"AND MY MICROWAVE IS A FOX" Reflecting domestic environments and technologies by means of self- documentation packages
Anne Soronen, Olli Sotamaa · 2004
The paper investigates the role of domestic technologies in constructing conceptions of home. Rich qualitative data on Finnish households is analyzed in order to clarify the processes through which particular domestic objects and devices get their meanings. Interactions and atmosphere of the contemporary media-rich home are defined through the dynamics between private and public, individual and cultural and personal and familial. The paper highlights the significance of shared domestic media technology in defining and negotiating the domestic territories between household members. Also the varied spatial orders in relation to placing domestic devices are discussed. Furthermore, the authors examine the possibilities and limitations of the self-documentation package approach applied in the project. It is suggested that in the context of sensitive domestic environments practices originated by cultural probes can produce research data not acquired with traditional qualitative methods.