What happens to our brains, bodies and emotions during digital media engagement? These are among the questions to be explored at a conference at Sussex on 26 June.

The Inputs-Outputs Conference will bring together a diverse range of experts on engagement and interactivity, in games, theatre, human-computer interaction and human-human interaction.

Speakers include leading neuroscientists at the University of Sussex, researchers who measure how well humans connect, immersive theatre company Punchdrunk, actor and game designer Tassos Stevens, computer games researchers, and researchers in social signal processing (making non-verbal human communication readable to computers).

There will also be a workshop, with funding experts from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) on the day, to provide a hothouse for the development of projects and collaborations.

Among those presenting research is Dr Judith Good, Reader in Informatics at Sussex, who will talk about interface design and engagement in an educational context, introducing lessons that are relevant to all from autism research.

Other speakers include Professor Hugo Critchley, co-director of the Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at Sussex, whose talk is entitled ‘Feeling What Others Feel: Reciprocity and embodiment in social and emotional interactions’.

Carina Wrestling, Sussex doctoral student in digital media and the conference organiser, said: “Some of these experts create interactive interfaces, others research what makes an interactive interface engaging; some research the measurement or quantification of engagement, others still what happens within when people are engaged.

“Inputs-Outputs aims to tease apart the controllable and uncontrollable factors in interface design, to give a clearer picture of what causes what.”

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