Wag Your Tail and Flap Your Ears

As digital technology moves closer to the user's body, exemplified with smart watches and wearable computing, it becomes important to better understand how to design for the living human body. We report from two design projects involving mechanical body extensions for use in theatre settings. The resulting mechanical tail and ears are described, and we report on the users' experience with applying these body extensions on stage. The lessons learned are related to Merleau Ponty's phenomenology of the lived body and Don Norman's concept of mapping.