Choreographic interfaces

WHY?

We increasingly move through and with technology in our homes. One could, using a dance metaphor, view our homes as stages where we have become unintentional performers to audiences of digital devices. Still, the way we interact with our devices is mostly based on us, as humans, adapting to the technology – leading to technologydriven products, where products even can be seen as choreographing us, rather than humanistic ones.

By involving dancers and learning from choreographic approaches in the design process, this project aims to start from the body to form more humanistic interactions where the technology also adapts to us. Additionally, when being a designer one has a lot of power, since we only understand movement based on our own way of moving. And while claiming what is the right movement, one is at the same time deciding what is the wrong movement – which potentially could lead to excluding a lot of people. This project therefore aim to instead of, as often, trying to find global a movement language where designers would create each interaction, design to empower people in utalising their own ways of moving.

HOW?

The project was approached through choreographic thinking and both professional dancers, people in academia and the industry, were involved. I conducted three workshops with professional dancers, and constantly kept iterating on prototypes where I explored different ways body tracking algorithms could be used. One insight was that digital devices make us unlearn how to move creatively at early stage, and that the spaces we spend time in do not necessarily invite for movement. However, feedback on our movements together with how a space is designed can encourage it. Furthermore, when we live with others, “choreographies” develop over time, where we, without using verbal language, can negotiate the space we share with the people we live with. This phenomenon has different stages and can also be reflected in our relationship with our digital devices.

WHAT?

The outcome of this project redefines what role digital devices might have in our homes, and what needs they might cater to in the future. Instead of using conventional ways of interacting with digital devices (e.g., buttons, phone, voice assistant, motion sensors), a “Choreographic Interface” in proposed. The system learns how people move at home during different hours and manifests it in contextual “zones”, which reflects the “choreographies” and routines that naturally develop over time. While moving through the zones, users are allowed to change the appearance of their space, such as setting the room up for play, meditation, or a morning stretch. The Choreographic Interface, in different ways, turns the home into a place that encourages , empowers and elevates personal movement languages by visualising opportunities for movement in our everyday lives to elicit joy, play, and wellbeing.

This project aims to contribute to the field of interaction design by suggesting a shift away from designers creating each interaction and the users just adapting to them. Instead, the suggestion is the approach of “open to change Choreographic Interfaces” where the designer empowers the user to utilise their personal way of moving.