Temporal Trajectories: Characterizing Somatic Experiences that Unfold over Time

Abstract

The body technologies we design profoundly influence our somatic experiences, yet they are often evaluated through short-term or one-off studies. To design for sustained, longer-term engagements, we need to understand how somatic experiences evolve when people repeatedly interact with the same technology over time. With this goal, we report on two in-the-wild studies of body sonification, one with physically inactive individuals and another with professional dancers. For one month, participants used SoniBand, a movement sonification wearable, in their daily lives and shared their experiences with us through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Drawing from the concept of trajectories, we identified four temporal patterns that characterized the participants' evolving experience with SoniBand: singular, sustained, deepening, and meandering. We unpack these temporal trajectories and reflect on the characteristics that may contribute to their emergence. Our findings offer insights for studying and designing future technologies that embrace the dynamic, evolving nature of people's somatic experiences.