The aesthetics of heat : Guiding awareness with thermal stimuli

• In this paper we discuss the design process and results from a design exploration on the use of thermal stimuli in body awareness exercises. A user-study was performed on an interactive prototype in the form of an interactive heat mat. The paper brings forth an alternative understanding of heat as a design material that extends the common understanding of thermal stimuli in HCI as a communication modality to instead bring the aesthetic and experiential properties to the fore. Findings account for felt body experiences of thermal stimuli and a number of design qualities related to heat as a design material are formulated, pointing to experiential qualities concerning the felt body, subjectivity and subtleness as well as material qualities concerning materiality, inertia and heat transfer.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Annan teknik -- Interaktionsteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Other Engineering and Technologies -- Interaction Technologies (hsv//eng)

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik -- Annan elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering -- Other Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Data- och informationsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Computer and Information Sciences (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Aestehtics

Body awareness

Heat

Somaesthetics

Thermal stimuli

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)