International Journal of Arts and Technology (IJART)

Call For papers, special issue on: “Tangible and Embedded Interaction”

Guest Editors:
Eva Hornecker. The Open University, UK
Albrecht Schmidt, University of Duisburg, Germany
Brygg Ullmer, Louisiana State University, USA

With technological advances, computing has progressively moved beyond the desktop into new physical and social contexts. As physical artifacts gain new computational behaviours, they become reprogrammable, customisable, repurposable, and interoperable in rich ecologies and diverse contexts. They also become more complex, and require intense design effort in order to be functional, usable, and enjoyable. Designing such systems requires interdisciplinary thinking. Their creation must not only encompass software, electronics, and mechanics, but also the system’s physical form and behaviour, its social and physical milieu, aesthetics, and beyond.

The new conference series “Tangible and Embedded Interaction” (TEI, www.tei-conf.org), which first took place in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 2007, and 2008 in Bonn, Germany, demonstrates the international interest and the many dimensions of the work in this area. It has had a multidisciplinary audience with artists, designers, technology builders, ethnographers and HCI specialists, even touching upon robotics and interactive buildings.

We invite short (statements / works in progress / design sketches: 1000 words, plus figures, max. 2 pages) and long submissions on tangible and embedded interaction. Work addressing related HCI issues, design, use contexts, tools and technologies, and interactive art are all welcome. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary submissions across these themes.

Subject Coverage

Suitable topics include but are not limited to:

• Case studies and evaluations of deployments
• Analysis of key challenges, proposals of research agenda
• Relation of tangible and embedded interaction to other paradigms
• Programming tools, toolkits, software architectures
• Novel interactive uses of sensors+actuators, electronics+mechatronics
• Design guidelines, methods, and processes
• Novel application areas, innovative solutions/systems
• Theoretical foundations, frameworks, and concepts
• Philosophical, ethical and social implications
• Interactive theatre and cinema
• Interfaces specific to particular cultures
• Usability and enjoyment, aesthetics
• Advantages and weaknesses of these kinds of systems
• Learning from the role of physicality in everyday environments
• Embodied interaction, movement, and choreography of interaction
• Role of physicality for human perception, cognition and experience
• Teaching tangible/embedded interaction design, and best practices

Submissions can either contain new original work, or be revised versions of previously published papers. Revised versions need to contain at least 30% new content, providing (e.g.) more details or extensions with follow-up research. Authors should provide access to an online version of the previously published version (to ease work for reviewers) and explicate how the new version differs. Each submission should be written in a way that is accessible to the multidisciplinary audience of the journal.

Notes for Prospective Authors

Submitted papers should not have been previously published nor be currently under consideration for publication elsewhere

All papers are refereed through a peer review process. A guide for authors, sample copies and other relevant information for submitting papers are available on the Author Guidelines page

Important Dates

• Abstract (optional): 2 April, 2008
• Paper submission: 21 April, 2008
• Acceptance notification: 11 June, 2008
• Camera ready papers due: 9 July, 2008

Editors and Notes

You may send one copy in the form of an MS Word file attached to an e-mail (details in Author Guidelines) to the following:
Guest Editors

• E-mail: ijart2008@hcilab.org

with a copy to:
IEL Editorial Office

• E-mail: ijart@inderscience.com