Artistic and creative practice is an important driver for cultural and commercial innovation, and this project aims to specifically investigate such practices with and around novel interactive materials. The project scope spans from popular culture and folk art, to how crafted interactivity takes form in public exhibitions and on the contemporary art scene. Specific focus will be on aesthetic craftsmanship with cutting edge technology.

Explorative work combining traditional crafts and new interactive technology. Examples include leather, silver, wood, textile. In this strand of work we collaborate with experienced craftspeople in these domains to further explore future potential interactions and design challenges. Within this theme we have several ongoing explorations, e.g. the small project "Precious Materials of Interaction".

Interactivity in contemporary art. This theme represents in depth studies of selected contemporary artworks produced within and outside of academic research. This follows up on recent past studies conducted at the centre, including an interview study with 25 exhibiting ArtBot artists (Jacobsson et al 2013), Vegas Simbelis Metaphone project (Simbelis et al 2014), and an in depth analysis of other sophisticated interactive artworks.

Contacts: Ylva Ferneaus, fernaeus@kth.se, Vasiliki Tsaknaki, tsaknaki@kth.se