Curious Rituals is a research project conducted at Art Center College of Design (Pasadena) in July-August 2012 by Nicolas Nova (The Near Future Laboratory / HEAD-Genève), Katherine Miyake, Nancy Kwon and Walton Chiu from the media design program. \nThe curious habits described in this book can be seen as ingredients with which technological objects are domesticated by people, integrated into their own daily routines. Fixing strategies, nervous tics, device juggling or courtesy postures, to name just a few, are not only peculiar interaction habits, they reveal how people normalize so-called “futuristic technologies” or what seemed magical and complex at first. They highlight the ingenuity users employ to repurpose and adapt digital technologies to their own context. One should see these insights as constant design patterns in the evolution of technological products and services.\n This book was produced as part of a research residency in the Media Design Program at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

This was a successful translation of ethnographic and observational research into engaging, tangible forms, giving a sense of the new kinds of curious, strange, peculiar interaction rituals that have been discovered and adopted over time, many of which are related directly to the introduction of new technologies, interfaces, and devices.