper-prototypes on the body. This helped us to narrow our focus away from materials towards the embodiment.
A cut-together from today’s experiment session:
Further experiment images
Directions
Out of this day, two directions to further develop evolved:
- the touch/tangible direction where touch is transmitted or emphasised trough a wearable
- the smart clothing direction where your wearable reacts to your body data (e.g. repel textile when warm and withdraw when cold)
Group Survey:
Give up control — 20.11.2020
It was still not clear in which direction we should develop our project. Therefore we decided to divide into groups again and to pursue different ideas. Which turned out to be a good decision towards the end of the day.
Still, with the thoughts of the last day, the silicone dome and the plaster arm were brought together. In order to create a structure that emphasises touch.
Lilian also brought a small DC motor with, which you could control via Arduino. First, the motor was used directly for the silicone dome to see if it had enough power to deform it. As you can see in the video, it worked perfectly.
We liked the idea itself, but something was still missing. So we looked for further ideas and inspirations that would give us that certain “that’s it” effect.
Yesterday’s prototype with the purr and nylon fabric was further developed as well. A larger piece of fabric was used for this purpose and also a stabilization for the purr was added. Unfortunately, we realized that the purr should be much more stable because it is possible to pull the fabric but not to push it back. And also the nylon fabric itself would have to be fixed wherever it is pulled, otherwise, it would simply crease.
Pascal & Lilian were inspired by the previous work and tried to use a motor to pull the fabric away from the body rather than over it. As if someone was pulling the body in one direction. But this worked rather badly because you just need a stronger motor to pull not only the fabric but also the body.
By splitting up, each person could once again pursue their ideas and come up with new approaches. So we suddenly found a common denominator in terms of control and also to give it away.
What if someone can restrict our freedom of movement, tickles us or stings us?
We also like this topic because it allows a certain symbolic depth. Be it that you sometimes lose control over yourself or at home when control and fear are the order of the day.
But through the mentoring, we were then also made aware of other aspects. What happens when certain acupuncture points are pressed or can the subject be changed into something positive? By giving affection to other people.
In the end, we decided to focus on impulsive movements, which are triggered by electrical pulses. We want to give people around us the possibility to be rulers over our body. For this purpose we have carried out the first experiments, which have not been successful yet.
Group Survey:
Refining Prototype — 24.11.2020
This week we received the gel pads to manage the electrical impulse to move our muscles! Luckily the movement is quite visible, check it out in our videos:
After this success, we decided to work in smaller groups for the following steps: make an interface (to control the movements), design a wearable (to give an aesthetic), and work further on the electrical impulses (to make them stronger).
To design a wearable we have several ideas. It could be a tight skin or a wobbly wearable that gives additional visual feedback to show a reaction of the electrical impulses. For that, we experimented on different wearables with different materials to explore their behaviour.
In our next steps, we will refine the wearable and combine them with the gel pads.
Also, to keep track of our time we created a schedule. This will help us to work efficiently without forgetting time.
Group Survey:
Advanced Prototype — 25.11.2020
The Impulse testing proceed with high-quality skin-patches and different positioning tests. The upper-arm instalation was promising:
The calf instalation did not work out for now — we guess it would need more power but we cautiously increase this, due to fear of pain or injury.
Simultaneously, the other half of the group has been working on finding a concept, fitting to the technology. We were interested in finding, how can we objectify the human to the wearable or even to another person.
We were inspired by Daito Manabe’s Face Visualiser. For one, the raw aesthetic as well as the underlying concept of exploring properties of the body really fascinated us.
However, through research we found out that objectification occurs when :
- autonomy is denied
- the person’s subjectivity is denied
- the person is reduced only to their body
- etc.
From there on, we continued to explore in which ways people were already subjectified. The most poignant example where all the boxes were ticked, was prostitution. Women dancing in cages, only to be seen as bodies and not people. How could we make this into a wearable?
