Bringing Black Feminist's Thoughts, Self-Definitions, and Creative Agency to Digital Media and Technology Design

Users from marginalized groups are often faced with the challenges that result from a lack of diverse thought in the design and implementation of media and technologies that we engage in our daily lives. It is these artifacts that result in the harm, erasure, and hyper-surveillance of Black and Brown people. We seek to disrupt problematic narratives present in tech and design fields by (re)inserting Black Feminism and leveraging our personal experiences to build on design methods. Though research centered on the importance of women’s experiences and standpoints in tech practice is crucial, feminist scholarship has not always reflected the values and the liberation of women who are not white. This paper uses personal narrative to argue for the value of Black feminist thought and methods in the sub-disciplines of computing, such as digital media, human computer interaction (HCI) and human-centered computing (HCC)

The User Reconfigured: On Subjectivities of Information

Foundational to HCI is the notion of “the user.” Whether a cognitive processor, social actor, consumer, or even a non- user, the user in HCI has always been as much a technical construct as actual people using systems. We explore an emerging formulation of the user—the subjectivity of in- formation—by laying out what it means and why research- ers are being drawn to it. We then use it to guide a case study of a relatively marginal use of computing—digitally mediated sexuality—to holistically explore design in rela- tion to embodiment, tactual experience, sociability, power, ideology, selfhood, and activism. We argue that subjectivi- ties of information clarifies the relationships between de- sign choices and embodied experiences, ways that designers design users and not just products, and ways to cultivate and transform, rather than merely support, human agency

"They’re Just Tixel Pits, Man": Disputing the 'Reality' of Virtual Reality Pornography through the Story Completion Method

Pornography is a substantial part of humans' everyday interaction with computers, yet to date the topic has been underconsidered by HCI. Here, we examine some of the common cultural ideals non-experts constructed of a 'new' pornographic experience - Virtual Reality (VR) Porn - through use of the 'Story Completion Method'. Forty five participants completed a story stem about a male character who was about to have his "very first virtual reality porn experience". Through our analysis, we demonstrate a narrative of a 'perfect', idealised sexual experience, as well as one which emphasised the imagined 'precarious' and dangerous consequences around this technology use. We indicate how the stories reproduced ideals around heteronormativity and hegemonic masculinity, suggesting an agenda of 'Designing for Eroticism' as a tactic which could avoid such problematic discourses. We also suggest the opportunities and challenges presented through use of the 'Story Completion Method'

Share Your Values! Community-Driven Embedding of Ethics in Research

Ethically-defensible research requires wide-ranging, holistic, and deep consideration. It is often overseen by Research Ethics Committees, Institutional Research Boards or equivalents but not all organisations have these and where they do, their degree of independence from organisational priorities varies (perhaps leading to research that would create reputational or other difficulties for organisations being left unpublished or unacknowledged). Conflicts of interest can therefore be left unmanaged, participants may be exploited, and society may not benefit. In this paper, we claim that publishing communities (e.g. scholarly conferences) can play a larger role in supporting improved ethical practice by defining and communicating the ethical values of their community’s collective identity and aspirations. This approach is not prescriptive like procedural ethics nor as broad as general research ethics codes (both are important) but offers a tangible way to unify ethics concerns across research contexts

A hauntology of participatory speculation

In this paper I conduct a hauntological analysis of participatory speculation, within the context of a study into understanding the potential for increasing recognition of LGBT+ young people’s experiences of hate crime and hate incidents. Hauntology provides a means to further situate accounts of speculation in Participatory Design by sensitising us to the interplay of the virtual and the actual that enables us to expand our sense of the possible. Through understanding how participatory speculation is shaped by absent presences, this paper contributes to the discussion of post-solutionist practices in PD that foster care and responsibility across multiple sites and forms of participation in the face of issues that resist resolution. I conclude by considering by translating speculation into shared spaces of wonder, Participatory Design can foster ethical commitments that stay with the trouble

Interacting with Masculinities: A Scoping Review

Gender is a hot topic in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). Work has run the gamut, from assessing how we embed gender in our computational creations to correcting systemic sexism, online and off. While gender is often framed around women and femininities, we must recognize the genderful nature of humanity, acknowledge the evasiveness of men and masculinities, and avoid burdening women and genderful folk as the central actors and targets of change. Indeed, critical voices have called for a shift in focus to masculinities, not only in terms of privilege, power, and patriarchal harms, but also participation, plurality, and transformation. To this end, I present a 30-year history of masculinities in HCI work through a scoping review of 126 papers published to the ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) conference proceedings. I offer a primer and agenda grounded in the CHI and extant literatures to direct future work.Comment: 12 page

Designing technologies for intimate care in women

PhD ThesisDesigning for intimate care remains an underexplored area of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI): while technologies for health and wellbeing might be plentiful, technologies for intimate care are limited. Intimate care is associated with personal hygiene, bodily functions and bodily products, and is a lifetime practice that requires well-defined interventions – by the self, or supported by others. With a move to experience, HCI has explored and responded to some of the concepts of intimate care in recent research, by addressing taboo and life disruptions. However, a wider understanding and conceptualization of intimate care work is missing from the broader HCI discourse on health and wellbeing, as well as a distinct framework for negotiating the design of technologies of intimate care. Addressing this space is noteworthy, within a field that designs technologies to support, enhance, and improve human life (Kannabiran et al. 2011). It is possible that this is related to uncertainty regarding the challenges that technology might bring to intimate interactions, particularly the challenges faced in practices that encompass bodywork and proximity to hidden parts of the body, and the impact of troublesome topics upon wellbeing education. The aim of this research is to enquire into the integration of digital technologies and intimate care towards the development of technologies for engagement with intimate care practices in women. I seek to investigate a methodological approach with a focus on the woman to understand the challenges of designing for and with intimate care; explore the qualities of such woman-centered approach in practice. In this thesis I present three case studies that incorporate empirical methods and new designs that I developed throughout this programme of research. These include 1) ethnographic observations of women’s health physiotherapy within a clinic to understand the components of intimate care within a professional setting; 2) a design toolkit that explores e-textiles for teaching female pelvic fitness, delivered through a series of workshops in which discussions that blended humour and laughter made it entertaining and less embarrassing to ask questions and to express curiosity about intimate bodies; 3) Labella, a probe/intimate wearable for self-learning about hidden parts of the female body and a technology which encompasses embodied interaction, that aims to contribute to breaking down the taboo of looking at oneself to help reduce the barrier of selfcare. Furthermore, Labella aims to support knowledge of the other, while exploring perceptions of esteem and reliance towards practices of care within the body. These three case studies begin to explore and offer insights on how designing for intimate care is entwined in woman-centered approaches to design. ! iv! This thesis contributes to interaction design research and outlines a framework for designing technologies for and with intimate care in women. The research highlights how intimate care pervades personal and professional settings, and its significance throughout the lifecourse. Specifically, I contribute to an underexplored area of HCI, women’s health (outside maternal health) by focusing on a woman-centered methodological approach. In doing this, I explore this approach in practice through challenging existing practices of care within women’s health and by offering novel design concepts and devices, in which I explore humour in design as a method to support learning of sensitive topics and as a tool to diminish the taboo nature of the interactions. Lastly, I propose woman-centered design as a novel form of inquiry in design practice research