Provocative Awareness

TL;DR: In this paper, a number of systems have been designed that connect remote lovers, or strangers in an urban setting, and explore new sensory and interaction possibilities, use ambiguity to increase engagement, and address a wider range of emotional relationships than do most workplace awareness systems.

Abstract: Recently a number of systems have been designed that connect remote lovers, or strangers in an urban setting. The forms these systems take and the functions they serve may be unfamiliar, but they can be seen as extensions of awareness technologies to new domains. Awareness technologies have often been specialised to give information for particular work activities or relationships. Given that relationships in the home or in local communities tend to be different from those of the workplace, it is appropriate that both the form and content of information conveyed to increase awareness should be different as well. The systems described here, for instance, explore new sensory and interaction possibilities, use ambiguity to increase engagement, and address a wider range of emotional relationships than do most workplace awareness systems. They point to ways of extending notions of peripheral awareness to new domains on the one hand, and possibilities for new forms of workplace awareness on the other.