Between Bodies: using Experience Modeling to Create Gestural Protocols for Physiological Data Transfer

Abstract

In this paper, we describe the use of experience modeling to create gestural protocols for physiological data transfer. This design method has been applied to the development of a wearable computing public art installation called whisper. A series of user-experience workshops were designed with the goal of developing an interaction model for the public installation. These workshops modeled intimacy, social navigation and playful exchange, using performance methods to create gestural protocols. Workshop participants generated movement vocabularies by negotiating permission and control of their own physiological data. Gesture was utilized as an expressive indicator of intentionality, extension of body image, permission, control, exchange and play. We illustrate through video, gestural analysis, and experimental feedback, how the workshops provided an experience model for the interaction, wearable garment design, and body-to-body network protocol used in the public art installation, and how performance methodologies can contribute to the area of interaction design. Author Keywords gestural protocols, performance methods, choreography, wearable