tei 2025 recap 🥐 | Courtney N. Reed

It’s the most wonderful time of the year again — TEI! The ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI) is my favourite conference and I look forward to it so much every year. This edition took place in Bordeaux, FR. I’ve been enjoying getting more involved with TEI organisation in the last year and had a great time not only running a Studio but also as Session Chair for the “Tangible Textiles” session and organising the Student Design Competition. 🥐

Perfect week: design research, beautiful views, amazing friends... and canneles!

sensory data dialogues

My favourite part of the 2025 TEI Conference was running our a Studio workshop with Fiona Bell, Karen Cochrane, Alice Haynes, Allie Teixeira Riggs, Marion Koelle, Laia Turmo Vidal, and Vineetha Rallabandi. 🌿

Sensory Data Dialogues: A Somaesthetic Exploration of Bordeaux through Five Senses

During a walkaround of Bordeaux we investigated site-specific sensory experiences and how we depict and reflect on them through analogue and digital data. This involved working with custom Sensory Portfolios, a variety of relevant sensors, and craft materials. Together we learned to do body scans, work with different environmental and biosignal sensors, and soma querying methods like body mapping. We especially challenged the notion of sensory data being created, rather than collected, and discussed how to balance subjective somatosensory experiences with the data streams used in interactive digital systems. 🎨 🖌️

We had a great day out exploring Bordeaux with all senses and hearing each others’ perspectives on designing with sensory data. I’m so grateful to our amazing organising group, not just for the Studio but for such an enjoyable, supportive, and inspiring conference. I love being a part of this network of early-career women and enby researchers; TEI is usually our annual meeting spot, and running this Studio with this group was such a privilege.

A gallery of beautiful sensory scenes from our walkaround through Bordeaux, and our amazing Studio participant group!

student design competition

Over the last year I also worked with Jarrod Knibbe (University of Queensland) to chair the Student Design Competition (SDC). Each year, students up to the PhD level are invited to address a relevant design challenge and are invited to present prototypes and artefacts at an exhibition during the conference. ⭐

The Design Challenge for 2025 was around sustainability: what this really means in design and what our community considers as criteria for sustainable research and innovation. Students were challenged to revisit existing work from TEI and other HCI and design communities and make it more sustainable - specifically focusing on what sustainability means in doing so.

I really enjoyed organising the SDC track this year with Jarrod Knibbe. I really enjoyed meeting all the amazing authors and I’m grateful for their participation. Also, big thanks to Fiona, who was Sustainability Chair at the conference and acted as the exhbition jury. Do check out the design and artefacts in the TEI Proceedings! ⬇️

Lingxiao Luo
Behave-Knit: Sustainable Integration of Pneumatic Actuators in Knitted Wearables 🧶
Yanzhuo Yang & Thomas Charles Elliott
A Proposed Modification of the IxD Process: Sustainable Prototyping Practice for Physical Technology 📐
Sarah Fletcher, Bennett Graff, Eunjin Hong & Vishaka Nirmal
WEFT Furniture 🪑
Divya Srinivasan & Chia-Jung Kuo
Beyond Substitutes: Crafting Unique Forms and Functions with Algae Bioplastics 🧫
Saskia Helinska
Biomaterial-Based Soft Robotics: Sustainable Alternatives to Vinyl and Silicone for Prototyping Haptic Interfaces 🦩

Fiona, me, and the prize-winning submissions from Sarah, Bennet, Eunjin, and Vishaka (left) and Lingxiao (right). WEFT Furniture wone the juried "Most Innovative Vision on Sustainability" and attendee-voted "People's Choice" awards. Behave-Knit won the juried "Best Physical Prototype" award.

The design of interactive systems and digital artefacts often makes use of digital or analog sensory data as a way to "capture" human senses and sensory experiences. Yet, designing for and with sensory data is complex because of our unique, embodied ways of making sense of our somatosensory experiences. Sensory data does not have one prescribed meaning for everyone. We propose a one-day Studio at TEI to start a dialogue about work with sensory data and its representation of human sensory experience. Specifically, we propose a guided walk and series of sensory explorations in Bordeaux to contemplate the interplay between first-person somatosensory experiences and streams of site-specific data from various sensors. By walking and noticing together, this Studio invites participants to engage in a process of creative reflection on their felt experiences, their connection to their surroundings, and their stance within or outside the design community.

sensory data dialogues

student design competition

references

2025