Breath, skin and clothing: Using wearable technologies as an interface into ourselves

Abstract

There is a common ground that exists between the first person methodologies of performance practice and the technology research of Human—Computer Interaction (HCI). Exploring this common ground, this essay describes movement research based in performance and somatics and then applied to the design of digital networked interfaces for wearable technologies. The research is based on a body of knowledge practices from performance/somatics that operate ‘from the inside out’, using the experience of the moving body to construct knowledge. Within both performance practice and HCI, there is a need to construct models of the user's experience. One of the key questions this paper asks is: How can we bridge specific domain knowledge within performance practice to transform design strategies for our new technologies? The first section provides a theoretical context for bridging embodied practices from performance to HCI, and looks at (1) how performance methodologies can be used as a model for experience, (2) applying existing design concepts for creating gestural movement vocabularies in interaction, and (3) developing methods that bridge from experience to experience modeling. The second section provides a design context through the description of the development of the interactive wearable technology art piece entitled exhale, an installation that illustrates how first person methodologies of performance can be used to inform the design of digital interfaces/interactive clothing within an experiential environment.