Data Sins: Exploring Data Colonialism through Storytelling-Based Speculative Design PracticesData Sins explores the concept of data colonialism as an emerging phenomenon in the early 21st century, fostering a critical understanding of its implications for human autonomy. Through speculative design, the project investigates how utopian ideals in data-driven technologies obscure neocolonial practices of data production and appropriation. Grounded in a theoretical framework, the storytelling mimics historical colonialism by exposing how the intertwined political, economic, and religious powers shape data-driven rituals and artifacts. This inquiry gains particular relevance in the context of Brazil's political conservatism over the past decade, which has consolidated a union between religious moralism, authoritarianism, and economic liberalism. The research underscores the non-neutrality of data, highlighting its role in shaping creative socio-technological design practices that safeguard not only the integrity of the self but the future of democracy itself.2025FAFabio de Almeida et al.Gender & Race Issues in HCITechnology Ethics & Critical HCIDesign FictionCHI
LoRA-Based Pattern Generation for Yi Ethnic Embroidery Heritage PreservationAlive Yi 2.0 combines cultural heritage, design innovation, and artificial intelligence (AI) to preserve and reimagine Yi minority embroidery patterns. Using a curated database of traditional Yi embroidery patterns, we implemented LoRA-based AI models to generate new designs that maintain cultural authenticity while enabling contemporary interpretations. This work transforms traditional patterns into modern variations through fine-tuned stable diffusion models, creating designs that respect cultural elements while appealing to younger generations. Our approach demonstrates the potential of AI-assisted design in cultural heritage preservation and provides a framework for using computational creativity to revitalize traditional heritage in the digital era.2025MGMengyao Guo et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Digital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceMuseum & Cultural Heritage DigitizationCHI
Pareidolia in the Machine: Unintended Figuration in AI-Generated Video from Abstract Visual MusicThis pictorial explores the interplay between algorithmic abstraction and AI-driven figuration in generative visual art. Using an AI video synthesis model, the authors transformed abstract visual music frames—created with the Processing programming language—into dynamic video sequences, aiming to preserve their non-representational aesthetic. However, the AI often reinterpreted geometric and fluid forms as representational entities, such as human figures, birds, and insects, despite the absence of such subjects in the source material. This phenomenon reveals two key dynamics: technical bias, in which AI, trained on representational datasets, prioritizes figuration and mirrors human pareidolia; and creative negotiation, where the artist’s abstract intent is continually reinterpreted, raising questions about authorship and the boundaries of procedural art. This study prompts deeper inquiry into whether natural language is inherently sufficient to evoke abstract aesthetics—a fundamental question that merits further exploration.2025SZSean Zhai et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Creative Coding & Computational ArtDigital Art Installations & Interactive PerformanceCHI
Designing a Digital Game for Natureculture Heritage encounters Human-computer interaction (HCI) increasingly explores the role of digital games in engaging audiences with cultural heritage. While heritage games exist, few effectively inte- grate participatory, reflective, and speculative storytelling to bridge nature and culture. Moreover, existing methods of- ten lack inclusivity and fail to capture the evolving perspec- tives on heritage. Here, we show how an iterative Research through Design (RtD) approach led to the development of the Natureculture Heritage (NCH) Game, evolving from a board game to a digital platform that fosters deep engagement with Madeira’s natureculture heritage. Playtests revealed the game’s ability to enhance participation, inclusivity, and speculative storytelling through mechanics such as char- acter embodiment, multi-perspective narration, and He- ro’s Journey structuring. The study contributes to HCI and heritage research by demonstrating how digital storytell- ing games can support sustainable heritage engagement. Future directions include refining multiplayer interaction, integrating factual content, and expanding accessibility for diverse audiences.2025VNValentina Nisi et al.Serious & Functional GamesMuseum & Cultural Heritage DigitizationInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
Eliciting Change Towards Better Virtual Worlds: A Workshop Process to Foster Ethical Reflection in Creative Technology Design ProcessesThe concept of the metaverse, recently re-emerging in public discourse, is viewed by some as the internet’s next evolutionary stage, while others regard it as a dubious promise of a future where physical and digital worlds merge seamlessly. As the metaverse takes shape, it is crucial to question whether its design will embody the values of the societies it aims to serve. Emphasizing ethical and inclusive technology development is essential, particularly through educating about the social impacts and ethical challenges in computer science and design. Our research contributes to this goal by introducing a five-day workshop process designed to encourage ethically reflective technology development. This workshop process integrates speculative design, service design, and digital ethics methodologies. We showcase its effectiveness by detailing the outcomes of its implementation in two distinct educational settings: a seminar in Germany and a summer school in Taiwan, both centered on the development of metaverse applications.2025MHMichel Hohendanner et al.Technology Ethics & Critical HCIParticipatory DesignUser Research Methods (Interviews, Surveys, Observation)CHI
