Project Structure
The Emergent Objects project comprises three sub-projects which address notions of emergence and interface in separate but interpenetrative ways and which are clustered under one meta-level project which investigates and articulates overarching questions of the performance/design interface. Each sub-project involves a cross-sector, interdisciplinary team drawn from artists, designers, choreographers, performance academics, computer specialists and roboticists from the academy and the professional sphere. And each investigates the interface between human and technological object using performance practices and knowledge but from different starting points. Snake investigates the extent of interactivity and responsivity between a designed object (an interactive sculpture) and a human agent. SpiderCrab is concerned with design development for a robotic agent, using models and theories of performance. The focus is on ways that designers and performers work together as an interdisciplinary team. Hoverflies aims to design and build an interactive object which entices performative interaction and play. This projectis at the earliest stage of the design process, in its most fluid state of emergence.

Regular joint workshops involving all three sub-projects will develop a dialogue between the projects, exposing and articulating key issues. This will allow the meta-level project to observe, map and theorise beyond the local level, identifying approaches and concepts which are of value to the wider design community. At the local level the sub-projects will deliver specific knowledge in the areas of robotics, product design and human-computer interaction (HCI). The meta-level activity will enable the mapping and articulation of concepts, methods and language from performance useful to design practice. The synaptic web formed by the sub-projects and the meta-level framework will explore models of interdisciplinary collaborative practice where performance knowledge is used to benefit design; investigate notions of emergence and interface; and interrogate the role of design and designers, role of user or participant, embodiment and tacit understanding.

Deleuze, Gilles (1993) The Fold: Liebniz and the Baroque, trans. Tom Conley, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press