Urban Interaction and Affective Experience

As interactive digital technologies become a still more integrated and complex part of the everyday physical, social and cultural spaces we inhabit, research into these spaces’ dynamics and struc-tures needs to formulate adequate methods of analysis and dis-course. In this position paper we argue in favor of three points in that direction: First we argue that interaction – and the definition of interaction – is central to unfold the potential of digital urban media, from big, shared screens and media facades to small pri-vate, networked mobile and embedded platforms. Then we argue that an affective approach holds potential to address important aspects of the design of such blended digital spaces, extending beyond traditional interaction design. And finally we argue for the importance of construction, i.e. actual interventions of consider-able scale.