Two lines of enquiry:
HARDWARE (interfaces, design and software) and SOFTWEAR (textiles and fashion).

Aim to generate key issues for group exploration and debate and deliver summaries of the working groups to the Future Physical web site, for further debate and the development of topical conclusions.

Moderators:

• Ghislaine Boddington
• Martin Kusch
• Tanya Telford
• Yacov Sharir
• Thecla Schiphorst
• Xin Wei

  Documenters:

• Leanne Bird: writing
• Steve Boxer: writing
• John Chapman: photography
• Roz Chesher video
• Debbi Lander: overview /writing
• Shan Pui Ng : Video

Warm up and introductory sessions

1. 'WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE ABLE TO DO / FROM YOUR BODY?'

• Materialise and dematerialise
• Out of body experience
• Telematic presence
• Plug in / visualise space - material
• Healthy and able long life
• Fly
• Longevity and youthfulness
• To connect with people
• Leave traces behind you - deliberate
• Disable mobile phones
• Change the weather
• Several contradictory things at once perfectly
• Transcend time and space - within different states -including consciousness
• Better memory/be reminded
• Create own 'safe space' in the world
• Be able to control privacy
• Telepathic not email network
• Command my space fluidly - visuals-part of 3d world
• Chameleon
• Be in two places at once
• Create original art with flick of fingers
• Several nationalities at once
• Speak multi languages fluently with cultural meaning
• Have a virtual self for babysitting
• Embodiment of another - be inside someone else
• To feel like the opposite
• Upgrading reaction time - adjusts your speed up and down
• Control what you let in - screening devices and filters
• Body as a model for structure of technology
• Command space in way that is more fluid than pressing buttons
• Thicker (bodies) or thinner (gas) - do not want to command people or objects - richer and less complex world
• Ripples, shadows, traces, resonances
• Centred and evolution of self, humanness within technology
• Transcend adulthood - recreate innocence, safety, mythical notions of western views of childhood
• Be part of physically dispersed community, choose your own community
• Simple and cheap like bread/rice, rip it and it still works, takes up little space, easy to use
• Library of smells
• Body to release tranquillity like it releases adrenalin
• Emotional intensity read by technology, more intuitive
• Cheaply - technology as everyday food
• Return me to potential of own body knowledge - understand humanness
• Very physical interfaces to creative tools
• Balancing of perceptions, mind/body
• Voice, volume, emotion, anger - translated and read by the technology
• Intuitive

2. 'WHAT IS YOUR CULTURAL BACKGROUND?'

• Indian/London
• English
• Manchurian/US
• Spanish/English
• Welsh/European
• Portuguese
• Jewish
• British
• British/European
• English/European
• English
• Portuguese
• Dutch
• Canadian
• Irish
• English
• English
• British
• English
• Welsh
• Irish/English
• Queboise
• British
• German
• Scottish/Welsh
• English
• German/English
• German/Austrian
• British/European
• British/Norwich
• Dutch
• Greek/|European
• Texan
• British
• Israeli/US
• Australian
• Viennese

3. WHAT IS YOUR WORK AREA/ROLE?

• Sound/Media Artist
• Teacher of responsive media
• Anti gravity artist
• Research Fellow - university
• Graphic designer
• Director of the Junction
• Television producer
• Conceptual designer - industry
• Independent arts manager
• Music/video artist
• Journalist
• Performance/new technology artist
• Engineer of sensor systems
• Interactive artist
• Dancer/computer and graphics
• Digital artist
• Textiles artist
• Textiles artist/fashion
• Dance tech producer
• Music/voice/composing
• Artistic director - dance and digital technologies
• Choreographer
• Dance/music choreographer
• Architect
• Interactive designer
• Choreographer
• Digital arts programmer
• Dancer/documentation artist
• Media artist
• Lecturer - university
• Web designer
• Research assistant/independent artist
• Senior lecturer/research fellow
• PHD student
• Development director - socio-cultural communities
• Professor of dance
• Choreographer/project manager
• Performance/media artist

SUMMARIES OF PARTICIPANTS DEBATE

Participants divided into 2 working groups to discuss the two lines of enquiry at general level leading to summary points from the two working groups.

