Tangible Intangibles

Exploring Embodied Emotion in Mixed Reality for Art Therapy

Join us for a full-day, hands-on workshop that combines biometric emotion journaling, traditional art therapy, and comparative embodied reflection to explore how intangible emotional states can be materialized through digital and analog interfaces.

This immersive experience at TEI 2026 in Chicago, March 8-11, combines clay sculpting, mixed reality, and biosignal visualization to investigate what each modality affords for emotional expression and awareness.

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About the Workshop

What is tangible? We often think of objects that can be touched, held, or physically manipulated. But what about the tightness in your chest during anxiety? The weight of grief on your shoulders? The racing heart of excitement? These sensations are intensely felt—they have texture, pressure, temperature, rhythm—yet they are often considered intangible.

This studio explores how to make the intangible tangible, a question at the heart of art therapy, somatic psychology, and embodied cognition. When your breath rhythm becomes color saturation, when your eye movements choreograph an avatar, when your heartbeat determines brightness—emotions leave tangible traces that can be witnessed, explored, and archived.

Who Should Join: HCI researchers, interaction designers, art therapists, clinicians, XR developers, artists exploring embodiment, biofeedback, or data-as-material. No prior technical expertise required—all materials and devices provided.

Format: Full-day (8 hours) in-person workshop at TEI 2026, Chicago | Capacity: 10-15 participants

What You'll Experience

This workshop balances traditional art therapy with cutting-edge mixed reality to investigate fundamental questions about embodied emotion:

Traditional Art Therapy

Clay Sculpting & Manual Color: Engage with established somatic art therapy techniques. After a guided body scan, sculpt emotional states on articulated mannequin forms and create free-form 2D drawings. Through tactile manipulation and conscious color selection, externalize felt sensations into material form.

Mixed Reality Biometric Journaling

Movement + Biosignals: Experience an MR prototype where your body speaks first. Breath rhythm modulates color intensity, heart rate variability affects pulsing patterns, and eye movement dynamics influence motion quality. Your physiological signals become visual feedback, generating persistent 3D "emotional artifacts" that can be revisited over time.

Comparative Reflection & Co-Design

Collaborative Exploration: Through hands-on experimentation and group reflection, compare what digital vs. analog modalities afford for emotional expression. Prototype alternative mappings, propose hybrid workflows, and contribute to design principles for trauma-informed XR systems.

Key Questions We'll Explore: What can MR do that clay cannot? When does manual interpretation create deeper connection? How might biosensors enhance emotional awareness? What makes an emotional artifact meaningful?

Workshop Schedule

A full-day journey through embodied emotion and biometric expression

09:00 AM - 09:30 AM

Arrival & Somatic Grounding

Guided body scan meditation introducing interoceptive awareness. Notice breath, heart, tension, and emotion in the body, establishing baseline somatic attention.

09:30 AM - 10:00 AM

Theoretical Context

Mini-presentations on somatic psychology, biometric interfaces as emotional mirrors, and digital phenotyping. Brief demo of the MR biometric journaling system.

10:00 AM - 11:00 AM

Experience Session: Clay & Manual Color

Sculpt with physical clay on mannequin forms, selecting and applying colors guided by body-scan awareness. Complete free-form 2D art therapy with paper and pencil. Photographic record captured for comparison.

11:00 AM - 11:15 AM

Break & Informal Reflection

Coffee/tea break with discussion prompt: "What surprised you about seeing your emotion embodied?"

11:30 AM - 12:30 PM

Experience Session: MR Biometric Journaling

In pairs (rotating), experience the full system: body scan meditation, MR avatar with joint color selection, free movement while biometrics modulate color/speed into 3D artifact generation. Non-participating members observe and take notes.

12:30 PM - 01:30 PM

Comparative Reflection & Prototyping

Small groups discuss: What did digital vs. analog modalities afford? Where did you feel more connected to emotion? Sketch ideas for hybrid or alternative biometric emotion journaling systems.

01:30 PM - 02:30 PM

Lunch Break

Informal discussions with participants and organizers.

02:30 PM - 04:00 PM

Gallery Walk & Closing Circle

Display both MR artifacts (via tablets/phones showing AR models) and clay sculptures. Participants share one insight. Co-create a visual "emotion mapping" poster synthesizing the day's discoveries.

Secure Your Spot

Meet the Organizers

An interdisciplinary team bridging affective computing, therapeutic practice, and embodied design research

Dr. Casper Harteveld

Lead Facilitator

Professor and Associate Dean at Northeastern University. Research focuses on using games to study decision-making in complex systems. DARPA Young Faculty Award recipient and leader of Ghost Lab.

Mahsa Nasri

Lead Facilitator

Ph.D. student at Ghost Lab specializing in HCI and immersive technologies. Integrates VR, eye tracking, and machine learning to study user attention and affective engagement.

Mahnoosh Jahanian

Creative Technologist

Creative technologist bridging sensing and computation, exploring psychosomatic data to understand how feeling takes form. Practice spans computation, art therapy, and embodied sensing.

Wei Wu

XR Researcher

Ph.D. student at Ghost Lab exploring embodied cognition, multisensory learning, and affective interaction in XR. Integrates phenomenological theory with tangible design.

Binyan Xu

Interaction Designer

Ph.D. student at Playful Mind Lab focusing on technology-assisted rehabilitation and embodied motor learning, bridging clinical reasoning with XR-based therapy environments.

Ready to Explore Embodied Emotion?

Join us at TEI 2026 in Chicago for this unique hands-on experience

Register Now - Limited to 15 Participants!