The Flo)(ps: Negotiating Between Habitual and Explorative Gestures

The perceived affordances of an everyday object guide its user toward habitual movements and experiences. Physical actions that are not immediately associated with established body techniques often remain neglected. Can sound activate those potentials for action that remain latent in the physicality of an object? How can the exploration of underused and unusual bodily movements be fostered? This paper presents the Flo)(ps project, a series of interactive sounding glasses, which aim to foster social interaction by means of habitual and explorative sonic gestures within everyday contexts. We discuss the design process and the qualitative evaluation of collaborative and individual user experience. The results show that social interaction and personal use require different ways of transitioning from habitual to explorative gestures, and point toward possible solutions to be further explored.