1. SOFTWEAR
2. HARWARE

SOFTWEAR - moderated by Yacov Sharir and Tanya Telford

SOFTWEAR should be: CONDUCTIVE - TO ALLOW MUSHYNESS OF NATURAL FABRIC, TO ALLOW FOR FREE MOVEMENT: ‘FRIENDLY-MUSHY-USEFUL'.
Discussion explored from INVENTION to CONSUMER LEVEL
Exploration of computerised systems integrated into our skin, fabrics which absorb light, smart textiles, performance augmentation systems (mediation systems), industrial coatings and fibres (stainless steel yarn - crush it and it holds its shape) memory
Supplying to a need considered the priority and necessary focus/rationale for development
Issue of miniaturisation crosses over with HARWARE line of enquiry
Galaxy of possibilities, creating our own magnificent environment which is inclusive, fabrics for each person, what are the means and the purpose?

Hot issues and topics in relation to Softwear - textiles/fashion - development matters.....

• Next generation characteristics - ‘Thumb Culture' (linked to keypads) - removal of boundaries between people and technology –
• Shape and change in society - participate to have a voice rather than leave it to those with less sensitivity and interest in creative/positive use - technology no longer a choice, it is integral, it is the relational aspects that should shape change
• Technology less alienating, more personalised, although much of society still feel alienated in this field
• Potential for alterations, extensions of the body, we are exploring carrying important information
• Encompassing and educating all generations - embracing no boundaries in public communications - access and use by all
• Aesthetics that encompasses all the senses - non visual and camera based development
• Open source processes - sharing, pooling, communication, trust
• Importance of playfulness - keeping open, non serious, not fixed - time of rapid convergence
• Form and function, aesthetics and use- all must relate and have relevance to each other and serve the broadest audience
• Being an artist is not enough nowadays, under the umbrella of technology, collaboration processes are a must and essential to this area of work, all artists have to be producers and networkers - a new conversation is happening
• Body and data balance - sharing and privacy issues, invasion and access, issues of surveillance and safety: are we free?
• The healing aspect of wearables, body therapy use, FIR - wearing on body to heal, bespoke 'awakening'
• Ethical issues in means of production - more wearables, more exploitation of labour?

Extracts from participant's discussion

CONCEPT/ISSUE OF 'BEARABLES' AS OPPOSED TO WEARABLES!'

• ' Have not seen a piece of work which does not need a brigade to make it happen'
• 'Interested in fake devices, unreal energy and natural energy, using something that helps it flow. There are eastern philosophies utilising natural energy around you and challenging this. What is unnatural about an electronic device? Like to use metaphor of body as an interface which receives and gives energy. Feel that training body today, even terminology is friendly. Waking up the chakras as a means of sharing energy. Chakra stitching. Pulling yourself though spinal cord. Softwear not only used as technological term but to facilitate creative process. Through computerised knowledge you can create 3D worlds. I am not different'.'
• ‘Japanese designers, across last decade, have developed marriage between technology, fashion and art. Reflective of a natural desire towards balance between these three things. European designers are starting to realise the need to integrate these three things'
• 'You can imagine a normal jacket with sensors wirelessly linked from separate locations on the body so why do you need conductive fibres? What is the role of conductive materials? /
• 'To serve a broader audience, you must take aesthetics into consideration. Jo public react at the visual level, at the everyday function level, at the base communication level. People are not ready for it yet but they will be'
• 'The textile has to be at the same level as technical side of things to convey proper and powerful message. Key consideration when building textiles is that you start with nothing, one strand, and the same process is involved with building hardware or any technology'
• 'The fashion industry is shaky, people do not survive, psychologically it is an unhealthy environment to live/work in - image creation is imbalanced and removed - lose your grounding easily'.
• ‘16 year old kids doing dance classes know a lot about technology. They are making choices and there are no barriers. Learning at an early age. The next generation are ready for it - can embrace this technology without controversy or difficulty.

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT – Web debates on the crossover between creative and cultural industries in the UK

HARDWARE- moderated by Xin Wei and Martin Kusch

Hot issues and topics in relation to Hardware - interfaces, design, software - development matters....

Themes: miniaturisation, craft, (dis) abilities

Context: space (personal, several people, space), expertise (novice, expert) agency (transparency)

Features: Fluidity, energy, conversation, environments response, world

Questions: Available technology a purpose/content?
Interactive or generative?
Authoring and how to programme 'behaviour'? , encoding dialogue?

