Spooky Technology: The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design

Daragh Byrne; Dan Lockton; Meijie Hu; Miranda Luong; Anuprita Ranade; Karen Escarcha; Katherine Giesa; Yiwei Huang; Catherine Yochum; Gordon Robertson; Lisa Yip Yan Yeung; Matthew Cruz; Christi Danner; Elizabeth Wang; Malika Khurana; Zhenfang Chen; Alexander Heyison; Yixiao Fu

doi:10.1145/3532106.3533547

Spooky Technology: The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design

Daragh Byrne (Corresponding author)
, Dan Lockton (Corresponding author)
, Meijie Hu
, Miranda Luong
, Anuprita Ranade
, Karen Escarcha
, Katherine Giesa
, Yiwei Huang
, Catherine Yochum
, Gordon Robertson
, Lisa Yip Yan Yeung
, Matthew Cruz
, Christi Danner
, Elizabeth Wang
, Malika Khurana
, Zhenfang Chen
, Alexander Heyison
, Yixiao Fu

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

15 Citations (Scopus)

13 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Our everyday technologies could have appeared terrifying to our ancestors: instantaneous disembodied communication, access to knowledge, objects with 'intelligence' that talk to us (and each other). Black boxes and intangible entities are omnipresent in our homes and lives without our necessarily understanding the hidden flows of data, unknown agendas, imaginary clouds, and mysterious rules that govern them. Have humanity's ways of relating to the unknown throughout history gone away, or have they perhaps transmuted into new forms? In an ongoing project, we have inventoried examples, encounters and reflections on contemporary technology, framed through the perspective of the haunted, spectral and otherworldly. In this paper, we excerpt this collection to illustrate the value and opportunity of an unfamiliar, disquieting perspective in helping to frame the frictions, beliefs and myths that are emerging around interactions with everyday technologies. We posit and demonstrate 'spooky technology' as an accessible framework to reflect and respond to our increasingly entangled relationships with technology.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	DIS 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference
Subtitle of host publication	Digital Wellbeing
Editors	Florian 'Floyd' Mueller, Stefan Greuter, Rohit Ashok Khot, Penny Sweetser, Marianna Obrist
Place of Publication	New York
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.
Pages	759-775
Number of pages	17
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-4503-9358-4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533547
Publication status	Published - 13 Jun 2022
Event	2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing, DIS 2022 - Virtual, Online, Australia Duration: 13 Jun 2022 → 17 Jun 2022

Conference

Conference	2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing, DIS 2022
Country/Territory	Australia
City	Virtual, Online
Period	13/06/22 → 17/06/22

Funding

We would like to thank Carnegie Mellon’s Vice Provost for Education and the Summer Remote Project course program, College of Fine Arts Fund for Research and the Frank-Ratchye Studio for Creative Inquiry’s Fund for Art @ the Frontier for their generous support of this project. To all of the creators, artists, designers, and makers we have featured, thank you for your thought-provoking projects and for your support of this work and of the book. In particular, we would like to thank the interviewees—Natalie Kane, Tobias Revell, Christine Geeng, David Benqué, Tega Brain, Wesley Goatley, Sam Lavigne, and Joseph Lindley— for their time and thoughtful conversations. Thanks also to the many faculty and students at CMU, the correspondents on social media — including Henry Cooke, Nicolas Nova, Elissa Redmiles, Beth Singler, Carlie Guilfoile Hundt, Ed Costello, Arnab Chakravarty, Filipe Pais — and our anonymous survey contributors, for giving us stories and suggesting references.

Keywords

disembodied interaction
entanglement HCI
everyday tech
hauntology
invisible
numinous
otherworldly
Research through design
spooky

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10.1145/3532106.3533547

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Cite this

Byrne, D., Lockton, D., Hu, M., Luong, M., Ranade, A., Escarcha, K., Giesa, K., Huang, Y., Yochum, C., Robertson, G., Yeung, L. Y. Y., Cruz, M., Danner, C., Wang, E., Khurana, M., Chen, Z., Heyison, A., & Fu, Y. (2022). Spooky Technology: The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design. In F. F. Mueller, S. Greuter, R. A. Khot, P. Sweetser, & M. Obrist (Eds.), DIS 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing (pp. 759-775). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533547

Byrne, Daragh ; Lockton, Dan ; Hu, Meijie et al. / Spooky Technology : The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design. DIS 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing. editor / Florian 'Floyd' Mueller ; Stefan Greuter ; Rohit Ashok Khot ; Penny Sweetser ; Marianna Obrist. New York : Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2022. pp. 759-775

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title = "Spooky Technology: The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design",

abstract = "Our everyday technologies could have appeared terrifying to our ancestors: instantaneous disembodied communication, access to knowledge, objects with 'intelligence' that talk to us (and each other). Black boxes and intangible entities are omnipresent in our homes and lives without our necessarily understanding the hidden flows of data, unknown agendas, imaginary clouds, and mysterious rules that govern them. Have humanity's ways of relating to the unknown throughout history gone away, or have they perhaps transmuted into new forms? In an ongoing project, we have inventoried examples, encounters and reflections on contemporary technology, framed through the perspective of the haunted, spectral and otherworldly. In this paper, we excerpt this collection to illustrate the value and opportunity of an unfamiliar, disquieting perspective in helping to frame the frictions, beliefs and myths that are emerging around interactions with everyday technologies. We posit and demonstrate 'spooky technology' as an accessible framework to reflect and respond to our increasingly entangled relationships with technology.",

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Byrne, D, Lockton, D, Hu, M, Luong, M, Ranade, A, Escarcha, K, Giesa, K, Huang, Y, Yochum, C, Robertson, G, Yeung, LYY, Cruz, M, Danner, C, Wang, E, Khurana, M, Chen, Z, Heyison, A & Fu, Y 2022, Spooky Technology: The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design. in FF Mueller, S Greuter, RA Khot, P Sweetser & M Obrist (eds), DIS 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., New York, pp. 759-775, 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing, DIS 2022, Virtual, Online, Australia, 13/06/22. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533547

Spooky Technology: The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design. / Byrne, Daragh (Corresponding author); Lockton, Dan (Corresponding author); Hu, Meijie et al.
DIS 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing. ed. / Florian 'Floyd' Mueller; Stefan Greuter; Rohit Ashok Khot; Penny Sweetser; Marianna Obrist. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc., 2022. p. 759-775.

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

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AU - Escarcha, Karen

AU - Giesa, Katherine

AU - Huang, Yiwei

AU - Yochum, Catherine

AU - Robertson, Gordon

AU - Yeung, Lisa Yip Yan

AU - Cruz, Matthew

AU - Danner, Christi

AU - Wang, Elizabeth

AU - Khurana, Malika

AU - Chen, Zhenfang

AU - Heyison, Alexander

AU - Fu, Yixiao

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Byrne D, Lockton D, Hu M, Luong M, Ranade A, Escarcha K et al. Spooky Technology: The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design. In Mueller FF, Greuter S, Khot RA, Sweetser P, Obrist M, editors, DIS 2022 - Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference: Digital Wellbeing. New York: Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2022. p. 759-775 doi: 10.1145/3532106.3533547

Spooky Technology: The ethereal and otherworldly as a resource for design

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