How could we design technology that one uses some of the time, over a long time? Exploring Long-Term Human-Data and Human-Nature relations with Capra

As the practice of hiking becomes increasingly captured through personal data, it is timely to consider what kinds of data encounters might support forms of noticing and connecting to nature as well as one’s self and life history over time. How might digital records of hiking be captured in ways that offer alternative perspectives on these experiences as they are explored and lived-with? In what ways, could human-nature relations change as they are considered through different vantage points? And, considering the ongoing engagement with hiking as a lifelong activity, how might the use of personal hiking data unfold, grow, and evolve as a person, their archive, and their memories age over time?To investigate these questions, designed of Capra — a system that brings together the capture, storage, and exploration of personal hiking data with an emphasis on longer-term, occasional yet indefinite use. Over four years, our team adopted a designer-researcher approach where we progressively designed, built, refined, and tested Capra. This talk will detail how we negotiated conceptual and practical tensions in designing technology that is unobtrusive in nature while opening opportunities for interpretive and reflective (and non-use) experiences of personal hiking data as one’s archive expands and evolves. I will conclude with opportunities our work opens for exploring models of interaction for technologies that may be used some of the time, over a long time.

William Odom is an Associate Professor in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada. He is the founder and director of the Homeware Lab which explores a range of projects that include longer-term human-data relations, slow interaction design, and methods for developing the practice of Research-through-Design. He was previously a Fulbright Scholar in Australia, a Banting Fellow in Canada, and a Design United Research Fellow in the Netherlands.