Building on feminist HCI, care ethics and soma design, we invite design practitioners to collectively explore otherwise hidden and isolating experience of discomfort. By discomfort we understand a range of first-person experiences: from physical pain to a slight sense of unease related to social interaction. The purpose of the workshop is to explore uncomfortable feelings and sensations, which are present in our bodies but whose existence is rarely acknowledged and shared. We will engage in the exploration through a one day workshop combining bodily exercises with collaborative design activities. The first goal of the workshop is to materialise corporeal discomfort and experiment with different ways of articulating experience. The second goal is to explore and change the process of designing together through. We will pay attention to the uncomfortable in order to develop the ways of working together that are based on our shared vulnerabilities rather than privileges and shed light on how collective immersion of bodily discomfort could spark a caring and generative design process.
QC 20240412