Stitchtures

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and development of an interactive art installation, Stitchtures, for retirement community shared common areas. Physical and digital co-design activities are described in the development of an interactive art piece inspired by biological systems and collective behavior. Vision systems are also described for data gathering during implementation. The combined methodologies respond to the specific aims of the project, which investigates the effects of design and technology interventions on aiding interactions among older adults in retirement communities.

Transitions in Digital Personhood

“…Burmeister [14] highlights the importance of online communities to older adults for finding and sharing information, for emotional support about shared experiences, and for a sense of belonging. Studies have explored supportive technology to combat social isolation and loneliness [19,49,3], which may be related to physically relocating [34,48,54], or managing pain and chronic illness [8], or to understand perceived barriers to Internet use and online publishing, for example because of older adults' concerns about threats to personal privacy and security [1,32,43,67]. Studies of older adults' Internet use show a relative lack of 'online participatory culture' through social media compared to younger generations [10,27], raising issues and design implications for social inclusion and accessibility.…”