Hi Mona,



I'm afraid I can't give this as long a reply as I'd like but I'll try to
cover some of the points you raise...I'll also cc it to the list as it
may be useful stuff as far as the general debate is concerned since
you've



         also found the whole debate surrounding design based
            research very confusing.



Perhaps you might like to post your original mail if you fell I've
distorted you response....(I hope I haven't!!).


           ..... I intend to seperate my 'research' from my
           presentation of 'research'.



           I feel that I have to set
           the scope for this research and the practical work for this
project.



....as I tried to point out before the research question should drive
the scope of your enquiries. Some folk start with research questions so
broad as to be useless. What's the issue you're going to be examining
through theory and practice? As I think I've said before theory is not a
commentary or an explanation of practice, how can theory be a part of
research if it merely explains? It should push the research question as
much as the practice.

         The research I'm proposing would be around non-vrbal
communication and cues
         aquired in childhood.



How are you going to examine this?



         I'm interested in finding out if people are attracted
         to other people if they have had similar experiences in
childhood - or
        similar family structures - or similar significant events. If
there is some
        kind of correlation then it seems possible or even likely that
this can be
        communicated non-verbally.



How will you assess these kinds of experience? How for instance would
you elicit from me the kind of information you'd need from me to find
out about my experience as a child and then to correlate this with a set
of non verbal expressions. In the first instance your assuming a
vocabulary of non verbal gestures. I don't know a great deal about this
but I know that Gregory Bateson wrote a little around this in such a way
to point out that contexts can radically alter the meaning of gestures (
Metalogue: Why do Frenchman - p9 -Steps to an Ecology of Mind  ISBN
0-226-03905-6).


       I will look at micro-expressions as the likely method of
communication of
      this information. I will examine the micro-expressions of people
who have
      experienced the phenomenon of 'love at first sight' as it would
seem an
      extreme form of 'attraction'.

If you were to examine these expression surely you'd need to be there
when and if it happens. Otherwise you're making the assumption that folk
either wear that expression habitually or can call on it when you need
them to.

       There are many fuzzy issues here - hopefully that will make it
fun!



Unfortunately its more likely that you'll never finish the project. Be
careful of this.



       If I go part of the way into exploring different peoples
definitions of love I think
       the project will be interesting.



Perhaps this is your project, the question is what will be the research
element?

      I'm not intrested in exploring the nature of narrative or the
medium at his
     stage - although I am interested in considering how I will present
the
     findings of my research to the general public.



I'm confused here as to how the creation of an artifact is a part of the
research if it merely the means by which findings are presented. As such
the research will have gone on else where. Having gone through the PhD
process my work led me to questions that needed answers which were
pursued through theory and practice. As a maker the issues I confronted
whilst making formed the origin of the question I wished to examine.
Theory was able to challenge assumptions I'd come to make about practice
and practice provided the means to examine these issues sensuously and
challenge the assumptions of theory... to deal with the matter at hand.



      I am not intending to look
      into the nature of narrative at this point,


     I don't really understand what you mean in your last paragraph.

    "At a
    > fundamental level you'll need to address the underlying notion
that
    > people can experience these things via technology, the whole thing
will
    > flounder immediately if you can't."



What I mean is that , if we take your notion of micro expressions, and
the fact that the situations within which you experience them are always
'social', is digital technology capable of creating or communicating
such expressions? If it can't your project will fail as the means that
you've chosen is inadequate to the task.

     In my
    proposed exhibition computer technology will eleicit feedback
(creating some
    interaction) for the user (audience) on occasion - but the 'computer
    technology' will be more or less invisible.



How will this feedback occur? I know of some work on expression
recognition (go to http://www.junction.co.uk/ntaf/collabor.html and look
at Alexa, Alf and Rana's work) but it certainly isn't capable of micro
gestures - gross expression are cutting edge and will be for a number of
years to claim to be. If you use user controlled 'triggers'  the link is
causal.  I your intention is contrary to this but I'm interested to know
how this link will be invisible.



Remember you'll also need to test this stuff out. What you think is a
natural form of interaction may be opaque to others, based once again on
assumption (the enemy of anybody involved in ressearch!).



     I don't see a problem in mixing
     screen based technologies with straight forward paper-based text (a
medium
     which requieres a different form of interaction)- and I intend to
     communicate at least part of the findings of the research using
braille.



There's no problem in mixing things, I wish folk would do it more and
stop us falling into a digital ghetto!

     Also, I have no idea what this means: !!!

    "You have the problem of removing the
    > technological element of the project so that the affective
elements are
    > not mediated via an instrumental causality. "

As above. When you fall in love there's no guide telling you to do
'this' now (here lies the classic problem of folk thinking they've told
somebody they love them too soon), to express this feeling in this
situation etc. Love  also involves hurt. As you progress in a
relationship one of the joys is an investment in each other, living with
the foibles of another, knowing when each of you has overstepped the
mark yet remaining open to the nature of love. Now here's the thing,
interactive media demand some form of input and a result that occurs as
a result of that data. You can write complex algorithms to generate
emergent behaviors, you can deal with AI but you still need certain
forms of input and to link this with output. The question is how are you
going to deal with something as elusive, as felt and as complex as love
via the kind of input a computer understands? If its a question of
pressing this button now I think you could have problems to start with.



There are excellent projects out there dealing with emotion. I think
that Harwood's 'Rehearsal of Memory' is outstanding in this regard using
very traditional interface in such a way it all but 'evaporates' due to
the involvement it elicits from the user. But how are you going to deal
with this as far as love is concerned and the way in which you have
opened it in a 'social' context?



I hope all of this gives a little more flesh to the bones! In the end my
views are just another on the subject of love...but the qestion is how
do you make this into a piece of research, that is carried into practice
and that somehow generates outcomes via the proposed use of digital
technology? I guess I doubt that love can be reduced to pushing button
'A'.



All the best,



Mark

The information in this email is confidential and is intended solely for
the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorised.

If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying,
distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on
it, except for the purpose of delivery to the addressee, is prohibited
and may be unlawful. Kindly notify the sender and delete the message and
any attachment from your computer.