Abstract

The way we design technology has huge implications for how we can engage, play and collaborate with co-located others. For instance, the mobile phone often leaves people in bubbles where they are highly engaged with people who are elsewhere, while remarkably absent in the engagement with co-located others. In this talk we present the theoretical framing of Proxemics as a lens for understanding and unpacking the interplay between interactive technology, the physical environment and opportunities for social engagement with co-located others. We demonstrate how the perspective of proxemics allow us to design for increased flexibility in social interaction and to explore how the mobile phone can invite for active and social play. We present a series of design experiments around proxemics play, where we demonstrate novel ways of combining mobile devices with interiors in order to support physical activity as well as face-to-face social interaction among children.

About the speakers

Marianne Graves Petersen, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science

Mille Knudsen, Lab, Department of Computer Science

Jens-Emil Grønbæk, PhD student, Department of Computer Science