selectparks - Workshop on Cute Media

While the project page itself is anything but 'cute', the Workshop on Designing Cute Interactive Media promises to be a focused investigation into design strategies for creating emotionally engaging interfaces. The workshop will be set in Cape Town, South Africa, as part of DIS2008. It begins on Feb 24.

Sayeth the site:

The main goal of this workshop is to provide designers with a better understanding of developing ways to enhance the positive experience and effectiveness of interactive media by utilizing the psychological and culturally developed effects of cuteness.

Application submission details are here.

On the topic of emotionally engaging interaction design, is there room for a workshop on Terrifyingly Scary Interaction? Perhaps it's not needed: from the perspective of most audiences the performance anxiety imposed by interactive art seems frightening enough as it is..