This paper traces different conceptions of the body,
in HCI. It comes from a collaborative process
by four design researchers, all with experience
and training in a wide range of somatic and artistic body
practices. We do two things in the paper. First,
we present a broad updated survey of work dealing with
the body in HCI. And second, we propose five
recommendations to support designers in designing
for more-than-human bodies in complex times.
Our paper situates conceptions of the body
within the progression from First Wave HCI
to the emerging fourth wave, this is to provide designers
with clarity around what we talk about when we talk
about bodies in HCI. The intention is to support
designers to gain greater clarity around
the transforming design space of the body;
foster sensitivity to inclusive practices; and contribute
to an expanded corporeal ethics.
This paper follows a distinct narrative arc:
from user to body; From body to bodies;
And from bodies to more than human bodies.
At each stage of the arc, we touch down in theories,
methods and examples. We deploy lenses for clarity
and we outline potentials and risks.
The move from user to body is informed by phenomenology
and driven by the awareness that everyone is embodied,
the two lenses are: the performative body. We look
specifically to acting, improvisation
and performance techniques to engage in user scenarios.
The sensing body, focus on sensory capabilities as
a way for designers to use their body to inform
the design process. Here we move from body to
bodies, a pluralizing move. The datafied Bodies
Lens understands bodies as a range of data objects,
each with its own outputs and signals some see
risks. Others see potentials in surveillance,
commercialisation, optimization of human
abilities and crisis management.
The intersectionality lens is a way of understanding
and analyzing complexity in the world,
people and human experience. Shaped
by mutually intersecting factors of race,
class, gender, sexual orientation and more.
The move from bodies to more than human bodies
is emerging in HCI. Diffraction replaces lenses
for this area, accounting for how differences,
contingencies and entanglements combine
and recombine in the making of bodies.
More than human perspectives emphasize the way bodies
exist in dynamic configurations with things,
spaces, organic and inorganic materials
and beings. This points to a relational ontology.
We're no longer designing for or with
the ontological stakes are higher: we are designing
bodies. We end by proposing five
recommendations for designers as we move
forward. One: Attend to the embodied
experience of the user, consider users as complex
beings with multisensory abilities.
Two: The importance of clarity to concepts
of the body In HCI. You need to be outspoken
about the assumptions of what is present in any
design project. Three: Cultivate an
intersectional sensibility, to avoid erasing
or silencing some groups and to promote greater
diversity. Four: Engage with
theorists and practitioners from other fields,
collaborate with them, not just their theories.
Five: Adopt a more than human approach to the body
in HCI. Recognize that
we are entangled with a wide range of beings.
As designers speculate better futures, resonating with
the ethics of more than human worlds, we can embrace
both the richness and the limitations of bodies.
This way, we can continue to expand the diverse,
entangled and interdisciplinary field
of design, to include an ontological expansion of bodies
as we are and bodies as we can be.