Sensing Bodies

Sensing Bodies is an interactive installation that integrates plants, biosensors, and data displays in a series of tangible embodied encounters to facilitate reflection on the complex sociopolitical entanglements of plants. The triptych installation incorporates different forms of biodata and three plantation plants of the U.S. South to highlight reciprocal people-plant relationships while fostering a deeper sensibility toward colonial histories of local landscapes. In this paper, we put forth three design provocations for engaging with postcolonial perspectives in more-than-human interactions: materializing tensions to trouble multi-species relationships, embracing ambiguities and multiple relationalities, and highlighting geographic and cultural situatedness. In doing so, we contribute to how TEI might facilitate postcolonial understandings and sensibilities.

Publications

Sylvia Janicki, Nassim Parvin, Noura Howell. 2024. Crip Reflections on Designing with Plants: Intersecting Disability Theory, Chronic Illness, and More-than-Human Design. Designing Interactive Systems (DIS). Best Paper Award.

Sylvia Janicki, Alexandra Teixeira Riggs, Noura Howell, Anne Sullivan, Nassim Parvin. 2024. Sensing Bodies: Engaging Postcolonial Histories through More-than-Human Interactions. Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI).