Reading Room
Here you can read documents published by the Gesture, Technology & Play Participants. Access these texts in the Texts menu on the right >
Participant References
James Ash
References:
James Ash 2010 'Teleplastic Technologies: charting practices of orientation and navigation in videogaming'
Callois R 'Mimicry and Legendary Psychasthenia' in Caillois R 2003 The edge of surrealism: a Roger Caillois reader Duke University Press, Durham NC
The idea of teleplasty that Ash argues for in his paper is directly developed in Callois's important essay on mimicry in the natural world.
Dreyfus H L 2002b Refocusing the question: can there be skillful coping without propositional representations or brain representations? Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 1 413-25
Dreyfus provides a very convincing account of how we can think about practice and action without relying on a model of the brain as a representational centre from which action flows. Taking his ideas seriously forces us to reflect more closely on material practices which influenced the approach taken in Ash’s paper.
Patrick Crogan
References:
Patrick Crogan 2010 'The Nintendo Wii, virtualisation and gestural analogics'
Bart Simon 2009 'Wii are out of control: bodies, game screens and the production of gestural excess'
Bernard Stiegler, Technics and Time 2: Disorientation (Stanford Uni Press, 2009)
Dan Dixon
The presentation summarises Lefebvre's book Rhythmanalysis and shows how it is a useful approach to thinking about embodied interaction in games. Merrifield's chapter in Thinking Space, critically summarises some elements of Production of Space, providing insights into Lefebvre's Marxist background.
References:
Lefebvre, H. (2004) Rhythmanalysis: Space, Time and Everyday Life. Continuum International
Publishing Group.
Merrifield, A. (2000) Henri Lefebvre: a Socialist in Space. In M. Crang & N. Thrift (eds) Thinking Space, Routledge
Elena Marquez Segura
The three first references have been useful in the work developed so far: The first paper presents the design process of the BodyBug, the device for motion and movement-based interaction we are working with. Sources of inspiration are: Head Up Games, addressed in the second reference, that combines modern technology with the advantages of traditional games, and Dourish's paper on how context is created and experienced through the interaction in the activity and is not predefined as a fixed, stable setting beforehand. The last referenced paper is a study of whole body movement activities with artefacts: BodyBug, Golf and Skateboarding, introducing three initial design themes for whole body interaction that will be used as one source of inspiration for coming workshops in our project.
References:
Moen, J. From Hand-Held to Body-Worn: Embodied Experiences of the Design and Use of a Wearable Movement-Based Interaction Concept. TEI'07, (2007), 251-258.
Soute, I., Markopoulos, P., Magielse, R. Head Up Games: combining the best of both worlds by merging traditional and digital play. Pers Ubiquit Comput, (2009).
Dourish, P. What we talk about when we talk about context. Pers Ubiquit Comput, (2004) 8: 19.30.
Tholander, J., Johansson, C. Bodies, Boards, Clubs and Bugs: A study of bodily engaging artefacts. CHI'10 (2010), 4045-4050.
Teresa Dillon
References and rationale:
Project: www.newinterfaces.net
N.I.P – New Interfaces for Performance is the project, which I will be referring to in my presentation. From this link you will find references to a host of artists who are part of N.I.P. or who have contributed to the project. All artists who are involved in the project work in with the concepts of gesture, movement and communication in very interesting ways. I’d encourage anyone who is working in this area to check out this site and the links to the artists who have been involved.
Organization: http://www.steim.org/steim/
STEIM - Center for Research and Development of Instruments and Tools for Performers in the Electronic Performance Arts, Amsterdam - is an independent art organization, they have been central in this field for the last 30yrs. I’m including the link to their organization, as they are a point of reference for anyone working in this field. I will briefly refer to STEIM in my presentation, as they are one of the key project partners in N.I.P.
