This pictorial illustrates the methodological tools for articulating the felt experience of chronic pain used for designing somaesthetic interactions. To do this, it presents the design process of a case study named Squeaky/Pain, a soma extension aiming to augment somaesthetic awareness of the pain involved in the appreciation of both pleasant and disturbing feelings and sensations. The soma extension is an interactive wearable that facilitates a sound-motion interaction to mimic the wearer’s pain experience, from agony to relief. The case study focuses on a less explored aspect of somaesthetic interactions which is the mediation of disturbing experiences for sensory awareness. Through the soma extension that mediates disturbing experiences, the study aims to improve people’s somatic knowledge and their lives as a result. The design process of Squeaky/Pain requires detailed accounts of lived bodily experiences to create somaesthetic interactions. To access a detailed articulation of felt experiences, various tools are employed to articulate the first- and second-person pain experience for design use. These are different types of body maps, video analysis, material and form explorations, journals, in-depth interviews and self-interviews. The ideation and the testing phases have proven that such tools complement one another to access the versatile aspects of felt experiences. In this pictorial, we demonstrate ways in which visual, verbal and written tools can be applied to reveal implicit bodily experiences to inform somaesthetic interaction design.
is a Ph.D. student at the Estonian Academy of Arts where she worked as a contractual lecturer. She focuses on combining her interactive textile practice with embodied design thinking. She worked as an e-textile costume designer for the project funded by Vertigo STARTS Residency. Recently, she was a resident of STARTS.EE, collaborating with a theatre director, where she developed interactive costumes and designed the stage for an audio-journey game.
A través del estudio de caso de un diseño, examinamos cómo la conciencia somaestética se ve amplificada por la intermediación de perturbaciones corporales y el cultivo de una transición desde una perspectiva de primera persona a una de segunda persona. El artículo se centra en el aspecto menos explorado del diseño somático: la mediación de experiencias perturbadoras que interrumpen el flujo cotidiano, en este caso, la experiencia de dolor. El proceso de diseño ilustró una transición entre las perspectivas de primera y segunda persona para cultivar y externalizar la experiencia con el dolor en la forma de una interacción corporal vestible. La experiencia del dolor externalizado se tradujo en un dispositivo vestible interactivo, “Squeaky/Pain”, que aumenta la conciencia somaestética del usuario a través de sensaciones sonoras, táctiles y cinestésicas. Este artículo hace dos contribuciones principales al diseño somático: introduce las implicaciones de las experiencias perturbadoras a la hora de aumentar la conciencia somaestética y ejemplifica de qué manera las perturbaciones corporales internas pueden materializarse mediante el cultivo de perspectivas en primera y segunda persona.
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