Danielle Wilde | Umeå University (original) (raw)

Papers by Danielle Wilde

When designing material interactions using digital and other technologies, ideation and developme... more When designing material interactions using digital and other technologies, ideation and development timelines can go out of sync. In this paper we discuss how a crafts-driven approach to wearable technologies can sensitise researchers to novel ways of moving forward when faced with such a challenge. We identify 'no-tech' prototyping as a powerful paradigm for ideating wearable technologies when the technologies are not yet specified or available; and we describe four craft-based conceptual lenses - an approach, expression, dialogue and language - that support the development of no-tech prototypes at a range of resolutions. The Poetic Kinaesthetic Interface project (PKI) serves as our case for study. PKI aims to support material innovation in the context of wearable technologies for enhanced embodied interactions. At a crucial point in an early phase of PKI we were stopped short by a delay in data delivery. Faced with an impasse, we turned to our crafts to find a way forward. To support our discussion, we unpack the notions of no-tech prototyping and advanced material interactions; we describe the PKI Phase I prototypes and discuss the value of working at different resolutions of conceptual and material finish. We then lay out our four lenses and reflect on how each of these lenses enable us to remain in a state of unknowing and continue to not only craft our way through our impasse, but deepen our embodied inquiry into the development of experientially rich material interactions. The resulting extended, reflective, embodied, craft-based approach to material innovation is supporting greater public engagement with our core research concerns, as well as an expanded vision of how to effectively work towards material innovation. This research contributes to exploratory material-based and craft-informed interaction design and wearable technologies development.

Art and Science, just like Science and Magic are seen as distinct practices, requiring distinct w... more Art and Science, just like Science and Magic are seen as distinct practices, requiring distinct world views. In the OWL project we call on, cross-fertilise and blur boundaries between all three. The project is predicated on Clarke's third rule of technology prediction, that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" (Clarke, 1984). From this standpoint we are developing rigourous processes to support magical thinking, with the aim of understanding how to support the conception and development of technologies that we can't yet imagine, to the point where they can be evaluated. We are approaching our problem from a number of perspectives, including the development and use of placebo objects and devices, probe-like enquiry through one on one interviews and workshops where we encourage people to make their own exploratory devices, and thereby extend and challenge the way we, as design researchers, are thinking about technology conception and design. We present here our burgeoning approach to analysing the OWL interview outcomes. New processes demand new techniques. We draw on well established methods and consider how they might be subverted to support our needs.

The OWL project is inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law of Technology Prediction: Any suffici... more The OWL project is inspired by Arthur C. Clarke's Third Law of Technology Prediction: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. It consists of a series of open and speculative body-devices designed without a pre-defined function and tested as design 'probes' in order to ascertain their functionality. While the initial forms emerge from an investigation of the body, their functionality are determined through use. The project fuses fine art and contemporary design processes to arrive at ambiguous outcomes whose functionality is being ascertained 'after the fact' through interviews, or 'probing'. While not necessarily antidesign, the methodology contrasts dramatically with traditional design processes, where the purpose and broad functionality of 'that which is being designed' is usually known in advance. It calls into question the validity of a traditional approach when trying to design 'sufficiently advanced technology'. In this paper we present our process and the theoretical scaffold that supports our underlying thinking. Our field of concerns includes enchantment and ambiguity as resources for design, encouraging 'magical thinking' and 'making strange'.

Interactions, May 1, 2012

ABSTRACT Sustainability in (Inter)Action provides a forum for innovative thought, design, and res... more ABSTRACT Sustainability in (Inter)Action provides a forum for innovative thought, design, and research in the area of interaction design and environmental sustainability. The forum explores how HCI can contribute to the complex and interdisciplinary efforts to ...

Digital technology has become a frequent companion of daily food practices, shaping the ways we p... more Digital technology has become a frequent companion of daily food practices, shaping the ways we produce, consume, and interact with food. Smart kitchenware, diet tracking apps, and other techno-solutions carry promise for healthy and sustainable food futures but are often problematic in their impact on food cultures. We conducted four Human-Food Interaction (HFI) workshops to reflect on and anticipate food-tech issues, using experimental food design co-creation as our primary method. At the workshops, food and food practices served as the central research theme and accessible starting point to engage stakeholders and explore values, desires, and imaginaries associated with food-tech. Drawing on these explorations, we discuss diverse roles that experimental design cocreation, performed with and around food, can play in supporting critical, interdisciplinary HFI inquiries. Our findings will appeal to design researchers interested in food as a research theme or as a tangible (and compostable!) design material affording diverse co-creative engagements.

dObra[s], May 22, 2018

métodos de pesquisa em moda; moda e ecologia; prática em moda; intervenção em guarda-roupa; agênc... more métodos de pesquisa em moda; moda e ecologia; prática em moda; intervenção em guarda-roupa; agência material.

