As part of the “Technology in the Home” project, organised by the Chair of Human-Computer Interaction at Bauhaus University, Weimar, I led a session in which the students used speculation to explore the grey area between autonomy and control in regards to home automation this term. Within this fruitful session that started with a simple “What if…?” students speculated about exosceletons that want our best — and even more so what might possibly go wrong with the idea. To summarize, exaggerate and most of all celebrate this inspirational discussion, I wrote the following story. The words were written down by…

“Wie können wir als Gesellschaft die Herausforderungen, die im Zuge der Corona Krise entstehen, mit neuen Lösungen gemeinsam meistern?” Diese Frage stellte der WirvsVirus Hackathon der Bundesregierung Ende März 2020. In diesem Artikel gehen wir der Frage nach, wie diese Herausforderungen von den Teilnehmern verstanden wurden und welche Lösungen sie vorschlagen. Durch eine Analyse der Kurzbeschreibungen zeigen wir, dass die Teilnehmer die Krise nicht als globales, medizinisches Problem definieren, sondern stattdessen lokale und soziale Lösungen vorschlagen. Dadurch wird die Pandemie zu einem Problem, welches durch technologische Interventionen gelöst werden kann. Allerdings bedeutet das auch, dass sich die Projekte zu einem…

I have told a couple of people in my life about twiddlemuffs. At first a lot laugh — and so I learned what the word could potentially mean — but when I get to explain it most people get it. Twiddlemuffs are basically muffs, i.e. handwarmers, but they have added things to twiddle with, such as laces, buttons, ribbons … Twiddlemuffs are great for people living with dementia, because it gives someone with limited mobility and cognitive abilities something to do. …

“Is this too much?” he asked and held another flower up to his face.

“Can it ever be enough?” they replied and passed on the bottle with make up glue.

He thought his face was covered with enough flowers to trick the machines, but why not add more for good measure? What was a man to do as one of the most influential anti-surveillance make up tutorial bloggers? His followers were not only interested in his practical tips — they could read up on them nearly anywhere — but they just liked his style. In a time where nearly everyone…

This post is based on two papers on design fiction probes, featuring the two artefacts “Homes for Life”, written Britta F. Schulte (UCLIC), Paul Marshall (UCLIC) and Anna Cox (UCLIC), presented at NordiCHI 2016 (published in the ACM Digital Library / open access pre-print here) & “HawkEye”, written by Renee Noortman and Britta F. Schulte (UCLIC), Paul Marshall (University of Bristol), Saskia Bakker (TU/e) and Anna Cox (UCLIC), presented at CHI 2019 (published in the ACM Digital Library / open access pre-print here).

Building technologies takes time, deploying them is complicated and it might take years until their impacts can…

This post is based on two papers on design fiction probes, featuring the two artefacts “Homes for Life”, written by Britta F. Schulte, Paul Marshall and Anna Cox, presented at NordiCHI 2016 (published in the ACM Digital Library / open access pre-print here) & “HawkEye”, written by Renee Noortman and Britta F. Schulte, Paul Marshall, Saskia Bakker and Anna Cox, presented at CHI 2019 (published in the ACM Digital Library / open access pre-print here).

Building technologies takes time, deploying them is complicated and it might take years until their impacts can be observed. …

“Oh well, humans, am I right?” the goblin said and spat out crumbs of the heavy pastry as he started laughing. The fairy and the vampire that stood next to them at the coffee table smiled politely at the remark, while scanning the room for people they knew. During the first break of the day the coffee break in room “Dionysus” was packed. The attendees of the “Computers, past, present and futures” conference idled at the standing tables, strode around the room in search for coffee and pastries or gathered around the few sockets that could be found to plug…

I had a couple of conversations recently on why the heck one might go and use design fiction. Oh, and I did a PhD project on design fiction in HCI as a method. So, I think and talk about design fiction quite a bit. One common critique I encounter is that at the end you have nothing. You have not build something. While I enjoy tinkering as much as much as the next person, I heartily disagree with this statement. First, you have built something: a world; a narrative; a artefact within it. That is not nothing. That is not…