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Soma Design – Intertwining Aesthetics, Ethics and Movement

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Sep 29

Date and time: 29 September 2020, 15:00 – 16:00 CET
Speaker: Kristina Höök, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Title: Soma Design – Intertwining Aesthetics, Ethics and Movement

Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/69560887455
Meeting ID: 695 6088 7455
Password: 755440

Watch the recorded presentation here

 

Picture of Kristina HöökAbstract: What is Soma design you might ask? Well, it draws upon the theories of Richard Shustermanon somaesthetics, joining the two words “soma” and “aesthetics”, where soma is our “living, purposive, sentient, perceptive body or bodily subjectivity” and aesthetics is the process of training your sensory appreciation abilities, allowing for “an awakening from the mindless, joyless behaviours” of everyday life. The seminar includes a fun, collective bodily exercise as an introduction to the Soma design concept. Höök then explores how humans – with feelings, impressions and expressions – can interact with others and with physical materials and technology – and designing products from that.

Bio: Kristina Höök is a professor in Interaction Design at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and also works part-time at RISE. Her research interests include affective interaction, somaesthetic design, the internet of things and anything that makes life with technology more meaningful, enjoyable, creative and aesthetically appealing. She recently wrote a book, Designing with the Body – Somaesthetic Interaction Design that you find here: mitpress.mit.edu/books/designing-body