Embodied Digital Media for the Mind
Digital media shape creative practices across disciplines, and play a pivotal role in research and design. However, few digital technologies make use of the connection between our bodies and minds to support more effective ways of thinking and learning.
Dr. Alexandra Mazalek, Canada Research Chair in Digital Media and Innovation, is designing human-computer interfaces that will improve our ability to understand and think about complex problems. This human-centred perspective on designing tools will advance discovery, creativity and design, by putting people more firmly in the loop between computation and display.
Mazalek is combining experimentation, practice-based design and development, and theoretical study and analysis in her research. She is concentrating on practices and problems in computational sciences, such as systems biology and computational genomics.
Embodied media have the potential to radically transform our current ways of creating and disseminating knowledge. They could also support more dynamic thinking patterns that bridge the physical and digital worlds.
Mazalek’s research will help open up critically important learning and discovery spaces in a world that increasingly uses computers to tackle complex problems.