Backyard Practices: A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human Worlds

Ron Wakkary; Doenja Oogjes; Oscar Tomico; Nazmus Sakib; Ege Kökel

doi:10.1145/3706598.3713291

Backyard Practices: A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human Worlds

Ron Wakkary, Doenja Oogjes, Oscar Tomico, Nazmus Sakib, Ege Kökel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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Abstract

As design researchers committed to more-than-human designing, we found we were increasingly moving our research activities outside of our institutional studios and labs into yards and balconies where we lived. In this paper, we investigate this emerging pattern through collaborative autoethnography to arrive at the notion of backyard practices. These are distinct practices that signal the value and necessity of being there in more-than-human worlds to design-with over time. We describe the features of the practice that include time as duration and intensities, liminality as more-than-human presences, and proximity. We also describe commitments that emerged that include practice decentering, consistently engage more-than-humans as participants in the process, act with not-knowing and humility, queerly design alongside, and learn to be affected.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	CHI '25
Subtitle of host publication	Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Editors	Naomi Yamashita, Vanessa Evers, Koji Yatani, Xianghua (Sharon) Ding, Bongshin Lee, Marshini Chetty, Phoebe Toups-Dugas
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
Number of pages	18
ISBN (Electronic)	979-8-4007-1394-1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713291
Publication status	Published - 25 Apr 2025
Event	ACM CHI 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Yokohama, Japan Duration: 26 Apr 2025 → 1 May 2025 https://chi2025.acm.org/

Conference

Conference	ACM CHI 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Abbreviated title	CHI2025
Country/Territory	Japan
City	Yokohama
Period	26/04/25 → 1/05/25
Internet address	https://chi2025.acm.org/

Funding

We thank our colleagues and collaborators of the Everyday Design Studio at Simon Fraser University and the Making-With Cluster at Eindhoven University of Technology, and De Proef in Frederiksoord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We thank the reviewers for their insightful comments and encouragement. This research was partly funded by NSERC Discovery Grants Program (Grant #RGPIN-2023-04600), SSHRC Insight Grants Program (Grant #4352024-0783), and EWUU Call Urban-Rural Circularity: C3RN. Parts of the research was conducted on the unceded ancestral territory of (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. We also acknowledge that the knowledge of more-than-human-centered worlds has always been foundational in many Indigenous forms of knowledge and practices. Therefore, we try to be humble and generous in our approach.

Keywords

Design Methods
Ethnography
Home
Interaction Design
Method
Theory

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10.1145/3706598.3713291

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Wakkary, R., Oogjes, D., Tomico, O., Sakib, N., & Kökel, E. (2025). Backyard Practices: A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human Worlds. In N. Yamashita, V. Evers, K. Yatani, X. Ding, B. Lee, M. Chetty, & P. Toups-Dugas (Eds.), CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Article 768 Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713291

Wakkary, Ron ; Oogjes, Doenja ; Tomico, Oscar et al. / Backyard Practices : A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human Worlds. CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. editor / Naomi Yamashita ; Vanessa Evers ; Koji Yatani ; Xianghua (Sharon) Ding ; Bongshin Lee ; Marshini Chetty ; Phoebe Toups-Dugas. New York : Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2025.

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abstract = "As design researchers committed to more-than-human designing, we found we were increasingly moving our research activities outside of our institutional studios and labs into yards and balconies where we lived. In this paper, we investigate this emerging pattern through collaborative autoethnography to arrive at the notion of backyard practices. These are distinct practices that signal the value and necessity of being there in more-than-human worlds to design-with over time. We describe the features of the practice that include time as duration and intensities, liminality as more-than-human presences, and proximity. We also describe commitments that emerged that include practice decentering, consistently engage more-than-humans as participants in the process, act with not-knowing and humility, queerly design alongside, and learn to be affected.",

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Wakkary, R , Oogjes, D , Tomico, O, Sakib, N & Kökel, E 2025, Backyard Practices: A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human Worlds. in N Yamashita, V Evers, K Yatani, X Ding, B Lee, M Chetty & P Toups-Dugas (eds), CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems., 768, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., New York, ACM CHI 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Yokohama, Japan, 26/04/25. https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713291

Backyard Practices: A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human Worlds. / Wakkary, Ron ; Oogjes, Doenja ; Tomico, Oscar et al.
CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ed. / Naomi Yamashita; Vanessa Evers; Koji Yatani; Xianghua (Sharon) Ding; Bongshin Lee; Marshini Chetty; Phoebe Toups-Dugas. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2025. 768.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Academic › peer-review

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Wakkary R , Oogjes D , Tomico O, Sakib N, Kökel E. Backyard Practices: A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human Worlds. In Yamashita N, Evers V, Yatani K, Ding X, Lee B, Chetty M, Toups-Dugas P, editors, CHI '25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2025. 768 doi: 10.1145/3706598.3713291

Backyard Practices: A Liminal Approach to Designing in More-than-Human Worlds

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