Karmen Franinovic.
Director, Zero-Th Association
Croatia/Canada, Responsive Architecture and Interaction Design
Behavioural and Enactive Interaction
About the Research
Behavioural Interaction Design : Embedding human-adaptive behaviour
in interactive spaces and artefacts This research envisions a built
environment which is responsive and alive, and which can offer to
its inhabitants more than the material structure of which it is composed.
It attempts to bring together a range of recent work on embodiment
and behaviour in cognitive neuroscience and AI, as well as visions
from architecture, design, literature, and the arts - to realize the
design of human-adaptive artefacts and spaces which are brought alive
by means of behavioural interactions. By providing historical and
conceptual context for human-adaptive artefacts and spaces embodying
behaviour, and by realizing an array of practical experiments with
the latter, this research intends to create the fundamental knowledge
needed to realize human-centred interactions which are mediated by
artefacts and spaces that can embody and respond to moods, needs,
emotions, actions and desires of the people and communities that host
them. Far from the mimicking of biological organisms, as is frequently
the aim in robotics, the intention is to utilize behavioural qualities
to develop complex, dynamic, and intuitive works that respond to our
intentions and desires as much as living beings do. At the heart of
this project is the study of embodied behavioural models that may
be capable of adapting to changing context in constructive and meaningful
ways, facilitating natural interaction between people and their environment.
This doctoral research considers that "the human organism is
linked with an external entity in a two-way interaction, creating
a coupled system that can be seen as a cognitive system in its own
right." (Clark and Chalmers, "The Extended Mind", 1998).
Might behavioural design be the ideal medium for carrying forward
the extension of the embodied mind through augmented interaction?
About the Researcher
Karmen is the director of Zero-Th, an independent research organization developing concepts and projects which explore and influence the evolution of the multidimensional urban fabric, together with the presence and condition of its inhabitants. By introducing interactive technologies into physical architecture and immaterial space, she seeks in her work to stimulate social and bodily movements, and to raise awareness of interaction with/in the urban surroundings and its diverse ecologies.
In addition to urban explorations, Karmen's research is increasingly focused on tangible interaction and sound feedback embedded in artefacts and spaces. She leads interaction design research for an European Commission project called CLOSED (Closing the Loop Of Sound Evaluation and Design) at Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst in Zürich (HGKZ). The project, developed together with Yon Visell and colleagues at Ircam, TU-Berlin and Uni-Verona, researches new approaches to interactive sound design that are robustly adapted to human perception and cognition.
Karmen received the Laurea degree with Honours from Istituto Universitario di Archittetura di Venezia, and Master's degree from the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea. She worked as an architect on large public buildings with AltenArchitekten, Studio ArchA, Arata Isozaki and Associates, and Arup. She has taught at Concordia University in Montreal and at HGKZ. Her projects have been presented / commissioned by at Ircam/Centre Pompidou (Paris), SF Camerawork (San Francisco), Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Torino), Bienal Miami + Beach, Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, Far Eastern Memorial Foundation (Taipei), The Junction (Cambridge) and others.
In cooperation with
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