MVMT___INTFC is a collection of studies conducted in the space between movement and digital interfaces. The project began with questioning the lack of bodily awareness in relation to technology. Designers are often programmed to conform to the computer for sake of efficiency and predictability. This performed interaction notably constricts physical movement and spatial awareness, contrary to the inherent agency in bodies. The project uses this oft-unquestioned setting as a site for action. The proposed embodied design process begins with intentional movement — the body intervenes to create, disrupt, and manipulate digital design elements.

I include my own body as a visible source of movement for consistency across experiments. At surface level, this decision may seem too self-absorbed, but in dance, the body is considered a vessel for outward expression, de-centering the self. I also feel it’s an intentional commentary and play on the human-centric algorithms that favor faces and bodies over other visuals. My background in dance led me to find inspiration in designers Luna Maurer and Crystal Zapata who work in the intersection of design and dance as a method. I define movement as an abstract and artistic practice, importantly drawing on influential post-modern dance positions of Yvonne Rainer, Lucinda Childs, and Merce Cunningham. These positions brought the everyday to choreography and connected dance with software technologies.

Movement data forms the skeleton for these design explorations. A central consideration of the project is the tension between a unique, expressive body and its reduction to data points and linear categories. The experiments build on artist-designers Myron Krueger, Zach Lieberman, and Nahuel Gerth’s works at the intersection of embodied interaction, code, design, and movement. I attempt to answer the following question: How does the space between movement and interface create, influence and extend graphic language? The studies are grouped into three graphic categories — line, grid, and type. The grayscale limitation lends attention to form, allowing comparable results and echoing variation-form Basel pedagogical influence. A continuously evolving collection of resources for this project can be found on [are.na].