Erik Conrad // Sky Frostenson // Adrian Herbez // Garnet Hertz // Ryan Schoelerman // Margaret Watson // So Yamaoka

Erik Conrad

TactileSpace

Technologies are not mere exterior aids, but interior changes of consciousness that shape the ways the world is experienced. As we enter the age of ubiquitous computing, where computers are worn, carried or embedded into the environment, we must be careful that the ideology the technology embodies is not blindly incorporated into the environment as well. Space is not merely a neutral background for human activity; culture is built into its forms. As disciplines, engineering and computer science make implicit assumptions about the world that conflict with traditional modes of cultural production. TactileSpace is an experimental location aware garment that seeks to address lacuna in the design process of computationally enhanced cultural artifacts and the spaces they inhabit. It consists of a GPS + torso tactile display that communicates tactile textures related to the spatial form of the environment. TactileSpace functions as an intervention to raise awareness of embodied interaction in wearable and ubiquitous computing design practice. Much in the same way that graphic design became an important element in the design of visual interfaces, I believe that computer scientists need begin to look to architecture and the humanities, with their long history of designing and conceptualizing space for human use, in the design of wearable and ubiquitous computing systems.

About the artist

Erik Conrad has a M.S. in Information Design and Technology from Georgia Tech where he was a member of the Topological Media Lab . His work is an experiment in embodied thought through interaction and is manifested through studies in phenomenology. He attempts to engage proprioception - the ability to sense the position, location, orientation and movement of the body and its parts - and acknowledges its importance to human thought/experience. This overarching theme runs through the two main branches of his research: 1.) experiments in the phenomenology of reading that explore form/content relationships and 2.) the design and anaylsis of dynamic media spaces exploring how people perceive, understand and navigate space. 
http://www.peripheralfocus.net

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