Abstract: This essay introduces the special issue of Digital Creativity on Design Fictions. It is an attempt to grapple with the notion of Design Fictions and considers this a ‘speculative turn’ within contemporary design practice. It presents Design Fictions as a cluster of problems, rather than offering a single definition of Design Fictions it outlines their ‘multidimensionality’ to suggests that Design Fictions create a discursive space within which new forms of cultural artefact (futures) might emerge.

Abstract: The production of fictions within the design field are not disinterested speculations about distant futures, but intentional political actions in the present time. Fictions can entertain as much as cause social friction. This article discusses three sources of design fictions: a global information technology company; an art school in the UK; and a design institute in Brazil. By contrasting the three cases in light of the philosophical work of Alvaro Vieira Pinto, this article deconstructs the ideology of the future—futurology—and proposes acting in the present—handiness—to sketch an ideology of liberation. Instead of supporting the status quo, such ideology could inspire collective action for change. The practices from the three aforementioned sources are discussed to lay the foundations for such ideology of liberation in design fictions

Abstract: Design fictions present us with spaces for construction and reflection, potentially mixing various modes of the emergent and the speculative with the shaping and communication of near future imaginaries. In this article we adopt a blend of rhetorical devices to present and discuss design fictions. We do this by referring to current discourses around drone technologies. We resituate these in the context of the networked city and the projection of a hybrid rogue drone. She is dissatisfied with her given functions and begins to question her deployment in urban policing. The article is based in the conceptual end of designing such a future city space. It refers to practical, popular and academic materials and citations to argue for the need for openness and clarity at the ideational end of developing design fictions. The text is part of a wider developmental and reflexive design–research process that takes up the speculative in design fictions and related hermeneutic design research.

Abstract: Where is the body of the gamer in game art? While game art explores the materiality of digital games through examinations of the glitch, and in-game performances, it is less successful in revealing or examining the materiality of the body of the gamer. This presents an interesting problem for game art because, since motion sensing technologies have been incorporated into gaming technology following the introduction of the Wii, the body has reached an unprecedented visibility in popular culture, and increasingly depictions of gaming make the body part of play by celebrating gestural excess. Game art is crucial for documenting the fleeting styles of gestural excess, styles that are both amplified by the proliferation of motion sensing technologies and the integration of gesture into gaming, and constrained by the ongoing processes of being absorbed into official practices of popular gaming culture and design.

Abstract: In today's age of participation, co-creation, user-generated content and social networking have become part of a mass-appeal digital lifestyle. This contribution discusses potential implications for contemporary and future media art in the context of the stage. It reflects on why and how interactive performances could give consideration to this zeitgeist of empowered spectatorship and, moreover, proposes principles for participatory stage pieces that incorporate practice-based experience as well as findings from (social) flow theory, a psychological framework for optimal creative experience that we found to be valuable for fostering audience engagement in interactive dramaturgies.

Abstract: We introduce the idea of a new kind of web search tool that uses the literary and philosophical idea of pataphysics as a conceptual framework in order to return creative results Pataphysics, the science of exceptions and imaginary solutions, can be directly linked to creativity and is therefore very suitable to guide the transformation from relevant into creative search results To enable pataphysical algorithms within our system we propose the need for a new type of system architecture We discuss a component-based software architecture that would allow the flexible integration of the new algorithms at any stage or location and the need for an index suitable to handle patadata, data which have been transformed pataphysically This tool aims to generate surprising, novel and provocative search results rather than relevant ones, in order to inspire a more creative interaction that has applications in both creative work and learning contexts

Abstract: This article proposes that machinima is a practice-based approach to learning digital creative practice. It features excerpts from key informant interviews with six prominent machinima artists: it is the first time they have been brought together to consider the role of machinima as a learning tool from their different perspectives. The article begins with a review of machinima as an example of digital creative practice, akin to mashup and remix genres. The nature of machinima is presented through interviews, providing an overview of its authenticity, roles of networks and communities of practice, transdisciplinary creative practice, transliteracy, transferability and accessibility as a learning tool in developing competency in digital creativity. It is suggested that machinima is ‘digital clay’ that has the potential to add value to practice-based learning in a connected world. The article concludes with a summary of the unique contributions that machinima gives the creative learning process.

