Woman-Centered Design through Humanity, Activism, and Inclusion

Women account for over half of the global population, however, continue to be subject to systematic and systemic disadvantage, particularly in terms of access to health and education. At every intersection, where systemic inequality accounts for greater loss of life or limitations on full and healthy living, women are more greatly impacted by those inequalities. The design of technologies is no different, the very definition of technology is historically cast in terms of male activities, and advancements in the field are critical to improve women's quality of life. This article views HCI, a relatively new field, as well positioned to act critically in the ways that technology serve, refigure, and redefine women's bodies. Indeed, the female body remains a contested topic, a restriction to the development of women's health. On one hand, the field of women's health has attended to the medicalization of the body and therefore is to be understood through medical language and knowledge. On the other hand, the framing of issues associated with women's health and people's experiences of and within such system(s) remain problematic for many. This is visible today in, e.g., socio-cultural practices in disparate geographies or medical devices within a clinic or the home. Moreover, the biological body is part of a great unmentionable, i.e., the perils of essentialism. We contend that it is necessary, pragmatically and ethically, for HCI to turn its attention toward a woman-centered design approach. While previous research has argued for the dangers of gender-demarcated design work, we advance that designing for and with women should not be regarded as ghettoizing, but instead as critical to improving women's experiences in bodily transactions, choices, rights, and access to and in health and care. In this article, we consider how and why designing with and for woman matters. We use our design-led research as a way to speak to and illustrate alternatives to designing for and with women within HCI.QC 20200930</p

Quality of life of seniors hospitalized in long-term care.

The basic theoretical basis: According to demographic development the average and maximum lifespan prolongs. Therefore global population spends a bigger part of adulthood in their old age. This phenomenon is irreversible and brings significant changes into global geriatric nursing and we need to take note of the care that is provided to old patients. The seniors form an irreplaceable and a more and more considerable part of population, they create a varied group with individual needs, priorities and demands in sickness as in health. It is the very polymorbidity of senior patients which is often the reason for a long-term hospitalization. Nowadays, for these purposes more and more beds are built in long-term care facilities (LTCF) which are officially defined as specialized medical institutions which provide care to patients whose health states cannot be substantially improved by any medical treatment as they worsen without a continuous care. The life quality of seniors and the quality of the provided care in these facilities are the main long-term care level indicators. The goals of the thesis: 1) Ascertain the life quality of seniors hospitalized in long-term care institutions. The research questions: 1) How does the hospitalization of seniors in LTCF influence their subjectively perceived quality of life? 2) In which areas do seniors hospitalized in LTCF feel the difference of life quality in LTCF and at home? 3) How are the patients in LTCF satisfied with the quality of health care? 4) Within the rise of seniors' life quality in LTCF, in which areas should the nurse improve the provided care? Methods employed: For the empirical part of the thesis the qualitative analysis of gathered data method was used. The data accumulation was implemented by semi-structured interviews with clients-patients hospitalized in LTCF. The instructions for the interviews were adopted from a QOL Research Unit life quality model of the university in Toronto. This model emphasizes the individual's relations towards the surroundings and the possibilities of maintaining and improving skills. It is divided into 3 categories - existence, togetherness and adaptability. Interview transcriptions create a part of the thesis on an enclosed CD. For illustrative purposes, the results of the research were transformed into mind maps using the XMind software. There are also annotations with respondents' quotations concerning individual map as a part of the thesis. The results: The analysis of in-depth interview gathered information brought several factors which are highly subjective and have a logical level of individuality. The results concerning the research of the seniors' life quality dimensions are more or less in agreement with the basic division found in professional literature. However, they bring a further view on these dimensions and introduce subjective opinions, wishes and evaluation of seniors who found themselves in unknown environment of LTCF. The positive influence of nurses, which often impact the satisfaction of seniors in a medical institution, proved its importance. However, it was the area of communication skills of medical staff which was mentioned as lacking or insufficient. Also the fields of free time activities, seniors' adaptation in LTCF and social isolation were found to be neglected. Conclusion: The long-term care becomes, thanks to demographic development, the most rapidly evolving kind of health care. The emphasis on life quality of hospitalized seniors, as their biggest consumers, should be a matter of course for every medical and social facility. The contribution of the thesis is in detailed mapping of the issue of life quality in LTCF, warning against lack in health care and the neglected fields of life quality