New Interfaces for Musical Expression, 2008

This paper reports on outcomes of a residency undertaken at STEIM, Amsterdam, in July 2007. Our g... more This paper reports on outcomes of a residency undertaken at STEIM, Amsterdam, in July 2007. Our goal was to explore methods for working with sound and whole body gesture, with an open experimental approach. In many ways this work can be characterised as prototype development. The sensor technology employed was three-axis accelerometers in consumer gamecontrollers. Outcomes were intentionally restrained to strippedback experimental results. This paper discusses the processes and strategies for developing the experiments, as well as providing background and rationale for our approach. We describe "vocal prototyping"-a technique for developing new gesture-sound mappings, the mapping techniques applied, and briefly describe a selection of our experimental results.

Much technology is designed to help people enact processes faster and more precisely. Yet, these ... more Much technology is designed to help people enact processes faster and more precisely. Yet, these advantages can come at the cost of other, perhaps less tangible, values. In this workshop we aim to articulate values associated with handmade through a co-creative exploration in the food domain. Our objective is to explore the potential of integrating such values into future food-related technologies. In a full day workshop we will: critically reflect on the notion of handmade; engage actively with food-production, plating and consumption-as design material; and conduct collective discussions around the values that these processes and materials can embody when attended to through lenses other than efficiency. By handmaking: touching, smelling, tasting, listening, speaking and enacting choreographies with the materials at hand, we hope to deepen the discussion of the meaning associated with the handmade and bring a richness to ways that designers imagine future food-related technologies.

While conducting a review of food-related technology research, we discovered that activity in thi... more While conducting a review of food-related technology research, we discovered that activity in this area is skyrocketing across a broad range of disciplinary interests and concerns. The dynamic and heterogeneous nature of the research presents a challenge to scholars wishing to critically engage with prior work, identify gaps and ensure impact. In response to this challenge, we are developing an online visualisation tool: an app that affords diffractive reading of the literature, mapping interferences and differences from varied perspectives. We present our first iteration of the app, which enables scholars to navigate the literature through seven lenses-focus, agency, domain, date of publication, author keywords, and publication venue and type. Here we present the first iteration of the app, toward receiving critical input from concerned researchers, to validate our approach and ensure relevance moving forward.

Informatics (Basel), Dec 26, 2017

New materials with new capabilities demand new ways of approaching design. Destabilising existing... more New materials with new capabilities demand new ways of approaching design. Destabilising existing methods is crucial to develop new methods. Yet, radical destabilisation-where outcomes remain unknown long enough that new discoveries become possible-is not easy in technology design where complex interdisciplinary teams with time and resource constraints need to deliver concrete outcomes on schedule. The Poetic Kinaesthetic Interface project (PKI) engages with this problematic directly. In PKI we use unfolding processes-informed by participatory, speculative and critical design-in emergent actions, to design towards unknown outcomes, using unknown materials. The impossibility of this task is proving as useful as it is disruptive. At its most potent, it is destabilising expectations, aesthetics and processes. Keeping the researchers, collaborators and participants in a state of unknowing, is opening the research potential to far-ranging possibilities. In this article we unpack the motivations driving the PKI project. We present our mixed-methodology, which entangles textile crafts, design interactions and materiality to shape an embodied enquiry. Our research outcomes are procedural and methodological. PKI brings together diverse human, non-human, known and unknown actors to discover where the emergent assemblages might lead. Our approach is re-invigorating-as it demands re-envisioning of-the design process.

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2021

Physical engagement with data necessarily influences the reflective process. However, the role of... more Physical engagement with data necessarily influences the reflective process. However, the role of interactivity and narration are often overlooked when designing and analyzing personal data physicalizations. We introduce Narrative Physicalizations, everyday objects modified to support nuanced self-reflection through embodied engagement with personal data. Narrative physicalizations borrow from narrative visualizations, storytelling with graphs, and engagement with mundane artifacts from data-objects. Our research uses a participatory approach to research-through-design and includes two interdependent studies. In the first, personalized data physicalizations are developed for three individuals. In the second, we conduct a parallel autobiographical exploration of what constitutes personal data when using a Fitbit. Our work expands the landscape of data physicalization by introducing narrative physicalizations. It suggests an experience-centric view on data physicalization where people engage physically with their data in playful ways, making their body an active agent during the reflective process.

The Light Arrays project explores the extension of the body through an array of visible light bea... more The Light Arrays project explores the extension of the body through an array of visible light beams projecting on the environment a dynamic representation of the body, its movement and posture. Interestingly, these light cues are visible both for the user wearing the device as well as for others. The result is an experiential bridge between what we see and what we feel or know about the dynamic, moving body. The Light Arrays afford augmented proprioception, generated through the artificial visual feedback system; enhanced body interaction prompted by the interactively augmented body image (in time and space); as well as a clear visual representation of interpersonal and inter-structural | architectural space.

