Lecturers:

Dr. Joëlle Bitton

Johannes Reck

TA: Luca Somm

Office hours by appointment

The course runs from 26.10.26 – 27.11.26, from 9.00 – 17.00. See the Timetable 2026 below for more detailed hours.

The theory class ‘Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This’ runs in parallel and will provide theoretical framework to some of the questions that will emerge.

Overview and Objectives

Our body is our interface with others: humans, non-humans, nature, infrastructure, machines.... We interact with the world through our senses, our mind, our limbs, our movements, our emotions.... We constantly leave traces, visible or invisible, conscious or unconscious... In turn, the world around us impacts our selves, shapes our perceptions; technology transforms our physicality, provides body extensions; materials mediate our experiences, etc. Measures of data can reveal the wide spectrum of movements and presence, capturing forms of attention to ourselves and our environment.

And yet, the body is not often addressed as a primary factor in designing interactive experiences, either own own or that of the others. This course proposes in turn to put the physical body and sensory aspects at the center of our ideation, and this year we interact with an external body: the robot arm.

The arm is our shared collaborator. In this course, we want to avoid looking at the robot arm with an anthropomorphism lens, or looking at the robot arm as a stand-in for a human hand, or as a tool that simply executes commands. We attempt to look at it as a singularity. It’s limited by internal factors (reach, speed, force, protective stops, toolings) but in a way they provide its agency.

Could we design an experience where the arm and people interact, that reveals something about movement, touch, presence, material, phenomena? Could the arm capture, translate, or alter the physical traces of those interactions? Do we design a fabrication experience?

In order to create this experience, we combine sensors, data, materials, fabrication processes and movements to ground the story we tell. Indeed, we now have access to the convergence of bits & atoms: digital fabrication, data-tracking, sensors, physical computing, generative design, AI-driven outputs, ML tools, biodesign, material affordances...we can investigate the ways that we shape our environments. This is how we describe Embodied Fabrication.

These tools are not neutral. Using materials and data bring forth questions of resource scarcity, human labour, environmental impact, and the societal narratives we construct through design. Moreover the robot arm at different scales participate to mining and extraction industries. We expect that you address these elements in your work.

By group work (2-4 students max), you'll propose singular interactive experiences with attention to the narratives your design choices create.

Course structure

The course is divided into 5 weeks:

• Week 1: Embodiment & Data. Meeting the Robot Arm. Topic, context and possibilities. Technical intros.
• Week 2: Sensing & Material Experimentations with the Arm.
• Week 3: Fabrication, choice of material, advancing prototypes, validity of core design choices.
• Week 4: Final Production.
• Week 5: Finalising details, Exhibition & Documentation.

Guiding questions

• Define your own meaning of an interaction that is ‘embodied’.
• What does the robot arm behavior inspire you, how do you capture its singularity?
• How does data ground your narrative and how do you map it into a meaningful interaction (e.g., using metaphor, source, narrative, or situational relevance)?
• How do materials help express that interaction or how do they keep trace of the arm’s behavior?
• What meanings, narratives, or mental shifts does your experience aim to create with your participants, and how do you involve your audience? What is the fabrication you are designing?
• What are the material and environmental costs of your choices?

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Expectations and Grading

Grades will be based on group presentations and exercises, class participation, documentation (journal) and final work.

Contributing to constructive group feedback is an essential aspect of class participation.

Attendance to inputs is required. Attendance to final presentation is required. Two or more unexcused absences will affect the final grade. Arriving late on more than one occasion will also affect the grade.

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Deliverables

Collection Exercise I: Analogue Data Collection

Individually, walk around town or choose specific locations over several hours (not just while commuting), and collect the gestures you see, the mechanisms that reach, hold, press, repeat, lift, point, wait, or apply a steady force – whether human, animal or machine.

• Sketch, note, track quantity, assign quality, create cartography.
• Represent/map that data in any format you like.
• Presentation max 2 minutes the next day.
• Individual work.

Collection Exercise II: Material Collection, Demo & Miro board info

In advance, select a material or material-specific craft you want to experiment with: biomaterials, minerals, off-the-shelf, chemicals, liquids, growing, reactive, decaying, static, states, duration, texture, smell, taste, touch, techniques, processes etc.

Add info on your blog about the material you have chosen:

• Where the material comes from, how it has been extracted, lifecycle, trade, environmental impact, human labour, affordances, etc.
• List characteristics, qualities & behaviours, processes and determine which interface, interactive, collective and sensory experience could be derived from its properties.

Bring them for a collective experimental morning. Create a showcase for the chosen material / craft – you will propose a rapid ‘prototyping’ exercise for the class to join in.

In-class Exercises, Reflections & Weekly progress reviews

In-class exercises/tutorials, reflections, performances-analysis & weekly progress reviews (bring iterated prototype/sketches/experiments for each mentoring).

Mid-Class Delivery

Mid-Class Delivery (13.11): on blog, recap concept.

Recap post: Overall Concept, Main directions, Tech & Material inquiries, and Prototype.

Final Project: Fabrication Experience

Final version of your work iterated on for several weeks: an interactive experience aimed at all participants and showcasing in a situation how the experience influences movement & transforms interaction with oneself, others, environment, etc.

In groups of 2–4 students.

Final Exhibition / Experience

Students present with their group an experiment for the collective, together with prototypes and an oral presentation.

Documentation

A ‘Journal’ is developed by each group of students that reflects on experiments and learnings from the course. It should be in the form of an online blog (i.e. WordPress, Tumblr or other):

• The journal should be structured in a generally comprehensible manner.
• The lecture notes, including annotations, are stored.
• Notes, sketches for each lesson should be included as well.

Final Documentation per usual guidelines: title, authors, abstract, hi-res pics, PDF with commentary text, video documentation (see Wiki).

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Student Teams & Journals

• Group 1:
• Group 2:
• Group 3:
• Group 4:

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Readings

• Embodied Interaction: Exploring the Foundations of a New Approach to HCI
• ACADIA papers
• Creating physical visualizations with MakerVis
• Supporting the design and fabrication of physical visualizations
• Algorithmic Modelling (Pablo Herrera)

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Related Projects (small selection)

Visualisation

• Magnetic Movie
• Technorama Building (analog wind visualization)
• Experimental study of apparent behavior
• Study for Fifteen Points
• Parametric design and Digital Fabrication for Inflatables

Fashion context

• https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/336573772141747181/
• Behnaz Farahi – Bodyscape
• https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/564779609510964664/
• https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/563794447076862696/
• IAAC – Miura-ori skin
• https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/288511919858286303/
• MIT Media Lab – Rottlace

Data

• The Follower – Dries Depoorter (revealing hidden information)
• 1 Pixel Wealth (data experienceable)

Timetable 2026

Lecturers: {jb} = Joëlle Bitton, {jr} = Johannes Reck.

Week 1 – Embodiment & Data & Robot

Week 2 – Sensing & Material Experimentation

Week 3 – Fabrication

Week 4 – Production

Week 5 – Exhibition