PREVIOUS SESSIONS
Check out the abstracts and video recordings of presentations from our previous speakers.
#01
MAY 20th 2021
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
FOR
SENSORY
AUGMENTATION
The inaugural session of the re:MAKING SENSE series took stock of the state of the art in sensory augmentation and asked what the most significant challenges are to the widespread use of these technologies, and where the field may be headed in the near future.
Wherein lie the hurdles? Our scientific understanding of perception? Our technological capability to interface with the body? Conceptual quandaries around the nature of subjective experience? Public resistance to the notion of enhancement?
LINEUP #01
TO KICK OFF THE SERIES WE'VE
CURATED THE FIRST DISCUSSION
(presentations in order)
*captions are auto-generated
Marianna Obrist
Professor of Multisensory Interfaces at UCL
Marianna's research ambition is to establish touch, taste, and smell as interaction modalities in human-computer interaction (HCI), spanning a range of application scenarios, from immersive VR experiences to automotive, and health/wellbeing uses.
Scott Novich, phd
CTO & Co-founder of Neosensory
Non-invasive sensory augmentation--using touch in particular--is a nascent field with massive untapped potential. To realize this potential, Scott thinks that we need to be focusing our efforts on low-power highly scalable systems designed to interface directly with our sensory receptors.
www.neosensory.com
Liviu Babitz
CEO & Co-founder of CyborgNest
Liviu creates devices that he calls 'Plug n Be' - he will be speaking about the time it takes for the brain to learn a new permanent sensory input. It takes years for newborns to understand sensory data, and as adults it can be pretty frustrating to start this long process anew, but totally worth the journey.
Madeline Schwartzman
New York City artist, author, and educator
Her book See Yourself Sensing: Redefining Human Perception, established conceptual categories for perception-altering art and technology, and examined projects for the human sensorium across multiple disciplines from the 1960’s onwards.
#02
JULY 1st 2021
TRANSLATING
SUBSTITUTING
AUGMENTING
SENSES
This session focuses on the process of translation between sensory modalities. It questions how the attributes of one sense are mapped onto another, how this new sensory information is integrated to perception, and how novel information is translated into senses. What technology is needed to do this? What information is sent? What is lost? How does that affect the resulting perception? And how does this, in turn, affect social interaction and performance?
Our brains receive information from our sensory organs, interpreting the incoming electrical signals and conveying them to us as a sensory perception. Today, technology makes it possible for individuals to receive information in one sensory mode and have it interpreted in another. For instance, ‘hearing’ light is possible. It is also possible to transmit non-sensory, or non-human sensory information to the brain to interpret as a sensory perception. For example, one can feel the Earth’s magnetic field.
For humans, this means that they either substitute some original (natural) senses with technology-based ones, try to add new senses to those they have, or to perceive in an enhanced manner. Perhaps, sensory augmentation technologies are even both substituting and augmenting senses at once.
LINEUP #02
SPEAKERS WERE CHOSEN FROM SUBMISSIONS TO OUR OPEN CALL ON THIS THEME
(presentations in order)
Dr Giles Hamilton-Fletcher
Postdoctoral Research Fellow at NYU Langone Health
Giles is a postdoctoral researcher at NYU Langone Health, his research focuses on finding optimal ways of turning visual images into sound, so that listeners can accurately reconstruct the original image. psychology (University of Sussex).
Antal Ruhl
Lecturer and researcher at Avans University of Applied Sciences
Antal was trained as an industrial product designer at the Hague University of Applied Sciences. After his master’s degree in Media Technology at Leiden University, he focused on conducting research by creating custom interactive tools.
Roseanne Wakely
Designer, Directer &
co-founder of Rusty Squid
Roseanne is a future-focused designer, artist and maker, with playfulness and inclusive design at the core of her practice. She works within an ecosystem of robotic technology, digital fabrication, and social experimentation.
&
Carl Hayden Smith
Director of the Learning Technology Research Centre at Ravensbourne
Carl is also co-founder of the Cyberdelics Society and the London Experimental Psychonautic Club. He is focused on using both the technological and biological means to alter, probe and study the spectral nature of consciousness.
#03
SEPTEMBER 23rd 2022
WORK IN
PROGRESS
Part of the re:MakingSenses community is working towards conceptualizing, criticizing, and constructing meaning around sensory augmentation, and part is directly designing and building devices to augment senses.
Such work typically requires time, interdisciplinary knowledge, and various forms of input. During this session presents practitioners, students, and professors will present their work-in-progress in diverse directions, and will use the input and feedback from the participants and other speakers to make their ideas clearer, elicit useful feedback on early-stage work.
And, this session will also enable collaborations on ongoing projects with attendees!
LINEUP #03
SELECTED PRESENTERS FROM
RESPONDENTS TO OUR OPEN CALL
(presentations in order)
*captions are auto-generated
Alwin de Rooij
Assistant Professor in Creativity Research at Tilburg University
Alwin suggests that some physiological signals that cannot be (consciously) senses by our bodies, but can be sensed with sensor technology, can be made available to a person by applying sensory augmentation principles. That is, via real-time mappings from sensor technology data to signals that the body can readily sense. He dubbed this “Augmented Interoception”.
Louise Ward Morris
MA student in fine art at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London
Louise's current project, Total Parts, is a video and animation artwork created as part of her recently completed MA in Fine Art from Central Saint Martins, UAL. The project's subject matter considers the reciprocal relationship between touch and sight in human sensory perception and how digital images and technological apparatus have the potential to disrupt this delicate balance. The video work began life as a handmade apparatus designed to blindfold the artist while simultaneously streaming a live video feed to a mobile phone of their sight, allowing them to visually experience in retrospect.
Hallidonto
Visual artist, London based Cyborg iconoclast
Having contracted a brain injury in 2006 which had a severe impact on his hearing, Hallidonto has his own interpretation of sense, much of which has been translated into the focus on sensory input and alternative ways of experiencing the world in the production of his multilayered opera production Sanctum Cyborgia. The production, both the VR experience and offline performance currently has two scripts in the draft, which will aid in the decision-making around which immersive tech best suits the opera’s vision and social impact values such as accessibility, tech inclusivity, and economic sustainability.
Michael Devine
UK Firefighter, Specialist Rescue Operator, Recruit Instructor, and Researcher at Ulster University
Mick Devine started his career as a researcher, completing a Masters in Medical Science before joining Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service. He has now worked in UK Fire Services for 17 years in a range of diverse roles including Firefighter, Specialist Rescue Operator, and Recruit Instructor. He is also a part-time Researcher with Ulster University where he is examining the potential role of wearable technology to improve firefighter health, safety, and wellbeing. He hopes that his experience at the "sharp end" will help inform practical solutions to common problems, regularly faced by firefighters. His research is self-funded and done in his own free time.