Focus on a joint research project: DECIBEL

DECIBEL (Since 2016) Discover, Express, Create – Interaction Technologies For Creative Collaboration

Principal Investigators: 

• Wendy Mackay, ExSitu  project team, Inria Saclay research center
• Bjoern Hartmann, CITRIS, UC Berkeley

Research objectives:

Members of the DeciBel team focused on three key research objectives:

• Research collaborations with artists who push the limits of interactive technology to offer new insights into the design of interactive systems that support creativity and innovation;
• Explorations of a new class of digital fabrication tools to support rapid, collaborative exploration of design spaces by combining both digital fabrication and tangible tools;
• Application of the theoretical concepts of substrates and instrumental interaction to the design and analysis of controlled experiments.

Scientific achievements:

• The Grande Vitrine de Noël, which explores a new form of human-computer partnership to increase engagement in public settings, was successfully deployed at three art+science events for 3 days (Fête de la Science), 4 days (Curiositas festival) and one month (Agora theater, Evry). A month-long workshop with dancers and musicians employed WiFi electrocardiographs developed at Berkeley and Inria to create novel forms of interactive performance, composition, and choreography with biosensors;
• ShapeMe embeds shape-aware printed electronic circuits into physical prototyping materials, allowing smooth transitions between early-stage physical prototyping and interactive 3d digital models;
• We applied the principles of instrumental interaction and substrates to the design, comparison and analysis of controlled laboratory experiments.

Figure 1: A young participant learns the correct moves to successfully control Père Noël at the Curiositas Art and Science Festival in May, 2017

Publications and Awards:

Selected Publication:

Naccarato, T., & MacCallum, J. (2017) Critical Appropriations of Biosensors in Artistic Practice.  In Proceedings of the International Conference on Movement and Computing (MOCO), London, UK.