Abstract: This article explores approaches to envisionment in the field of interaction design. Design fictions are introduced as a method to articulate future possibilities. Three case studies are described which explore interaction in public space. The fictions create imaginative projections with the intention of generating reaction and responses in the public that will lead to a greater understanding of the physical and conceptual design space. The first case study explored how citizens could anonymously comment on their relationship with a city. The second study encouraged participants to reflect on their habits and rituals and to view these through fresh eyes. The final case study sought to surprise and engage gallery visitors through an interactive piece that raised issues concerning the surreptitious capture of data. The paper concludes by reflecting on the utility of design fictions and the role they can play in concept envisionment.

Abstract: Research into human–computer interaction (HCI) has traditionally been concerned with users' abilities to complete tasks at desk-bound computers. However, recent research into Digital Live Art (Sheridan 2006) and audiences' engagement with interactive art focuses on ‘non task-based uses of computing’ (Sheridan, Bryan-Kinns, and Bayliss 2007, 13), such as the user experience. As computing becomes more mobile, wireless and tangible, there is a shift to understand the needs of ‘users as performers’ (ibid.). As a result, research has begun to draw on the methods and theories in the performing arts to better understand these needs. However, much of this research into interactive art focuses on playful or physical experiences of users, and fails to address work with social content and themes to be communicated. This is a critical analysis of Sheridan's framework for understanding performative behaviour with technologically mediated interactive art (Sheridan 2006; Sheridan, Bryan-Kinns, and Bayliss 2007)....

Abstract: This article addresses how the notion of the echo has worked as a design fiction concept in the crafting of the interactive installation, Ekkomaten. Ekkomaten is an affectively engaging listening machine that lets people probe the narrative potential of Store Torv, in Aarhus, Denmark. Through its physical manifestation and conceptual framing, Ekkomaten offers an auditory and situated experience of the 18th century through six site-specific echoes that engage its users as protagonists in the exploration of an imagined narrative space emerging from the intersection of fact and fiction and the infra- and extraordinary. As an electronic design object, Ekkomaten points both back and forward in time, questioning our current understanding of the 18th century, science fiction's previous visions of the future, and current ideas about possible post-digital futures.

Abstract: Digital technologies have added new kinds of spaces for collaboration and solo working which both support traditional creative behaviour and accommodate new kinds of practice in hybrid environments. This paper grounds such spaces in a discussion of transliteracy and considers the preferred creative environments of a group of transliterate writers.

Abstract: This article focuses on the experience of British artist Ernest Edmonds and the influences that have informed his art practice in the past forty years. How are these influences connected? The article has an historical focus. It develops the themes within Edmonds's art and shows his connections with the ‘Systems’ artists and their forebears. In particular, the article concentrates on the encounter of Edmonds with artistic thinking about systems and process in the broad sense, as well as digital and interactive work developed from the early 1980s. As the article will demonstrate, a passion for colour, time and structure, the encounter with a number of artists inspired by Constructivism in the early 1980s, and the educational context in which Edmonds has worked from the late 1960s until the present, have offered great opportunities of interdisciplinary exchanges and ideas that had a profound impact upon the nature of his art. These influences have enabled Edmonds to explore new constructs in art through the ...

Abstract: Sounding Underground is an online interactive sonic environment that links sound excerpts from the metros of London, Paris and Mexico City, as selected by commuters, as meaningful moments of sound from their commuting routine. Designed as a navigation structure, the environment draws on identifiable architectonic spaces such as entrances and corridors, but also incorporates more abstract ‘spaces’ based on memorable sounds that passengers had in common. The creation of the environment focused on the perception of social, political and symbolic experiences, and was derived from an iterative ethnographic and artistic practice which involved self-reflection, interviews, recordings of and listening to the journeys, and commuters' selections of sounds. This article describes the process of creation through the abstraction of a physical space, as well as the responses the work has evoked in the users and the academic community. It exemplifies the transdisciplinary nature of practice-based research involving the ...

