Biosensing and Networked Performance

Symposium:


Title:
  • Biosensing and Networked Performance

Organiser/Presenter(s):


Statement:

  • Workshop Statement

    In this two-day workshop (4 hours each day) participants will build and calibrate their own iPhone or Android Phone compatible/connectable Galvanic Skin Response Sensors (GSR) to record subtle changes in their emotional arousal. This very personal sensor data will then be shared online. Participants will also collaborate to develop a networked performance intervention to take place at ISEA2011 that engages with the social benefits and ethical implications of disclosing such personal information as arousal levels within the public realm. Participants will learn to solder and connect their own GSR sensors, connect them to their iPhones and Android Phones and share their sensor data online. There will be a discussion of the implications of this technology and the increasing issues of privacy as pervasive computing technology is increasingly able to record and reveal personal details. Finally participants will work with the workshop leaders to improvise, plan and rehearse an intervention performance work that will be performed at the end of the second day. This performance may be very subtle and not immediately obvious to any audience members that may be around, again playing with ideas of what we do and do not reveal to those around us. The workshop builds on artistic research undertaken by Anna Dumitriu and Tom Keene as part of the University of Sussex Project “Supporting Shy Users in Pervasive Computing” an EPSRC funded project bringing together Informatics, Sociology, Human-Computer Interaction and Art. Participants should supply their own iPhones or Android Phones.
    Questions:

    1. What are the future possibilities and implications of ubiquitous bio-sensor data sharing?
      What ethical issues need to be considered?
    2. How do these technologies impact users on a personal level? This includes the impact on “shy users”.
    3. What are the technical difficulties of implementing the automated sharing of emotions via ubiquitous technologies?

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