hipDisk: Experiencing the value of ungainly, embodied, performative, fun

hipDisk is a wearable interface that extends the hips and torso horizontally to give the moving body musical capabilities. The device prompts wearers to move in strange ways, bypassing norms of self-constraint, to actuate sound. The result is sonically and physically ungainly, yet strangely compelling, and often prompts spontaneous laughter. hipDisk emerged from an embodied, performative research approach. It began as a single user device, and evolved to support social interaction and co-creation, as well as creatively engaged, embodied discovery and learning. Using, and also observing hipDisk in use, affords insight into how ungainly, embodied, performative fun may be a powerful vehicle for embodied knowledge generation and learning.