Alongside familiar materials that make up things, such as plastics, textiles, and wood, computation and its properties open new possibilities for design. While we have developed artistic and technical practices making use of such traditional materials over the centuries, we are just at the beginning of exploring the potentials of new technologies for expression and form. Contemporary developments, for example notions of the smart home and interactive fashion, point to a future where computational and traditional materials blend together into our everyday lives and lifestyles.

Our studio investigates technology as design material. While the typical notion of 'form' is physical shape, we believe that in considering computation as a design material, concepts of form must be fundamentally re-interpreted since time, flow, and energy and other dynamic elements become central in the interaction with computational things. In our research, we develop both methodological foundations and practical examples, exposing the experiential, social, and design implications of new technologies.

Our research projects generate results to impact a range of arenas. Practical results are produced in the form of prototypes to reveal and test potential futures with users, stakeholders, and collaborators. Theoretical frameworks and methodological foundations are continually deepened in academic contexts and highly-reputed publications. We extend both practical and theoretical results into a variety of regional and international outreach initiatives, including exhibitions, seminars and professional networks. Maintaining a continual flow of impact and foresight in relation to society and business, we cooperate extensively with industrial, cultural and academic partners.

Now and in the future, the way we experience, interact with and relate to things in our everyday environments will change as they connect to new forms of communication, intelligence and information flows. As technology is integrated increasingly and invisibly into our surroundings, it is the reoccurring moments of interaction that will establish new and sustainable roles for such objects. These encounters present new design opportunities and challenges, the need for new research and methods, the need to rethink and recreate.

Interactive Institute
Interactive Institute is an experimental IT research institute consisting of multiple research studios spread throughout Sweden. The institute acts as a meeting place - an interdisciplinary arena joining art, science, industry and public life in research projects and strategic initiatives to promote innovation, creativity and sustainable growth.

Interactive Institute DESIGN Göteborg has previously been called RE:FORM studio, and started in 1998 in Gothenburg, Sweden, as the PLAY studio of the Interactive Institute. In 2006, the studio will be hibernating with the ambition to continue our research in Gothenburg in 2007.