IAD Interaction Design

Karmen Franinović

Prof. Dr.

Dozentin

Office: ++41 43 446 32 61

Website: www.zero-th.org

Karmen is head of Interaction Design at Zurich University of the Arts since 2011. She joined this university in 2006 as researcher at Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts, and in 2008 she begun working within the IAD team as a lecturer, teaching courses in embodied interaction, research methods, sonic interaction and embodied theories of design. While mentoring BA and MA students, she continues leading research projects on sonic interaction design and responsive architectures at the European, Swiss, and local levels.

Forschungsinteressen / Aktivitäten

Karmen's research gravitates around the subjects of responsive environments and sonic interaction design. The focus is on physical interfaces that engage bodily knowledge in interaction, mainly through non-visual senses involving sonic and haptic feedback. The final goal of her work is to challenge established interaction paradigms and to foster critical and playful uses of technology in everyday life. Prior to joining IAD, Karmen explored related social and embodied aspects of interactivity within Zero-Th Association, a non-profit research entity that she co-founded together with Yon Visell.

Karmen has been leading research on responsive environments and sonic interaction within the ZHdK's Design departement and at the Institute for Cultural Studies in the Arts. The goal of her recent edited book "Sonic Interaction Design" (MIT Press, 2013) aims to introduce this emerging field to designers and artists. The project is supported by the European Science Foundation COST Action on "Sonic Interaction Design" for which she acted as a Swiss national delegate and collaborated with colleagues across Europe, Canada and Australia.  She is also involved in the COST Action on "Soundscape of European Cities and Landscapes". From 2006 to 2009, she led design research within the European FP6 project CLOSED: Closing the Loop of Sound Evaluation and Design. The CLOSED project, undertaken with partners at Ircam (Paris), University of Verona and TU Berlin, was a milestone for fostering research on sonic interaction at the European level, and the first such project to be based at a university of the arts in Switzerland. Within this project, she pursued her doctoral thesis "Amplifiying Actions: Towards Enactive Sound Design" (2012), which proposes an enactive paradigm for sound design and research.

In the field of responsive environments, Karmen's work aims at engaging social and sensorial interaction in public space. Her urban installations invite passers-by to explore, modulate and affect the evolution of the multidimensional urban fabric, together with the presence and condition of its co-inhabitants. Play is used as a strategy for challenging habitual behaviors and opening up alternative context in which unknown individual and collective gestures may be revealed. These projects act as research probes into sensorial and social tissues of which urban spaces are composed. Karmen's works in this domain have been exhibited internationally, at institutions including Ircam/Centre Pompidou (Paris), SF Camerawork (San Francisco), Fondazione Sandretto (Torino), Miami Bienal, MoMA Ljubljana, Far Eastern Memorial Foundation (Taipei), DEAF (Rotterdam), The Junction (Cambridge), and Oboro (Montreal), among others. She is a memeber of the Internet of Things Council where questions of embodied interaction are discussed on European level. Most recently, she is working on creation of self-actuated materials, such as self-moving surfaces (electroactive polymers) and self-illuminating surfaces (electroluminescent paper) with a goal of designing a more alive and responsive architecture.  

Publikationen / Workshops / Ausstellungen

Books

• K. Franinović and S. Serafin, eds., Sonic Interaction Design, MIT Press. (Spring 2013)

Patents

• Y. Visell, K. Franinović, A. Law, J. Cooperstock, Floor-Based Haptic Communication System. Patent Pending (USPO App. No. 20100308982)

