The DiscReTe project (Disconnections and Relationships mediated through Intimate Technologies) is part of the postdoc project of Dr. Michaela Honauer, Designing Intimate Technologies through Dance. DiscReTe started in 2024 and is affiliated with the NWO gravitation project Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies (ESDiT) and DesignLab/UTwente. It investigates the use of dance for creating an AI-enabled wearable as a conceptual prototype for demonstrating the concept of Intimate Computing.
Project aims
Supporting social connection
The research is grounded in a case of a person experiencing physical disabilities which impact their ability to communicate and connect with other people. Informed by an investigation and understanding of this person’s challenges, the project develops a wearable to support persons with diverse communication needs in navigating social interactions, setting personal boundaries, and conveying their needs to others effectively.* The wearable is intended to address feelings of disconnection by facilitating nuanced, context-sensitive communication through the expressive capacities facilitated by the digitally-controlled technology embedded in the wearable.
*) The wearable is not intended to be used as such in daily life. Rather, it is a poetic interpretation of how wearable technology might support social connection, aiming to provide a foundation and inspiration for further development of such technologies.
Human-technology partnership
The conceptual idea explored through the design of the wearable is that the technology’s actions would be shaped through a partnership between socially-aware AI that is embedded in the technology, and the human wearer.
To enable such human-technology partnership, meaningful computational models are needed that can capture important aspects of this person, how they want to engage with their social relations and with possible social vulnerabilities that these interactions could give rise to. The idea is that these models can be adapted by the wearer in dialogue with the technology to give the person agency over what is captured about them and how they are supported by the technology. In this way the technology would be able to provide socially- and vulnerability-aware support.
Through the DiscReTe project we aim to gain a better understanding of how such human-technology partnership might take shape and what requirements can be identified for the creation of computational models that should support it. So the central research question that the project contributes to is how Intimate Technologies can support human connection through human-technology partnership.
Designing through dance
The project combines transdisciplinary and participatory approaches, such as design through dance, to develop the intimate wearable technology. The team combines expertise in computer science & AI, design research, wearable design, engineering and inclusive performing arts to realise its aims (see below for a full list of contributors and roles).
The role of dance in this project is two-fold. First, it is used throughout the design process to explore human-technology partnership in social interactions and vulnerability-aware Intimate Technologies. Second, we present the wearable in a dance performance which is an artistic interpretation of the role of such technology in supporting social connection.
Co-design workshops
The dancers experimented with prototypes of the wearable in various co-design workshops. This formed input both for the functional design of the prototype as well as for the conceptual vision embodied through the design. Through this process, the design team started exploring the ‘poetics of air‘ as a way of realising the expressivity of the wearable. Various kinds of textiles and foils have been tested to investigate their material properties when moved by air. Because of the lightness of the material, foils were chosen for the design of the wearable. Movement of the foils both emerges naturally when the dancers move, and it can be initiated via fans which were to be embedded in the garment.
Final wearable prototype
In the final wearable prototype, fans are attached to the dress around the hips. These fans can be used to animate the foils on the outer layer to express a desire to connect or to maintain distance. The fans can also be controlled directly by the wearer through flex sensors worn on specially designed gloves on two fingers of each hand. By bending the fingers, the wearer can activate the fans embedded in the garment. This can be used to simulate* the role of the AI in controlling the garment’s actuators. Moreover, the sensors embody the idea of human-technology partnership by potentially enabling the wearer to influence the actions of the technology as they are being supported. The final prototype is depicted below.
*) Realising the required AI models is part of the ongoing research on Intimate Computing. The DiscReTe project is intended to provide inspiration and requirements to inform and guide future research on what these models should be able to do. In this way, AI techniques are developed in an empirically informed, participatory and inclusive manner.
Dance performance
A dance performance with the wearable was created to convey the vision of the role of the wearable in supporting human connection for people with diverse communication needs. The performance enables further sharing and reflection with researchers and the general public about our vision and the role of Intimate Technologies in society. The performance premiered on December 11th 2024 at University of Twente during a symposium associated with the DiscReTe project (see below).
Events
Symposium “Blurring the Boundaries”, December 11th 2024
On December 11th 2024, the symposium “Blurring the Boundaries: Reflecting on Artistic-Led Research on Designing Human-Technology Entanglements” was organised by Dr. Michaela Honauer, Dr. Birna van Riemsdijk and Melina Petersen at University of Twente and online, as part of the dissemination and reflection activities of the DiscReTe project. During the symposium we explored the broad themes that the project engages with regarding design of human-technology entanglements through embodied and artistic approaches.
It was an exciting day where we could welcome around 75 participants on-site and online throughout the symposium. After Michaela’s opening presentation, the symposium was kicked off with an introduction to Intimate Computing:
The symposium further featured, among others, two keynotes on the use of performative approaches to human-robot interaction (Dr. Petra Gemeinboeck) and designing with the changing body (Dr. Sarah Homewood). ESDiT colleagues Dr. Caroline Bollen and Dr. Janna van Grunsven with support of Dr. Naomi Jacobs prepared a wonderful workshop about their frameworks for thinking about design through the lenses of human vulnerability and empathy. After a creative intervention where Dr. Edwin Dertien let the audience perform an ‘autopsy’ of the theatre robot Ravi, we concluded this part of the symposium with an engaging and thought-provoking panel discussion on the value (and challenges!) of embodied and performative approaches in design and research (featuring Abdelhadi Baaddi, Prof. Dr. Maaike Bleeker, Dr. Julia Hermann, and Prof. Dr. Matthijs Noordzij, and led by Malou Beemer).
The day was concluded with the premiere of the dance performance created as part of the DiscReTe project to showcase an artistic-performative interpretation of (dis)connection through the developed wearable prototype. During the symposium, Michaela already presented the process of designing with dance through which the DiscReTe wearable was created. Before the performance was shown, she introduced the audience to the main ideas of the DiscReTe project. The programme was concluded by a lively Q&A with the makers who reflected on the design process and the role of dance in developing Intimate Technologies. We would like to thank the audience and all contributors for this inspiring day!
DiscReTe contributors and acknowledgements
Principal Investigator: Dr. M. Birna van Riemsdijk
Executive Manager/ Design Researcher: Dr. Michaela Honauer
Wearable Integration Designer: Malou Beemer
Creative Technologist (Software + Hardware): Emil Felix Jari Philogène Gravier
Initial Technological Support: Jonas Hentschel
Choreographic Work: Laisvie Andrea Ochoa Gaevska
Performers: Laisvie Andrea Ochoa Gaevska and Dennis Massar from ConCuerpos inclusive dance company
Event Organizer: Melina Petersen
Everything Video: Marcos Montero Grande
Affiliated with: NWO gravitation project Ethics of Socially Disruptive Technologies (ESDiT), DesignLab/UTwente
Special thanks to: Interaction Lab/UTwente and Daniel Davison, Smart XP Lab/ UTwente and Alfred de Vries, Vrijhof/UTwente, FashionTech Farm, Marianna Alessandri, Dr. Edwin Dertien, Dr. Gwenn Englebienne, Jur van Geel, Dr. Juliet Haarman for their support.