MY PASSION

My Research

By designing and producing a series of functioning digital artefacts, I intend to outline the future shape of interaction design for MR applications in the workplace. I have already completed Phase one in the first year of my research through working on collaborative projects in the ‘AppLab’, drawing on my background as a filmmaker, designer, and an explorer of emerging technologies. Digital projects in this phase range from marine ecological literacy development, air quality science, and live data visualisation, to the digitalisation of the AUT Marae through 3D scanning. My thinking has been led by practice, which helped me see the bigger picture. What seems to be emerging from these initial explorations is the notion that MR has the characteristics of a new medium – as distinct from film, TV, interactive computer games, etc.

My proposition is that MR is going to play a significant role in the future of media, and is also going to be a critical enabling technology for the ‘fourth industrial revolution’ alongside other emerging technologies. “Mixed Reality” is an evolving concept that can refer to a range of visual computing technologies that mimic a living and adapting ecosystem. From the philosophical perspective of embodied interaction, a Mixed Reality ecosystem is an adaptive complex medium that revolves around users and adapts to the user, instead of users adapting to the technology only. For me, this is a key difference that distinguishes MR from other media. I think that we are in the early stages of developing a compelling new medium, and it is important to define some design principles at this critical early phase.

An important source of inspiration from my cultural background is Rumi (the Persian poet and mystic). For Rumi, the body, the mind, and the environment all work at the same level together. This is close to the world view of enactivism, in the sense of body and mind acting as one entity in engagement with the environment. Enactivists, along with other key thinkers in embodied cognitive science, propose four principles, namely Embodied, Embedded, Extended, and Enactive, that might guide the design and development of digital artefacts in MR. In a similar sense, one contemporary interpretation of Rumi’s work proposes four basic dimensions of bodily experience: Physical Embodiment, Social and Cultural Embodiment, Biological Embodiment, and Spiritual Embodiment. My initial sense is that looking at this new medium through the lens of Rumi’s ideas may help us design better human experiences.

I am also interested in the ethical aspects of design for MR, in particular, taking a critical stand in relation to aligning digital technology and new media with ongoing complex societal challenges. I feel that it is essential for any research related to new developments in technology to be aligned with the agenda set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in order to move forward to a more sustainable future for humankind. Consequently, the physical, social, biological, and spiritual embodiment is vital in human interaction with technology. My cultural history informs my stance here, where the principles of Baraka (Persian: برکت) (rooted in my culture, specifically rooted in Suhrawardi’s Ishraq Philosophy) will be my ethical guide through this journey.