Touch, Listen, (Re)Act: Co-designing Vibrotactile Wearable Instruments for Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Active participation of Deaf individuals in the design and performance of artistic practice benefits increasing collaboration potentials between Deaf and hearing individuals. In this research, we present co-design sessions with a Deaf dancer and a hearing musician to explore how they can influence each other’s expressive explorations. We also study vibrotactile wearable interface designs to better support the Deaf dancer’s perception of sound and music. We report our findings and observations on the co-design process over four workshops and one performance and public demonstration session. We detail the design and implementation of the wearable vibrotactile listening garment and participants’ self-reported experiences. This interface provides participants with more embodied listening opportunities and felt experiences of sound and music. All participants reported that the listening experience highlighted their first-person experience, focusing on their bodies, "regardless of an observer". These findings show how we can improve both such an internal experience of the listener and the collaboration potential between performers for increased inclusion. Overall, this paper addresses two different modalities of haptic feedback, the participation of Deaf users in wearable haptics design as well as music-movement performance practice, and artistic co-creation beyond technology development.