‘I am part of the networks and the networks are part of me…I link, therefore I am.’1.[i] In today’s networked society, our ‘electronicaly and digitally enhanced bodies’ are often present at one location and ‘meet’ simultaneously with others at several other locations, temporalities and social settings. This project contributes to the foundations of the design of trust, from the perspective of experience, both in private and public spaces, physical and virtual. ‘Tele_Trust’ focuses on exploration of the sensory experience of visibility, presence, reciprocity, and trust in contemporary mediated society. The implications for design of embodiment in participatory systems is core to this project. The research questions address (1) design for perception and experience of trust, (2) design of the experience of physical closeness in mediated realities , (3) design of situational awareness in public and private spaces. Research through art practice includes the design of a series of experimental ‘social labs’ as ‘meeting places’. These ‘social labs’ are designed on the basis of artistic and scientific analysis, created as artistic work, and presented in smart public spaces in different geo-political contexts and socio- cultural domains. The public will be invited to participate and reflect as co-researchers on their experience of important concepts related to embodiment and trust (e.g. ’presence’, ‘identity’, and ‘community’). The methodology of reflective witnessing will provide a source of information for analysis, synthesis and understanding of embodiment and intersubjective engagement in participatory networked systems.
In ‘Tele_Trust’ new insights, innovative technologies, and the human body meet to initiate and inspire new types of intersubjective engagement.
[i] William J. Mitchell, ME++: The Cyborg Self and the Networked City, 2004.
