Design, digital gestures and the in[ter]ference of meaning: Reframing technology's role within design and place through performative gesture.

Abstract

This article focuses on performance as a tool to reconsider the design and occupancy of place. By appropriating the notion of gesture from the discipline of dance, we scrutinize pervasive technology and its influence on the built environment. Increasing requirements for technical and computing infrastructure cause us to firstly consider technology's role in the creation of non-place as conceived by Marc Aug (1995). New media and technology also continue to influence the creative processes, creating layers of filters and mediators within the discourse. This provides a theoretical grounding for the analysis of three test cases that appropriate gesture for reconsidering the role of technology within the design and construction of place. Findings suggest that gesture is a useful metaphor that resists bringing technology to centre stage and advances propositions by Brown and Duguid (2000) and also Heidegger (1977), who recommend looking beyond the functional and instead attending to the personal and social facets of our interaction with technology.