Being The Creek: Mobile Augmented Reality Experience as an Invitation for Exploring More-Than-Human Perspectives

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems and Challenges:

  • The author explores how the human-centered perspective in modern societal contexts has led to ecosystem destruction, particularly the neglect of non-human entities in the environment (e.g., water bodies and natural surroundings). This perspective often views nature as a resource for human use rather than as entities with intrinsic value.
  • Using the metaphor of "forgotten ghosts," the author highlights the hidden historical remnants in human-dominated landscapes that have been overlooked, calling for a rebalancing of human-non-human relationships.

• Significance of the Issues:

  • These issues are tied to global ecological destruction, impacting biodiversity and environmental sustainability. Addressing them is crucial for fostering deep ecological awareness and driving societal transformation.
  • To critique the human-centered tendencies in modern technological design, the author proposes a decentralized design approach that fully considers the relationships between humans and non-human entities.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • The author draws on the trend of "more-than-human" design in the HCI field, inspired by Indigenous ecological perspectives. Indigenous cultures view humans and nature as an integrated whole rather than separate entities, offering an important lens for understanding non-human agency.
  • Additionally, mobile augmented reality (MAR) is utilized to enhance participants' attention to non-human entities in the environment. Previous studies have focused on animals, plants, or wild environments, but rarely on non-human entities in urban areas.

Proposed Solution

• Proposed Methods and Solutions:

  • The author designed and evaluated "Being The Creek," a mobile augmented reality (MAR) system that encourages participants to experience the world from the first-person perspective of "Strawberry Creek." Through historical and future scenarios, participants become aware of how the relationship between the creek and humans has evolved over time.

• Innovative Features:

  • By combining embodied interaction with the first-person perspective of "I am the creek," the design shifts participants away from a human-centered stance, drawing attention to the uniqueness and agency of non-human entities. This design represents the first MAR experience specifically exploring human-centeredness through embodied immersion and historical narratives.
  • The cross-temporal and spatial experience design allows participants to switch between the current environment and historical scenes, using visual augmentation and bodily postures to evoke emotional and profound reflections on environmental and ecological issues.

• Implementation Steps and Technology:

  • A one-mile trail along Strawberry Creek was designed, featuring five iconic locations. Each location presents a different historical context through MAR, including the Indigenous period, colonization, industrialization, urbanization, and future environments.
  • The system displays augmented reality visuals based on participants’ physical location and posture (e.g., lying beside the creek and observing the scene). Additionally, information pages provide contextual background related to historical events.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Outcomes:

  • Participants expressed a range of complex emotions during the first-person experience of "Being The Creek," including anger, loneliness, helplessness, and hope. This indicates that they not only reexamined their relationship with the natural environment but also reflected on their own behaviors.
  • MAR facilitated participants’ transition from a state of neglect to active observation of nature through enhanced sensory experiences, prompting a reevaluation of human activities' impact on the environment.

• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:

  • By lying down and using the first-person "I" perspective, participants could experience the unique agency of "becoming non-human," which significantly differs from conventional visually dominated technological experiences.
  • MAR’s integration of bodily postures and geolocation sensing transformed participants from mere spectators to active participants in the experience.

• Experiment and Evaluation Results:

  • Fifteen participants experienced the roles of the creek across different historical periods at five locations. They expressed curiosity about the creek's history and, through the cross-temporal and spatial perspective, deeply reflected on the ecological damage caused by human-centeredness.
  • Participants reported developing deeper associations with non-human entities in the environment and proposed potential changes to their future behaviors.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • The current study is short-term and lacks longitudinal data tracking participants' behavioral changes over time.
  • With technological advancements, future MAR experiences could be enriched by incorporating sound, tactile interactions, or wearable devices.
  • Further collaboration with local Indigenous communities is necessary to ensure the comprehensiveness of historical perspectives and avoid cultural resource misuse.
  • Future designs could target a broader range of non-human entities, such as forests, animals, or other natural environments, to explore the "more-than-human" world from a more comprehensive perspective.