Object Mediated Interactions

Tutors: Claudia Dutson & Manja van de Worp

Object Mediated Interactions explores the hidden lives of objects. While often meaning the digital lives of physical objects (certainly students come to OMI to develop their practice in physical computing and digital interaction design) OMI is also concerned with the life of inert, analogue objects. Objects that don’t appear to have much going on - but occupy a rich contextual, social, symbolic, aesthetic and psychological territory in popular culture, politics, and the environment. OMI investigates the flows in which objects are produced, sold, advertised, experienced, used and misused.

OMI in 2020/21 has responded to contemporary conditions that have been intensified during the Covid-19 pandemic: Work and home life collapsing, the clumsiness of in-person communication, absence of co-workers, imperatives to sit at your computer all day, the enjoyment of a solo dining experience, reclaiming a utopian polis, empathy with other confined animals, everyday life, working conditions, and joyful experiences using a range of methods: sound design, AR, physical computing, speculative design, inflatables, foley performance, jewellery, footwear and furniture.

Platform Themes: Work – Leisure – Distraction – Productivity – Playfulness – Rest – Confinement – Urban Space – Miscommunication – ASMR – Privacy – Surveillance – Gender – Bad Habits

Thank you to Guest Tutors: Ronnie Deelen, Sitraka Rakotoniaina, Clara Gaggero Westaway, Chris Lefteri, John Nussey, Gian Luca Amadei, Susanna Garcia, Borja Alexandre, Khashayar Naimanan, Adrian Westaway, Milo Mcloughlin-Greening, Robert Jack