An Annotated Portfolio on Doing Postphenomenology Through Research Products
This paper was part of my doctoral research. Here are some key highlights from it:
In this paper, we argue for framing the crafting and studying of research products as doing philosophy through things. We do this by creating an annotated portfolio of such Research through Design (RtD) artifact inquiries as postphenomenological inquiries. In our annotated portfolio, we first provide an account of the postphenomenological commitments of 1) taking empirical work as the basis of the inquiry, 2) analyzing structures of human-technology relations and 3) studying technological mediation. Secondly, we trace these commitments across six RtD artifact inquiries. We conclude with a discussion on how research products can be seen as an experimental way of doing postphenomenology and how HCI design researchers can work with that. As a result, the presented philosophical framing can be leveraged in HCI research to form a deeper and more dimensional understanding of the human-technology relations we craft and study. This also adds a methodological path to moving beyond foci of use, utility, interaction, and human-centeredness.
In two of our own RtD artifact inquiries [14,66] we went through processes of framing, reframing and productively working with viewing them as postphenomenological inquiries. In this section, we elaborate on elements of the studies of the table-non-table that allowed us to arrive at that point. We will also briefly sum up how this framing developed in our study of the Tilting Bowl.
A cat examining the table-non-table, b. A Tilting Bowl filled with fruit on a household table.
Our two investigations offer empirical and reflexive accounts of human-technology relations and technological mediations with counterfactual RtD artifacts. Both contribute argumentative exemplars for the value and use of postphenomenological concepts and concerns for considering RtD artifacts in HCI. This helped us see the productive postphenomenological framing of RtD-inquiries and made us aware of the similar interest between postphenomenology and RtD artifact inquiries; and further it motivated us to explore whether other RtD projects could similarly be seen as postphenomenological inquiries.
In developing an annotated portfolio of RtD artifact inquiries, we aim to bring out particularities of enacted postphenomenological dimensions. A first selection criterion was that the RtD artifact inquiries were in line with two methodological commitments to RtD pursued in the crafting and studying of table-non-table and Tilting Bowl: Material Speculation and Research Products.
The Selected Research Products. Top, Middle, & Bottom (L to R): T1&2. Greenscreen Dress; T2&3. Obscura 1C Digital Camera; M1&2. Indoor Weather Stations; M3&4. Morse Things; B1&2. Photobox. B3&4. Datacatcher. Image credits: T1&2 © Angella Mackey, T3&4 © James Pierce; M1&2, B3&4 © Interaction Research Studio; M3&4 © Everyday Design Studio; M3&4; B1&2 © William Odom
Technological mediation. Illustration uses descriptions from Verbeek’s book ‘What Things Do’ (2005).
This has become a popular illustration for Mediation Theory. Feel free to use it with “© Sabrina Hauser” or citing my DIS2018 paper (citation below). Thanks!
Constructive roles of HCI design researchers in their RtD inquiries.
Feel free to use this illustration citing “© Sabrina Hauser” or my DIS2018 paper (citation below).
The papers citation and link to the full article’s PDF:
Hauser, S., Oogjes, D., Wakkary, R., Verbeek, P. (2018). An Annotated Portfolio on Doing Postphenomenology Through Research Products. In Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS ’18). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 459-471. (12pgs). *Best paper award! [PDF]