• Sensor systems : sensitivity, movement analysis, representation, authoring language
• Movement/movement texture models - sensor data/reduced data, mapping, interpret - response - analysis
• Representing data and how - software, data filter, denoise, analyse statistics, interpret, logic response
• Behaviour, how you programme
• Free range of expression and constraint - what is freedom?
• Durability, robustness, breakage, ruggedness, comfort
• Co-development, collaboration, stuff and things/objects
• Willingness to engage with matter, materiality, erotics, pleasure of working with stuff
• Issues, power, mediated gesture, policy and power intervention and ergonomics design
• Transvision - give and receive, power to generate and create
• Tactile: touch, proximity, relative to a point, pressure, physiological temperature, heart rate
• Sensors: accelerometer, photocell, magnetometer, gyroscope, bend, pressure, stress

Extracts from participant's discussion

• ‘ How much expertise is needed to use something?
• ‘Computers have disabilities as well as abilities and we need to explore limitations as well as potentials of the body and technology'
• ‘Interest in the potential for hardware to be fluid - dialogue between technology and the person. Key issue in fluidity: of environment to respond or clothes to respond e.g. design a costume with technology built in. Where are we? What are the problems? Do we want these things in everyday life?'
• ‘Devices are getting smaller but still going to have a physical presence; the box does not have to be a box - e.g. soft containers'.
• ‘We need to forget stuff e.g. tool devices and work with matter itself. What do you want from the material part? Study the matter itself, be telepathic, can do this by cheating'
• 'The metaphor of weaving/plaiting between technology, content and performance - got to plait these three strands constantly - has to be co-developed'
• ‘The question of dialogue or encoding. Every user decodes according to their background. The example point is an encoding technology where programming and gesture relate very strongly'.
• ‘How many of you use a scripting environment/MAX/NATO/Other encoding. Maybe in two years time we will be able to run a chip. Are we taking about trying to bring this finality to wearables?'
• ‘Sensor systems generate too much data and too fast, need to filter/limit data to do anything with it, the challenge is making the data useful. You need to receive same type of data/stable information for meaning and the problem is that wearing sensors for 2 hours gets wet because you sweat and this facilitated the reduction of movement into data and this is an issue for choreographers and dancers wanting to deal with data. Dancers, children and sports people need freedom of movement''
• ' Willingness to interact and engage with new matter''

THE FOLLOWING TOPICS/ISSUES WERE SUMMARISED OUT OF THE DEBATES ON HARDWARE AND SOFTWEAR:

Seven small group titles were created and participants were asked to choose two groups linked to their interest area. Each group involved 3 – 8 people.

1. CREATIVE USER

RECEIVERS AND AFFECT
ACCESS, CHOICE,
EDUCATION
PLAY

2. ACTIVE MATERIALS

SMART FABRICS
SENSE./IMAGING/FIBRE/REE DATA/KINETICS
FUTURE FASHION AND TEXTILE DEVELOPMENT

3. SENSING INTERFACES

INPUTTERS - SENSORS/INTERFACES/SCREEN/BODY

4. COLLABORATION METHODS

PROCESSES/SCALE (1-1, SPATIAL, INTERAUTHORSHIP, PERSONAL CONSTRUCTS), PRESENCE (TELE)

5. REPRESENTATION AND ARTISTIC STRATEGIES

REPRESENTATION OF DATA
HOW DO YOU EMBED MEDIA INTO CERTAIN CONTEXTS
ARTISTIC STRATEGIES

6. FUTURE BODIES

BALANCE - PHYSICAL/VIRTUAL - INSIDE/OUTSIDE
FUTURE BODY - CYBORG FUSION/FEELING HUMAN

7. PRIVACY AND ACCESS

WHAT IS FREEDOM? WHAT IS PRIVACY?
HACKING, IPR SURVEILLANCE

1. CREATIVE USER (www.creativeuser.org)

RECEIVERS AND AFFECT
ACCESS, CHOICE,
EDUCATION
PLAY

Group explored meaning of the words ‘creative and user' in this context - Looked at words - play, creative and user: meaning expresses sophisticated entertainment, entertainment that makes people think, that involves subconscious learning, that looks at performing and playing in front of each other, the idea of audience and performers doing stuff together. It was felt that different cultures have different ways of performing. Issue of inclusivity of all. Doing things' equals 'creative use' equals 'producing'

Affecting : how does a piece of work affect the participant. The importance of setting up a space, design and context that is comfortable and open so the participant can be be active. The key issue is the setting up of rules.

