ABSTRACT Our perception of the physical world is informed by our bodily sensory experiences. This rich source of information stimulates the brain and is remembered and remade in the creative processes that feed our imagination. How does experience of materiality shape our creative use of digital imaging tools, and how does the technology influence creative practice? This article contends that creative processes are heavily reliant on our memories of physical experience and that tools to support creative digital practice could be enhanced to utilize the rich multi-sensory stimulation it provides. This paper presents collaborative art-making that has been used to investigate issues arising from case study research, enabling the author to empathically experience the artist's creative processes and to provide insight into how digital tools can support creative practice.

ABSTRACT Making computationally embedded things demands cross-disciplinary creativity, and creative designers must master many materials and methods. The studio-laboratory workspace is essential for learning to engage in such creative endeavors. In this kind of environment, students are encouraged to define their own problem statements and decide what to design. The faculty encourages tinkering, design and the play instinct. In this paper, the authors present their interest in building methods and tools that can open new design spaces in the studio-laboratory environment. They reflect on the distinctive characteristics of this learning environment and how these qualities aid design and foster creative engagement.

ABSTRACT The authors examine how materiality emerges from complex chains of mediation in creative software use. The primarily theoretical argument is inspired and illustrated by interviews with two composers of electronic music. The authors argue that computer mediated activity should not primarily be understood in terms of simple mediation, but rather as chains of complex mediation in which the dominant form of representation is metonymy rather than metaphor.

ABSTRACT The proliferation of interactive technologies expands the palette of the architect, prompting a re-examination of notions of materiality in architecture. This article explores how the introduction of computational processes that accelerate, amplify or animate conventional mechanisms of time and space might alter the relationship between human perception and matter. We present a spatial paradigm for the materiality of interaction in architectural space and demonstrate it in a recent installation work, Trivet Fields , which employs a heterogeneous model of interactivity to articulate spatial materiality.

ABSTRACT There is an emerging recognition of the value of designing for technology as experience, and of the point that the body matters in the context of technology design. Mark Weiser coined the term invisible computing, remarking that the most profound technologies disappear into the fabric of everyday life. This paper offers a framework from the field of somatics to contribute to the discourse of embodiment and experience in technology, particularly with regard to the body in everyday life. Somatics brings with it epistemologies of practice and embodied approaches to learning and interacting that focus on attention, context and awareness. This paper presents a set of design examples that demonstrate ways in which somatics can be applied to technology design.