Beyond the Touchscreen

In August 2025, I gave a one-day workshop during Ditact in Salzburg (Austria) as an introduction to the practice of Odd Interactions.

In this workshop, participants explored how to design interactions that reach beyond the touchscreen. We engaged in a sequence of ideation exercises that encouraged them to imagine new relations between bodies, materials, and technologies. Together, we examined AI and IoT systems, focusing on how people currently interact with them and how these interactions could be reshaped. Participants also worked through body-based actions, short story writing, and moments of individual and group reflection. The hands-on part of the workshop introduced non-destructive prototyping as a method for shaping interactions without committing to final forms.

Through this approach, participants created four examples: 1) Horn, an exploration of dependence on mobile devices through an externalised horn that extends the body in public space (by Omleila). 2) Grabbing, where inflatable bundles on the body close around objects and invite participants to rethink capacity, emotion, and more than human reach (by Catherina). 3) Bumping, an object that moans when accidentally bumped and shifts away, playfully transforming everyday collisions and hinting at lifelike furniture (by Raphaela). 4) Sweat, a speculative smart fabric system that collects and routes sweat to reveal new values in bodily fluids (by Michaela).