Creative user? Misleading as a term? Redefinition of language. Word 'interactive' and how it is used, whether it matches possibility/potential. Issue of 'interactive' versus 'cause and effect'. The idea of the expressive, leads to the personal, is subjective in some way and is this possible is something that is already encoded? Issues of ownership are questionable.

Expectation : issue of democracy coming in to interactive work, is it possible or a red herring, semi political stance, alienation of participant knowing expectation is to play, create, interact and this may create blocks/problems in the work. The examples of installation and promenade work potentially provide 'softer terms' for inclusion and are much related to the field and medium of interactive art as immersive forms.

The work versus interactivity (ness/of what is being created): the degree of interactivity, grading, is it important to be responsive in many different ways or it is important to be simple? The foregrounding of work either affects person experiencing it or not

Play - not as important as made out to be, questioning its validity. Play what? How do we get to co-operative game play? Dressing up assists the process. Question of how you want to play? What do you do now in your leisure time? This generates ideas about adult playfulness, the adult playground (CLUBS/THEME PARKS/GAMES)

Self reference/referential : is there anything inherently more creative in use terms in interactivity than other forms of art - do not think so.

Conclusions : a user is a creative user when involved in the development and process of work not the final result or public presentation. The issue is who takes leadership eventually in the creation of the experience? Issue of social fulfilment key when user participating in interactive work. The personal creative buzz

2. ACTIVE MATERIALS

ACTIVE FABRICS
SENSE./IMAGING/FIBRE DATA/KINETICS
FUTURE FASHION AND TEXTILE DEVELOPMENT

Group discussed objects in bags and pockets:

A. notion of skin/membrane -canvas, permeable/porous, moulting/shedding/sedimentation
B. compartments and absorption
C. property of being multiple - bags to not have defined shape for example
D. resonance - get away from surfaces. Heat, sound and speech textures pertaining to material and stuff
E. stuff and objects - conversations between humans and between objects

Sensors and sensitivity : focus on interfaces for humans in the world. Being able to sense distance/proximity is not just about touch but the emotional response to proximity.
Notions of sensors, issues around what they measure, element of noise in measurement, the way body has a lot of electrical stuff/static, makes measuring and interpreting unstable
Things you think you understand. - Body is complex, may not understand. Willingness to accept data you get, as a stream of data to work with not analysis position. Notion of learning by user to get to a point where it makes sense.

3. SENSING INTERFACES

INPUTTERS - SENSORS/INTERFACES/SCREEN/BODY

Group covered ground to get to common terms

Practicalities and problems of building them: body as visible and invisible remote control, using body as tool, do you still need the tool or does body replace need for the tool? Size and weight issues of the camera - how you feel it- have material there re: resistance. How physical one can become in the end? Physicality triggered by freedom of movement. Non importance of cause and effect. What interface? Does it have to be screen based?. Use of wearables to make inputs into things. In the future all tools can become visible - only visible is needed for a specific reason. Developers need to take into account elements we already know and how to embed them and how does one provide this in stages so language can be learned - usability and language

Projection surfaces - weak area of development, not properly addressed, major cause of frustration, no experts in this area, get rid of things between us (screen, tools, material etc). Development of laser technology so humans can appear in open space with us and away from the screen - the open, projected, virtual body in space, holograms, projecting onto water , smoke and mist in process, need projection surface experts to work in this area.

The word interface : what is doing the sensing and what is being sensed? Development of distributed sensing, no separation needed between subject and object with distributed sensing. Looking at the world as a substance, data as beginning of gesture. Naive physics - allows people to rely on this, can invent intuition and stories. Issues of resistance

Different sensibilities of the body and its focus : our sensations are different on different parts of the body. What matters is where you are putting your focus, placing senses - we are highly attuned as we are at a sense level. The key is focus and attention - we do not need machines, forget intention and attention, do not let software focus our attention. Leave it up to us. Distribute sensing but the focus is the person. The sense making is mine.