Development tools: http://www.openframeworks.cc/
openframeworks is one of the most useful tools for creating gesture and movement based media works. Anyone working in the area will be familiar with it and if not, I’d highly recommend checking it out. During the N.I.P. project we held a workshop in Bristol with Zach Lieberman the originator and one of the main creators of openframeworks.
Development reference sources:
Programming Interactivity, A Designer’s Guide to Processing, Arduino, and openFrameworks, Joshua Noble, O’Reilly, 2009
For anyone not so familiar with the field this is a great developer’s reference book, outlining existing techniques for making interactive works. Processing, openframeworks and Ardunio are some of the basic tools the N.I.P. artists would use to make their work. Currently these tools are considered as some of the core building blocks for interactive art works. They are opensource and have enabled many artists to get into programming and physical computing.
Theoretical references:
Gesture, Visible Action as Utterance, Adam Kendon, Cambridge University Press, 2004
I include Kendon’s book as it a comprehensive overview of the relationship between non-verbal communication, verbal language, imagery and thought. It discusses the role of gesture as a key bodily action, which has multiple, and complex communicative, discursive and expressive functions, as well as the role gesture play in different cultures.
Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, Howard Gardner. New York: Basic Books, 1983
A seminal reference point in relation to the research on intelligence, Gardner shifted the emphasizes from intelligence as a measure of reasoning and I.Q, to considering how we have many forms of intelligence, which allow us to perceive and think about the world in different ways. He discusses eight forms of intelligence and highlighted how some people excel in particular forms such as bodily-kinesthetic, spatial, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence.
Perfume, Patrick Süskind,1985
I include this novel by Süskind, which tells the story of a perfumer who had such a sensitive nose he could distinguish all the different ranges of smell in the world. Although this book has nothing do to with gesture it’s a great murder story about how one sense, which we often pay little attention too can radically change how we perceive their world and our way within it.
Martin Graham, Dancer
Martha Graham is one of the most pioneering contemporary dancers and choreographers. You can still see her work performed or refer too the book: The Life and Work of Martha Graham, Anges de Mille,, Random House (1991). I include Graham as a reference because she rethought how we move and invented a new physical language.
Peter Zumthor, Architect
Zumthor is an internationally famous architect and practices a form, which he refers to as sensory architecture – where the buildings are constructed with such strength and detail to the materials, that they evoke our emotions and senses. He is one of the architects, where the buildings he creates really do match his thinking and words. I include Zumthor as a reference because I find the discipline of architecture to provide really useful insight to how we think about the organization and construction of space and how it can afford or limit, our gestures and movements.
Mark Paterson
References:
Barker, J. (2009) The Tactile Eye: Touch and the Cinematic Experience. Berkeley: University of California Press
Clark, A. and Chalmers, D. (1998) ‘The Extended Mind’, Analysis 58(1): 7-19
Marks, L. (2002) Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press
Morris, D. (2004). The Sense of Space. Albany ,NY: SUNY Press
Noë, A. (2004) Action in Perception, Cambridge (Mass), MIT Press.
Paterson, M. (2007) The Senses of Touch: Haptics, Affects and Technologies. Oxford: Berg
O’Regan, K. and Noë, A. (2001) ‘A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness’, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24, 939–1031
Sobchack, V. (2004) Carnal Thoughts: Embodiment and Moving Image Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press
Texts
Mark Paterson 2010
'Your Move' a PDF of Mark's Power Point presentation from the event and two accompanying documents below
Bart Simon 2009
'Wii are out of control: bodies, game screens and the production of gestural excess'
Patrick Crogan 2010
'The Nintendo Wii, virtualisation and gestural analogics'
Seth Giddings & Helen W Kennedy 2010
'"Incremental speed increases excitement": bodies, space, movement and televisual change'
James Ash 2010
'Teleplastic Technologies: charting practices of orientation and navigation in videogaming'
Elena Marques 2010
Games, Play, Embodiment and the Wii - Presentation
Researching Dance As Interaction - Presentation
Links
