Aesthetics of the here & now
This project was about becoming sensitive as designers to the richness of the here & now.
Affordances is a well-known concept within interaction design, but often it is used as a means to prescribe actions to a user through dynamic formgiving. In this project we flipped this perspective on it's head: forget the designed function, let the function emerge through feeling. We gave ourselves & participants a small set of single instructions: take a hold of the end of the sticks we give you, close your eyes, and feel. While this openness feels like a confrontation at first, people quickly get accustomed the other and start calibrating themselves to them, which can result in unique moments & even patterns.
In interaction, just like in the video; rich, personal, aesthetic feelings emerge that can draw us deeper and further into a dialogue, an 'other' (human or more-than-human), and ourselves. If we design for aesthetics of the here & now, we design for more creativity, more richness, more feeling. How something 'works' becomes less clear and more in the moment: emotional, contextual & personal. The 'purpose' & 'function' emerges from the meanings, feelings, and emotions that happen spontaneously in the dialogue. Function follows form(s, plural because in interaction various forms change. Like the forms of things, bodies, thoughts, & environment!) when designing for aesthetics of the here & now.