We invite position papers for the one day workshop titled “Erotic Life in HCI” at NordiCHI 2010. The papers should be 2 to 4 pages long in the SIGCHI paper format on any topic related to HCI and erotic life in DOC or PDF format, including the following:
- New designs and interfaces
- Original user research and empirical studies
- Critical essays that explore relations between cultural theory and human-computer sexual interaction
- Theories, models, and frameworks for the design and evaluation of systems to support erotic life
- Case studies
- Inter-, multi-, and transdisciplinary research on erotic life and HCI
Kindly send in your entries to EroticHCI[at]gmail[dot]com.
Workshop overview:
In recent years there has been a slowly emerging interest for understanding the relationship between interactive technologies and people’s erotic lives.
Quality of life in the workplace has been a key issue in HCI from the very beginning, including Scandinavian participatory design and the early work of Don Norman. As interactive technologies are spread to all spheres of human life, they affect virtual all aspects of life, including erotic life. However, erotic life seems to have been left out, almost systematically, by studies of IT in the home.
More and more people today experiment with the application of IT based artefacts and communication devices as part of their erotic lives and even more people get their erotic lives affected by IT without a specific intention.
The ideal technology for the support of erotic life may well be very different from the technologies suitable in a work environment. The mediation of intimacy or erotic arousal may benefit from interface techniques much different form those needed in the negotiation of shared meaning in the workplace.
Relevance to the field:
Erotic life intersects with numerous major areas of HCI. These include domestic technologies and ubiquitous computing, health informatics, user experience design, and embodied interaction, among others. Research on human-computer sexual interaction could potentially contribute to theory, user research methods, prototyping, and evaluation in any of these areas.
Outcomes of the workshop:
The primary outcome of the workshop is the elicitation and systematization of the issue and possible sub-field of research. The position papers from the workshop will be published as an issue of one of the organizers’ university publication series.
By the end of the workshop, we will discuss ways to advance this research, including the possibilities for future events, such as a stand alone symposium and/or publications. Depending on the quality, character and number of submissions, a special issue of a journal or a book will be produced.
Intended audience:
A similar workshop at CHI2006 was completely full (with 24 participants), and the organizers had to turn away many submissions; we believe that given the continued relevance and timeliness of this topic, the workshop will likewise have at least 10 and up to 24 participants. We welcome participants from all parts of HCI and related disciplines, researchers as well as practitioners, who wish to contribute to the establishment of this new line of discourse.
Planned activities:
- Before the workshop we invite workshop papers up to 4 ACM pages long (SIGCHI paper format ), reporting on recent user research, experiments, studies of the field, theoretical accounts, and so forth.
- We also invite position papers up to 2 ACM pages (SIGCHI paper format ) stating the submitters’ interest in the field.
- Accepted submissions will be circulated to all participants before the workshop.
- The workshop will begin with a brief introduction of the participants and the submitted work.
- All participants will bring a poster representing their work. The posters will be posted in the plenary room and used as collective memory during the workshop.
- The main part of the day will be spent on thematic discussions, in altering formats ranging from plenary discussions to work in small groups. The organization of this part depends on the submitted works and the number and combination of participants.
- The day will be concluded with a synthesizing session where the challenges and possibilities of the field of erotic life in HCI are laid out.
- Finally, we will have a brief session where possibilities for future work is discussed and decided.
About the organizers:
Jeffrey Bardzell an Assistant Professor of HCI/Design and new media at the School of Informatics and Computing in Indiana University – Bloomington. In addition to several publications on sexuality and intimacy, he specializes in interaction criticism, aesthetic interaction, and user experience design.
Shaowen Bardzell is an Assistant Professor of Human-Computer Interaction Design in the School of Informatics and Computing at Indiana University. She specializes in socio-cultural computing, with an emphasis on emotional, intimate, embodied experiences, and feminist HCI. She has organized many workshops at CHI, CSCW, and British HCI on critical theory and experience design as well as virtual world research.
Olav W. Bertelsen is an associate professor in human-computer interaction at the Computer Science Department of Aarhus University. He has published about erotic life in HCI and has organized numerous workshops at HCI conferences such as CHI, NordiCHI and BCS/HCI.
Gopinaath Kannabiran is a PhD student in the Human Computer Interaction Design program at Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing. His research interests include human sexuality and HCI as well as the integration of cultural and critical approaches and HCI.
