Lecturers:

Dr Joëlle Bitton
Fangli Cheng
Guanyou Li 

Office hours by appointment

The course runs from 27.3.23 - 21.04.23. See Timetable below for more detailed hours.

Overview and Objectives

The course proposes an examination and speculation of technologies as they related to Embodied Interaction and in particular 'Embodied Fabrication', where digital fabrication methods are approached from the perspective of embodiment.
With more flexible and more accessible modes of fabrication and of generative design, and with interactive aspects of materiality and biodesign emerging in recent years, we have the opportunity to investigate ways that we can transform our physical selves and environments. This course will let us through a journey of interfacing the analog and the digital, with the body as mediator between the two. 

The course is divided into 4 weeks:

• Week 1: Data and Material Collection. Understanding the topic, context and possibilities
• Week 2: Material experimentations and first prototype
• Week 3: Fabrication, advancing prototypes
• Week 4: Final production

During this module, we'll uncover some of these possibilities by designing and informing our bodily environment increasingly influenced by data tracking. By group of 2 or 3, you'll propose interactive forms of body extension/representation/mirror/sense.
Design factors have to include:
• material intimacy 
• processes of fabrication 
• data tracking & mapping / generative design
• wearability or extension or external or sensorial apparatus
• performative aspects
• interactive components
• political / environmental / societal context

Your work will encounter some of these research questions: 

• Define your own meaning of an interaction that is 'embodied'
• How does that translate with materials?
• What are the possible interactive experiences with materials?
• What tools/technology can be used to facilitate this process? 
• In what ways does material influence the perception of data?
• How is digital fabrication influencing embodied interaction?

Expectations and Gradings

Grades will be based on group presentations and exercises, class participation, documentation (journal) and final work. 
Contributing to constructive group feedback is an essential aspect of class participation. 
Regular attendance is required.

Final work 40% 

Assignments/presentations 30% 

Journal Documentation 20% 

Class participation 10% 

Any assignment that remains unfulfilled receives a failing grade.  

References

Textbooks (short selection)

- Paul Dourish, Where is the Action?
- Joëlle Bitton, Measure of Abstraction: Embodied Fabrication and the Material of Intimacy (2016, Harvard University DDes Thesis)
- Isabel Pedersen_ Andrew Iliadis - Embodied Computing_ Wearables, Implantables, Embeddables, Ingestibles 
- Madeline Schwartzman, See Yourself Sensing Redefining Human Perception -

Project References (short selection)

• Study for 15 points
• The Symbiotic Interaction - Maria Castellanos & Alberto Valverd
• Joëlle Bitton, Streamline
• Overview of References will be presented in first week of course

Deliverables

• Collection Exercise I: Analogue Data Collection 

  Look for sources of your personal body data in the real world. What traces do we leave behind that give us indications about our movements, vital signs or emotions? 
  Be aware of the data you're collecting without intention. Or are you currently collecting data intentionally? 
  Is there a type of data that reveals something specific about your life, your interactions with your environment? Can a short sample offer a complex reflection?
  Your survey has to comprehend at least 6 hours of tracking and showcase a complex aspect of your entangled life (beyond a specific quantity tracking). 
  Think of questions you want to answer before you start tracking.

  Record videos or take photos to indicate and attempt to extract the data or reflect on it.
  Represent that data in a performative way. 

  Presentation/performance: max 2 minutes - you can invite the audience to take part, use props, etc

  Individual work
  
  

• Collection Exercise II: Material Collection 
  In advance, select materials you want to experiment with: biomaterials, minerals, off-the-shelf, chemicals, liquids, growing, reactive, decaying, static, states, duration, texture, smell, taste, touch, etc
  Think of where they come from, how they have been extracted, by whom, their lifecycle, their history, their trade, their price value, their exploitation, rarity, waste, off-the-shelf, availability, function, unfunction, forms of fabrication, etc... 
  Bring them for a collective experimental day, list characteristics, qualities and behaviours and determine which interface could be derived from its properties.
  
  
  • Bring your own material that would be relevant to experiment with
  • Prototyping materials: paper, cardboard, rope, fabrics, wax, glue, plaster, flour, sugar, balloons, wires
  • Biomaterials/bioplastics: agar, yeast, SCOBY/Kombucha, other plant-based peels, soil
  • Malleable Fabrication: clay, latex, silicone, burlap, paint, fluorescent ink, metal, paper pulp/papier maché
  • Digital Fabrication: wood, PLA, plastics, styrofoam
• Collection Exercise III: Workshop assignments
  Using data to control sensors (gathering data, testing with sensors, controlling Arduino, fabrication processes with data, etc)
  
  
• In-class Exercises, Performances & Weekly progress reviews (bring iterated prototype/sketches/experiments for each mentoring)
  
  
• Mid-Class Delivery: Booklet concept, prototype & inspirations
  PDF featuring texts and visuals: Overall Concept, Main directions, Inspirations/Related Work (references, authors, dates, visuals) Material inquiries, and Prototype 
  
  
• Final Project and Presentation: Interactive embodied fabricated apparatus
  

  Use Data-Collection, Generative Design Methods and Digital Fabrication to create an interactive body apparatus (wearable, fashion item, prosthesis, orthesis, prosthetics, implant, extension, external apparatus, architecture, etc).

  Questions to consider in your process:

  • What drives the design? (example: is it functional, speculation or critique)
  • Where could the data come from? (example: sensors)
  • How do you map the data to a geometry? (example: using a metaphor) 
  • Or is the form making process inspired by existing models? (example: fungus, cell division, mathematical geometry,…)
  • What are the materials used? What are their properties, lifecycle, etc
  • What is the fabrication process? 
  • What does your body extension connect with the surrounding environment?
  • What does it embody?
  • What meanings does it create?

  
  

  In groups of two or three students 
  
  

• Presentation Format: Exhibition of Experiments & Performance with Final Prototypes together with an oral presentation.

  Final Presentation on: 21.4.23
  
  

• Documentation 
  
  
  •  A 'Journal' is developed by each group of students that reflects on experiments and learnings from the course. It should be in the form of an online blog (ie. WordPress, Tumblr or other):
    • The journal should be structured in a generally comprehensible manner
    • The lecture notes, including annotations, are stored
    • Notes, sketches for each lesson should be included as well
      
      
  • Final Documentation per usual guidelines: title, authors, abstract, hi-res pics, PDF with commentary text, 1mn video documentation

TIMETABLE

When times not indicated, students are expected to work on their own independent study time

Initials: (jb) Joëlle Bitton, (fg) Fangli Chen, (gl) Guanyou Li