Rebecca Allen's talk at LDM. Raw and messy back in the days "computers are too important to be left to engineers" so use of computer graphics, take human forms into the computer, in a natural way examples: the catherine wheel (1982) with choreographer Twyla Tharp, musique non stop with Kraftwerk (1986), mostly music clips then hired as a "3D visionary" by a game company to shift the way programmers were designing game space (2D sprites versus 3D, assembler versus C++)... then all companies wanted to do quake-like games, so she moved to UCLA, interested less by shoot'em ups but virtual worlds.

sense of loosing control when you're working as a designer with virtual worlds, artificial creatures set up aesthetic rules and let people interact, things emerge the world has a flavor of a game but there is no winning or loosing emergence: explore the role of human presence in a world of artificial life

At Media Lab Europe: notion of liminal devices: to explore the boundary between virtual and physical reality and between our inner and outer states of awareness (liminal = in between) to define subtle, intimate interface paradigm for mobile devices using biosignals and position to design simultaneous realities that allow us to see and sense more than the world in front of us in ways that enhance rather than overwhelm Project examples: - liminal identities: an interactive installation in the form of a wooden box, serves as a portal to the world of mixed reality. Through the holes in the box two people can mix their identities. - sleight of hands - body as interface: myophone (to get rid of heads-up display), project with Essilor (embed display in regular eye-glasses)

now: advisors on the "one laptop per child project"