Splash! Identifying the Grand Challenges for WaterHCI

ACM SIGCHI Premier International Conference of Human-Computer Interaction CHI'22

Christal Clashing, Maria Fernanda Montoya Vega, Ian Smith, Joe Marshall, Leif Oppermann, Paul H. Dietz, Mark Blythe, Scott Bateman, Sarah Jane Pell, Swamy Ananthanarayan, & Floyd Mueller

Extended Abstract

Bodies of water can be a hostile environment for both humans and technology, yet they are increasingly becoming sources, sites and media of interaction across a range of academic and practical disciplines. Despite the increasing number of interactive systems that can be used in-, on-, and underwater, there does not seem to be a coherent approach or understanding of how HCI can or should engage with water. This workshop will explicitly address the challenges of designing interactive aquatic systems with the aim of articulating the grand challenges faced by WaterHCI. We will first map user experiences around water based on participants’ personal experiences with water and interactive technology. Building on those experiences, we then discuss specifc challenges when designing interactive aquatic experiences. This includes considerations such as safety, accessibility, the environment and well-being. In doing so, participants will help shape future work in WaterHCI.

CCS Concepts: Human-centered computing→Interaction paradigms.
Keywords: HCI, water, fluidic user interface, aquatic play.

Christal Clashing, Maria Fernanda Montoya Vega, Ian Smith, Joe Marshall, Leif Oppermann, Paul H. Dietz, Mark Blythe, Scott Bateman, Sarah Jane Pell, Swamy Ananthanarayan, and Florian ’Floyd’ Mueller. 2022. Splash! Identifying the Grand Challenges for WaterHCI. In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Extended Abstracts (CHI ’22 Extended Abstracts), April 29-May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 6 pages. doi.org/10.1145/3491101.3503723

#WaterHCI CHI'22 ACM Workshop Virtual

The WaterHCI one-day workshop consisted of a keynote lecture by Prof. Steve Mann, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto followed by a performance on the Hydraulophone; research presentations by John Quarles, Leif Oppermann, Paul Dietz, and Sarah Jane Pell; and introductions by hosts and participants mapping their positive and negative associations to water. Following presentations, focus groups branched out to breakout sessions for lively discussion, and brainstorming on design user scenarios related to a Grand Challenge for Water HCI technology intervention or countermeasure relating to the Body/Technology/Water.

#WaterHCI CHI'22 ACM Workshop Virtual. Keynote: Steve Mann. Speakers John Quarles, Leif Oppermann, Paul H. Dietz, and Sarah Jane Pell. Zoom, 13 April 2022.

Groups then storyboarded societal, accessability, safety, technology, environment and wellbeing considerations. Successes, failures, and future potential challenges of the narrative scenarios fuelled deliberations. Participants worked collaboratively to create a visual research map of waterCHI in an online collaborative platform, “Miro”. We concluded with a reflective discussion on the future of water HCI, identifying directions for further collaboration, and a forthcoming publication on grand challenges.

#WaterHCI CHI'22 ACM Workshop Virtual. Online collaborative brainstorming platform "Miro" stills.

Aquabatics and #WaterHCI

Assessing the impact of the body aquatic and locating it as a grand challenge for #under #WaterHCI

Sarah Jane Pell

Extended Abstract

This paper aims to demonstrate whether and how recognising the aquatic body at the simultaneously visceral and distributed interaction level would enhance the safety, and foreseeability of WaterHCI activities. The focus is on the underwater, and where resulting insights may further increase investment in bodily aquatic research, the subaquatic industries, and the global human-computer interaction design economy. Pell has delivered creative and pragmatic solutions to explore human potential and expression in extreme environments for over two decades. Her expertise lies in sea and space. Accumulative skills and operational experience situate her research in both Human Factors and Art. She aims to breaks scientific convention through experimental interaction design to produce novel expeditionary architectures, immersive visualisation as an aqueous philosophy-in-action called Aquabatics. Her research interrogates deep aquatic play and performance praxis, focusing on (art-e)fact creation and utilisation design by applying the science of extreme performance, hacking its tools and adapting its systems, and tapping ancient knowledge and cultural systems within dynamic ecologies to know and to show this language. By prioritising the water, and through the contribution of Aquatics, Pell aims to advance interaction design with a new framework ennobled by such aquatic awareness and symbiotic knowledge systems. This paper introduces her work and approach, identifies the requirements for broadening of scope of reference including prior art and related industries, identifies philosophical frameworks, embodied realities specific to being at depth, technical potentials of water memory, droplet computation and data storage, and the need for designers to acknowledge the agency and sentience of water bodies. Consequently, Pell argues that assessing the impact and locating the body aquatic in all stages of design is both critical and significant to the grand challenges of #under #WaterHCI.

Sarah Jane Pell, 2022. Aquabatics in WaterHCI. In Splash! Identifying the Grand Challenges for WaterHCI, CHI'22 Virtual Workshop April 13, 2022.
In CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, April 29 - May 5, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages.

The ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems is the premier international conference on human-computer interaction. CHI'22 http://chi2022.acm.org/

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