Abstract: Why are digital tools not replacing traditional sketchbooks? Described here is a research-led teaching project to explore the fundamentals of sketchbook use. An analysis of real world sketchbooks, artists' statements and semi-structured interviews is presented that reveals the complex of interrelated activities that sketchbooks support. Csikszentmihalyi's creative systems model is used to frame this analysis, highlighting the role of sketchbooks as a support tool across the creative system. Initial prototypes of interface components for an iPad app are explored and discussed as part of a student project. Insights are provided into how to re-design digital sketchbooks in order to support activities across the creative system in a holistic way.

Abstract: This article covers the conception and development of Empedia, a new locative software environment for mobile phones specifically designed for expanded archives, documentary and heritage/historical interpretation, using situated and collaborative learning, at resonant and related sites. It will examine our developmental methods employed through a number of workshops for pilot projects, employed specifically to test the reception of rich media assets and augmented reality features in a simple open source user interface and authoring environment for iPhone and browser consumption. The research projects at the Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT) examined here include: a D. H. Lawrence Heritage Blue Line trail in Eastwood, Nottinghamshire (2009); Riverains, a dramatised history trail in Shoreditch, London (2010); and the use of collaborative documentary in Codes of Disobedience and Dysfunctionality in Athens (2011).

Abstract: This study employed a qualitative approach to obtaining an in-depth and holistic understanding of reminiscing in the elderly. Inviting elders as participants, this investigation aimed for full descriptions of individual cases, while also attempting to identify general trends and significant patterns among them. This empirical study comprises a two-year research project. The first year involves an exploratory study, including surveying the related literature and identifying key concepts. During the second year, this study designed a ‘Story Frame’, and conducted case studies and qualitative interviews.Story Frame is an artefact to record the vocalised responses of elderly subjects when viewing photos of the past. To better understand digital material regarding reminiscing in simple form, this study establishes conditions to identify families to participate in three studies using Story Frame. The results indicate that sharing the recorded audio-photos can trigger further conversations. By successfully cataly...

Abstract: This article explores the idea of Internet search as a technology to underpin artistic creation. Concepts of interactivity in art and music are explored, and then an overview of different types of Internet-based art is presented. A number of different ways in which Internet search have the potential to underpin artistic and musical activity are then discussed, with ideas such as the idea of a collective readymade and aesthetics of mass and unexpected connections are used to give this discussion a theoretical basis. Finally, a case study is given, in which the author discusses one of his own multimedia artworks that makes substantial use of Internet search.

Abstract: This contribution offers an evocative conceptual framework to inspire thinking about game design in an alternative way. If proceduralism focuses on crafting game systems, we advocate recovering the relevance of players' interactions by pulling digitally mediated games out from the screen into the physical world where gameplay and players can intersect and interact. We draw on certain performance strategies to illuminate some currently under-explored game design resources. We use several case studies that help us describe what we call ‘human-to-human interaction’ (H2HI) in game design in three different levels: first, having designers improvise according to players' actions real time; second, substituting computer game characters for human actors who perform according to players' suggestions; and third, looking outside the traditional computer game environment for a computer-mediated human playground. These cases help us raise some conjectures about the possibilities of recovering the physical and ...

Abstract: Interaction depends on some form of activity and it is important to realise that the procedural power is not limited to the computational side in this activity. It is shared between human and bit m...

Abstract: We observed that students are used to employ the graphical user interface (GUI) elements such as icons and texts in gestural interaction designs, depending on their prior experiences. However, prior knowledge of GUI design often leads the students to create cliche and impractical designs for gestural interaction. To solve the problem, our study aims to explore feedback as an alternative education method, enhanced by an exercise we call ‘gestural shadow mapping’, which is based on the art of mime, within the concept of creative drama. Using a basic setup for shadow representation, a group of design students practised expressing prepared visual compositions as gestural shadow maps for an audience of their peers. After several observations, feedback showed that the method based on gestural shadow mapping does afford students a better understanding of gestural interaction, free from the inhibitions of their prior experiences of GUIs and the limitations of current commercial examples.

