re:tangent - Remote Tangible Engagements

Social interactions between family members are important aspects of wellbeing. However, families are increasingly geographically separated. Digital tools may mitigate the emotional impact of physical distance by supporting communication via audio and video. Unfortunately, these technologies are limiting social interactions to talk alone, and fail to support touch and physical interactions. This research project aims to study how technologies can enable physical interactions between dislocated grandparents and grandchildren, who might experience negative consequences from this spatial separation, such as a loss of intimacy in the relationship. More specifically, the focus lies on supporting play in remote locations, by exploring novel designs for hybrid board games and toys. To this end, the researchers will explore tangible materials that can support dislocated physical experiences. Also, the research will study how such playful interactions can support grandparents and grandchildren in building and maintaining meaningful relationships over a distance. Ultimately, the research will yield new designs that will be evaluated with grandparents and grandchildren to address actual use and understand the consequences of these new playful materials on their relationship. The results of this project will contribute to the current technologies that are available to families by exploring new possibilities beyond audio and video. First, the researchers will explore the potential of new materials that can support communicative and playful engagement over a distance in a physical way. Second, the research will understand what constitutes a high-quality relationship between grandparents and grandchildren and, ultimately, give them new means to support their relationship.

The project "re:tangent - remote tangible engagements" started from the observation that remote relationships between grandparents and grandchildren often lack shared tangible aspects. While a variety of audio-visual communication tools (e.g., WhatsApp, Zoom) exist, they rarely integrate the physical environment. This means that objects and spaces are often neglected in remote conversations, thought they are important in grandparents' and grandchildren's face-to-face meetings - when playing with toys together, collecting leaves, or petting the cat. To explore how remote meetings could become more tangible, we asked: How can digital and physical materials be combined to add physical experiences to current audio-visual remote interactions? Which tangible elements facilitate shared experiences? By conducting qualitative studies to assess experiences, and material studies to envision and create prototypes of tangible remote interactions, we investigated opportunities for digital-physical meetings. For instance, we experimented in a study with unconventional forms of remote communication, such as exchanging letters without writing text. Among others, we found that by reducing the complexity of communication, remote connectedness may even get stronger. Since the COVID-19 pandemic required many grandparents and grandchildren to meet online, we conducted a qualitative survey to understand the role of physical objects in these meetings. 85 respondents shared their experiences with us, revealing a tremendous creativity. For instance, various objects were included in audio-visual communication through showing or discussing them; many of them had been important already before the online meetings, and continued to be (such as pets, toys, or particular cookies). Meetings were also spanning physical spaces by remotely showing each other around in gardens or workshops. To explore the role of physical spaces further, we developed a set of activities that made use of space in unexpected ways. For instance, grandparents and grandchildren could remotely fly through cardboard stars and planets hanging from the ceiling with a cardboard rocket. While exploring this "universe" together, the rocket carried a smartphone for an ongoing video-conversation. 4 pairs of grandparents and grandchildren explored the activities, showing that such combinations of available technology (smartphone for video-conversation) with qualities of the physical space were promising to enable novel, playful ways to be in touch over distance. Besides the important role of the physical space, the relevance of the human body in relation to an object (e.g., clothing, games, books) became apparent in our investigations. Thus, we also explored how relationships over distance could be felt on the body through wearables. We created vests that would heat up or "breath", indicated through textile movements. They not only aimed to create a feeling of connectedness, but also to critically ask what it means to be distant, i.e., whether feeling the distance can and should be alleviated at all.