FLESH FEEDBACK: Kyle Machulis, "Building a Platform for Haptic Intimacy"

The IDM/ONX FLESH FEEDBACK speaker series continues, as we're joined by Kyle Machulis, one of the world's leading experts on technologies of haptic intmacy.

Wrong Hole: Building a Platform for Haptic Intimacy via a Series of Mistakes
Buttplug.io, an open source software framework for adding Intimate Haptics to games and applications, has existed for 8 years at this point, now supporting over 600 pieces of hardware and installed on 10s of thousands of devices. Even with those numbers, how does one judge the success of a technology when the goal is efficacy of development of intimate communication, instead of simple product sales? This talk will cover how the Buttplug and Intiface projects were initiated and have grown/survived over the years, via a series of experiments, guesses, and misfires, and what we've learn from a community dedicated to exploring haptics and sticking with us despite the several wrong turns in design and abstract, complicated goals of its lead developers.

Bio: Kyle Machulis is a principal software/hardware engineer with over 25 years of experience in the tech industry at companies such as Microsoft, Mozilla, and Linden Lab. He currently leads the Buttplug.io open source software project, providing cross-platform development support for a variety of intimate haptics devices. As an artist, Kyle has shown in digital exhibitions and participated in residencies around the world, including the Museumsquartier in Vienna, Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA, and Autodesk Pier 9 Prototyping Labs in San Francisco, CA. He has published as an independent scholar on topics of Haptics, Proxemics, and Virtual Identity/Embodiment. He is also very tired.

Event specifics: RSVP required for non-NYU guest through Eventbrite. Every visitor must be registered and provide a unique non-NYU email address. On the day of the event you will receive an email pass, bring identification and the pass (you do not need to print it out) for security.

About the Fall ‘24 Speaker Series: FLESH FEEDBACK: DESIGNING WEARABLE SENSATIONS

With the ubiquitous adoption and domestication of wearable devices that continually feed us streams and bursts of data relayed through touch, we’ve already become acclimated to practices of remote haptic sensing, knowing, communicating, and socializing. An emerging generation of wearables, with varying degrees of success, attempt to route more complex, engaging, and affectively compelling forms of touch through these contacts opened up between flesh and technology. At the same time, these new material intimacies with data expose us to a range of vulnerabilities, as our bodies can be monitored and remotely stimulated, often without our consent. Often ideated as our most ‘ancient’ sense–or alternatively as a ‘neglected’ sense–touch takes center stage in this year’s IDM X Onassis speaker series, as a compelling mix of artists, designers, industry professionals, and academics each take up questions about our changing embodied relationships with digital technologies.

Host or Publisher Brooklyn Experimental Media Center at NYU Tandon School of Engineering