We attempted to sketch our ideas:
Our thoughts were, if the human has no face, it cannot express its subjective emotions. Thus we tried to obscure it and play with the thought how it would be, if someone was placed in an arcade machine, while others could interact with buttons on the outside, sending impulses.
Simultaneously, we had to try and tie all these different approaches together. We did this through brainstorming, considering all factors needed in order to create a wearable together with a performance.
Cyberpunk inspired mood board and BrainstormingSimultaneously, we had to try and tie all these different approaches together. We did this through brainstorming, considering all factors needed in order to create a wearable together with a performance.
After a very helpful mentoring, we decided to abandon the darker route, and instead see, how we could propose a new type of experience with the wearable, building context around this. Be it a ritual or a spiritual experience.
Group Survey:
A new type of experience? — 26.11.2020
After going through the feedback from our mentors, we decided to quickly come up with a scenario that would encompass their feedback and our idea.
scenario. We tried to then analyse how to bring this idea closer to our vision.
In a next step, we tried to pinpoint, what exactly brings objectification about in the world. We talked about all the horrors that occurred in the world, where groups of people or even whole countries are marginalized and no one intervenes.
This discussion brought up the theme of collective anonymity, where the consequences of peoples actions simply get dissolved solely due to the fact that everyone else is doing it too. Thus, we’ve asked ourselves, what if people had the same wearable as the objectified person in the middle, but disguised?
For our concept, we imagined a scenario where the people controlling and sending electric impulses would also receive impulses, in order to highlight that all action has a reaction. However, we were not so sure how this would work in reality, therefore, we shifted our focus to how we’d imagine the wearable to look like. (aesthetically speaking)
Daily Group Survey: (coming soon)
Storyboards, concepts and workshop — 27.11.2020
Textile Workshop Course
Damaris an Lillian were doing the Z-Tech Textilwerkstatt during the last two days. During this course we were able to get to know the machines and infrastructure Toni provides for textile processes. In addidtion we got a valuable input about material sience and techniques, which we will be able to translate to our project and improve the outcome.
Concept Ideation
We tried to bring our concept into a more graspable form, as it felt really hard to explain it to others.
Moreover, we tried concise our concept and tried to bring it into a written form:
Daily Group Survey: (coming soon)
Finalising Prototypes — 01.12.2020
We tried to direct our attention a little more to the aesthetic of the wearable.
Collar Prototyping
The Collar has a central function in our concept — first it objectifies the person by covering face parts and second, it works as a face amplifier as soon the confrontation phase starts.
Outfit Ideation
Moreover, we were inspired by stockings and their properties. While being sheer, they can be layered to achieve different opacities. Also,they can be stretched and be used to create different shapes. In addition, the sheerness of the material underlines the vulnerability of our protagonist, covering her body but also showing dependencies and a certain connectedness to her environment.
Meanwhile, we also decided to iterate our concept. Adding a third, anonymous entity into our performance, giving it an increased layer of power. A remote audience, who is not directly involved in the performance but can follow it, can after a certain time, intervene as well by either sending impulses to Lili or the other actors. This expands the circle of interaction and renders each impulse even more anonymous. Will the crowd seek revenge on the other actors by sending impulses or will they also send impulses to Lili, because the others are doing the same?
Daily Group Survey: (coming soon)
Trial and error — 02.12.2020
Body scale prototype
Today we put together the first full-body prototype out of tights/stockings. The seams were done by the welding machine.
There were a lot of learnings about the material and how to best work with it. Though it kept ripping at the seams, it didn’t quite hurt the aesthetic we were going anyways.
Moreover, we started first attempts on how a web-based platform could look/feel for exterior participants to participate.
Daily Group Survey: (coming soon)
User Testings — 03.12.2020
Setup Control sending Impulses
As a preparation for the user testing, we needed to prepare controlers where users could with a click of a button send impulses. For thus we used an arduino.
User Testing 1: No reaction
In our first test, Lilian showed no reaction as the participants pressed the buttons sending impulses. We observed that it didn’t take long until the participants tried to talk to us and thus showing us that the effect of curiosity has worn off. However, they were rather interested in how it felt since Lilian showed no reaction and wanted to try it out but did not.