Embodied design ideation (EDI) practices work with relationships between body, material and conte... more Embodied design ideation (EDI) practices work with relationships between body, material and context to enliven design and research potential. Methods are often idiosyncratic and-due to their physical nature-not easily transferred. As independent researchers, and as collaborators, we have been engaging with this problematic for some time. At CHI2017 we will present a framework that enables designers to understand, describe and contextualise EDI practices in ways that can be understood by peers, as well as those new to embodied ideation. Our framework affords discussion of embodied design actions that leverage the power of estrangement. In developing our framework we engaged with numerous researchers who use estrangement as a key activator in embodied design ideation. We thus bring to the workshop (1) a framework to understand and leverage the power of estrangement in embodied design ideation, (2) our individual approaches to EDI, developed over many years of research practice and (3) an inspirational catalogue demonstrating the diversity of ideas that EDI methods can foster.

International Journal on Disability and Human Development, 2011

This article discusses a range of interactive body-worn systems and devices for performance, play... more This article discusses a range of interactive body-worn systems and devices for performance, play, rehabilitation and disability or altered-ability support. The systems combine experimental and off-the-shelf technologies to arrive at outcomes that require and inspire extended physical and expressive engagement, and afford a range of different learning opportunities. Notions of extended bodies, shared augmented environments, magical thinking and play are examined for their poetic valence, as well as for therapeutic potential. Much of the work is in its early stages. Several scenarios of use are outlined for each of the devices, and relevance to ArtAbilitation proposed. The aim is to generate collaborative interest and inform development.

We propose a Situated Play Design (SPD) workshop aimed at exploring how culture and traditions ca... more We propose a Situated Play Design (SPD) workshop aimed at exploring how culture and traditions can guide playful design. Using food as an accessible starting point, we invite scholars from diverse communities to share, analyze, and make creative use of playful traditions, and prototype new and interesting eating experiences. Through hands-on engagement with traditions, play and technology, we will discuss strategies to make designerly use of forms of play that are embedded in culture. The outcomes of the workshop will be twofold: First, in response to recent calls for increasingly situated and emergent play design methods, we explore strategies to chase culturallygrounded play. Second, we produce an annotated portfolio of "play potentials" to inspire the design of future food-related technologies. The workshop will contribute to enriching the set of tools available for designers interested in play and technologies for everyday-use, in and beyond the food domain.

The sustainability of materials used in Participatory Design processes-be they tangibles, or othe... more The sustainability of materials used in Participatory Design processes-be they tangibles, or other-typically provided by the designer; is not commonly foregrounded. We focus on the social and environmental impact of tangibles by considering two cases. The first concerns the conception of a Forest-Library. A steering committee gathered to map stakeholders across a municipality, using foraged elements from a barn. The second case brings together organisations concerned with waste activism, to collectively compare and negotiate their stakeholder interrelations. The foraged tangibles are environmentally sustainable by virtue of a) being foraged rather than designed, and b) their ability to be returned to use or to the nutrition cycle once their usefulness to the PD process has ended. Following Liboiron's conceptualisation of pollution as colonialism we consider if their connection to place might assist in troubling the ways that these mapping processes might be considered socially, as well as environmentally sustainable.

Interactions, Sep 1, 2020

Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2012

Exertion is gaining currency in digital game design. Exertion games promise increased athletic pe... more Exertion is gaining currency in digital game design. Exertion games promise increased athletic performance and hence health benefits. They also offer enhanced

From cooking and growing to shopping and dining, digital technology has become a frequent compani... more From cooking and growing to shopping and dining, digital technology has become a frequent companion in our everyday food practices. Smart food technologies such as online diet personalization services and AI-based kitchenware offer promises of better data-driven food futures. Yet, human-food automation presents certain risks, both to end consumers and food cultures at large. This one-day workshop aims to question emerging food-tech trends and explore issues through creative food-tech crafting and performative dining activities. We will craft, taste, and debate edible prototypes reflecting on diverse socio-political issues in contemporary food-tech innovation. We posit everyday human-food practices as a relatable context to discuss broader societal issues underlying the growing role of technology and data in commonplace human activities. The workshop aims to gather an interdisciplinary group of researchers and practitioners keen on exploring the diverse roles and potential futures of technology design in everyday life.

Interactions, May 1, 2012

dObra[s], May 22, 2018

New Interfaces for Musical Expression, 2008

Informatics (Basel), Dec 26, 2017

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 2021

International Journal on Disability and Human Development, 2011

Interactions, Sep 1, 2020

Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2012

Proceedings of Nordes 2013, 2013

It is hard to imagine a future fundamentally different from what we know, yet increasingly people... more It is hard to imagine a future fundamentally different from what we know, yet increasingly people dream of and agitate for social, cultural and political change. Postcards From a (Better) Future is part of an evolving interrogation into how embodied-thinking-through-making might assist in the imagining of (better) futures that might otherwise elude us. It is a bid to empower people to imagine, through making, so that they may effectuate change. This paper describes the theoretical background and structure of the Postcards From a (Better) Future process. It provides background on the fundamental conceptual shifts; and discusses how and why the process, in and of itself, might constitute making.