Research Article
A Somaesthetics Based Approach to the Design of Multisensory Interactive Systems
@INPROCEEDINGS{10.1007/978-3-031-55722-4_5, author={Silvia Ferrando and Gualtiero Volpe and Eleonora Ceccaldi}, title={A Somaesthetics Based Approach to the Design of Multisensory Interactive Systems}, proceedings={Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment. 14th EAI International Conference, INTETAIN 2023, Lucca, Italy, November 27, 2023, Proceedings}, proceedings_a={INTETAIN}, year={2024}, month={3}, keywords={Multi-sensory technologies somaesthetics approach full-body movement analysis}, doi={10.1007/978-3-031-55722-4_5} }- Silvia Ferrando
Gualtiero Volpe
Eleonora Ceccaldi
Year: 2024
A Somaesthetics Based Approach to the Design of Multisensory Interactive Systems
INTETAIN
Springer
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-55722-4_5
Abstract
This paper aims to analyse the state-of-the-art of somaesthetics, describing the scientific and philosophic basis of the discipline, in order to devise how to implement a soma-based design. The goal is to apply the somaesthetics approach to the design of multisensory interactive systems for the purpose of creating novel technology designs for people with disabilities that can foster their participation and improve their daily life and overall well-being. Somatics can be intended as a set of instrumental values to increase bodily awareness. It allows us to get in touch with our own inner states, which can lead to a personal evaluative dimension for the designer, which can be used to integrate existing methods for evaluating experiences. Paying attention to one’s own bodily states is key as it can turn such states in desing material. This concept was further developed with Shusterman’s somaesthetics, a theoretical framework for aesthetic experiences. In the paper, we present examples of somaesthetics approaches to the design of interfaces (e.g. the SomaMat, that uses heat stimuli to guide the user attention to different parts of his/her body and can be a support for exercising or a tool to increase the body awareness). Moreover, we illustrate existing practices to design such as Embodied Sketching or Moving and Making Strange that are based on the body as the starting point of the design process, usually preceded by techniques such as defamiliarization or Feldenkrais exercises. Then, we move on to our forthcoming research, aimed at applying a somaesthetics approach to create a system for two possible groups of users: (1) children who are patients at the Giannina Gaslini Institute (a pediatric hospital) and (2) visually impaired and blind people members of Unione Italiana Ciechi (an Italian association of blind people). The system will help users move together, to increase interaction between them as well as involve them in educational and creative activities. The work will be carried out under the PNRR RAISE project (Robotics and AI for Socio-economic Empowerment;https://www.raiseliguria.it/).