Art, Identity, and AI: Navigating Authenticity in Creative PracticeThis pictorial explores the intersection of art practice and generative artificial intelligence (GAI) through a first-person approach, examining its role in overcoming creative block. It puts forward a journey from March 2023 to January 2025; the researcher (as artist/artist as a researcher) examines how generative artificial intelligence tools, including ChatGPT and MidJourney, reignited a passion for looser (imperfect) art practice. This process led to self-scrutiny through self-portrait that bridges personal and research. While generative artificial intelligence ignited creativity, it brought authenticity, originality, and tensions with ethics. These concerns are addressed through themes such as attribution transparency, the ethics of relying on non-human solutions and balancing inspiration versus imitation. The pictorial shares extracts from a two-year digital sketchbook that reflects how GAI can support artists in times of crisis and contributes to broader conversations about GAI's role in art practice. It invites readers to consider the evolving relationship between artists and GAI in shaping the future of art practice.2025MLMakayla LewisGenerative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)AI-Assisted Creative WritingCHI
DataPhysIT an image-schema-based Data Physicalisation Design Toolkit developed by Research through Design Data physicalisation has the potential to enhance communication and comprehension of data, as well as interaction with data. However, most current physicalisations do not exploit the full potential of this medium, remaining generic, passive and visual. We present image schemas as a design approach to address this and to promote data physicalisation design. Image schemas are abstract representations of multisensory experiences that promise to support the design process and encourage more intuitive, innovative, (inter)active, and multimodal designs. We conducted a research through design process to combine previously developed image-schema-based tools into a toolkit to increase their ease of use and efficiency. Our contribution are the emerging Data Physicalisation Inspiration Toolkit (DataPhysIT) and preliminary findings on how the toolkit influences the data physicalisation design process and design ideas.2025CBCordula Baur et al.Data PhysicalizationVisualization Perception & CognitionCHI
Brewing Banter: Augmenting Intercontinental Studio Classes for Casual CommunicationModern online platforms provide highly functional live operational tools for Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL). However, teams of students often face communication challenges due to differences in cultural background, experience and language, which hinder true collaboration. This pictorial presents Brewing Banter, a concept designed to foster spontaneous, informal communication in art and design studio environments, using the analogy of water cooler conversations. Combining physical and digital interfaces, it connects geographically distant classrooms to encourage the exchange of perspectives in creative practice. The design augments activities in the studio space using peripheral awareness. Finally, we discuss perspectives on spatial approaches to blended learning in higher education.2025MPMarinus Paul et al.Mixed Reality WorkspacesCollaborative Learning & Peer TeachingCreative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsCHI
Sustainable Robot Future: A Speculative Design about Humanity, Robots, and EcologyRobotics has emerged as a critical field of technological innovation. However, current design paradigms, rooted in industrial-era models, often prioritize centralized control, planned obsolescence, and rigid, one-size-fits-all solutions, undermining adaptability, sustainability, and personal autonomy. To address these limitations, we propose a speculative robotic design framework rooted in Sustainability, Adaptability, and Modularity. Our framework envisions robots as modular systems that can be assembled, reconfigured, and personalized by people, shifting design control away from centralized decision-makers and enabling long-term usability. Modularity enables adaptability and reduces obsolescence, while adaptability reinforces sustainability through circular resource use and extended lifecycles. This speculative framework not only provides a technical vision but also reimagines robotic design as a participatory and collaborative process aligned with ecological responsibility. Our speculative framework offers a manifesto for systemic change, reshaping robotics for a more equitable, sustainable future between humans, robots, and ecology.2025LCLingyun Chen et al.Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC)Technology Ethics & Critical HCISustainable HCICHI
Entangled Weathers: A Noticing TacticThis pictorial introduces entangled weathers, a noticing tactic that poetically examines the interplay between our internal states and external weather. By drawing from the feminist concept of weathering and the introspective practice of noticing the weather inside, this work highlights how bodies are situated in a dynamic overlap between nature, culture, space, and time. Anchored in stories grounded in the author's design practice, this pictorial illustrates how cultivating sensibilities towards the weather brings several actionable viewpoints to notice, including (1) measuring and mapping, (2) uncovering space and time reflections, (3) weathering narratives, (4) metaphorising and (5) surrendering control. This work invites design researchers to reflect on their own weathers and emerging themes, connecting with sensuous knowledge central to more-than-human design.2025CNClaudia Núñez-PachecoTechnology Ethics & Critical HCIHuman-Nature Relationships (More-than-Human Design)CHI
