Jennifer G. Sheridan PhD
Sept 08
(re)Actor3: The Third International Conference on Digital Live Art was a "triumph" - click here for more info. My company BigDog Interactive Ltd., is now open for business in London, UK - drop us an email if you want to find out more. I've recently finished building the interactive tabletop for the 'Designing Tangibles for Learning' project at the London Knowledge Lab in Bloomsbury, London. Read more about this project on my projects page and read publications on our findings. Next step, embedded computing and pilot studies - more info soon-ish.
About Me
People call me Jenn and describe me as an Interaction Designer/Developer with expertise in HCI. My interest is in the intersection of Computing, Human-Computer Interaction and Live Art - or what I call Digital Live Art. I direct, design and produce interactive installations and performance events using sensors and mobile and embedded physical computing technologies to mediate ‘wittingness.’ Mediating wittingness allows people to step in or out of a live performance based on their knowledge or awareness of the performance frame. You can read more about this in the various publications available on my publications page. My PhD thesis "Digital Live Art: Mediating Wittingness in Playful Arenas" (2006) introduced the concepts of "wittingness", "tripartite interaction" (interaction between bystanders, participants and performers) and "Digital Live Art". During my thesis, I designed, developed and performed several Digital Live Art pieces including iPoi.
Current Research Interests
I have explored many areas of Human-Computer Interaction, including wearable computing, decision-support systems, tangible interaction, exertion interfaces, interaction with large-screen displays and camera phone interaction. I produce Digital Live Art which explores these areas and you'll find a list of projects on my project page.
Sciency Stuff
I've recently finished building an interactive table based on reacTIVision software and Infrared technology at the London Knowledge Lab. The table is now being evaluated by lots of excited school children and results will be published shortly. I'm also piloting acceleration projects based on my previous and PhD research which explored wireless acceleration and accelerometers (see publications and iPoi/uPoi project page for wireless music festival performances, Analysis of Algorithms and the Hoverflies project page). Dr. Nick Bryan-Kinns from Queen Mary, University of London has become a key developer and we work closely on many acceleration projects. Also, I recently co-developed the first 3D interactive soundscape with Nick and Martyn Ware of the Illustrious Company for "Hoverflies" which was part of the Design for the 21st Century: Emergent Objects project at the University of Leeds.
Bringing It All Together
One of the most important and rewarding research outputs is my involvement in the (re)Actor conference series. (re)Actor is an international conference on Digital Live Art which I began in 2006 after writing a workshop paper for HCI 2006 based on my PhD research. Now in its third year, the conference is quickly becoming a recognised forum for exploring live art, performance and playful arenas.
Acknowledgements
My thesis was supervised by Professor Alan Dix, Dr. Gerd Kortuem and Dr. Jen Allanson, and was partially funded the EPSRC Equator Initiative. The local (Lancaster) Equator pages say some nice things about me here or read more about the Equator initiative led by Tom Rodden, here.
I also have to thank Professor Ian Sommerville for encouraging me to work under the supervision of Jen Allanson.
