Understanding Embodied State Using Speculative Artifacts
J. Trevor D’Arcey, Julia Katherine Haines, Elizabeth F. Churchill · 2019
As the number of devices integrated into our lives skyrockets, we find ourselves inundated with opportunities for interaction. IoT promises to distribute computation and communication so pervasively that it becomes like background music for daily life, but the instruments often intrude in ways that subtract from an assistive, harmonious environment. We conducted anticipatory ethnography to enable people to imagine harmonious ecosystems that integrate speculative objects and their personal devices. Through activities we explored how participants might interact with future ecosystems within their daily routines. In this paper, we present a framework for embodied state as a central dimension from which to connect human motion and cognitive circumstance within the context of space and time. We find the need for substantial specialization in device ecosystems that bridge ambient and interactive spaces, and we present the notion of cognitive onloading for symmetrically explaining information distribution.