Re-sensitising the body: interactive art and the Feldenkrais method

Embracing First-Person Perspectives in Soma-Based Design

“…This shows how a first-person soma design stance can generate many different applications in diverse domains. In fact, turning to the literature on soma design, we see a field that is growing, engaging with one application domain after another (see, e.g., [33,42,53,62,64,[76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88]). Some even claim that a slow, soma-based, first-person engagement will be relevant to all forms of interactive design work [63], but perhaps in particular designs with the plethora of upcoming interactive materials, such as shape-changing interfaces, Internet of Things, sensor networks, and all forms of movement-based interactions.…”

“…We picked these particular ones as they were brought to our workshop where we could all interact with them, but there is a whole range of systems built along the same lines (e.g., [9,12,20,37,43,50,53,58,[64][65][66]69,74,82,89,104]). While this is early days, we do not yet know which ones will be the prototypical or canonical exemplars that will serve as stylistic or orienting concepts to our soma-based design practice.…”

Crafting the body-tool

“…By means of this approach, scenarios of user testing are carefully designed, not exclusively for assessing technical aspects such as a device's wearability and performance, but also for assisting in the inner process of self-discovery and body-tool crafting. In previous research on crafting aesthetic body-based interactive experiences, Loke et al created this kind of specialised place and embedded body-focused interactions within guided experiences [12,14]. Ritual elements concerned with liminal transitioning in and out of bodily states were incorporated into the structure of the interactive experience [12,13].…”

“…Somatic practices concerned with somatic training and body awareness, such as the Alexander Technique, Feldenkrais Method, yoga, tai chi, meditation and so forth, work with attention, awareness, imagination and movement as variables for Body Interaction DIS 2014, June 21-25, 2014, Vancouver, BC, Canada tuning into body-state through internal listening, sensing and feeling and effecting transformations on body-state able to be differentiated and experienced [13,14,23,24]. Bodybased therapeutic techniques such as Focusing, also introduce strategies based on training unprejudiced selfobservance in order to improve daily situations through the practice [7].…”

The lived body in design

“…The body-for-self is the subjective, sensing and feeling body; the experiential body known to oneself. Examples of interactive artistic works are appearing that treat felt, bodily experience as a primary subject for interaction and contemplation (Schiphorst and Andersen, 2004;Loke et al, 2011). Höök (2008) draws on contemporary research in neurology, medicine, psychology and sociology, which suggests that "emotional processes are the basis for rational decision making, for being and surviving in the world", and applies this to the design of learning technologies that exploit our corporeality.…”