Book chapters and Journal Articles

• K. Franinovic. “Architecting Play”, Journal of AI & Society - Special issue on Poetic and Speculative Architectures in Public Space. Vol 26.2. Ed. Sha Xin Wei.  2011.
• G. Lemaitre, O. Houix, P. Susini, Y. Visell and K. Franinovic. Feelings elicited by auditory feedback from a computationally augmented artifact: the Flops. IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing. 2011.
• Stefania Serafin, Karmen Franinovic, Thomas Hermann Guillaume Lemaitre, Michal Rinott and Davide Rocchesso “Sonic Interaction Design”, chapter in Sonification Handbook. 2011
• K. Franinovic. “Toward Basic Interaction Design” in Design Research special issues of Elisava Temes de Disseny Journal. Barcelona, 2009.
• K. Franinovic. “Basic Interaction Design for Sonic Artefacts in Everyday Contexts”. Focused - Current Design Research Projects and Methods. Swiss Design Network. Bern, 2008.
• K. Franinovic. “Amplified Movements: An Enactive Approach to Sound in Interaction Design”. Proc. of the Planetary Collegium’s 9th Intl. Conference. New Realities: Being Syncretic. Springer. Vienna, 2008.
• K. Franinovic. “Enactive Encounters in the City” in Responsive Architectures, book. Ed. P. Beesley, S. Hirosue, J. Ruxton, M. Traenkle and C. Turner, Riverside Architectural Press, 2006
• K. Franinovic. ”Behavioural spaces, designing for the social and sensorial ecologies in public spaces”, in Theatre, Dans, Etcetera (96), pp. 22-30. Belgium, April 2005
• K. Franinovic. “Architectures of Subtraction : Relaxation and Play in the City”, in Interaction Design Almanacco 04, Interaction Design Institue Ivrea 2004. 
• K. Franinovic, B. Juricic. “Amnio(p)tic surface” in Defining Digital Architecture, book, Far Eastern Memorial Foundation, New York, 2001

Conference papers (peer-reviewed)

• K. Franinovic “Habit and Exploration through Enactive Sound Objects”, In Proc. of the International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA11, Istanbul, 2011.
• K. Franinovic “Flo)(ps: Between Habitual and Explorative Action-Sound Relationships”, In Proceedings of the 7th international Conference on New interfaces For Musical Expression, NIME’11, Oslo, Norway.
• G. Lemaitre, O. Houix, K. Franinovic, Y. Visell, P. Susini "The Flops glass: a device to study emotional reactions arising from sonic interactions" 2009.
• K. Franinovic, Y. Visell “Strategies for Sonic Interaction Design: From Context to Basic Design”. Proc. of the 14th International Conference on Auditory Display, Paris, 2008.
• D. Rocchesso, Y. Visell, K. Franinovic, F. Behrendt, S. Pauletto, P. Susini, R. Bresin, et al., “Sonic Interaction Design: Sound, Information, and Experience”. Proc. of the 26th Intl. ACM CHI Conference, Florence, 2008.
• K. Franinovic, A. Wilson. “Hinge Dimension: An Exploration of Enaction in Architecture”. Proc. of the 4th Intl. Conf. on Enactive Interfaces, Grenoble, 2007.
• Y. Visell, K. Franinovic, J. Cooperstock. “EcoTile: An Architectural Platform for Audio-Haptic Simulation in Walking“. Proc. of the 4th Intl. Conf. on Enactive Interfaces, Grenoble, 2007.
• K. Franinovic, Y. Visell. "New musical interfaces in context: sonic interaction design in the urban setting". The 7th International ACM Conference on New interfaces For Musical Expression. New York, 191-196. 2007.
• K. Franinovic, Y. Visell, D. Hug. “Sound Embodied: A Report on Sonic Interaction Design in Everyday Artefacts”. The 13th International Conference on Auditory Display. Montreal, 2007.
• K. Franinovic. “Architectures of Play: Participation and Interactivity”. Proc. of the International Symposium on Electronic Art ISEA08, Singapore, 2008.
• K. Franinovic and Y. Visell. “Modulating Urban Atmospheres: Opportunity, Flow, Adaptation”, in Proc. of The 7th Intl. Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, Tokyo, 2005.
• K. Franinovic and Y. Visell. “Activating Space: from representation to being”,  in Proc. Intl. Symposium on Space and Perception, RIXC Center for New Media Culture, Riga, 2005.
• K. Franinovic and Y. Visell. “Sonic diversion in the city, on interactive sound design and urban intervention”. ACM Designing Interactive Systems: Processes, Practices, Methods, and Techniques, Boston, MA, 2004.

