The Emergent Objects: designing the technological interface through performance research project draws on performance knowledge to explore and articulate the emergent nature of the interface between technological object and human that is fundamental to the development of new design thinking and practices. The project uses performance perspectives to investigate the modelling of a role of design in a technological society and asks questions about the desirable relationships between users and designed artefacts, systems or environments.

Emergent Objects is a portfolio project which adopts an interdisciplinary standpoint to promote new ways of thinking about design and designing from a performance perspective. Cross-sector and interdisciplinary, it involves artists, designers, choreographers, performance academics, computer specialists and roboticists from the academy and the professional sphere.

Emergent objects: designing the human/technology interface through performance is part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) programme Designing for the 21st century and runs from January 2007 – January 2008