More-than-human
Ecological In/Congruence: Becoming Sensitised to Nature in Video Games through Humanistic First-Person Research

Abstract

The ongoing ecological crisis is the current biggest threat for our species. As we attempt to address the situation through policy, interventions, and education, we urgently need to understand how people encounter and relate to nature: As it is, in the world, and portrayed through different media. As an exemplary medium facilitating digital nature, this paper focuses on video games. Using first-person research methods, we report on the first author sensitising themselves to nature as a ubiquitous feature, theme, and actor in video games. They played eight nature-focused games for three months. Through auto-ethnography, close reading and “noticing” (after Tsing), we make sense of their experiences using the humanistic concept of ecological (in)congruence: We draw out the relational gap and potential meanings between real nature and its virtual equivalent. Based on these insights, we outline two design impulses for how the HCI community might approach nature—within games and beyond.

 

Role: Supervisor

Type: Full Paper

Conference: Proceedings of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Stats: Acceptance rate: 26.4%, h5-index:122

Date: 2024

Co-Authors: Velvet Spors and Juho Hamari


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Seeding a Repository of Methods-To-Be for Nature-Entangled Design Research

Abstract

We share an emergent repository of nature-entangled methods-to-be shared, experimented with, and discussed with during a conference workshop. We present them in-use, as they are in formation. We do not seek to theorise or even fully articulate these methods-to-be. Rather, to make them approachable and actionable for others by showing them not fully polished. By doing this, we advocate for increased transparency in the difficulties of creating new methods, techniques, tools, and approaches. Our contribution is threefold: we provide 1) an annotated portfolio of methods-to-be; 2) illustrative examples of how cross-pollination of these methods can enrich their situated use; and 3) a discussion of ways to further articulate the methods and deepen reflection on their roles in nature-entangled design processes.

*Images here are collages of different researchers for the methods they are introducing

 

Role: Co-Author

Type: Pictorial

Conference: The ACM Conference in Designing Interactive Systems 2024

Stats: Acceptance rate: 23%, h5-index:44

Date: 2024

Co-Authors: Oscar Tomico, Anton Poikolainen Rosén, Svenja Keune, Ferran Bertran Altarriba, Danielle Wilde, Daniel Fernández Galeote, Tau Ulv Lenskjold, Ruut Tikkanen and Velvet Spors


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“Beavers don’t walk on roads”: Beaver-play for more-than-human cartographies

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the notion of beaver-play to understand play that challenges spatial conventions, transgresses boundaries, and redraws territories. Tracing how beavers are imagined in various contexts such as nature conservation, experimental rewilding practices, and performance art, we highlight the role of the beaver in stories of ecosystem management, collapse, and restoration. We investigate beaver imaginaries through the perspective of play and games, taking the popular citybuilding video game Timberborn as our case study. We employ sketching as a method to annotate and analyse play practices in the digital spaces of Timberborn, drawing out three modes of beaver-play: concerns, crossings, and flows. Highlighting the role of play in territorial and organisational fluidity, we draw attention to the way that beaver-play scaffolds moving in and out of spatial arrangements, territories and environmental systems. Discussing how the practices of playing and drawing intertwined into a process of more-than-human cartography, we extend our investigation to consider the broader implications of using video games as cartographic, performative spaces for more-thanhuman meaning-making.

*Images here were sketched by Linas Gabrielaitis

 

Role: Supervisor

Type: Full Paper

Conference: 8th Annual International GamiFIN Conference 2024

Date: 2024

Co-Authors: Linas Kristupas Gabrielaitis, Laura op de Beke, Velvet Spors and Ferran Altarriba Bertran


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[WORKSHOP] Designerly ways of engaging with nature

Abstract

In this workshop, we will bring together designers and researchers working with, for, and around nature to facilitate a transversal conversation around how to engage nature as a key part of our design processes. By deliberately adopting an open and ambiguous idea of what we mean by ‘nature’, we hope to embrace diverse kinds of more-than-human entanglements, including (but not only): farming, companion species, microbiomes, body ecologies, forests and other large-scale landscapes (e.g. oceans), or cohabitation in houses. We argue for the importance of taking such an open-ended perspective, to embrace all possible relevant vectors of nature-related design: multispecies, cohabitation, posthuman sustainability, posthuman care… The workshop is set as a as a platform for shared methodological reflection through the lenses of a more-than-human approach to posthuman research. It will primarily be in-person, given our aim of bringing researchers together and co-experiencing each others’ methods and techniques.

 

Role: Co-Organizer

Type: Workshop Paper

Conference: Proceedings of the 26th International Academic Mindtrek Conference

Date: 2023

Co-Authors: Oscar Tomico, Ferran Altarriba, Svenja Keune, Danielle Wilde and Ron Wakkary


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The Wild Probes: Towards a Collection of Hybrid Tools for Situated, Caring, Playful Co-design within the Forest

Abstract

The Wild Probes (WPs) are a set of hybrid tools for designers and researchers to facilitate multi-stakeholder co-design engagements within the forest. They support situated forestry future-making by helping the participants of a co-design process pay attention to, reflect on, ideate around, and document their forestry experiences in ways that can inspire contextually grounded forest-related ideation. Here we present the design and early use of the first iteration of the WPs. The WPs extend existing tools available to designers by adapting their underlying mechanisms to the idiosyncratic character of the forest. We designed them building on recent research on the methodological underpinnings of (co-)designing for and from the forest. The WPs run on affordable, widely accessible electronics and can easily be built with basic DIY skills and equipment. We thus invite others to replicate, enhance, and repurpose them. Overall, here we contribute a first step towards creating a collection of tools to support co-design that is situated in the forest. We hope other designers will find our proposals useful and contribute to growing the collection by creating new WPs of their own.

