Dear all,

Following numerous requests, the deadline for the *Embodying Embodied
Design Research Techniques* workshop at the *Århus decennial Critical
Alternatives conference* has been extended to *June 3*, allowing an extra
week to prepare submissions.

Detailed submission info, the list of organisers and their affiliations. is
available here: https://embodieddesignresearch.wordpress.com

The conference website is here: aarhus2015.org

And I've pasted the call info below.

*Århus 2015, Critical Alternatives* is a decennial conference, focused on
ongoing conversations and thinking relevant to the next decade and beyond.
A decennial conference not only enables, but encourages longer term
perspectives on the issues and ideas being raised.

We have received a number of strong, diverse submissions, and would love to
have a couple more to further strengthen and diversify. If you feel you can
contribute to thinking around the dissemination of Embodied Design Research
Techniques, we hope to hear from you!

best regards

Danielle,

(for myself, Oscar Tomico, Andrés Lucero, Kia Höök and Jacob Burr)

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*About the workshop*

*Important Dates:*

*JUNE 3**, 2015: Submission Deadline **(new!)*

*June 7**, 2015: Notification of Acceptance *

* August 17, 2015: Workshop*

Embodied interaction continues to gain currency. Yet reporting of methods
and techniques used in embodied research generation remains a challenge.
Conferences (e.g., TEI), special journal issues (e.g., ToCHI, Personal and
Ubiquitous Computing) and doctoral theses (e.g., Moen, Loke, Wilde) are
devoted to the subject. Yet embodied methods are not readily communicated
through the written or spoken word. New forms of knowledge transfer, such
as pictorials (e.g., at DIS 2014 and RTD 2015 conferences), and video are
enabling enhanced, image-enriched reporting of outcomes. Yet appropriate
transfer of embodied research methods remains elusive.

The Embodying Embodied Design Research Techniques workshop is an experiment
with how to engage, reflect on, document and report embodied design
research methods and techniques, to find new opportunities for development,
cross-fertilization, collaboration and effective knowledge transfer as
interaction techniques and methods develop. Our intention is not simply to
find the next form of research reporting. Rather, we recognize that over
the coming decennial radical changes to how research is undertaken may
occur. By laying the foundation for coherent and rich exchange of embodied
ideation methods, we hope to simultaneously contribute to understanding of
how to effectively share them, and to the evolution of these methods. By
engaging participants in an experimental enquiry into embodied research
reporting, we intend this area to become an active area of inquiry moving
forward.

*Workshop Background*

Embodied interaction plays out in many different ways, bringing together
and bridging different disciplines and approaches. Some researchers use the
body and movement as a material. Other researchers focus on developing
movement skills. Yet others focus on designing representations of movement,
evaluating the user experience, mapping interactions, or exploring sensing
technologies. Despite, or perhaps because of this breadth and diversity of
practice, a major challenge remains: coherency of communication. Typical
avenues for reporting do not readily encompass the multiplicity of
perspectives or the embodied nature of relevant research methods and
techniques. Workshops provide an important, yet ephemeral forum through
which to share methodologies (e.g., MOCO). Yet the conundrum of how to
tangibly and robustly transfer knowledge, over time, in ways coherent with
the richness of embodied methods and experiences, remains unsolved.

As embodied methods are increasingly leveraged in research, this challenge
will only become more pressing. In a call to the community to recognize and
respond through action to this shared challenge, this workshop will bring
together concerned participants, in the hope that together we may move
towards coherent solutions.

*Workshop plan*

Over a single day we will engage up to 15 participants in an embodied
interrogation of the key issues related to knowledge transfer and reporting
of embodied research methods and techniques. During the first half of the
day, each participant will lead others in an embodied experience of a
proven research method or technique – enabling the participants to
experience by doing, thus allowing for direct embodied experience of
methodologies. The second half of the day will focus on actively shifting
and merging the methods and techniques experienced in the morning session,
and experimenting with novel approaches to documenting and reporting. This
will be done by combining approaches / mixing / melding / mashing up in
small groups, and making use of novel capture methods.

To facilitate documentation and capture, we will provide a number of
capture and sensing devices. We will also request participants come
prepared with material, equipment or approaches they feel may contribute to
the experiment.

Groups will be fluid – participants able to leave or join a new group at
any time. This will enable ideas to merge and groups to form in an
instinctive and discretionary manner. The structure of this part of the
workshop will draw on the strengths of improvisation in contributing to
idea generation and development. In musical improvisation, for example,
knowing where to go next becomes a series of small decisions made in a
hyper aware state of flow in which the musician “knows” both the minds and
desires of his or her fellow musicians, and also holds the experience of
the audience as an almost physical “thing” which can be examined, turned,
changed, and at some point is “done” (Ryan, 2011). Turning this approach
onto the challenge of sharing and documenting embodied design research
techniques, will enable us to use the techniques themselves as a anchors,
or guides. This approach has been leveraged previously in embodied idea
generation, and is well suited to the challenge we are confronting.

Participants will be encouraged to experiment with different recording
techniques, throughout, including body-mounted sensing and recording
devices, as well as less conventional approaches. The intention will be to
find appropriate ways of capturing and reporting embodied experiences and
experiments, so that the intangible elements are not lost. At the end of
the day, the workshop participants will regroup to reflect on what happened
and share impressions, as well as outcomes, including documentation
experiments that aim to tangibly capture and communicate the processes
undertaken.

In the spirit of an ongoing conversation, we are not looking for definitive
answers, rather we recognize that over the coming decennial radical changes
to how research is undertaken may occur. By laying the foundation for
coherent and rich exchange of embodied ideation methods, we hope to
simultaneously contribute to understanding of how to effectively share
them, and the evolution of those methods. Outcomes will be posted on
the workshop
website. Alternate methods for sharing will be discussed during the
workshop and actioned accordingly.

Ryan, J. Knowing When. In *The Vibrancy Effect *ed. Chris Salter.
Rotterdam: V2_ Publishing, 2011

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