4. COLLABORATION METHODS

PROCESSES/SCALE (1-1, SPATIAL, PERSONAL CONSTRUCTS), PRESENCE (TELE)

Problems in collaborations : ego, listen not speak, closed mind, financial, where collaborators come from? Language misunderstandings linked to specialisation, developing communication skills (being articulate, clear, understood), all involved in breakdown of communication processes in collaborations, blame culture, forced/seduced into a collaboration, meeting people is difficult, lack of paid development time

Key points to remember : Help = hired help = not collaborative work, joint fundraising is part of the development process and the collaboration too, as you clarify issues of content, values are assessed, there are many different types of collaboration - co-authorship, interauthorship etc, issues of trust matter in all, you need proper negotiated collaboration contracts at beginning, Looking at obstacles leads to failure in collaborations.

5. REPRESENTATION AND ARTISTIC STRATEGIES

REPRESENTATION OF DATA
HOW DO YOU EMBED MEDIA INTO CERTAIN CONTEXTS
ARTISTIC STRATEGIES

Key output experience - single user, group experience, performance, networked user

Role and application of computers : improvisers, accelerators, seen in different ways

Clarity and transparency : interfaces

Representation of data : mapping as an expressive tool, creation of a new language, newly created grammar

Care : of cultural context, of means and ends

Strategies : no two artistic strategies are the same or right, it is better to express as choices not strategies

6. FUTURE BODIES

BALANCE - PHYSICAL/VIRTUAL - INSIDE/OUTSIDE
FUTURE BODY - CYBORD FUSION/FEELING HUMAN

Exercise: injury, ergonomic furniture and spaces designed to get body moving in different ways
More personal input devices

Fixing up our bodies : what we have now and in the past - happiness and wellbeing. Psyche and relation to the body - is that technology? Body as higher priority in existence. Activating your world. More physical, more muscular energy. Physicalise interaction. RSI - small movements.

7. PRIVACY AND ACCESS

WHAT IS FREEDOM? WHAT IS PRIVACY?
HACKING, IPR SURVEILLANCE

(This session was not summarised to the whole group)

Tracking devices - more and more functional, computer based recognition systems, tracking now within 5 metres, issues of tracking whereabouts and also in an emotional sense. What kind of useful data can you get? Sensory?
How imminent is this aspect of technology? What rules should there be in virtual space?

Issues of data protection : business intelligence mandates, checks and patterns of behaviour, data identity kits, patenting of software, databases, genetics - protection becomes relevant only when object/subject is recognised as having value and therefore linked to you/company so people cannot make same thing. There is no sense in copyrighting before value attached.

Medium is the message potential : shift in evolution nowadays, people want to try out, get access; there is a complex awareness of issues surrounding technology and its effects/affects on privacy and access today

What is freedom ? alone, no computer, no mobile phone, freedom of ideas, freedom of speech, issue of defining freedom and need to set up basic set of rules, know the boundaries. Computing is a massive language and we are terrorised by the options. Can you control it if you have it? More data leads to more confusion. Issues of data management are essential as is cheap means to communicate and express - level of distribution is key. People do not have the same access to powerful production means. IT is a natural environment we should all know about and be able to use. Option of public licences: information, knowledge, images to be shared by all, e.g. open source, copy left etc. Ownership - notion of public space/domain, what is owned by all and no-one, what is our global heritage?

Cultural specific meanings and differences regarding privacy: No common view of privacy as human race. Social perception of privacy? How much inside knowledge should authorities have? We do not need ID cards in UK as there are other ways to get the same personal data.

Artist control over own environment/means of production . To engage, reflect or resist, you have to immerse yourself in the materials of technology, how do you navigate space, signing non disclosure agreements to get access? Copyrights being signed away? Importance of alternative means of production: e.g. 'Consume - wireless community network, independent broadband infrastructure example creates a network which does not conform to established protocols. Local networks are independent, group; community based and reflect issues of survival. They are about putting control back into people and individuals not organisations/institutions.

Patenting - software, databases, and genetics - becomes relevant only when recognised by value, therefore linked to you/company so people cannot make same thing.