Posthumanist Tendencies in Performance Art : Interaction of Body and Code

This thesis offers a critical reflection of posthumanism as seen through the perspectives of performance art. The first part of the text discusses the onset and development of posthumanism as a philosophical and cultural movement focused on the gradual convergence of the human and technology. The following second part then presents a reflection of thus conceptualized posthumanism in performance art. Posthumanism is conceived as a movement on the border between serious scientific discourse and fiction: Based on the mathematical theory of communication, as well as the legacy of cyberpunk dystopia, posthumanism offers a vision of a transition from human to the so called posthuman. The posthuman is seen as an offspring of technoculture, the synthesis of living and artificial, a loosely evolving entity without fixed ontological boundaries. The existence of the posthuman lies beyond dualistic categorization, has a processual character and refuses any essentialist approach. It is an attractive subject of science-fiction stories and a sexy postmodern slogan, but it is also a symbol of a transgression of actual predestinating categories such as race, gender or social status. More than anything else, posthuman is primarily a metaphor, adopted by a variety of narratives focused on the potential aspects of..

Designing with More-than-Human Food Practices for Climate-Resilience

Climate change is an increasingly urgent, complex problem, with consequences threatening human and non-human lives across the globe. Legislative and citizen-driven responses are valuable but insufficient, and their practical feasibility is unclear. Emerging design research suggests embracing imaginative, creative approaches to support engagement with climate-change issues and inspire collective reflection. This workshop investigates how such approaches can be applied through co-creative design experimentation in the context of human-food practices, which are now recognized as a key driver of climate change. We will reflect on existing climate-change mitigation proposals by imagining their plausible implementations as climate-resilient food practices, emphasizing more-than-human concerns. The workshop is organized as part of a two-day program titled Experimental Food Design for Sustainable Futures inviting diverse participants interested in contributing toward sustainable socio-ecological transformations

Open Forest: Walking-with Feral Stories, Creatures, Data

| openaire: EC/H2020/870759/EU//CreaTuresOpen Forest is an experimental, practice-based inquiry into forests and forest data that facilitates imaginative co-creation of feral forest datasets. The project involves a series of experimental walks with various forests around the world, inviting participants to explore local ecologies and share their experiences in the form of forest stories. To enable sharing of such personally situated stories, we experiment with various speculative material practices and devices, including the online Feral Map – a collaborative dataset of more-than-human forest experiences and knowledge. Through the experimental forest walks and stories, we explore what can constitute a forest dataset, how it can be produced, and by whom to raise questions about power, values, and structural inequalities that shape forests and their futures. We propose that caring for the futures of forests must be collaborative work. Finding ways to do this labour requires imaginative articulations of technologies, practices and data, an agenda to which CSCW is well positioned to contribute.Peer reviewe

Open Forest at PDC22: Embracing Cosmologies exhibition

| openaire: EC/H2020/870759/EU//CreaTuresOpen Forest is a collective, experimental inquiry into different forests and more-than-human dataflows. The project explores how forests and forest data can be produced, thought of and engaged with otherwise, in co-creative ways that consider perspectives of diverse forest creatures and reach beyond geo-engineering, techno-solutionist perspectives. The exhibition is accompanied by a hybrid walk in a local forest area in Newcastle followed by a co-creation of forest stories.Peer reviewe

Open Forest at the CreaTures Festival Exhibition

| openaire: EC/H2020/870759/EU//CreaTuresPeer reviewe

CreaTures website

| openaire: EC/H2020/870759/EU//CreaTuresNon peer reviewe

Open Forest at Helsinki Design Week

| openaire: EC/H2020/870759/EU//CreaTuresA selection of seven experimental productions from the CreaTures Laboratory will be showcased at the Cooler Planet exhibition organised as part of the Helsinki Design Week 2022. Open Forest is a collective, experimental inquiry into different forests and more-than-human dataflows. The project explores how forests and forest data can be produced, thought of and otherwise engaged with, in playful ways that consider perspectives of diverse forest creatures and reach beyond geo-engineering, techno-solutionist perspectives. In practice, the project consists of experimental forest walks followed by a co-creation of forest stories. Through these playful activities, the project entangles existing forests’ datasets with data that questions and obscures the currently collected and available – mostly quantitative – insights about various forests. At Cooler Planet, visitors can browse through existing documentation of the Open Forest walks, stories, and forest patches and contribute their own stories and experiences.Peer reviewe