Three Environmental Discourses in Human-Computer InteractionElizabeth Goodman

UC Berkeley School of Information

www.confectious.net

A definitional problem

• What is “nature”? “The environment?”

• Which phenomena concern us?

• How does that effect our design decisions?

Air quality

Artificiallighting

EnergyusePlants +

animals

Car culture

Cityecology

Housingpolicy

Discourse analysis

Sources Numbers

Peer-reviewed publications

Journal articles52

Conference papers

NSF grant abstracts 5

Project documentation

Project websites 19

Magazine articles 2

Workshopproceedings

Calls for proposals 6

Position papers 36

A discourse: a shared approach to understanding the world, produced through rhetoric.

Assembling a collection

Reading forNaming and metaphorsAssumptions and gapsCitations and debates

A growing research agenda?

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1997 1998 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

workshop proposal conference paper grant proposal journal paper magazine article project website workshop position paper

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Three discourses

Sustainable interaction design

Re-visioningconsumption

Citizen sensing

Peopleas ConsumersMembers of collectives

Civic actors

Environment as Footprint Landscape Exposure

Action as Free choice Practice Participation

Goals as Behavior change Reflection Public action

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⑧ Miyaki, T. and Rekimoto, J.Sensonomy: Envisioning folksonomic urban sensing.

⑨ Steed,A., et al. e-Science in the Streets: Urban Pollution Monitoring.

⑩ Paulos, E. , Smith, I., and Honicky , R.J.Participatory Ubanism.

Sustainable interaction designPersuasive applications

Re-visioning consumptionRepresenting dialogues

Citizen sensingMaps of sensor data

① Chen et al. Live Sustainability: A System for Persuading Users toward Environmental Sustainability.

② Bang, M., Gustafsson, A. and Katzeff, C. Promoting New Patterns in Household Energy Consumption with Pervasive Learning Games

③ Aleahmad, A. et al. Fishing for sustainability: the effects of indirect and direct persuasion.

④ Dillahunt, T. et al. Motivating Environmentally Sustainable Behavior Changes with a Virtual Polar Bear.

⑤ Nathan, L.P. Ecovillages, values, and interactive technology: balancing sustainability with daily life in 21st century America

⑥ Bidwell, N.J. and Browning, D. Making there: methods to uncover egocentric experience in a dialogic of natural places.

⑦ Nugent L. et al., How Do You Say Nature?: Opening the Design Space with a Knowledge Environment.

Opportunities

Participatory designApproaching “the environment” as an

unsettled, local question

Negotiating the ethics of intervention

Beyond human-centered computingUnderstanding infrastructure

Grappling with institutions and regulatory regimes

Forming new partnerships with new demands

Thanks

To protect the nature that is all around us, we must think long and hard about the nature we carry around inside our heads.

William Cronon

Uncommon Ground