interaction with the digital world is facing new challenges: interactive devices are everywhere, from our pockets to the billboards in the city, from our clothes to our cars, yet interaction has never been so frustrating. The Internet connects billions of people and devices, yet finding, accessing and creating infor- mation have never been so complicated; data troves populate the clouds and are used to personalize most on-line services, yet we have never felt so disoriented and helpless. By all measures, we live in and depend upon the digital world as never before, yet we are disempowered and feel controlled by it rather than in control of it.

To tackle these challenges, we explore Extreme Interaction: by looking at situations where the needs or promises of interaction are highest, we can expect to anticipate tomorrow’s routine use of digital technology. Rather than trying to fix the problems of today’s technology, we will explore paradigm-shifting approaches that leapfrog the limitations of current systems. To achieve this ambitious goal and yet focus on a few well-identified topics, the project is organized around four themes: Creativity, Human-Computer Partnerships, Collaboration and Infrastructure.