CHI PLAY 2018 in Melbourne, Australia, is over: it was a great success, with 30% more attendees than anticipated (179 in total), the second highest number in the history of the conference series, a well received program with high quality content and very happy attendees all around, thank you everyone who helped with this conference!
Vertigo – the momentary disruption of the stability of perception – is an intriguing game element that underlies many unique play experiences, such as spinning in circles as children to rock climbing as adults. Yet vertigo is relatively unexplored when it comes to digital play. We explore the potential of Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) as a game design tool for digital vertigo games. We designed and studied a novel two player GVS game, Balance Ninja. With this work we aim to highlight that vertigo can be a valuable digital game element that helps to expand the range of games we play.
The Guts Game is a digital game that uses ingestible sensors to highlight emerging opportunities to design novel bodily experiences.
Unlike most games that are controlled via external controllers, the Guts Game uses an ingestible sensor in the form of a pill, with which the players control the game by varying their gut temperature. With the Guts Game, we show that the usage of gut temperature as a game input is feasible and demonstrate that experiencing your body as play, via an ingestible sensor, can be a mesmerizing play experience. Learn more.
During Brainwave Art workshops participants make an abstract image inspired by their dreams. Participants then use an EEG headset so that their own brainwaves animate their personal dream image.
Workshop participants can experiment and play with how their brainwaves affect and change their dream image. Sleep is one of the three pillars of health alongside diet and exercise. But unlike diet and exercise, sleep is an under-explored area. We use our unique Brainwave Art system in interactive exhibitions and public workshops. Our Brainwave Art system aims to help educate people about the importance of sleep and helps them connect with their resting mind. More information here.
Experience your dreams come alive. Walk in the dreams of others. DREAM 2.2 is interactive brainwave art in the form of an audio-visual performance and interactive installation. The performance features a sleeping person and abstract projection mapped, audio-visual representations of the sleeping person’s brain activity.
We use EEG (electroencephalogram) sensors to track the electrical activity of the brain and generate audio that in turn generates audio-reactive visuals. The audio and visuals respond to different types of brain activity. The EEG sensor generates abstract real-time audio-visual art. The visuals are projection mapped onto maze-like projection surfaces in the exhibition space.
DREAM 2.2 imagines a future where instead of sleeping, people stay awake to experience being inside others’ dreams. This hybrid work invites audiences to reflect on our contemporary obsession with observing others’ activities through digital and reality media. More information here.
The Playground is a participatory media artwork that features a co-designed sculpture, interactive projection mapping and public participation. The public is invited to find sculptural pieces that are hidden around the exhibition area. They bring these pieces to the exhibition space and connect them to The Playground sculpture. Audiences can also take photos of their city environment and upload them to an online platform. These images are automatically animated in real time and projection mapped onto the The Playground sculpture.
During special Playground exhibitions we also exhibit our unique custom designed movement tracking and projection system. When audiences enter the exhibition area we track the small sculptural piece that is in their hand and project the audience member’s own “city environment” image onto the piece as they move around the exhibition area.
The Playground seeks to socially and physically engage audiences and personalise their experiences of art and technology. More information here.
The Storytelling Machine transforms the public’s drawings into animated characters that roam the artwork’s video worlds. The machine delivers a randomly generated collective story created from public content.
People of all ages can draw characters of any shape and feed them into the machine. The machine instantly animates the characters and decides their path across video settings that feature international locations. The public can also contribute short story texts in any language. The Storytelling Machine determines what combination of characters and texts will be shown.
In many ways social media has become our society’s dominant narrative. Social platforms often dictate how we write, publish and consume our stories. The Storytelling Machine reflects practices used in social media. As soon as audiences enter their character and text into The Storytelling Machine they relinquish control over them. The machine determines the narrative. More information here.
For leading a healthy life, regular breathing exercises can be beneficial. We developed Life Tree, a virtual reality game in which the player controls the growth of a virtual tree by practicing the pursed-lip breathing technique. We chose VR because it allows to focus on the virtual environment and limit external distractions, which is beneficial for breathing exercises. More information here.
“Ava, the eBike” is an augmented eBike that aims to support the experiential aspects of cycling. If sensing a leaning-forward action when aiming to speed up, the engine kicks in and accelerates the cyclist, supported by a joyful sound similar to sports cars when accelerating. Through this work, we aim to highlight the potential of interactive technology to not only support instrumental, but also experiential aspects of exertion activities. In particular, we see a unique opportunity to experience our bodies as play through actuation technologies, such as afforded by eBikes. As such, eBikes are for us readily-available exoskeletons for the masses. More information here.
Höök, K., Caramiaux, B., Erkut, C., Forlizzi, J., Hajinejad, N., Haller, M., Hummels, C., Isbister, K., Jonsson, M., Khut, G. and Loke, L., 2018, February. Embracing First-Person Perspectives in Soma-Based Design. In Informatics (Vol. 5, No. 1, p. 8). Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute.
Betty Sargeant, Justin Dwyer and Florian ‘Floyd’ Mueller won the Good Design Award in the category of digital design (interface), received at the ceremony at the Sydney Opera House!