Information Physicalization

»Information Physicalization« provides a methodological framework for a symmetrical understanding of information and material within the research project »Filtering«. Based on empirical evidence that an active, spatial depth perception, in which we use our motor skills or other non-visual senses like touching, tangible or embodied information leads to higher accessibility, efficiency and cognitive benefits (Jansen et al. 2013).

For this reason we realized interdisciplinary design workshops as a methodological framework for each of the sub projects: Perspectives on Haptics (14.3.–16.3.22), Tracing tainted environments (14.-16.3.23) and Prototyping Anholonomy (27-29.9.23).

Each workshop introduced the interdisciplinary scholars to a range of design methods, focusing on material and model-based activities to bridge disciplines and develop a shared vocabulary through physical perception and interaction. The situated and embodied meaning-making process was accompanied by impulse lectures from each discipline to create friction and discussion between the two knowledge practices (sciences and design-based research) and to provoke new insights through shortcuts for the ongoing research process.

Prototyping as a filtering practice of knowledge

The collaborative modelling process during the workshops can be described as a filtering technique itself and refers to the concept of »boundary objects that learn« (Balsamo et al. 2012) to enhance collaboration in multidisciplinary teams. In contrast to model building and prototyping phases in design or engineering, the goal of the process is not the refined model itself (result-oriented), but the modeling process as a filter technique between the different disciplines and knowledge practices (process-oriented).

Members

Johann Habakuk Israel
Thomas Ness
Hanna Wiesener

Dominic Eger Domingos
Felix Rasehorn
–> Nofar Zeidenshnir
Carola Zwick

Partner: eLAB Labor für Interaktive Technologien der Weißensee Kunsthochschule Berlin

Bibliography

Balsamo, Anne; Juhasz, Alexandra (2012). »An Idea Whose Time is Here: FemTechNet – A Distributed Online Collaborative Course (DOCC)«. Ada: A Journal of Gender, New Media, and Technology (1). doi:10.7264/N3MW2F2J.

Bräuer, Paula, Margarita Berg, Athanasios Mazarakis, and Isabella Peters. 2023. »Movement in Virtual Time: How Virtual Reality Can Support Long-Term Thinking.« Pp. 477–81 in Proceedings of Mensch und Computer 2023, MuC ’23. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery. https://doi.org/10.1145/3603555.3608569

Jansen, Yvonne; Pierre Dragicevic, Pierre; Fekete, Jean-Daniel: »Evaluating the Efficiency of Physical Visualizations«, CHI 2013, Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems; Paris, France. DOI:10.1145/2470654.2481359