Selected Exhibitions

• Sonic Abstractions. Demain, c'est aujourd'hui exhibition. 10th Biennale Internationale du Design de Saint-Etienne. France. 2008.
• Flo)(ps, interactive glasses. Amplified Intimacies, an Interstices group exhibition. Oboro Gallery, Montreal, 2008.
• EcoTiles, haptic floor interface. Eurohaptics conference. Madrid, 2008. with Y. Visell, J.Cooperstock, B. Giordano, S. McAdams and Alwin Law.
• Hinge_Dimension, responsive labyrinthine architecture. Enter Unknown Territories Festival. Chapel of St. Mary Magdalene (12th century). Cambridge, UK. April 2007.  with A. Wilson.
• Skyhooks, responsive urban environment, 10th Happy New Ears Festival, Kortrijk, Belgum. 2006.  with Y. Visell
• Charged Space, participatory installation, Dancing the Virtual event. SAT, Montreal, 2006, with F. Abtan.
• Autogrill Monument, real-time death public display. Monument Recall: Improbable Monuments exhibition, SF Camerawork, San Francisco, 2004, with L. Thie
• Recycled Soundscapes, public sound installation. Resonances Festival 2004, Ircam / Centre Pompidou, Place Stravinsky, Paris, 2004, with Y. Visell
• Politicomobil, critical design project.  BITE: a taste of interactive explorations exhibition, Fondazione Sandretto re Rebaudengo, Torino, Italy, 2004, with B. Negrillo.
• Syncoptic, responsive architecture.  Artist in residence exhibition, FoAM lab, Brussels. 2003, with L. Kusaite and Y. Visell
• Kontakt, participatory tactile installation. Dutch Electronic Arts Festival, DEAF 2003 Rotterdam, with boutiquevizique
• TransgenEthic Structures, architecture project.  Surface as Ultraskin exhibition, Museum of Modern Art Ljubljana, 2002, with B. Juricic
• Amnioptic Surface, urban planning project.  Far Eastern International Digital Architectural Design Award, Taipei, 2000. and Miami Bienal: Possible Futures exhibition, 2001, with B. Juricic.
• Angel’s angle, video.  Beyond Media Festival: The Future and the City, Florence, 2000.

Selected Research Workshops

• V. Trifa, K. Franinovic, D. Guinard and K. Kloeckl. “Urban Internet of Things”, Proc. of the Internet of Things conference, Tokyo, 2010. http://www.webofthings.com/urban-iot/2010/
• K.Franinovic and J. Schacher “Music Gesture and Sonic Interaction”, international expert workshop, Zurich, 2010. http://blogs.iad.zhdk.ch/gestureworkshop/.
• K. Franinovic, L. Gaye, F. Behrendt. “Exploring Sonic Interaction with Tangible Artifacts in Everyday Contexts”, Proc. of the 14th International Conference on Auditory Display, Paris, 2008. http://sonicinteraction.wordpress.com/

Vita

Karmen Franinović (born 1975) received the Laurea degree Summa cum Laude from Istituto Universitario di Archittetura di Venezia, MA degree from the Interaction Design Institute Ivrea and a PhD degree from the School of Art and Media at the University of Plymouth. Karmen has worked as an architect on large scale public buildings and urban projects while employed at AltenArchitekten at Studio ArchA, and in collaboration with Arata Isozaki and Associates, and Arup. She contributed to the design of structures such as the olympic hockey palace for the 2004 winter games in Torino. She has previously taught in departments of design and art at Concordia University in Montreal and Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milano.