Therapeutic E-textiles

The Slenduro is made entirely from wool yarn by knitting and crocheting. The electronics and an aluminium frame for the top is hidden inside the fabrics. The piece was made for the course "E-textile and musical interaction", a collaboration between the Oslo School of Architecture & Design (AHO) and the National Academy of the Arts (KHiO).

Our goal with Slenduro was to create a relaxing interactive installation. We took inspiration from wind chimes, falling snow and used the tones from the Indonesian instrument Gamelan. The Interaction is that you gently hit the snowballs and that will cause the gyro sensor to play of random tones and the Slenduro will light up in different places. If you hit it a bit harder it will play a 3 tone melody and more lights will glow. In a dim enviroment the Slenduro has quite a magical effect to it.

The name Slenduro is a combination of two words; "Slendro" is a tonal scale for the gamelan instrument, and "Uro" is the norewgian word for wind chime.

from here

Considering cultural probes

…it was through games, play, techniques of surprise and methodologies of the
fantastic that [the Surrealists] subverted academic modes of enquiry, and
undermined the complacent certainties of the reasonable and respectable.
- Mel Gooding  
                                                                                                                                      
  I'm looking at the idea of cultural probes  as a starting point for this research- take  a probe of the lived experience of a children's ward first then go from there..rather than saying
" here is my design I giveth unto you..."     

reading  paper Cultural Probes and the Value of Uncertainty
William W. Gaver, Andrew Boucher, Sarah Pennington and Brendan Walker
Interaction Design, Royal College of Art  2004                                                                                                                                                                 Gaver, W., Boucher, A., Pennington, S., and Walker, B. (2004). Cultural Probes and the value of uncertainty.  Interactions, VolumeXI.5, pp.53-56.                                                                                                     
Gaver, W.W., Dunne, A., & Pacenti, E. (1999). Cultural Probes. Interactions
vi(1), 21–29.                                                                                                                                                 
look for these papers too..
                                                                                                                             
Gaver, W.H., Hooker, B. and Dunne, A. (1999b) The Presence Project, London: Department of Interaction Design (ISBN 1-874175-32-2).

Gaver, W. (2001) “Designing for ludic aspects of everyday
life”, ERCIM News, No.47.
www.ercim.org/publication/Ercim_News/enw47/gaver.html

Gaver, W. (2002) Domestic Probes,
www.crd.rca.ac.uk/equator/PROBE.htm   
  
Designing probes for empathy with familiesW Horst, T Bunt, S Wensveen

Using cultural probes to design services also this

Research Title
Practice based investigation into the relationship between dynamic environments and  (patients and families experience of ) children's healthcare context.
Aims
This project will explore the affect of cooperatively altering a (healthcare) environment through the use of interactive situated technologies. Can the ability of children and their families to interact with healthcare environments in a playful and connected manner contribute to affecting anxiety and the quality of their healthcare experience?
This research will explore how people relate to each other and their spaces within a children's healthcare context.
Question
Can dynamic environments within a children's healthcare context affect children and their famalies experience of the health care environment?

considering 'meta'question after notes from Max..

investigating dynamic environments and how mobile devices could create new experiences on dynamic screens (through the use of situated technology) (balloons etc.), transformational creativity could be a more emphasised concept.

The concept of connectedness and sociability and how a distinction in participation and co-creation is established

kids in trees

Scarlett (and friend Ella) is spending the afternoon in the oak tree,making a hut with a flying fox delivery service..problem solving and iteration abounds...
and creating a lived in ecology..considering the birds,cats etc..interesting stuff from two 10 yr olds.

Fred's robots

iPhones in the OR

from Seattle Children's - 2008