Acrosuit: Promoting Improvisation in Acroyogis With Tactile and Visual Cues

Abstract

Acroyoga practitioners either follow predefined choreographies or play freely to create compositions of two bodies’ poses and transitions. To support their free play, we created the training technology probe Acrosuit. The Acrosuit gives visual or vibrotactile cues to propose a novel point of contact without instructions how to get there. We invited acroyogis to exploratively play with the suit and gained qualitative insights on whether and how they used the cues. The suit influenced their practice and in some cases also the way of communication between the partners. Experiencing the shifts in communication caused by the Acrosuit made acroyogis more conscious about their interaction without the technology.