With our project we want to explore how this age-old divide. The core problem: In physical space, we can measure the position of objects and people and locate them in a coordinate system. This is not the case with social space. Social spaces resist objective measurements, since they become real only through human (inter-)actions. What is more: The social spaces we are interested in are typically un-occupied from the point of view of physical space. From a physical perspective, an interactional space is essentially a ‘void between people’. Nevertheless, for the social actors this space is real: We can observe that people rather take a detour than cross other people’s interactional space.
Our project aims to uncover the connection lines between the physical and the social space by making social interactions automatically observable through physical measurements. We will use data from depth sensors about body position, pose, facial expression etc. to detect and visualize socially constructed “interactional spaces”. We aim to approach the problem addressing three increasingly complex challenges: (i) starting from the individual dimension by understanding how individual bodies relate to meaningful objects in their surroundings, (ii) we expand the analysis to a group dimension by understanding how a group of people shapes their interactional space, and (iii) finally we aim to capture the interactional dynamics of forming and releasing interactions over time and space with a sensor network.