After one year of writing, re-writing, and implementing feedback together with Stefano Gualeni, the paper that is derived from my graduation thesis for the Master in Media Innovation at the NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences is accepted for publication.

I will present it at the DPPI 2013 conference from the 3-5 of September in Newcastle (UK). After the conference it will be available in the ACM digital library. Please send me an e-mail if you want to read the paper already. The title is “Digitally Complemented Zoomorphism: a Theoretical Foundation for Human-Animal Interaction Design: and the abstract includes:

“From an interspecies perspective, we advocate for a theoretical foundation aimed at facilitating further research towards digitally mediated human-animal interaction. The proposed framework follows an approach we call ‘digitally complemented zoomorphism’ and recognizes ‘play’ as a free and voluntary activity that is shared by both animals and humans. As a result, three initial design guidelines will emerge. Our work is pursued in order to provide animals with stimulations which stem from a closer understanding of their perceptions and are not solely designed around human subjectivity.”

Besides working on this paper, I am working on some other projects that include human-animal interaction. I hope I will be able to write more about them soon. Next to that I moved from Breda (the Netherlands) to Malmö (Sweden) where I will start a two year Master in Interaction Design starting in September 2013. During this study I will hopefully get the chance to do more projects and research related to the topics I wrote about and share the progress and results on this blog. For now, have a great summer!