The Error Network

The aim of the Error Network is to bring together a multi-disciplinary team of experts to explore how dance and human-computer interaction (HCI) design can inform and interrogate each other through positive engagement with the generative possibilities of ambiguity and error. The project includes researchers from dance and HCI, alongside those from archaeological computing, psychology, prosthetics, cultural theory, digital media sociology and mathematics, each bringing other disciplinary understandings of human/computer interfaces to the critical debate. This Network is needed because HCI's recent engagement with embodiment is still in its relative infancy, acknowledging the benefits of including discourses and practices from performance and dance but yet to realise their full potential. Body-based methods like bodystorming (physically enacting the experience of using imagined interfaces in order to envisage solutions) are now commonly used to create effective design to 'make things work better' for human engagement. Yet these creative approaches are focused heavily on solution-finding that prioritises the body over technology, rather than problem-seeking that explores the experiences and possibilities of body-technology interactions. In contrast, dance methods are valued for allowing contingency, the unexpected and the unplanned to develop new creative outcomes. The dialogue between the disciplines will explore how the embodied knowledge of the dancer and the methods that dancers employ within their creative processes illuminate relationships between human and machine, leading to potentially new insights about embodied knowledge in HCI. Similarly, investigation of concepts of error, 'noise' and glitches in digital code offers new possibilities for creative processes in dance choreography.

The Network will host two workshop laboratories during which all participants will engage in practical experimentations in both dance and human-computer interaction design. These activities will develop shared languages and understandings of the methods, issues and concerns within these fields, so that intersections and cross-overs between them can be interrogated in more detail. Such workshop-based methods have proven highly successful in previous AHRC, EPSRC and JISC-funded projects involving the PI and Co-I, leading to profitable debate between dance and computing/engineering academics. The Network will culminate in a symposium, which will engage a broader cross-disciplinary community including industry professionals from the field of dance, the field of digital media, and those whose work combines the two. The symposium will include practice-based dissemination as well as oral presentations in order to share the findings effectively across disciplines and with academic and industry delegates. The Network will also produce a minimum of two peer-reviewed research journal papers aimed at different disciplinary audiences and it will lead to the development of a larger project to pursue specific areas of interest arising from the research. A project website will collate and disseminate documentation from the Network activities, including details of practical exercises that might be useful to researchers in both academy and industry. Social media will be employed during the workshop laboratories to share the research findings as they unfold, and to encourage debate with wider communities. This Network falls under the highlight notice for the exploration of innovative areas of cross-disciplinary enquiry.

The PI, Co-I and some Network members have significant experience of working with industry partners. Some Network members also have extensive industry experience prior to moving into full-time academia (Ruth Gibson) or are currently industry professionals (Bruno Martelli). This places the team particularly advantageously to maximise impact on this project. The University of Leeds has excellent structures for supporting impact activities, with each department having its own Director of Impact and Innovation, supported by a sector-facing Cultural and Creative Industries hub across the two arts and humanities faculties together with a Business Development Manager and team.

Martelli's participation in the Network will bring industry perspectives to the heart of the research and will ensure that industry-relevant questions are raised throughout the project. This will ensure that the findings include impactful knowledge that will be taken directly into industry usage through Martelli's own professional work.

The project symposium will include industry professionals from the Network team's extensive range of collaborators. The venue for the symposium will be Leeds, as the city and region has extensive industry communities both in dance and in digital media. This will make it relatively easy and cost-effective for a significant number of individuals working in these industries to attend the event. One of the keynote speakers will be an industry professional (Siobhan Davies, choreographer) and the other works regularly in collaboration with industry (Professor Steve Benford, Nottingham University). Connections into local professional organisations and networks via Yorkshire Dance, Leeds City Council and the Leeds University Cultural and Creative Industries hub will be used to ensure wide dissemination of the invitation to attend the symposium. The creative opportunities for error and ambiguity and methods for collaboration with multiple disciplines will be explored and debate will be encouraged across professionals and academics from a variety of disciplinary areas. Practical workshops and discussions will be employed to ensure maximum engagement for delegates from all backgrounds.

The presentations to Yorkshire Dance and DanceHE will be important points of dissemination to the Dance professional community. These presentations will address both topics of the Network: the use of error for creative purposes and methods for collaborative research between dance and science/technology specialists. Yorkshire Dance has several thousand members across the Yorkshire counties and its mission includes "raising standards, increasing knowledge and understanding and fostering creativity and innovation" for dance professionals and audiences in the region. There is a strong relationship between University of Leeds and Yorkshire Dance, and Popat (PI) is currently working on a NESTA/AHRC/ACE-funded research project led by Yorkshire Dance. She has a standing invitation to speak to the community on the subject of dance and new media. DanceHE is primarily an academic network but many of its members are also professional dance practitioners alongside their academic activity. Popat (PI) and Whatley (Co-I) have spoken about dance and impact at a number of DanceHE events in last three years.

The website/blog will be used to disseminate research findings, visual recordings and descriptions of the exercises used in the workshop laboratories. Martelli and Gibson will ensure that the materials are accessible and useful for industry audiences. Facebook and Twitter will be used to engage non-academic audiences during Network meetings and highlight blog postings throughout the project.