Designing OWN, The Inner World as a Virtual Space: By and For IntrospectionNurturing the inner world of emotions, thoughts, and self is essential to our well-being. However, the abstract and invisible nature of the inner world makes it difficult for people to sense and manage. Then, what if people build their own virtual world where they can introspect inner sides? This pictorial presents the creation process of ‘OWN’, a personal virtual space where users, the OWNers, can explore and interact with their inner world. As part of the co-creation process, each OWNer expresses a personal narrative about themselves and their surroundings, allowing psychologists to gain an in-depth insight into their world. The psychologists’ analysis of the OWNer’s inner state suggests various elements that the designer visualizes as space in the virtual world. By designing OWN with expressive activities, OWNers were able to reflect more deeply on their lives. OWN then became a virtual oasis where OWNers could relax, reflect, and improve themselves.2025SASOOYEON AHN et al.Immersion & Presence ResearchMental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCHI
3R (Robots, Rooms, Relationships): Speculative Homes, Sentient Machines, and the Future of DomesticityThe pictorial explores the role of domestic robots in shaping relational and emotional experiences in home environments. Through a participatory workshop featuring a speculative card game 3R (Robots, Rooms, Relationships), participants crafted future home scenarios by combining different robot types, household settings, and interaction modes. The results emphasize how different robot forms evoke unique relational responses. This research investigates how speculative scenarios expand human imagination and foster new emotional and cognitive dimensions in human-robot interaction (HRI). Our findings suggest that domestic robots are not merely functional tools but co-creators of affective ecologies, prompting new design frameworks. We advocate for a shift from deterministic robot functionalities to open-ended, imaginative design approaches that foster co-creative relationships between humans and robots.2025LCLingyun Chen et al.Domestic RobotsSocial Robot InteractionCHI
Reflection on Revision; What the Process of Creating Comics Reveals about Research and DesignThis pictorial explores how researchers’ collaboration with an illustrator to create comics that visualize ethnographic research on creative family learning experiences revealed assumptions about family learning and the facilitation of these experiences. We identify and visualize several key moments in the comic drafting process where an assumption made in the first comic draft needed to be addressed through careful visual revision by the illustrator, informed by feedback from researchers, to more accurately communicate the research. We conclude with insights for researchers and designers who are interested in using comics as a creative method for communicating research and a tool for uncovering new perspectives on their research.2025CMCeleste Moreno et al.Participatory DesignInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
Illustrating Creative Applications of Data and Technology: A Visual VocabularyContemporary technologies and data-driven methods have much potential to support innovation in the creative industries - from design and craft, to film and music. However, discussing and understanding the applied potential of data and technology can be especially difficult for creative practitioners who have limited previous experience with data-driven research and development. In this pictorial, we address this challenge through the design, and initial evaluation, of a ‘Visual Vocabulary’ of illustrations aimed to scaffold creative practitioners’ thinking about how they might employ a diverse range of data and technology to address their creative and business challenges. The illustrations serve as a resource for subverting common imageries of technologies and computational methods in popular media - which often fail to showcase their many creative affordances. Moreover, as an ideation card deck, they also serve to support discussion and exploration of new data-driven projects for creative practitioners.2025SLSusan Lechelt et al.Interactive Data VisualizationVisualization Perception & CognitionGraphic Design & Typography ToolsCHI
Making Sense of Our Data: Exploring Well-Being Self-Tracking Through Creative CollaborationMental health and well-being research increasingly recognizes the potential of data to support preventative care and foster meaningful sensemaking. However, traditional health data visualizations often overlook emotional depth, contextual relevance, and lived experiences. In response, four HCI researchers conducted a 35-day field study, examining their well-being data as participants and co-designers to reimagine their relationship with self-tracking technologies and health data representations. Grounded in participatory and soma-inspired design principles, this study encouraged participants to move beyond passive data consumption through creative experimentation, embedding personal experiences and collaborative exploration to challenge conventional representations and reimagine well-being through design. The findings demonstrate how collaborative sensemaking can reframe well-being interventions as creative processes that empower individuals’ lived experiences. By foregrounding reflection and shared interpretation, this work contributes to the discourse on how creative explorations with biodata redefine our relationship with wearable technology, highlighting the role of trust in understanding personal sensitive data collaboratively.2025BSBeatriz Severes et al.Mental Health Apps & Online Support CommunitiesCreative Collaboration & Feedback SystemsBiosensors & Physiological MonitoringCHI
