Dancing With Drones

Abstract

Movement-based interactions are gaining traction, requiring a better understanding of how such expressions are shaped by designers. Through an analysis of an artistic process aimed to deliver a commissioned opera where custom-built drones are performing on stage alongside human performers, we observed the importance of achieving an intercorporeal understanding to shape body-based emotional expressivity. Our analysis reveals how the choreographer moves herself to: (1) imitate and feel the affordances and expressivity of the drones' 'otherness' through her own bodily experience; (2) communicate to the engineer of the team how she wants to alter the drones' behaviors to be more expressive; (3) enact and interactively alter her choreography. Through months of intense development and creative work, such an intercorporeal understanding was achieved by carefully crafting the drones' behaviors, but also by the choreographer adjusting her own somatics and expressions. The choreography arose as a result of the expressivity they enabled together. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → HCI theory, concepts and models; Empirical studies in HCI.

Soma Design and Sensory Misalignment

“…Second, the results from this workshop have implications beyond designing for balance, or using misalignment as an estrangement method. Soma Design is a broad design framework that has already been used for domains such as design engaging with female health [1]; mental health; body awareness [25,30,18]; performance art [30,40,12]; home appliances [39]; and biofeedback pain regulation [21]. Through extending the Soma Design methods with misalignment provocations, we can engage more heavily with the fast, thrilling and uncomfortable application domains.…”

Ethics in Movement

“…these technologies are considered to embody values in material form. Another position, that we adhere to, is that ethicality is manifested in the affordances and particularities of the design, encouraging certain engagements with the self, others and world -while discouraging others [18,23,36,69,72,75]. Ethics is shaped in use.…”

“…This happens when using them for work purposes (e.g. [46,77]), as part of leisure activities and as social companions [6,44,51] or artistic performances [18,49,50,55].…”

“…We argue that as with any artifact, the specific design of any autonomous system -such as our choir of drones -will encourage certain movements, certain aesthetic experiences, certain practices and responses, while discouraging others [18,23,36]. In a sense, as designers, we leave behind a set of 'sedimented movements' embedded in the particulars of the system, movements that we invite our end-users to engage with, sometimes repeatedly over and over, such as pinching at the mobile phone interface to interact with a map, or copying from one row to the next in an Excel-sheet.…”

Moving in rhythms: what dancers and drummers can teach us about designing digital interactions

“…Other qualities that might be needed to achieve rhythmic synchrony between human and computer are revealed by a collaboration between a choreographer and computer scientists to create a dance with drones (Eriksson et al 2019). In the game examples above, there is a focus on the seamlessness of control, repetitive practice and a merger of body and machine.…”