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Abstract

Human Technology is an interdisciplinary, scholarly journal publishing innovative, peer-reviewed articles exploring the issues and challenges within human-technology interaction and the human role in all areas of our ICT-infused societies.Human Technology, published by the Agora Center, University of Jyväskylä, is distributed online without a charge. HUMAN-TECHNOLOGY CHOREOGRAPHIES: BODY, MOVEMENT, AND SPACE CHOREOGRAPHIES: AN EMERGING PERSPECTIVE FOR INTERACTION DESIGNIn interaction design and related disciplines, the focus of research tends toward technological objects rather than the movements relating to interacting with the objects. Even when movements are considered, the emphasis is placed on their instrumental value, that is, how movements have direct effect on the functions of technology. However, the emphasis of this thematic issue of Human Technology rests upon the design and use of technological objects. In other words, we, as editors of this special issue, were looking for submissions that emphasized intentional human movement in the physical and social lifeworld in which humans encounter technological and virtual artifacts. The term choreography here refers to meaningful continuums of movement that humans, as individuals or as groups, experience during interaction with technology (see also, e.g., Loke & Reinhardt, 2012;Parviainen, Tuuri, & Pirhonen, 2013; Parviainen, Tuuri, Pirhonen, Turunen, & Keskinen, 2013 Pirhonen, Tuuri, & Erkut 2 enable, limit, or control human movements and other behavior. Human-technology choreographies can involve anything from subtle finger movements to the movement of crowds in public spaces. A choreographic orientation, therefore, brings forth and makes explicit the opportunities and options that interaction designers have available for defining movements, movement qualities, and choreographies required when interfacing with the various devices so prevalent in contemporary living. Human movement is never a mere structure that could be handled without also affecting the inherent meanings it embodies.When we initiated this thematic issue, we sought contributions that challenge current thinking on and critically acknowledge the role of bodily movement as a basic element in a profound understanding of relationships between humans and technology. In the call for papers, we proposed choreography as a key concept through which the movement-centered phenomena present in interaction with technology could be better acknowledged, reflected on, and understood. We hoped the submissions would represent varying orientations on the subject, for example, interaction design, product design, architecture, phenomenology, or embodied cognition, as well as more broad cultural, societal, artistic, educational, or philosophical accounts. Reports on empirical studies as well as movement-centered reinterpretations of prior research and theories were explicitly welcomed.By the time the deadline for submissions passed, more than 20 interesting research reports were submitted for publication consi...