Digital design and time on device; new paper in Digital Creativity journal

17th September 201918th September 2019 by vanessa_b In Art, Art-Science, Design and Health, Digital, Evaluation, Psychology Leave a comment

My collaboration with artist Katriona Beales is documented in a newly published article I wrote for Digital Creativity. The text is here, but if you don’t have access via a university library you are welcome to email me for a pdf. Here is the abstract:

‘Aesthetic techniques are increasingly used by marketeers to create enticing digital products. In this paper, I work with the aesthetic experiences of one audience group to consider the psychological impact of living in a culture where digital devices are deliberately designed to influence behaviour. I argue that aesthetic encounters can help with understanding the impact of the interplay between visual stimulus, affect and digital culture, in ways that may support situated understandings of mental distress in a digital age. I show how audiences respond to the artist-led research project Are We All Addicts Now? arguing that they generate ideas connected to submersion and being overwhelmed as a means of reporting on their own personal experiences of living in a digital culture that seeks to influence behaviour. The findings may have value for designers, curators and artists invested in understanding the experiential impact of digital devices.’

Featured image: Working Table IV (2017) Katriona Beales. From the exhibition Are We All Addicts Now? Furtherfield, London. Photo by Pau Ros