This paper presents an investigation of the potential of virtual reality (VR) to bridge the gap between humans and the largely unexplored deep sea, using the immersive, playful experience of "Echo of the Abyss" (EotA). Built around the structure of a deep-sea dive experience, EotA aims to enhance users' sense of interconnectedness with underwater environments and stimulate curiosity about marine life. The qualitative analysis reveals a heightened empathy, respect for aquatic life, and a newfound interest in real-world diving experiences. Quantitative results indicate a marginal increase in positive perceptions towards the sea. From these findings, we discuss VR as an effective transformational tool to foster a deeper ecological consciousness. Our contributions can benefit HCI researchers and game designers interested in designing ocean sustainability-driven experiences and games.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713833
Technology profoundly mediates how people feel, think and engage with nature. Here, video games are projected to become one of the most important mediums to facilitate digital human-nature interaction. In this paper, we explore how 16 players make sense of nature-in-games. Drawing from their own lived experiences, we 1) interviewed them, and 2) invited them to show us games that exemplify their conceptualisation of nature-in-games. We thematically analyse these "show-and-tell" conversations to construct three inductive themes: We arrive at an understanding that nature-in-games experiences are pluralistic, contested happenings. Participants positioned digital nature 1) as a relational other to respect, 2) as a space to reflect on humankind's current practices towards nature and 3) as a tool to escape from the lack of nature in their everyday lives. Based on our insights, we sketch out design inspirations for people wishing to augment, challenge and expand nature-in-games.
How more-than-human gatherings configure and change to support designing is not well understood. In the more-than-human theory of designing-with, these gatherings are called constituencies. This paper aims to shed light on the practices of a constituency, by analyzing the moving of a plant studio from one city to another. The plant studio includes over 250 plants and is where living-with and designing-with plants are conceptualized. The move offered an opportunity to understand the dynamics of the plant studio as a constituency using design events, a vocabulary and analytical tool, for understanding practices and temporality. In our analysis, we surface the role of humans as speaking subjects and five repertoires or considered actions that together articulate the practice of a constituency. We also illustrate the use of design events as an analytical tool for nuance and critical reflections on more-than-human design.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713916
Animals living alongside humans are navigating a world increasingly filled with technology, yet little is known about how they interface with these systems, whether designed for, with, or around them. Anchored in HCI and ranging across diverse fields, this scoping review analyzes nearly 800 research works to explore the diverse realities of animal-technology research, examining the who, what, why, and how of animal-technology entanglements. Our analysis revealed 11 research objectives and eight types of technologies across six animal contexts. By categorizing the literature based on authors' aims and intended beneficiaries, we highlight trends, gaps, and ethical considerations. We find that most systems involve animals with limited potential for direct engagement or sense-making. We propose a framework to understand animals as users versus subjects of interactive systems, focusing on feedback, empirical testing, and projected animal benefits. Our findings offer a foundation to understand current and future animal technology research and the diversity of animal user experience.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713384
The more-than-human turn in HCI has explored entanglements with non-human others that include animals, plants, and technologies. Building on this agenda, this work constructs more-than-human (MTH) entanglements through the lens of queer non-binary, human/non-human entanglements of land and body. By fabulating an autofiction (fiction based on personal experience) titled Bog Girl – this work explores the way non-binary lands of wetlands, and non-binary bodies, share similar experiences of being cut (literally and metaphorically) by bifurcating logics in medical and agricultural settings. However, these experiences allow for new human/land animations, entanglements, grieving, and healing, ultimately, imagining non-binary grounds for design. The work contributes 1) new considerations of the generative and designerly potential storytelling and fiction in more-than-human research 2) queer embodied approaches to MTH work in HCI 3) and non-binary ethics for MTH design that imagine pluriversal bodily consent and paths to entangled healing.
As design researchers committed to more-than-human designing, we found we were increasingly moving our research activities outside of our institutional studios and labs into yards and balconies where we lived. In this paper, we investigate this emerging pattern through collaborative autoethnography to arrive at the notion of backyard practices. These are distinct practices that signal the value and necessity of being there in more-than-human worlds to design-with over time. We describe the features of the practice that include time as duration and intensities, liminality as more-than-human presences, and proximity. We also describe commitments that emerged that include practice decentering, consistently engage more-than-humans as participants in the process, act with not-knowing and humility, queerly design alongside, and learn to be affected.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713291
LivingLoom is a design inquiry that proposes a post-anthropocentric approach to fabrication by integrating living plants directly into textiles. Industrial textile fabrication views plants as passive resources. They are grown, harvested, and spun into yarns for textile production, mainly to serve human needs. While efficient, this approach overlooks the intrinsic value of these organisms as living beings. LivingLoom fabrication approach wet-spins biodegradable yarns with seeds that can be further integrated into textiles that can sprout and grow. We present a design space for incorporating microgreen seeds into textiles with a 10-day growth cycle, leveraging care-based fabrication and interaction. We conducted a three-day user study to understand how people wear and care for plant-integrated textiles, revealing new possibilities for living textiles and care-based interactions. LivingLoom examines the intimacy between humans and plants in textile forms, shedding light on the design potential for the care-based fabrication of (e-)textiles.
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3706598.3713156