Research Colloquium at SFU’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology in Surrey

Wednesday Feb 28, 2007 at 1:30-3.00pm

Room 14-400, SFU Surrey Campus, 14th floor Central City Tower

1.30 -2.00 pm

Davis Marques

Title: Federation Modeler: a Tool for Engaging Change and Complexity in Design

Abstract:

Increasing change and complexity in the design environment presents a significant challenge for Designers. Traditional design approaches focus on the specification of the object to be realized. When the context changes, the contingent relations upon which the design are based break and the Designer must recreate the design to regain its persuasiveness. We hypothesize that by focusing instead on the management of interactions that realize the design, Designers will be better able to cope with change and complexity while simultaneously increasing their ability to explore design variations. To this end, we have conducted exploratory research aimed at the development of a parametric design tool intended to aid Designers by managing the interactions that realize a design.

In this short talk, I will present portions of my background research on General Systems Theory, the systems approach to organizational management, Designer cognitive behavior and parametric modeling.

Davis's Blog

2.00 -2.30 pm

Dennis Humphrey

Title: sensate skins - Unfolding an affective responsive aesthetics

Abstract:

I have been exploring responsive aesthetics in art installations—how individuals, through their senses, engage in meaningful, affective exchanges with a responsive artwork that focuses on touch and the body as the critical loci of reciprocity. Concepts drawn from multidisciplinary writings assist in developing this responsive aesthetics: approaches to the body, lived experience, reversibility and intercorporeity from existential phenomenology; the construction of the self and sexuality from psychoanalytical theory and gender studies; models of responsivity, the relationships between haptic, visual and multimodal perception from physiology, human perception and art criticism. The construction and exhibition of a prototype haptic responsive installation, sensate skins, provided a means of embodying and exploring the multiple folds of responsivity and gathering engagent impressions on their lived experience.

Related research repository

Bio:

Dennis Humphrey has been involved in the visual, digital and literary arts for the past several decades, having participated in solo and group exhibitions at the local, provincial and national levels. He has also produced hand-bound limited editions of poetry in English and French. Dennis has been working full time in the educational field as teacher and administrator since the early 70s. He has been a M.A. candidate since 2002.

Related art praxis portfolio