Karmen Franinovic
About the Research
Behavioural Interaction Design : Embedding human-adaptive behaviour in interactive spaces and artefacts This research envisions a built environment which is responsive and alive, and which can offer to its inhabitants more than the material structure of which it is composed. It attempts to bring together a range of recent work on embodiment and behaviour in cognitive neuroscience and AI, as well as visions from architecture, design, literature, and the arts - to realize the design of human-adaptive artefacts and spaces which are brought alive by means of behavioural interactions. By providing historical and conceptual context for human-adaptive artefacts and spaces embodying behaviour, and by realizing an array of practical experiments with the latter, this research intends to create the fundamental knowledge needed to realize human-centred interactions which are mediated by artefacts and spaces that can embody and respond to moods, needs, emotions, actions and desires of the people and communities that host them. Far from the mimicking of biological organisms, as is frequently the aim in robotics, the intention is to utilize behavioural qualities to develop complex, dynamic, and intuitive works that respond to our intentions and desires as much as living beings do. At the heart of this project is the study of embodied behavioural models that may be capable of adapting to changing context in constructive and meaningful ways, facilitating natural interaction between people and their environment. This doctoral research considers that "the human organism is linked with an external entity in a two-way interaction, creating a coupled system that can be seen as a cognitive system in its own right." (Clark and Chalmers, "The Extended Mind", 1998). Might behavioural design be the ideal medium for carrying forward the extension of the embodied mind through augmented interaction?
About the Researcher
Karmen is the director of Zero-Th, an independent research organization developing concepts and projects which explore and influence the evolution of the multidimensional urban fabric, together with the presence and condition of its inhabitants. By introducing interactive technologies into physical architecture and immaterial space, she seeks in her work to stimulate social and bodily movements, and to raise awareness of interaction with/in the urban surroundings and its diverse ecologies. In addition to urban explorations, Karmen's research is increasingly focused on tangible interaction and sound feedback embedded in artefacts and spaces. She leads interaction design research for an European Commission project called CLOSED (Closing the Loop Of Sound Evaluation and Design) at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zürich (HGKZ). The project, developed together with Yon Visell and colleagues at Ircam, TU-Berlin and Uni-Verona, researches new approaches to interactive sound design that are robustly adapted to human perception and cognition. Karmen received the Laurea degree with Honours from Istituto Universitario di Archittetura di Venezia, and Master's degree from the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. She worked as an architect on large public buildings with AltenArchitekten, Studio ArchA, Arata Isozaki and Associates, and Arup. She has taught at Concordia University in Montreal and at HGKZ. Her projects have been presented / commissioned by at Ircam/Centre Pompidou (Paris), SF Camerawork (San Francisco), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Torino), Bienal Miami + Beach, Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Far Eastern Memorial Foundation (Taipei), The Junction (Cambridge) and others.
Websites
www.zero-th.org
interactiondesign.zhdk.ch
In cooperation with
