The talking poles public art based in social design

This case study provides insights for artists, designers, and technologists working with community-generated media in the domain of public art. The authors document their recent public artwork, the Talking Poles, and discuss the adaptation of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) design methods to the project. Community-generated public art has a direct relationship to the field of HCI through the technology that underlies both social computing and quotidian digital documentation. When acknowledging ‘citizen action’ as a component of public art, consideration must also be given to preservation of the work as representative of an emergent and shared digital world culture

Tactics for HCI Design Interventions with Nonprofit Organizations

Thirty HCI practitioners participated in a CHI 2011 workshop [7], intending to directly engage with the processes, goals, and challenges of six Vancouver area nonprofit organizations. Analysis of the workshop documentation allowed us to track instances of reciprocal interaction between stakeholders. Findings revealed that various design tactics were productive in enabling collaborators to improve their focus on addressing key challenges they face. This case study contributes new knowledge – tactics to conduct and evaluate HCI Design Interventions with nonprofits, as well as, helping to expand the emerging intersection of political computing and human-computer interaction

HCI, politics and the city: Engaging with urban grassroots movements for reflection and action

Grassroots initiatives enable communities of stakeholders to transform urban landscapes and impact broader political and cultural trajectories. In this twoday workshop, we present opportunities to engage HCI research with activist communities in Vancouver, the city hosting CHI’11. Working directly with local activist organizations, we explore the processes, materials, challenges, and goals of grassroots communities. Our bottom-up approach, including explorations of urban spaces and activist headquarters, participatory design sessions, reflection, critique and creative design of political artifacts will bring together a diverse group of HCI researchers, activists and artists. The workshop will result in concrete strategies for bottom-up activism and serve to inform the design of future interactive systems in the domain of political computing

A low-tech sensing system for particulate pollution

ABSTRACT We present an ultra low-cost sensing system, which enables participants to see and reflect on the particulates in their air. Drawing on prior work in paper computing, we introduce small sensors for particulate pollution that can be easily assembled from common paper materials for less than $1 USD, and mailed by regular postal service to residents of entire neighborhoods, cities, or geographic regions. Recipients collect particulate samples using these sensors and mail them back to a central location, where the particles are viewed and analyzed via a microscope. The data, which includes rich images of actual air pollution particles, can then be broadcast to larger audiences. This paper details the design of our system and its deployment with a local air quality activist community. We conclude by highlighting the tradeoffs between high-tech and low-tech sensing, and suggest opportunities for tangible interaction to support rich, new ways of seeing our environment

Rethinking the progress bar

ABSTRACT Progress bars are prevalent interface elements in modern software. Typically, a linear function is employed, in which the progress of the bar is directly proportional to how much work has been completed. However, numerous factors cause progress bars to proceed at non-linear rates. Additionally, humans perceive time in a non-linear way. This paper explores the impact of various progress bar behaviors on user perception of process duration. We present a comprehensive experiment that was devised and conducted to determine the user perception of different progress bar behaviors. The results are used to suggest several design considerations that can be applied to enhance progress bars and ultimately improve users' computing experience

Mindful Persistence: Literacies for Taking up and Sustaining Fermented-Food Projects

Almost by definition, resisting the insidious convenience of the mainstream food supply requires persistence. This is especially true for food projects requiring fermentation—projects that unfold over days or weeks and require day-to-day science in kitchens where variables can be hard to control and where some degree of periodic failure is almost inevitable. In this article, a team of writers—scholars and community members—dramatizes a joint inquiry from which emerged a composite portrait of what we have come to call mindful persistence—an existential yet collaborative engine that drives our food literacies. Dialogic text features highlight the situated insights of individual writers, indicating that while this team shares an interest in fermentation, this interest does not require or assume identical understandings of the science of fermentation or similar positions in the probiotic debate surrounding contemporary fermentation practices. Instead, what is shared is a mindful persistence that scaffolds reflective action in this dynamic problem space

DIY)biology and opportunities for HCI

ABSTRACT Over the past decade, a diverse community of biologists, artists, engineers and hobbyists has emerged to pursue biology projects outside of traditional laboratories. Though still in its nascent form, this DIYbio (Do It Yourself Biology) movement has given rise to a host of technical innovations and sharing mechanisms that enable hobbyists to experiment with organic materials. As these developments continue to expand science practice beyond professional settings and into hackspaces, art studios and private homes, HCI research is presented with a range of new opportunities and concerns. Our workshop will bring together a diverse group of designers and HCI researchers, as well as biologists, bioartists, and members of the DIYbio community to critically re-envision the role HCI might play at the intersection of biology, computation and DIY. This actionbased one-day workshop will engage directly with DIYbio initiatives in the UK to explore the materials, practices and challenges of 'garage biology'. Drawing on presentations from DIYbio participants who work with organic materials, hands-on biology activities (such as extracting DNA), and structured discussions, we hope to address themes such as: opportunities and implications for integrating organic materials into interactive systems; technologies that support and hinder public engagement with science; and HCI's role in the public discourse around bioethics and biosafety

The Nature of biodesigned systems: Directions for HCI

The nascent field of biodesign uses the biological affordances of organisms to address some user need. These can range from the development of novel materials, which the designer actively investigates, to applications of synthetic biology or the creation of bio-digital hybrid systems. Within biodesign there is a question for interaction design: what will interactive systems look like in a guided and grown environment, rather than a built environment? In this workshop, we will explore new technologies that rely on symbiotic relationships between the user and organisms that participate in interactive systems. The goal of this workshop is to engage the interaction design community in exploring new aspects of designing for living computational systems

“Grand visions” for post-capitalist human-computer interaction

The design, development and deployment of new technology is a form of intervention on the social, psychological and physical world. Whether explicitly intended or not, all digital technology is designed to support some vision of how work, leisure, education, healthcare, and so on, is organised in the future [11]. For example, most efforts to make commercial systems more usable, efficient and pleasurable, are ultimately about the vision of increased profits as part of a capitalist society. This workshop will bring together researchers, designers and practitioners to explore an alternative, post-capitalist, “grand vision” for HCI, asking what kind of futures the community sees itself as working towards. Are the futures we are building towards any different from those envisioned by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, which are typically neoliberal, absent of strict labour laws, licensing fees, tax declarations and the necessity to deal with government bureaucracy