Curious Rituals

Translation of research insights and ethnographic observation into a guide book of interaction modalities and human-centricity

Client: Art Center College of DesignNear Future Laboratory

Team: Art Center College of Design, Near Future Laboratory

Client URL: https://www.artcenter.edu/academics/graduate-degrees/media-design-practices/overview.html

Project Summary: This research project is about gestures, postures and digital rituals that typically emerged with the use of digital technologies (computers, mobile phones, sensors, robots, etc.). Gestures such as recalibrating your smartphone doing an horizontal 8 sign with your hand, the swiping of wallet with RFID cards in public transports, etc. These practices can be seen as the results of a co-construction between technical/physical constraints, contextual variables, designers intents and people’s understanding. We can see them as an intriguing focus of interest to envision the future of material culture.

Project Type(s): BOOK, RESEARCH, VIDEO, FILM, DESIGN FICTION

Project Archetype(s):

Project Year: 2012

Project Duration: 6 Weeks

Document Published On: Apr 13, 2024, 12:55:05 PDT

Document Updated On: Apr 14, 2024, 21:53:37 PDT

Document Written By: Julian Bleecker

The Ask

Curious Rituals is a research project conducted at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena) in July-August 2012 by Nicolas Nova (The Near Future Laboratory / HEAD-Genève), Katherine Miyake, Nancy Kwon and Walton Chiu from the media design program.

The curious habits described in this book can be seen as ingredients with which technological objects are domesticated by people, integrated into their own daily routines. Fixing strategies, nervous tics, device juggling or courtesy postures, to name just a few, are not only peculiar interaction habits, they reveal how people normalize so-called “futuristic technologies” or what seemed magical and complex at first. They highlight the ingenuity users employ to repurpose and adapt digital technologies to their own context. One should see these insights as constant design patterns in the evolution of technological products and services.

This book was produced as part of a research residency in the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

The Outcomes

This was a successful translation of ethnographic and observational research into engaging, tangible forms, giving a sense of the new kinds of curious, strange, peculiar interaction rituals that have been discovered and adopted over time, many of which are related directly to the introduction of new technologies, interfaces, and devices.

A page from the Curious Rituals Book — Curious Rituals Research Materials

The aim of the project is to envision the future of gestures and rituals based on:

A documentation of current digital gestures The making of design fiction films that speculate about their evolution For more information, please contact nicolas (at) nearfuturelaboratory (dot) com

“Curious Rituals” was produced as part of a research residency in the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

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