Play and bodystorming
Before place-storming, there was bodystorming. Developed by Proboscis, one of my dissertation case studies, bodystorming experiences are one of the ways these UK researchers and designers “challenge notions of interactivity” by bringing the physical and material to bear on the creation of the digital and virtual:
“We use bodystorming within our project teams to act out issues, techniques, interfaces and designs. Bodystorming manifests ideas into objects and situations to reveal the kinds of relationships that occur through social and cultural interactions between people.
Unlike brainstorming, bodystorming is the transformation of abstract ideas and concepts into physical experiences. Fun and tactile, this approach allows us to investigate different qualities that an idea may have when applied in a physical setting. It enables rapid iteration and development of ideas and relationships through a dynamic, continuous and creative process of trial and error.
We also develop playful bodystorming experiences for demonstrating and researching ideas and situations with groups of people. Like a game it reveals the tensions and pleasures of limits and rules. Using props and take-home materials generated by the participants, everyone shares ownership of their experience.
Bodystorming experiences create a collaborative framework for testing assumptions about ideas, relationships and technologies. These experiences are a way to learn more about how people interact with ideas and situations on physical, emotional, intuitive and intellectual levels. More than just a research tool, each bodystorming experience is an exciting and enabling event in itself.”
You can learn more about bodystorming and other ways of stimulating creativity and innovation in the Proboscis DIFFUSION eBooks.
Update: I just learned from the Urban Tapestries blog that HP Labs (another of my case studies - I really must pay better attention!) also developed their own version of bodystorming, called Model-storming. I have to admit that this particularly appeals to me because since childhood I have dreamed of being small enough to play inside architectural models. In the past year alone I was quite overcome by the urge to crawl inside a model of Price’s Fun Palace at the CCA and all of the Archigram models at the Design Museum…
And since we’re tracing out the genealogy, Proboscis’ bodystorming experiences are inspired by IDEO’s bodystorming methods - based on brainstorming, this involves using physical experience as input to the design process. (On a somewhat related note, I recently ordered a new book from IDEO, Extra-Spatial: Technology, People and Spaces. But more on that later.)
See also: Understanding contexts by being there: case studies in bodystorming by Antti Oulasvirta, Esko Kurvinen and Tomi Kankainen