 

Role: Supervisor

Type: Pictorial

Journal: Temes de Disseny

Date: 2023

Co-Authors: Ferran Altarriba Bertran, Jordi Márquez Puig, Maria Llop Cirera, Eva Forest Illas, Joan Planas Bertran, Ernest Forts Plana, Mattia Thibault and Juho Hamari


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Designing and Using the Wild Probes Toolkit (v1) to Co-Design From-the-Wild

Abstract

Recent research calls for new design methods and tools that respond to the idiosyncrasies of emergent design spaces. Here we address one of them: the design of nature-related technology. To facilitate increasingly situated practices in this space, we created the Wild Probes: a set of probing tools for displacing co-design into the wilderness. Our toolkit enables forestry future-making by helping forest goers to pay attention to, reflect on, ideate around, and document their forestry experiences. Here we present the design and early use of the toolkit. We hope other designers will find it useful and extend it with new Wild Probes of their own.

 

Role: Co-author, Supervisor

Type: Pictorial

Conference: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

Stats: Acceptance rate: 24%, h5-index:44

Date: 2023

Co-Authors: Ferran Altarriba Bertran, Jordi Márquez Puig, Maria Llop Cirera, Eva Forest Illas, Joan Planas Bertran, Ernest Forts Plana, Çağlar Genç, Mattia Thibault and Juho Hamari


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Playful Inspiration for a New Wave of Joyful Forest Technology

Abstract

Here we present an exploration into the playful potential of forests and how interactive tech might respond to it. Through first-person, speculative, and situated generative design methods, we engaged with a range of forestry activities to explore their capacity to afford experiences based on joy and care. An analysis of our 16 trips to the forest (and the reflections they motivated) revealed 13 play potentials [6] of human-forest interactions: 13 aspects of forestry experiences that can be intrinsically joyful. We present them clustered as 5 overarching directions that can guide the design of technology that pays more attention to nature's inherent playful character. Our work can inspire a new wave of forest technology that transcends techno-solutionism and privileges alternative values of joy and care.

 

Role: Co-author, Supervisor

Type: Full Paper

Conference: Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

Stats: Acceptance rate: 24%, h5-index:44

Date: 2023

Co-Authors: Ferran Altarriba Bertran, Velvet Spors and Juho Hamari


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Longing to Be the Mountain: A Scoping Review about Nature-Centric, Health-Minded Technologies

Abstract

Engaging with nature enriches people’s life greatly, and it is a particularly powerful wellbeing activity. Unsurprisingly, researchers in HCI and beyond seek to augment and extend the relationship people have with nature through technology, to positively enhance their health as a result. In this paper, we report on a scoping review that examines research exploring health, nature, and technology research. By charting 29 papers from the last five years, we produce a situated snapshot of the current research landscape and identify three trends within the paper pool: Despite the potential for rich, experiential engagements, human-nature interaction is often understood as an endeavour that is 1) universal, 2) flattened and 3) disconnected from everyday life. We reflect on our findings to outline design opportunities for human-nature interaction that extend and re-orientate it; to design for multi-dimensional caring experiences that allow for a more-than-just-human understanding of nature.

 

Role: Co-author, Supervisor

Type: Full Paper

Conference: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Stats: Acceptance rate: 28%, h5-index:122

Date: 2023

Co-Authors: Velvet Spors, Samuli Laato and Juho Hamari


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Virtual and Augmented Reality for Environmental Sustainability: A Systematic Review

Abstract

In recent years, extended reality (XR) technology has seen a rise in use in environmental subjects, i.e., climate change or biodiversity loss, as a potential tool to inform and engage the public with current and future environmental issues. However, research on the potential of XR technology for environmental sustainability is still in the early stages, and there is no clear synthesis of the methods studied in this field. To provide a clearer view of existing approaches and research objectives, we systematically reviewed current literature dealing with XR use in environmental topics. Although the results indicate that the volume of literature exploring XR in environmental applications is increasing, empirical evidence of its impact is limited, hindering the possibility of presently drawing significant conclusions on its potential benefits. Based on our analyses, we identified thematic, theoretical, and methodological knowledge gaps and provide a guideline to aid future research in the field.

 

Role: Co-author, Supervisor

Type: Full Paper

Conference: Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Stats: Acceptance rate: 28%, h5-index:122

Date: 2023

Co-Authors: Laura D. Cosio, Daniel Fernández Galeote, Isak De Villiers Bosman and Juho Hamari


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From-The-Wild: Towards Co-Designing For and From Nature

Abstract

Here we present in-progress methodological research exploring how to co-design technology for nature-related experiences. To support increasingly situated and participatory practices in this space, we propose a turn towards co-designing from-the-wild, i.e. ideating during raw engagements that are radically situated in nature. Our approach extends existing in-the-wild practices by (1) enacting co-design in natural (rather than human-made) environments, and (2) avoiding techniques that privilege the designer's agenda over other stakeholders’ and compromise the situated nature of ideation. Our contribution includes: (1) the proposal of co-designing from-the-wild as a response to the limitations of existing in-the-wild methods when designing for and from nature; and (2) early reflections from our hands-on engagement with said approach, which begin to surface exciting opportunities and constraints emerging in this methodological space. By sharing our work-in-progress with the HCI community, we hope to spark a conversation stimulating future co-design methods research in increasingly wilder directions.

 

Role: Co-Author, Design Researcher

Type: Extended Abstract (Poster)

Conference: Extended Abstracts of the 2022 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems

Stats: h5-index:122

Date: 2022

Co-Authors: Ferran Altarriba Bertran and Juho Hamari


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