Abstract: This short feature documents elements of research in advance of a long-term work Rather than a technical account or retrospective, the aim is to demonstrate by example how research itself is a primary process, illustrated by work carried out at the Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT) during the last few years When creative output is appraised only from its visible results, something is lost in the telling; carefully selected public facets rarely convey the depths of the underlying lines of inquiry The research covered is for a work that generates quantitative data, driving visualisations of human movement, proximity and orientation The aim is to reveal how these literal data reflect our relationships to one another in social settings To contextualise the current process, complex systems, dynamic pattern formation and other works are also mentioned As a personal account, it seemed appropriate to supplement the usual academic passive voice with first-person narrative

Abstract: The Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT) at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, was founded in 2006 with a £1.3 million award from the Higher Education Funding Council for England under its...

Abstract: This short feature describes a project to create an online opera which deploys a new web technology, the Syzygy Surfer, developed in the Institute of Creative Technologies (IOCT) at De Montfort University. The project is a collaboration between the IOCT and The Opera Group.

Abstract: Avatar gender is a basic element of an MMORPG user's identity. Gender customisation in a virtual space is an expansion of identity, an attempt to express oneself in more diverse ways. A survey showed that numerous users manage gender-swapped avatars, and men in particular prefer using female avatars. This study analysed user attitudes toward gender using a Q methodology. In the process, it confirmed the generalisations and motivating factors of gender swapping. The advanced graphic technology and high degree of freedom available in recent MMORPGs has led to an increased demand for avatar physical qualities, and the motives that underlie gender selection have become more diverse and complex. In particular, the notion of experimental and playful creation through customisation has been illuminated and treated as the core consideration of game design.

Abstract: This contribution identifies theories and practices specific to performance art for the purpose of describing a potentially fruitful area of exchange between non-representational performance and human-computer interaction (HCI). We identify three strands of current HCI research that are already working in this area of overlap, which we have termed 'performative experience design'. We then single out one of these strands, digitally augmented autobiographical performance, for further examination. Digitally augmented autobiographical performance draws on both autobiographical performance, which we see as rooted in performance and performance art, and media sharing, a field of research within HCI. Drawing on our experiences of designing a digital system for autobiographical performance, we offer a series of proposals for HCI research and applications of performative experience design. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.

Abstract: This contribution interrogates the sites in which performance capture simultaneously fetishizes and hides the performer's flesh-and-blood body, asking how technologies preoccupied with ‘realism’ inscribe race in a moment obsessed with the myth of post-raciality. The link between the tradition of minstrelsy and the multicultural celebration of difference as additive, rather than embodied, exposes how whiteness must animate itself against a fictitious ‘Other’ imagined as embodying culture. At the same time, discourses of colorblindness assume that race no longer constitutes a significant category of analysis—a move that negates the daily lived realities and material manifestations of power operating on bodies in order to foreclose conversations about ongoing racial injustice. Our term ‘additive race’ draws out how performance practices, particularly in a digital context, participate in post-racial ideologies of a world in which the goals of the civil rights movement have supposedly been realized by ...

Abstract: This article investigates how transdisciplinary approaches to curriculum design on a taught masters programme in creative technologies enhance digital creativity in students. Drawing on the experience of developing and running the Masters in Creative Technologies (MA/MSc) at the Institute of Creative Technologies at De Montfort University, Leicester, we explore a number of areas relating to transdisciplinary teaching and learning in higher education, including: how digital technologies enable students to work in a transdisciplinary manner; how working creatively with technology enables transdisciplinary modes of working; and the ways in which transdisciplinarity, enabled by digital technologies, has affected the creative practice of learners. The article discusses how the programme has developed a climate for creativity, and outlines how the knowledge and skills gained during a creative technologies-related transdisciplinary programme meet the needs of a changing workplace.