The experience of enchantment in human-computer interaction

Improving user experience is becoming something of a rallying call in human–computer interaction but experience is not a unitary thing. There are varieties of experiences, good and bad, and we need to characterise these varieties if we are to improve user experience. In this paper we argue that enchantment is a useful concept to facilitate closer relationships between people and technology. But enchantment is a complex concept in need of some clarification. So we explore how enchantment has been used in the discussions of technology and examine experiences of film and cell phones to see how enchantment with technology is possible. Based on these cases, we identify the sensibilities that help designers design for enchantment, including the specific sensuousness of a thing, senses of play, paradox and openness, and the potential for transformation. We use these to analyse digital jewellery in order to suggest how it can be made more enchanting. We conclude by relating enchantment to varieties of experience.</p

”Life is a fake. All that is real are the stock prices” - Simulating Authenticity in Financial Markets

Technology has contributed to what Max Weber termed the disenchantment of the world. Re-enchantment is a broad tendency than has hitherto been described. This overlooked movement within post-industrial business stretches into financial markets. Presently, we observe magic, morality and narrative being allowed to enter business. Re-enchantment helps us to understand the evolution of post-modern markets, as it partly forms the present exit from industrial society. This piece of research takes a micro-sociological interest with the mentality and culture of financial markets. It also has a macro-sociological character in dealing with the process of rationalisation in society. The article gives a contribution to theory about the evolving entertainment economy under the heading of re-enchantment. The experience of meaning or alternatively deprivation of meaning is decisive for behaviour and interaction at work. Technology in work is vital for this. I study four important aspects of a desired re-enchantment; sense of community, expression, myth and magic, and morality.re-enchantment; financial markets; morality; meaning

Enchantment Dissolved : A Reexamination of the Hymn\u27s Authorship and Significance in the Commonplace MS. Hannah Swynock

“Enchantment Dissolved” is a hymn written by John Newton and a part of the first publication of the Olney Hymns in 1779. However, starting around the year 1803, the hymn was misattributed in multiple publications to William Cowper, the second author of the collection. This article will analyze Cowper’s literary style and consider why the hymn may have been mistaken for his creation. This particular hymn also appears in a 17-18th century commonplace, Hannah Swynock 1687, in the Parker MSS. at the Lilly Rare Book Library at Indiana University. In this hand-written manuscript, the hymn has four additional verses that are not found in print. This article also analyzes those four verses in comparison to the original five to determine whether the author of the addition was mimicking the style and themes of “Enchantment Dissolved.” Commonplaces had many uses and sometimes multiple scribes or purposes, so it can be difficult to draw conclusions from one entry. However, theorizing about the source and purpose of this hymn and its addition in the context of the manuscript is important for understanding how the commonplace was used and by whom

Deep Roots in a Time of Frost (2014) by Patrick Curry

Book review

Once upon a time there was a consumer…: stories of magic and the magic of stories

This paper explores how the centrality of narrative to people’s understandings of the world, and the power of stories of enchantment in particular, colour consumer culture. Specifically, it analyses the ways in which fantastic themes of magic and heroism are used in the discourses of marketing scholars and practitioners, as well as consumers to shape views of consumption and marketing. It further illuminates the role that marketers and consumers each have in imbuing consumption with a sense of enchantment and situates this phenomenon within the dominant neoliberal ideology. Finally, it discusses implications for marketing theory and for practices aimed at reducing excessive consumption related to such enchantment

Patrick Curry interview with Tom Shippey

Patrick Curry interview with Tom Shippey in November 201

“Valli” at the border: Adivasi women de-link from settler colonialism paving re-enchantment of the forest commons

The forests of Attappady Hills part of the Western Ghats in Kerala homeland to Adivasi people is a frontier region where a settler population is now predominant. This paper aims to bring the concept of borders as a heuristic device to interpret gender-ecology-indigeneity in Attappady. The conversations among Adivasis, between Adivasis and settlers, between Adivasi women and their children become in media res dialogues of their border subjectivity. This was an empirical study in Attappady in which life experiences, oral history and myths were studied using narrative analysis. The paper discusses four findings: First how land dispossession disproportionately impacted Adivasi women. Second the gradual increase of elopement and its linkage with land dispossession among women and loss of commons. Thirdly the collapse of the household due to alcoholism and Adivasi women’s social movement to protect their oikeon. Fourthly the rupture of gender agriculture foodways and how women are running community kitchens for nutritious meals. The Attappady hills that were once denuded have regenerated although the region is prone to recurrent droughts and floods. In the midst of these climate change challenges and agrarian distress both these forests and Adivasi women are uniting from their border position and showing signs of being mutually constituted in renewal. While narratives of “enchantment” can serve as technologies of power it argues that critical border thinking has to be accompanied by visions of “re-enchantment” of the commons. Flows of knowledge are in media res between enchantment, critical enchantment and re-enchantment. Epistemic potential for this re-enchantment comes from the convergence of decolonial feminist epistemologies of geo politics, body territory and indigenous feminisms with ecofeminism. The emergent affective interrelation shows co-production of place and people. Finally, a grounded approach is recommended for strengthening women’s collectives and multifunctional land use planning to ensure gender equity in access to natural resources

In search of copassion : Creating a novel concept to promote re-enchantment at work

Re-enchantment taps well into the current zeitgeist: The rising focus on emotions and post-material values also in organizational context. Enchantment is deeply tied to socially generated emotions. Our aim is to develop the concept of copassion, referring to the process of responding to the positive emotion of a fellow human being. Concepts are crucial as they shape our understanding of the world. Our core claim is relating to our colleagues' positive emotions not only enables and maintains but also fosters enchantment at work. In this article, by laying the ground by discussing enchantment and the theoretical framework of intersubjectivity, we will link copassion to the physiological and evolutionary basis of humans, as well as explore its conceptual neighbors. Finally, we will discuss intersubjectivity, and particularly mutual recognition, as well as the inseparability of compassion and copassion in human experience at work, and its implications to the study of enchantment.Peer reviewe