Augmentation Residency: An Immersive Live-Work HCI R&D Model

Abstract

The growing affordability of emerging consumer devices and accessibility of software-hardware prototyping represents an opportunity for a new era of personal fabrication of augmentation technologies. In this case study, we review the inaugural Augmentation Residency, a live-in creative technology residency that implemented a new approach to the collaborative development of human-computer interaction (HCI) systems. Over the course of ten weeks, eight students and young professionals from a wide range of disciplines lived and worked together to build and self-experiment with technologies that integrate extended reality (XR), wearables, brain-computer interfaces (BCI), and artificial intelligence (AI). Made possible by a residential community and interdisciplinary teams, this high-intensity model for HCI research and development (R&D) was structured to encourage experimentation with atypical human-centered design methods and artistic practices. We present our program design, organization, and management, and discuss challenges and suggestions for improvements, to inspire future residencies as vehicles for intensive HCI innovation.