Trans-bodied knowledge
Augmenting spatial perception through haptic wearables

 

Digital technology is ubiquitous. We, as users, must be critical of it, profit from its strengths, and mitigate its adverse implications.

Nowadays, the plethora of information channeled by digital communication tools mainly targets our sense of vision with the risk of neglecting the other senses, which are equally important for the perception of our environment and our connection with it. “Trans-bodied knowledge” focuses on triggering those senses, generating knowledge through our body, and consequently promoting tacit knowledge.

This visual overstimulation also has strong repercussions on pedagogy. Focusing on architectural education, new generations of students are more proficient in using digital design software to create virtual spaces but have fewer opportunities to fully engage with spatial and material aspects. Thus, it becomes more difficult to relate to aspects of scale and orientation. On top of that, the inputs and outputs of architectural design courses are often limited to photorealistic images or ones generated by Artificial Intelligence networks, excluding physical prototypes.

On the other hand, music education cultivates tacit knowledge that relies mainly on the human body. Constituting the body as a vital part of the learning process, this research highlights the equal importance of implicit over explicit knowledge. To achieve that, architecture students will be exposed to methods borrowed from music education and physical material processes. New sensory-based design processes will be explored to counterbalance the use of vision as the main design tool with the aim to enrich the students’ physical engagement with space perception.

The medium of choice to create an immediate interface between our body and the environment are wearables, which will act as playful, sensorial instruments. Once attached to the body, they will mainly trigger the senses of balance and orientation and thus stimulate the users’ perception of space, which encourages a reconnection with their surroundings. The wearables will not rely on electronics but rather on haptic material qualities and will be produced by computational fabrication techniques.

Implementing both implicit and explicit processes, the project will not only address experiential knowledge in design education but will also raise awareness of its importance within society. To communicate this with a broader audience, the team will curate multimodal performances that activate a wide range of senses combining analog and digital workflows as well as media. The interdisciplinary team (architects, engineers, artists) aims to critically promote the physical nature of digital technology, which can ultimately bring people closer to themselves and their environment.