User Testing 2: Chatting
In a second test, we tried and change the conditions of how Lilian interacted with the participants. She interacted normally with them and chatted. She reacted in a positive manner to the impulses, even laughing a bit. This seemed to confuse the participants, making them doubt the there even are impulses sent through their button presses. On the other hand, though Lilian didn’t show that she felt pain, the participants were more eager to continue sending her impulses and even tried it out themselves.
Fitting wearable
With the outfit done, we tried to see how it would look like if the loose stockings were fixed on the ground and how they would change through Lilian’s movements. Moreover, as a next step, we decided on two next steps for the performance.
- Lilian is in the middle along with two others, and there are people outside looking in through a window — people inside send impulses to Lilian, people outside decide if they either want to protect Lilian and send the impulses to the people inside or if they all team up against Lilian.
- There are still some people in the room as well as outside sending impulses — the ones inside can decide if they take the impulse in Lilian's place or send impulses too (civil courage).
Learning with patches and electrical impulses, if the patch is too dry, the impulse gets weaker. Therefore, adding hair gel helps to conduct the electric impulses.
Daily Group Survey: (coming soon)
Public Catwalk— 04.12.2020
Preparing for the catwalk, we unexpectedly ran into some technical difficulties, however, we, fortunately, were able to fix them just in time for the presentation.
Performance
Feedback / Learnings
The performance was quite successful and achieved quite an effect on the audience as well as the participant. For one, they were surprised by Lilian’s reaction at the end, but they also weren’t aware that there were real impulses that Lilian received. This also explains that the participant inside was pressing the buttons so eagerly, because she thought Lilian was making controlled movements. After the performance, she was quite puzzled and confused. This is something we need to consider, whether or not we want to make use of this effect or not.
Furthermore, some of the feedback was that we could build some sort of connection between the performer and the participant, maybe with a stocking, creating a push and pull interaction. Moreover, it is also interesting to explore the relationship that is formed in each performance between the performer and the participant.
In the next step, we want to decide on a more concrete direction on how the performance would develop.
Daily Group Survey: (coming soon)
Iterations— 08.12.2020
Today’s session was concerned with how we’d bring our performance and concept to the next level. After the last presentation, we obviously lost the element of surprise with Lilian breaking out of the participants' control. In order to include the audience as a whole, we thought of creating a web-based application, which would allow them to send impulses to Lilian during the performance. With this, we want to create an allegory to the anonymity of the internet, and that actions even if not graspable do have an impact.
We discussed how to connect the not anonymous participant better to Lilian. One idea was to also use the stockings to directly connect them to her. In addition, our concept took the direction of civil courage and empathy. In our scenario of the performance, 4 people are directly attached to Lilian and the rest of the audience usees the web-app to send impulses to Lilian. The participants connected to Lilian are equipped with a switch allowing them to redirect the impulses to themselves.
Another point of discussion was how to motivate the online audience to participate. We imagined either a countdown or displaying how many times the button has been pressed already, creating a sense of urgency.
Prototype Outfit connections
Building visual connections between Lilian and 4 participants
Web-Application UI
Controller for the audience to send impulses to Lilian.
Wifi Connection
In order for the connected participants to “sacrifice” themselves in taking on the impulses, they also need to be integrated into the circuit. We decided to do this with a WIFI Arduino and the broker shiftr.io.
Web-Application UI Implementation
Testing out our ideas
Daily Group Survey: (coming soon)
Reorientation— 09.12.2020
To illustrate our concept better to the mentors we made a quick sketch (top view and normal)
After the mentoring, we felt more lost in our concept. The feedback was, that the notion of control and giving up control doesn’t really shine through as we intended. Instead, through the cables, outfit and electrical impulses, it is perceived as torture. Would we embrace this or try to restate our purpose? Also, the idea of having a broader, anonymous audience that impacts the performance was received well.
