Susan Kozel

Embodied imagination : a hybrid method of designing for intimacy

Abstract Situated in the domain of research into mobile, wireless, networked and wearable computing, this exploratory paperintroduces the embodied imagination method and explains how it can contribute to the design process by creating an elastic space of performance that incorporates daily life and personal imagination into the design process. It is based on a study called Placebo Sleeves which was an experiential design phase of a larger project in wearable computing called whisper[s]. The innovation offered by this research is twofold: an integration of previously distinct methodologies, and an interdisciplinary theoretical framework relevant to the design of devices for affective, networked communication. The methodologies are shaped both by user experience models and by performance practices. We also articulate a domain of public dreaming, located at the conjunction of the private, public and secret within human existence, and suggest that shared use of mobile technologies has the potential to be situated there.

Mobile social choreographies : choreographic insight as a basis for research into mobile networked communications

ABSTRACT Creative use of networked wireless communications devices (such as mobile phones) contributes to a vibrant strand of media art called ‘locative media’, and has captured the imaginations of geographers, media artists, architects, engineers and philosophers. Now it is time for dancers and choreographers to contribute to the critical and creative activity around corporeality, expression and mobile technologies in social contexts. This article proposes an emergent area of research in combining dance and mobile technologies called ‘social choreographies’, and considers artistic research methodologies relevant to this newly framed domain that are rooted in improvisatory studio practices and drawing a choreographic sensibility into urban environments.

Utterance 5: Mesh Performance Partnerships

Mesh Performance Partnerships [http://mesh.org.uk] works in the hybrid region of performance and new media technologies. The artists involved with Mesh have a variety of skills and backgrounds, including dance, theatre, media art, architecture, photography and computer science.