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More-than-human Design


Network

A more-than-human design network that provides a formal, yet diverse and inclusive platform that transcends national, academic, and disciplinary boundaries to collaboratively shape the field.

Are you interested? Let us know!


NEWS

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DRS Paper

More-than-human Design and AI: exploring the space between theory and practice

This paper points at the challenge that as design is turning to more-than-human (MTH) approaches, integrating posthumanist theory into design practices remains challenging. We argue that making MTH thinking “actionable” demands moving beyond the idea that there is a gap to bridge. Instead, we propose that the space between theory and practice could offer an interesting starting point for experimentation. Exploring that liminal space, we designed two generative AI tools – Oblique and MoTH. Using ChatGPT-4, these tools create design strategies based on diverse MTH texts. Reflecting on the process of making and using these tools, we offer two contributions: First, we explain how designers can use the tools (and create their own variants) to walk through design concepts from multiple perspectives. Then, we provide a critical discussion on the opportunities and limitations of using AI for MTH design, including how to situate MTH knowledge(s) and avoid extractivist relations.
The paper is available here

Find the prompt of the generative AI tools Oblique and MoTH here. You can paste that prompt in any large language model.

You can also use them in ChatGPT-4:
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DRS Track

More-than-human Design in Practice


Edited by: Joseph Lindley, Lancaster University, UK, Iohanna Nicenboim, TU Delft, Netherlands, Laura Forlano, Northeastern University, US, Elisa Giaccardi, TU Delft, Netherlands, Arne Berger, Hochschule Anhalt, Germany, Cristina Zaga, University of Twente, The Netherlands

We are amid a "more-than-human turn" that spans the humanities and draws upon diverse theories, ontologies, and epistemologies. This transformative wave is partly driven by global-scale wicked problems and challenges such as the climate crisis, an interest in decolonisation agendas, and the need for more equitable, sustainable ways of living. This track invites submissions that report on practical experiments in this area. Despite the community’s prolific theoretical and methodological outputs, understanding how those can be enacted in concrete design practices requires urgent attention if action is to complement abundant theory. Hence, we encourage submissions that discuss, present, or analyze:

 The editorial of the track is available here
DRS conference website

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Special issue in HCI Journal “Posthumanist HCI and the non-human-turn in design”


Edited by: Elisa Giaccardi, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands; Johan Redström, Umeä Institute of Design, Sweden; Iohanna Nicenboim, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Human activities have drastically altered the planet, with design playing a significant role. While design may intend to do good, its consequences are not always positive: from climate change to resource depletion to unforeseen social dynamics. These transformations also include ourselves, as our relationships with new technologies blur and complicate previous human and machine agency distinctions. Increasingly, design has become a matter of defining what it means to be human. This special issue explores the proposition that conventional human-centered design approaches may not adequately address the complex challenges we face, and that there is instead a need to ground design in more-than-human perspectives. This introduction outlines the evolving landscape of more-than-human design in the context of HCI. Articulating a series of emerging research trajectories, we aim to illuminate the transformative potential of more-than-human orientations to design, including how they both extend and depart from familiar lines of inquiry in HCI – for example, how designers are redefining data, interfaces, and responsibility, and reshaping posthuman knowledge through design. Ultimately, this special issue aims to explore new pathways for designing in the era of the more-than-human, challenging the perceived divide between practice and theory to imagine alternative futures for HCI.


The editorial of the special issue can be found here

The special issue’s papers include:

  • Nicenboim, I., Oogjes, D., Biggs, H., & Nam, S. (2023). Decentering Through Design: Bridging Posthuman Theory with More-than-Human Design Practices. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2283535
  • van Beek, E., Giaccardi, E., Boess, S., & Bozzon, A. (2023). The everyday enactment of interfaces: a study of crises and conflicts in the more-than-human home. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2283536
  • Fritsch, J., Tsaknaki, V., Ryding, K., & Hasse Jørgensen, S. (2023). ‘Breathing-with’: a design tactic for the more-than-human. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2275760
  • Wilkie, A., & Michael, M. (2023). The aesthetics of more-than-human design: speculative energy briefs for the Chthulucene. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2276392
  • Søndergaard, M. L. J. (2023). What mosses can teach us about design fabulations and feminist more-than-human care. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2269893
  • Wilde, D., & Lenskjold, T. (2023). Shit! Towards an experimental multiple-perspective approach to human-microbiome relations. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2276527
  • Lindley, J., Benjamin, J. J., Green, D. P., McGarry, G., Pilling, F., Dudek, L., … Coulton, P. (2023). Productive Oscillation as a strategy for doing more-than-human design research. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2276393
  • Özçetin, S., & Wiltse, H. (2023). Terms of entanglement: a posthumanist reading of Terms of Service. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2281928
  • Lee, Y., Speed, C., & Pschetz, L. (2024). Pheno-data: using tomatoes to rethink data and data practice for ecological worlds. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2300779
  • Fuchsberger, V., & Frauenberger, C. (2023). Doing responsibilities in entangled worlds. Human–Computer Interaction, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2023.2269934


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May 2nd 21:15 CEST - CHI

Panel “More-than-human Concepts, Methodologies, and Practices in HCI”

Hosted by: Aykut Coskun, Nazli Cila, Iohanna Nicenboim
Panelists: Elisa Giaccardi,  Laura Forlano, Christopher Frauenberger, Marc Hassenzahl, Clara Mancini, and Ron Wakkary 

The last decade has witnessed the expansion of design space to include the epistemologies and methodologies of more-than-human design (MTHD). Design researchers and practitioners have been increasingly studying, designing for, and designing with nonhumans. This panel will bring together HCI experts who work on MTHD with different nonhumans as their subjects. Panelists will engage the audience through discussion of their shared and diverging visions, perspectives, and experiences, and through suggestions for opportunities and challenges for the future of MTHD. The panel will provoke the audience into reflecting on how the emergence of MTHD signals a paradigm shift in HCI and human-centered design, what benefits this shift might bring and whether MTH should become the mainstream approach, as well as how to involve nonhumans in design and research.


Panel video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xAHlncFRI7sX_AMUNJWXPbrbMywpF2wN/view

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May 2nd 21:15 CEST - CHI

Workshop “More-than-human and AI: In Conversations with Agents”


Workshop documentation site: https://ai.more-than-human.com/