How could we adapt our concept to not be exactly like the Stanford Experiment? It felt like we had hit a brick wall.
Pivoting angle — 10.12.2020
We started the day again with discussion. However, we tried to objectively look at our concept and decide which aspects would be interesting to restate and whether or not we’d like to embrace this torture-vibe. Would the performer be portrayed as a rented body and the audience as a consciousness that fights over it? Would the electrical impulses symbolise good/bad advice a person is given over the course of their life? Would the Impulses be a collective manifestation of emotions of the audience? Or would the performer be treated as a scapegoat of all the bad deeds of the audience?
We decided to go with the concept of a scapegoat, thus embracing the more negative tone of our performance. The audience individually would write down things they are guilty of. In the next step, these deeds would be judged by the collectiveness of the audience and sent to Lilian so the person can be freed of the guilt. The audience judges the severity of the deed through how many impulses Lilian receives, the worse the deed, the more impulses are sent. This action of getting something of the chest would usually result in one feeling better after the fact. In our scenario, this guilt is but transferred and the other person “pays” for the deeds of the other. Does one really feel better if someone else suffers in one’s stead? We want to initiate a reflection in the audience.
Costume Iteration Ulkus
Web-based Interface
Left: interface seen by the audience
Middle: Button audience presses to judge deed that Guide reads aloud
Right: admin view — can activate/deactivate button so Lilian is not spammed and for timing reasons
Formulating concept
Abstract/Pitch
Guilt is something we all encountered during the course of our lives. If left untreated, it will grow in size and magnitude. This growing burden lies heavy on the shoulders and slowly tarnishes our minds. However, it is possible to rid oneself of this guilt by transferring it to an Ulkus. The purpose of the Ulkus is to accumulate guilt of all participants seeking to be relieved of their burden. It accepts judgement from the audience, who accesses the severity of each deed. With the Ulkus enduring the judgement of the participants, the deed will be forgiven and erased from the persons guilt conscious.
Performance of the Ritual
1. Welcome + Gathering of participants
– Audience is instructed to write down things they are guilty of to free themselves from it
2. Ulkus is the centre — participants are around her
– stones, ground and contain the Ulkus
3. A random acts/action appear on the interface of the participants
– Audience judges severity by deciding how many impulses are sent to the Ulkus
4. Impulses are sent to Ulkus
– It accepts the impulses (how does it react? whining, screaming, ?)This deed is forgiven and atoned
5. Deed is atoned, the person is free of guilt — detoxified — clean
– Guide gets rid of guilt
6. Ritual comes to an End
– Guide has a closing speech
Context
This performance represents a ritual, where people can come together and rid themselves of guilt they’ve accumulated over the years. They use a scapegoat (Ulkus) which takes on all of their guilt.
Staging
Everybody can take part in the performance. The audience is equipped with a web-based interface where they can write in their deeds and judge. They do that by the number of times they press the button to a respective deed. The impulses are then sent to the Ulkus, receiving them and thus suffering for the evil deeds of others so they can feel better about their action. Every action has a reaction and one cannot simply escape the consequences of one's actions.
Presentation 2 – 11.12.2020
Our set up was, that the majority of the group would be on-site in Toni, while the moderator/guide was over zoom.
The feedback we received after our performance was valid and very helpful.
- How can the audience not only participate but also experience the same thing as Lilian (Ulkus)
- Make better use of the space around us — Lili take over room or her being placed in the middle and the audience stands in a circle around her
- Improve timing — scan QR code — write down deed — push button (for the moderator)
- Consider different scenarios — little clicks, medium clicks, many clicks — as moderator react differently
- What other things can we ask the audience instead of their sins?
- Interface — does it need to be a button or can there be a different interaction to send impulses
Finalizing–15/16.12.2020
Since the end of our module is approaching, we mainly need to focus on practical things and finalizing our concept.
Storyboard for Performance
Interface
Log of Participants’ wicked deeds
Final Outfit
