23.07.2019

In a world run by big data our subjective experiences often go unnoticed or unappreciated - by ourselves first and foremost. We wanted to look into the possibilities of embodying the intangible - to peek under the straightforward quantifiable actions and expressions into the murky waters of emotions and bodily reactions. How do we as designers account for the unaccountable - the sensory perceptions, the way our brains and our minds respond to them and adapt to the challenging and unpredictable situations? We chose the media of non-competitive games and brain-computer interfaces to make the attempt to come to terms with these complexities and challenge the existing design methodologies.

Workshop notes

brain produces bits of electric current
Electroencephalography (EEG)
BCI = Brain Computer Interface

Bandwidths/ranges
Gamma: problem solving, concentration
Beta: busy, active mind
Alpha: reflective, restful
Theta: drowsiness
Delta: sleep, dreaming

Attention = beta and gamma cumulative
Meditation = activity in alpha range

Non-competitive gaming
Game?
1. performance of an activity to your best ability
2. there’s a set of rules that everyone knows and agrees to follow

New Games Movement 
in US in the 70s and 80s, “Slaughter” 
https://killscreen.com/articles/inside-failed-utopian-new-games-movement/ 

Parlour games
gaming and gamification used to generated art and creativity (Surrealists, Dadaists)

Chindogu
Making completely useless items
https://www.chindogu.com/?page_id=336

CODING NOTES
Use Lerp to make smoother values (mindset only captures one reading per second, so will be jittery)

Put MindsetProcessing library folder into the > libraries folder of > Processing on the computer 

We invited the participants to challenge their assumptions, re-examine their approaches and to attempt to take a different look at how they - their mind sand bodies - respond to new challenges. We hoped that as a result they would come away with a new understanding of themselves and their design practice.