Engagement through embodiment: A case for mindful interaction

In this paper we describe the development and evaluation of three kitchen blenders that were specifically designed to stimulate mindfulness in interaction, that is: engagement with, and care for what you are doing. We find that the directness we used to have preparing our food has been sacrificed to efficiency and ease of use, which does not match our current zest for 'slow food' and 'slow cooking'. We argue that most of our kitchen appliances make us less engaged in the act of and less caring for cooking. In order to counter this we see opportunities for a more tangible or embodied interaction style where expressive input leads to expressive output. In order to research this argument we have developed three embodied kitchen blender interaction styles and compared these to a more traditional blender interaction. Preliminary findings suggest that more embodied interaction styles do indeed lead to more mindful engagement in interaction.