DIS 2012 Workshop: Slow Technology: Critical Reflection and Future
Directions (June 12, 2012, Newcastle, UK)
Date: 12 June 2012
Location: Newcastle on Tyne, UK
Website:
http://www.willodom.com/slowtechnology/ Deadline for workshop submissions: March 20, 2012
In their seminal article on Slow Technology, Hallnäs and Redström
(2001) argue that the increasing availability of technology in
environments outside of the workplace requires interaction design
practice to be expanded from creating tools to make people’s lives
more efficient to “creating technology that surrounds us and therefore
is part of our activities for long periods of time.” These authors
outline a design agenda aimed at inverting values of efficient
performance and emphasizing creating technologies that support moments
of reflection, mental rest, slowness and solitude. Over a decade
later, these issues remain areas of inquiry in the HCI and design
communities, and there has recently been a resurgence of work in this
area. The core goal of this one-day workshop is to critically reflect
on the work that has emerged since Slow Technology was originally
proposed to forge understanding of the challenges, limitations and
opportunities characterizing the contemporary design space.
March 20, 2012: submissions due
April 16, 2012: accepted submissions notified
June 12, 2012: workshop held in Newcastle, UK
WORKSHOP SUBMISSIONS
We invite participants to submit a short written position paper as
well as a depiction of an artifact perceived to be constitutive of
Slow Technology. The written portion consists of a short 1-2 page
submission formatted using the ACM DIS 2012 template that responds to
the statement “Slow Technology is…” This introductory statement is
intended to provoke the author(s) to take a specific position on the
Slow Technology agenda and offer their conceptualization of what Slow
Technology is. This workshop paper could (but is not required to) use
the author(s) own philosophical, theoretical, empirical, or
design/craft-based work to support their position.
The artifact submission is intended to be something that the authors
deem constitutive of Slow Technology. These could include a personal
object (e.g., personal reflection on a family heirloom), experiential
accounts of “slow practices” (e.g., use of cooking tools for elaborate
meal preparation), analysis of design research artifacts that
incorporate the theme of “slowness” (e.g., an artifact built by the
author), or existing artistic works that can offer commentary and
inspiration that explores slowness (e.g. a painting or documentation
of a performance piece). The artifact may be depicted pictorially.
We encourage submissions from diverse backgrounds including (but not
limited to): art and design, the humanities, the social sciences, the
information sciences, and industrial engineering. Industry and
non-profit organizations are similarly encouraged. Submissions will be
selected based on originality, quality, and potential to generate
discussion. Both completed and in-progress work is welcome.
ORGANIZERS
William Odom, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon
University, US
Richard Banks, Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK
Abigail Durrant, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
David Kirk, Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK
James Pierce, Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon
University, US
THEMES
Some themes for submissions include:
**Consumption of objects and technologies**
There exist a range of work in the HCI and design communities
exploring how emotional attachment to technologies might extend their
longevity and increase their value. How are existing frameworks of
emotional attachment used in designing for longer term interactions
with technologies? What are the limitations to this approach? How does
design promote reflection on or address current trends of planned
obsolescence, both business models and social expectations? And, how
might more systemic or service-oriented approaches complement a move
towards designing for developing enduring attachment?
**Legacy and consideration of multiple generations**
As technologies and systems are interacted with over relatively long
periods of time, questions of how they will be passed down to future
generations are becoming increasingly important. In what ways can both
digital data and interactive products be designed with notions of
sentimentality and persistence across multiple generations in mind? To
what extent should interaction designers take into account the
responsibility of supporting the lives of future generations into
their practice? What are the practical, ethical, and/or moral issues
of doing so?
**Slowness and reflection**
Slow technologies can aim to invert values of efficiency in the
service of supporting experiences of pause, contemplation, and
reflection. Considered in contrast to efficiency and productivity,
what role might “slowness” through design play in contexts including
the home, the neighborhood, and the workplace? What kinds of
interaction mechanisms and functionalities characterize Slow
Technologies? In what ways do they compare or contrast to contemporary
consumer technologies?
**Infrastructural, engineering and technical concerns**
Designing material technologies that can support slowness both raises
questions and requires solutions regarding distinct technical
challenges. What kinds of new hardware and software will be required
for technologies to persist over longer periods of time? How is the
durability of information and materials handled effectively and
appropriately over time? To what extent can digital data and hardware
be designed to endure over time?
**Theoretical & ethnographic accounts of slowness**
Case studies and theoretical accounts of existing people and practices
can help inform the various strands of slow design. For example, how
can rich accounts of durable / non-durable practices (e.g., passing
down heirlooms; purging basements of unwanted clutter) inform slow
technology design practice?
