Below, find a link to the final version of a chapter that Lira Nikolovska and I wrote (to appear in the book "Collaborative Artefacts, Interactive Furniture", edited by Pierre Dillenbourg and Mauro Cherubini, in press). The chapter explores the poetics of everyday objects, and their abilities to elicit meaningful associations. Our focus is on a special kind of everyday objects: a chosen set of “augmented” chairs and tables, especially designed to gently disrupt, or shake, habitual ways in which people interact with – and through – furniture. We address the qualities of these objects in terms of object “presence” and “personality,” and we discuss their abilities to engender amusing incongruities. We conclude by speculating on the benefits of using exploratory, non-mainstream design methods as a means to understand innovations in human-computer interaction. Several cases of augmented furniture will be presented to illustrate the raised points: i) therapeutic furniture (Robotic Massage Chair and Squeeze Chair) and ii) furniture that mediates human transactions and aides self reflection (Conversation Table, Stealing Table and Table Childhood).

If you wish to know more, see ciaf final 2008

Chapter by Lira Nikolovska and Edith Ackermann. For book "Collaborative Artefacts, Interactive Furniture". edited by Pierre Dillenbourg and Mauro Cherubini. In Press. To download paper, visit edith website
[scroll down to collective papers].