Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies
Germany
fellow
Florian "Floyd" Mueller
2026-2027
Home institution
Monash University
Country of origin (home institution)
Australia
Discipline(s)
Computers and intelligent systems
Theme(s)
Digital Society; Future Studies
Fellowship dates
›
Biography
Florian 'Floyd' Mueller is Professor of Future Interfaces at Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), where he leads the award-winning Exertion Games Lab. Previously, he was at RMIT, Stanford, University of Melbourne, Microsoft Research, MIT Media Lab, Fuji-Xerox Palo Alto Labs, Xerox Parc, and industrial research organization CSIRO. He featured on the top 100 human-computer interaction (HCI) researcher list and was the first Australian-based researcher to be selected to chair the CHI conference: HCI’s highest-ranked publication outlet. Floyd’s games have featured on the BBC, ABC, Discovery Science Channel, and in Wired magazine, and they have been played by more than 20,000 players, across three continents. Floyd is also a member of the prestigious ACM SIGCHI Academy, an honorary group of leaders “who have made substantial contributions to the field of HCI”.
Research Project
Fostering nature engagement through human-computer integration
Engaging with nature is central to wellbeing, offering restoration, stress reduction, and sustainable behavioural change. Yet digital devices increasingly accompany forest walks, kayaking trips, and other outdoor recreation, often undermining nature’s restorative power by introducing distractions rooted in indoor, productivity-driven paradigms. This project pioneers a new paradigm of digital nature integration, investigating the design of technologies that enrich rather than detract from outdoor experiences. Building on theories of human–computer integration and the dual perspectives of “Körper” (physical body) and “Leib” (lived body), this project will investigate the design of three prototypes that foster the virtues of reverie (solitude), oneness (bodily awareness), and humility (reverence for nature). Through technology futures orientations, in-the-wild studies, and interdisciplinary collaboration with Freiburg experts in embedded systems, neuroethics and AI, the project will deliver the first framework for digital nature integration. Outcomes include theoretical advances and practical design guidelines to enhance health, wellbeing, and sustainability through enriched nature engagement.
Research Interests:
Human-computer interaction; interaction design; game and play design