Tuesday 9th July 2002 at Edinburgh College of Art

Haptics have become essential to the overall direction of developments in digital media. This is fundamentally a matter of embodiment. As mobile and embedded systems proliferate, as interfaces move beyond the screen to include ambient as well as haptic components, and as engagement with context increasingly informs the psychology of interface design, we are witnessing a paradigm shift. Instead of immersion, the property we seek is embodiment. Aspects of environmental perception, persistent structures, and situational types become more central to interaction design. Like the haptic sensibilities already being applied in digital craft, this contextual orientation involves tacit knowledge and latent abilities, the exercise of which will make for more pleasant, less obtrusive technologies. Situational types provide one way to articulate and perhaps to tap such knowledge. Interaction design thus involves place response, and in doing so may help us maintain and at times enhance the kinds of human and cultural capital whose chief repositories are the built environment. Contextual design this extends beyond the task and the workflow. Ultimately, it becomes more a part of architecture, and architecture becomes values less for visual iconography and more for all about it that is haptic

Malcolm McCullough explores digital media in the physical environment. From a background in design software (at early Autodesk), and architectural education (for many years at Harvard), he has crossed into the emergent field of human-computer interaction. His 1996 book, 'Abstracting Craft' became a literary pick among digital designers. As of 2001, McCullough has joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, where he is at work on a book about architectural contexts of interactivity.