Sense and Sensability: Exploring Future Immersive Environments for Scholarly SensemakingScholars must often make sense of vast amounts of complex and diverse scholarly information, much of which is not "senseable": crucial information like questions, concepts, or assertions, along with key properties like truthlikeness or evocativeness, are primarily identified through effortful search or reasoning, rather than direct perception through the senses. In this paper, we explore how we might augment scholarly sensemaking by making the full range of scholarly information more senseable. First, we systematically reviewed systems for scholarly sensemaking, and enumerated key types of scholarly information and their properties. Then, we synthesized design patterns for materializing abstract information in modern artworks, and connected them with our enumerated scholarly information and properties to develop three novel conceptual designs for senseable scholarly sensemaking in immersive environments. Our work lays the foundation for a novel design framework for exploring future immersive environments for scholarly sensemaking.2025SZSiyi Zhu et al.Immersion & Presence ResearchPrototyping & User TestingCHI
Nabokov's Cards: An AI Assisted Prewriting Systems to Support Bottom-Up Creative WritingWe introduce Nabokov's Cards, a creativity support tool that uses Large Language Models (LLMs) to support prewriting. Inspired by the writing process of Vladimir Nabokov, Nabokov's Cards enables prewriting ideation by providing users with an interface to write idea fragments on notecards and combine them into new sentences or concepts using an LLM. We conducted a one-week user study of Nabokov's Cards with professional creative writers (n=13) to explore writers' prewriting processes and learn about their usage of Nabokov's cards. We found from our interviews that writers characterized prewriting as a long, amorphous process that involved observations of the real world and the accumulation of idea fragments and that Nabokov's Cards facilitated prewriting through nonlinear interactions, divergent thinking, play, improvisation, and reflection. Nabokov's Cards also encouraged innovative approaches among writers that surpassed the cliches and redundancy often found within AI generated text today. We also note how future AI co-writing systems may benefit from designs that facilitate prompt engineering and modular thinking.2025DCDashiel Carrera et al.Generative AI (Text, Image, Music, Video)Human-LLM CollaborationAI-Assisted Creative WritingCHI
Fuzzy Linkography: Automatic Graphical Summarization of Creative Activity TracesLinkography—the analysis of links between the design moves that make up an episode of creative ideation or design—can be used for both visual and quantitative assessment of creative activity traces. Traditional linkography, however, is time-consuming, requiring a human coder to manually annotate both the design moves within an episode and the connections between them. As a result, linkography has not yet been much applied at scale. To address this limitation, we introduce fuzzy linkography: a means of automatically constructing a linkograph from a sequence of recorded design moves via a "fuzzy" computational model of semantic similarity, enabling wider deployment and new applications of linkographic techniques. We apply fuzzy linkography to three markedly different kinds of creative activity traces (text-to-image prompting journeys, LLM-supported ideation sessions, and researcher publication histories) and discuss our findings, as well as strengths, limitations, and potential future applications of our approach.2025ASAmy Smith et al.Interactive Data VisualizationTime-Series & Network Graph VisualizationData StorytellingCHI
Seeing the Sound: Supporting Musical Collaboration with Augmented RealityIn musical collaboration, digital musical instruments often hinder effective communication and engagement by restricting visibility and limiting gestural and non-verbal interactions. These challenges reduce musicians’ situational awareness and complicate cohesive performance. To address this, we developed a head-mounted augmented reality (AR) system to enhance collaborative musical experiences by visualising musicians’ hand movements, eye gaze positions, and instrument interactions in real-time. We conducted a user study involving four pairs of musicians performing live music using different AR interface configurations. The results suggest that the AR system can enhance situational awareness and assist collaboration, as reflected in questionnaire responses. Interviews indicated that real-time visualisations of bodily movements and interactions helped participants better understand the collaborative process and anticipate their collaborators’ actions. These findings point to the potential of AR-assisted visualisation to support creative collaboration by tailoring visual information to different needs. Future research could explore its application in broader contexts of real-time creative cooperation.2025YWYichen Wang et al.Social & Collaborative VRAR Navigation & Context AwarenessImmersion & Presence ResearchCHI
Content Authenticities: A Discussion on the Values of Provenance Data for Creatives and Their AudiencesThe proliferation of AI-generated digital content has intensified the user demand for accurate provenance information to ensure content authenticity. Technical advancements now provide tools to make the digital media content supply chain more transparent through the use of provenance data. This paper foregrounds the importance of understanding how the situated nature of user-content engagement influences perceptions and uses of this data. Insights from a workshop with experts in the creative media sector suggest that, as the adoption of provenance data becomes more common, users need richer and more nuanced information. We suggest that analyzing the increasing demand for content authenticity through the lens of multiple “authenticities”, each reflecting different user needs and contexts, can help identify and address the needs for, and uses of, provenance data by creators and audiences alike.2025CMCaterina Moruzzi et al.Explainable AI (XAI)Algorithmic Transparency & AuditabilityPrivacy by Design & User ControlCHI