Research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) on sustainability has recently exploded. The goal of this project is to guide further development of sustainable HCI by informing research in the area with an understanding of contemporary interventionist eco-art practices. By "interventionist eco-art practices" we are referring to a set of artists and projects that combine public and institutional engagement with a commitment to sustainability, to produce artifacts and systems that intervene in environmental issues to raise awareness and provide models for social change. Through such activities, artists push the boundaries of how we use and think about technology and its relationship to the environment. These interventionist eco-art artists and projects suggest new themes and work practices that could usefully inform sustainable HCI. But because they are born from far outside of the traditional sciences, arts-based approaches run into challenges in being taken up and taken seriously as part of HCI. On the one hand, methods and outcomes deriving from the arts are most easily incorporated into HCI by retro-fitting them to existing understandings of HCI as a scientific discipline in ways that blunt their potential to truly add new perspectives. On the other hand, methods and outcomes that remain true to an arts sensibility can suffer marginal status as "artsy HCI" such arts-based approaches are more likely to be considered acceptable for fringework or one-off systems than to be thought of as appropriate or essential for the core research of HCI. In either case, the "edge" of arts-based approaches, that could provide transformative potential for innovation, is dulled.
In this project, groundwork for transdisciplinary engagement between sustainable HCI and interventionist eco-art practices will be laid through an ethnographic case study of interventionist eco-arts practices at the 2010 01 SJ Biennial in San Jose, California to be held September 16 to 19, 2010. The 01SJ Biennial is one of the major international media arts festivals. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors; over 60 artists, designers and collectives are scheduled to participate in the 2010. The theme of 2010 is "Build Your Own World" and the majority of participating projects share a common theme of developing alternative, collaborative and Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approaches social and environmental conditions. As such, it provides a unique opportunity for ethnographic study of a range of projects and practices within a bounded space and timeframe. This research will engage in the following activities (1) observation and analysis of eco-arts projects presented at the 2010 01SJ Biennial; (2) participant-observation in the Biennial as a commissioned art/design collective (3) a project workshop to integrate the results of the first two activities and develop a set of key themes for sustainable HCI (4) follow-on interviews with artists from and the curator of the Biennial.
The purpose of this research was to investigate different methods of engaging the public in issues relating to sustainability, and how technology is, and might be, used as part of those methods. Our goal was first to identify methods through a case-study that compared experimental arts-based public engagement programs and then to assess those methods, so that we might make suggestions for the better design of future public engagement programs. Our research contributes to multiple scholarly fields, including public understanding of science and technology, public engagement with technology, human-computer interaction, and design. Our research also has public impact by informing the design of public engagement programs at museums. From this research we have authored 1 book chapter and two journal articles. We have three primary findings from our research. 1) We identified and developed novel tactics of garnering public participation in art and technology programs that engage themes of sustainability. As part of this, we also analyzed these tactics and their effects. From this we have: 2) Developed an analysis of types of participation / engagement and identified barriers to the full implementation of these approaches. Identification of these barriers should assist in the successful development of arts-based public programming with regard to sustainability and technology. 3) Developed a new approach to framing 'empathy' within design. Theories of empathy form a cornerstone of much of contemporary design practice. We identified and articulated an alternative notion of empathy that extends beyond humans to engage with 'the environment' and potentially re-structure how we design technology to mediate affective relationships with the environment and the issues of sustainability.
