2023, Torpus, Jan-Lewe, Kovacevic, Toni, Navarro, José Javier

2016-07, Simon, Andreas, Torpus, Jan-Lewe, Heibach, Christiane, Navarro, José Javier, Streitz, Norbert, Markopoulos, Panos

We explore the atmospheric potential and the affective connection between humans and their instrumented, responsive environments and develop corresponding artistic design strategies, evaluating ubicomp environments from a critical perspective, beyond pure application and usefulness. We have designed an abstract, cocoon-like, responsively mediated space and conducted a series of experiments with a total of 17 participants. Results show that participants experience affection, a coupling between themselves and the designed environment, and show strong cognitive engagement to understand and structure the environment through patterns of situation awareness and sensemaking.

2013, Torpus, Jan-Lewe, Tobler, Beatrice, Wolfensberger, Rolf

As a result of a practice-oriented research project, the Museum of Communication in Berne opened a new exhibition space entitled «Living Room of the Future» in Spring 2012. It is designed to complement the existing permanent exhibition «As Time Goes Byte» on the history of computing and digital culture. The new exhibition module not only addresses future computing technologies and their use but also forward-looking technologies. Within the framework of the research project, the authors conducted a user-centred evaluation of a prototype of the exhibition module, which was also conceived as a laboratory for practice-based media-anthropological studies. Specific test groups were observed during their visits to the exhibition and immediately afterwards interviewed about their experiences. The results of the evaluation were then converted into the final realisation of the exhibition. These findings represent valuable ethnographic evidence on the experiences of human beings with familiar and unfamiliar media at a time of increasing integration of everyday life with communication and information technologies.

2019, Heibach, Christiane, Torpus, Jan-Lewe, Simon, Andreas

Durch ubiquitous computing-und Biofeedback-Technologien, die sich zuneh-mend in unsere Alltagswelt einfügen, bekommt der Begriff der Immersion jenseits seiner Zuordnung zu explizit künstlichen Bildwelten neue Dimensionen. Denn die responsiven Alltagsumgebungen verfügen zweifellos ebenfalls über immersive Qualitäten: Dabei affizieren sie allerdings nicht nur unsere visuelle Wahrnehmung, sondern erfassen uns gesamtleiblich und fordern uns zur Interaktion heraus. Zur Analyse der Wirkungsweisen dieser Technologien bedarf es daher eines umfassenden Verständnisses von Wahrnehmung und Verhalten, das intersensorische, kognitive und affektive Prozesse gleichermaßen berücksichtigt. Der Beitrag prä-sentiert Ergebnisse eines künstlerischen Forschungsprojekts, bei dem Testperso-nen in einer hochtechnisierten, abstrakten Umgebung über Sensoren mit den Raumelementen (Licht, Wind, Sound) verbunden waren. In diesem Setting konn-ten folgende Fragen reflektiert werden: Wie wirkt sich ein abstrakter, gleichwohl »lebendiger«, responsiver Raum auf das gesamtleibliche Empfinden aus? Welche Verhaltensstrategien entwickeln die Testpersonen im Laufe ihres Aufenthalts im Umgang mit dieser Umgebung? Die Ergebnisse des Projekts erlauben interessante Rückschlüsse auf die möglichen Konsequenzen der unsichtbaren Technologisie-rung unserer Lebenswelt.

2015-06-09, Heibach, Christiane, Torpus, Jan-Lewe, Simon, Andreas

2011, Torpus, Jan-Lewe, Tobler, Beatrice

lifeClipper3 is a media art project in which a walk is audiovisually expanded into a game-like experience by means of “augmented reality” technologies. For visitors this creates an immersive experience which is unique in each case, and which challenges and calls into question habitual modes of perception. In this paper the “experience design” strategies used in lifeClipper3 are introduced, and examined by means of qualitative ethnographic methods in a visitor evaluation. The resulting insights are intended to be beneficial for similarly designed future AR art projects.

2018-09-29, Torpus, Jan-Lewe

This paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary applied research project about the application potential of ubiquitous computing concepts and technologies for knowledge transfer and exhibition design in museums. By interweaving mediated information directly into the context of exhibits and by transferring knowledge through discovery-based embodied interaction, we intend to overcome problems of distraction and social isolation, normally caused by handheld devices and graphical user interfaces. Applying scenario-based prototyping with a distributed hardware system allowed us to evaluate three case studies at three renowned Swiss museums. During the development and the evaluations, we followed five design principles that led to insights relevant for museums, design practitioners, the HCI community and technology developers. We concluded that the approach generates surprising experiences that have to be balanced with the exhibits and are very useful for explaining complex processes and functions, but cannot be implemented as an exclusive exhibition concept.

2014, Torpus, Jan-Lewe

This paper describes the concepts, media settings, strategies and methods of a media art work and an artistic research project. Both apply psychophysiological biofeedback technologies as affective interfaces between humans and artificial artistically-staged environments. The paper includes a comparison of media art creation with artistic research processes and intends to identify possible synergies.