Over the past few days I have been focused on turning my research into phatic communication, tangible interfaces and technologies and projects associated with these things into a research project that is going to really benefit me as oppsed to just being an extra burden. To do this I had to really assess what aspects of the relationship into these two things am I interested in finding out about and what will ne most beneficial for the project and dissertation.
It has become clear to me over the past few weeks that my main interest lies in subtle and intimate communication, and particularly how in modern life it is more important than ever for communication technologies to allow people to communicate like this over large distances but how at present they lack the ability to do this.
I have therefore changed the focus of this research project from a study of just tangible interfaces to a study of phatic technology in general. This I see as having two aspects, one aspect is the development of tangible interfaces and new forms of communication to deal with this issue. The other aspect is looking at how people cope now, how people use or perhaps modify their existing communication devices to make the connection more personal or intimate. This has given me an opportunity to conduct some primary research into peoples existing behaviour.
