All Is Heard: Reimagining The Sounds of Home With Care
Marine Zorea, Katsuhiko Kushi · Designing Interactive Systems Conference · 2024
As interactive sounds become embedded in our homes, we turn to the lens of care for exploring our audible relationships with home's nonhuman things, thereby revealing the potential of reimagining with care the design of domestic sound interactions. This paper presents a participatory study on Japanese dwellers’ experiences with domestic sounds and their convergence with care for other species, objects, climatic elements, and machines. Our findings reveal three thematic aural engagements with care: touching sounds, marginal maintenance, and beyond-human attunements. These themes inspired the speculation of three resounding objects as a creative device for critically contemplating the opportunities and troubles presented by care ethics for designing sounds in more-than-human homes. We conclude by challenging with care conceptions of sound, knowledge, and agency, toward audible futures where a multiplicity of voices is heard.