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Whole Body Interaction: The Future of the Human Body

A workshop organized by David England, Liverpool John Moores University, 22 - 23 November 2007.

The aim of this workshop was to promote critical discussion over virtual, mixed and augmented reality and provide attendees with a critical framework for tackling issues.

Bill Buxton¹ mused on what future archaeologist would make of today’s humans extrapolating from our current computer technology and came up with a being with one eye, a dominant hand and two ears but lacking legs, and a sense of smell or touch. He argued for greater involvement in the whole person and their senses in human-computer interaction. Artists have responded to this challenge by exploiting the various technologies that fall under the general banner of virtual reality, and support whole body interaction. Goldberg² has also considered how performers are not just concerned with the body and bodily actions but also the relationship between performer and audience.

References

¹ Buxton, W. (1986) There's More to Interaction than Meets the Eye: Some Issues in Manual Input. In Norman, D. A. and Draper, S. W. (Eds.), (1986), User Centered System Design: New Perspectives on Human-Computer Interaction. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 319-337

² Goldberg, R. (2001) Performance Art: From Futurism to Present. Thames and Hudson, London.

Please contact David England (d.england@ljmu.ac.uk) for more information.