Laia Turmo Vidal

Hello! I am Laia, and I investigate body-centered interactive technologies for health and wellbeing.

I am deeply passionate about the transformative potential of innovative interactive systems that sense and actuate on the body, such as wearable devices and bio-reactive technologies. My premise is that these technologies can be designed to profoundly shape our somatic experiences: the way we perceive, engage with, and relate to our own bodies, our movements, emotions, identity, and how we interact with others and the world. By carefully intertwining bodies, technology, materials, and practices in design, I believe we can cultivate profound and sustainable somatic transformations that open to new possibilities for care and wellness. Thus, I explore how we can responsibly design, deploy and evaluate these somatic transformation technologies to promote individual and collective care, health and wellbeing.

Methodologically, my work combines Research through Design, material explorations, participatory design, and body-centered design methodologies such as soma design. Theoretically, I draw from embodiment theories such as phenomenology, and more recently feminism; as well as neuroscience insights. I have worked extensively on designing and deploying technological interventions in various health and wellbeing domains (including sports and fitness, rehabilitation, physical inactivity, exergames, and professional dance).

In my past PhD work, I designed intercorporeal biofeedback technologies to facilitate embodied teaching and learning in contexts of physical activity. During my first postdoc, I joined i_mBODY Lab as part of an ERC-CoG grant, where I exploited neuroscientific insights on body perception to design sensorimotor transformations fostered by haptic and sound stimuli, exploring their effects on people who are physically inactive and on professional dancers. In addition, I have also investigated through collaborations the potential of XR bio-reactive systems for exergaming and the potential of machine learning to support personalization of body-centered experiences for people with diverse bodies and abilities.

Currently, I am a Digital Futures Postdoctoral Research Fellow at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, where I explore the potential of shape-changing technologies to support processes of bodily transitions, such as injuries and chronic pain.

My research interests include novel materials, body sensors and actuators, personalization through design and ML, design theory and knowledge, and the development of design methodologies that center the body and movement in design. Besides research, I enjoy drawing and photoembroidery, physical activity and spending time walking and foraging the forests and lakes of Sweden. You can get in contact with me through: