Material Manifestations of Dislocation and (Re)connection at ECSCW 2019
About
This workshop focuses on the material qualities of dislocation. The process of humans becoming separated from each other is likely to have diverse consequences; from shifting frequency, modes, or routines of communication and collaboration, to completely alternate means of connection. In this workshop, we aim to discuss a broad range of material manifestations and implications of (researching and designing for) dislocation. While engaging with material qualities of dislocation, we will reflect on the state of the art, discuss research gaps and potentials, and explore hands-on how design can create opportunities for (re)connection in response to dislocation through the creation of tangible interfaces.
Key questions guiding the workshop:
Which physical / socio-cultural / material practices do exist, whether technologically mediated or not, to reconnect in case of dislocation?
Which materials or which interactive qualities are promising to be used for reconnecting?
How can material qualities account for the (often invisible) networked digital apparatus surrounding dislocated interactions?
How can we study the way material qualities in dislocation are actively adopted in everyday practices and how people give meaning to them?
Participation
We invite researchers, who have dealt with dislocation of different kinds, to participate; for instance, they may have (anecdotal or empirical) experience with practices of or design for dislocation; or they may have design ideas, designed systems or speculations about materials that would facilitate (re-)connection.
Submission- UPDATE
We have now opened the workshop to everyone who’s interested!
All you have to do is to send an email with a few lines to indicating why you are interested to participate in the workshop…
… and register for the workshop using the following code: 20WS419
Important Dates
Submission of position paper: April 8Deadline extended: April 19
Notifications to authors: May 2
Early bird registration: May 13
Workshop at ECSCW: Sunday, June 9
ECSCW main conference: June 10 – 12
Envisioned program
The workshop will kick off by an introduction: the organizers will give an overview of the topic, including their own readings of dislocation and reconnections. Afterwards, the participants will be asked to briefly present their positions. After each position presentation, the organizers, together with the participants, will map those positions on an initial landscape of dislocation qualities, employed materials, and reconnection practices. Subsequently, the group tries to create a coherent landscape based on these positions; potentially, this will also lead to an identification of blind spots. In the afternoon, a session where we play with materials is planned. This session will be done in subgroups that will create ideas for material reconnecting tactics. Therefore,
we will create spaces for playing with the materials where we simulate dislocation (e.g., being in two separate rooms / locations)
we (and the participants) bring along materials to play with, such as: balloons, wooden construction kits, ropes, etc. to build “material tactics for (re-) connection” via physical movements, pneumatic mechanisms, electronics, …
we prepare several questions to guide this exploration, such as:
What role does synchronicity / asynchronicity play?
What actions can be created, what practices can be supported, what is felt / experienced?
How immediate are actions and reactions?
After this exploration session the groups meet again to discuss the explored concepts and qualities and to map them on the previously established landscape. Finally, the workshop will close by discussing how to proceed in terms of (a) underexplored research areas, (b) new design directions, and (c) dissemination of workshop results.
Konstantin Aal is a PhD associate and a research assistant at the Institute for Information Systems and New Media, University of Siegen. He is part of come_IN, a research project which founded several computer clubs for children and their relatives including refugees. Currently he is one of the project leaders of the Nett.Werkzeug (which translates to “a tool to be nice”), a platform to provide orientation and information for newcomers in Germany especially refugees. Another project tackles the Human-Wildlife-Conflict in the Northern part of Botswana and how the conflict can be mediated using ICT.
Janne Mascha Beuthel is a PhD student at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Salzburg. Her research builds on combining practices from the making of clothes and textile crafts with wearable technologies. The people she is designing for, and their individual needs, are involved in different stages of design processes, for example, in ideation, but also in the making and iteration of prototypes.
Laura Devendorf designs, develops and studies technologies that destabilize practice in order to prompt creative, thoughtful, and attentive engagements with the everyday. Whether questioning the role of material experience in fabrication or studying playful engagements with body-worn displays, she uses design research to reflect on norms and demonstrate opportunities for the future. She is an assistant professor of Information Science and an ATLAS Institute fellow at the University of Colorado, Boulder where she directs the Unstable Design Lab.
Verena Fuchsbergeris a Postdoc at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Salzburg. She focuses on the agency of human and non-human actors in HCI and interaction design – in particular, she is interested in the materiality of interactions. Verena has published on interaction Design, the future of work, the ageing society, grandparents-grandchildren relationships, materiality in HCI and interaction design and more.
Alina Krischkowsky is a Postdoc at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Salzburg. In her research she is interested in theoretical and empirical accounts towards technology appropriation and other, non-anticipated forms of use, including non-use as well. In particular she is interested in understanding the diversity of technology use, beyond designers intended and anticipated ways of use.
Bernhard Maurer is a Postdoc at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Salzburg. His research explores experimental and alternative forms of interaction by utilizing physical and social context qualities as a design material. His design activities are driven by questioning established notions of gameplay towards creating interactive systems that go beyond purely digital and physical play.
Martin Mureris an interaction designer and researcher at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Salzburg. He focuses on craft and technology, and is particularly enthusiastic about taking things apart. Martin works towards a PhD that seeks to explore deconstructive practices (e.g., un-crafting) in the realm of interaction design.
Marije Nouwen is a PhD student at the Meaningful Interactions Lab (Mintlab), part of the Institute of Media Studies of KU Leuven (Belgium). Her work focuses on remote playful interactions between grandparents and grandchildren. Following an ethnographic approach, she is especially interested in the role of hybrid technologies in establishing/maintaining intergenerational relationships.
Dorothé Smit is a PhD student at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Salzburg. Her research focuses on embodied sensemaking, especially in situations that are out of the ordinary, such as in virtual reality. She is driven to bring different perspectives – both literally and figuratively – together into effective cooperation between people, as well as the environment they are in and the things they use in their day-to-day life.
Manfred Tscheligi is Professor at the Center for Human-Computer Interaction the University of Salzburg, and head of the Center for Technology Experience at the Austrian Institute of Technology. Being a member of various national and international expert, advisory, and conference committees (e.g., CHI conference series, Mobile HCI conference series, Human-Robot Interaction conference series), his work is mainly based on the interdisciplinary combination of different areas of experience research in synergy with special and complex application contexts to enrich the interaction between humans and systems.
Bieke Zaman is assistant professor at the Meaningful Interactions Lab (Mintlab), part of the Institute of Media Studies of the KU Leuven, Belgium. Her research focuses on digital media (incl. games), children and interaction design from the perspective of communication sciences and Human-Computer Interaction research.
