IAAC: interaction design at Sonar+D

One of the biggest design challenges in interaction is designing experience for a massive number of participants. As the number of participants increases, one loses any semblance of control. The balance between constraint and freedom must be carefully considered. Too many constraints and the interaction becomes too limited. Too much freedom, and the participant’s sense of agency dissolves. For the Llum BCN 2018 Festival, the Master of Advanced Interaction researchers responded to this challenge of massive interaction by inventing a playful system where many participants can play together to create a visual and aural experience. Playball! uses light to create interactions between the viewer and installation, and between viewers themselves. The installation takes on a playful approach by using the formal qualities of balls and all their implied associations (sports, games, exercise) to temporarily remove any preconceived symbolism of light.

Now it is presented at Sonar+D (pav. 4 – level 3 – stand 19) in Barcelona until June 15^th with other student’s projects of the Master in Advanced Interaction at IAAC related to the seminar AUGMENTED SENSES Enhancing human capacity for empathetic exchange with nature.

Radio Cosmosuit by Agustina Palazzo

The work developed during this term is a contribution to the already expanding examples – such as the artist Stelarc – of humans seeking to augment themselves through merging with technology. We progress towards technological advances which aim to make our lives better, and our experience on this planet more meaningful. Still, the further we advance, the more it seems we lose touch with our place in this ecosystem. Pioneering advances in science, engineering, and art have created technology that can be used to enhance our understanding of the environmental dynamics around us, giving us a gateway to interact in novel ways with nature. The master seeks proposals for systems and their related consequences which augment our senses or give us new senses by which we can experience reality.

The end of emotional privacy by Martina Solés Caldés