Abstract (Long paper)

Keywords: HCI, Design Methodology, Phenomenology, Body-centred technology, Embodied self-awareness, Focusing, Wearable technology, Probes.

This paper offers the beginnings of a methodological framework for the design of body-centric artifacts, understood as those that use embodied self-awareness as a tool for bodily self-knowledge and wellbeing. We present a case study on the design of artifacts to be applied in the self-practice of the psychotherapeutic technique Focusing. The autobiographical journey of the researcher is documented in the use of different methods to be integrated into design research, such as crafting devices through autoethnographic phenomenological annotations, the application of secondperson methods such as facilitated interaction for novices, and the use of a design kit to be tested by previously trained users. Even though wellbeing is a core concern of this project, the application of autoethnographic exploration through Focusing has an important creative potential, particularly in the generation of selfreporting narratives informed by somatic exploration. These rich descriptions can be utilised as a core construction material in the creation of art and design pieces for bodily understanding.

• Claudia Núñez-Pacheco, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. She  is a designer and a PhD candidate from the Design Lab at the University of Sydney. Her research investigates how bodily self-awareness can be used as a tool for human self-discovery as well as a crafting material for design, art and technology. In her research journey, she has engaged in a multidisciplinary exploration that merges wearable technology and the novel inclusion of
  Focusing as design method and philosophy.
• Lian Loke, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia. She pursues an interdisciplinary creative practice across performance, installation and technology, with the body as a constant theme. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Design Lab, Faculty of Architecture, Design and Planning, University of Sydney, and co-founder of the Pork Collective, a group of artists working in performance installation in festival environments. Recent projects investigating creative agency and bodily experience in technology-mediated contexts include Distributed Choreographies and Sensate Machines with Dagmar Reinhardt, a 2012 Critical Path residency for the My Mind Y/Our Body project with Michaela Davies, and 2010 Australia Council Inter-Arts Project grant for Luscious Apparatus.  lianloke.com

Full text (PDF)  p. 871-878