Faculty of Arts & Science

Digital Futures

Leanna Barwick

Social Touch and Body Exploration Through Handheld Electronic Interactive Games - Contemporary Design Theories

The contemporary design object I’m examining through the lens of Victor Papanek’s Function Complex model [1] is a handheld electronic interactive toy (Fig. 1.); name unknown, made in China, purchased from an online retailer in 2011. In addition, I’ll also consider game design theories, such as Schell’s basic elements of game design because game mechanics have such a strong role in the object performing its function. The main game mechanic of the toy is that a sound plays each time players touching an electronic touch sensor make skin-to-skin contact with each other. The toy depends on social physical interaction between players for the sound game controls to work, and uses touch capacitor technology to control this requirement to play. Because skin conducts electricity, when players are each connected to a capacitor and touch, a circuit between them is created. Different sounds occur when different bodies touch, because circuits that control those sounds have been brought together through the two human bodies connecting. Players use touch between them, to control the progression of sound, allowing for improvisation and variance in game experience, depending on with whom and how the game is played.