Thecla Schiphorst

Thecla Schiphorst
Thecla Schiphorst, a media artist/designer and Faculty Member in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon  Fraser University  in Vancouver, Canada. She is proficient in embodied interaction, sense-making, and aesthetics of interaction. Thecla is the Director of the whisper’s research group, mainly focused on design for wearable and ‘holdable’ technologies, and received formal education and training in computing and dance, which acts as a basis of her research. Thecla’s artwork combines human experience and movement with computational models of representation.

Case study on Soft(n) survival strategies for interaction


Interactive public art intallation, 2005 - 2007

Soft(n) explores interaction through dozens of networked soft objects

when being touched or moved. The particular network recognizes kinesthetic interaction, and easily responds to how the object is being touched or moved.

When interacting with smaller objects, it responds with behaviours such as humming, shaking, sighing, singing and shared moving luminous patterns. Each with a specially designed, custom-engineered soft-intelligent-tactile input surface, motion detectors that are able to respond to light, sound, and vibration.

Case study on Whisper
Whisper - wearble body architectures, 2001 - 2003

Whisper: wearable body architectures is an acronym for [wearable, handheld, intimate, sensory, personal, expressive, responsive system], it had became a term used to describe the focus of their research group. It was also one of the first in the series of three interactive art installations. Whisper interacts with a person’s own body using wearable microcontrollers, and wireless network transmission to detect our heart rate and breath. These sensors can be found within the garment with detachable sleeves. Data visualized form the person’s body will then be projected onto the floor in small ‘light pools’. Users are able to share data with their jackets.

