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The lonely raccoon at the ball: designing for intimacy, sociability, and selfhood

Published: 26 April 2014 Publication History

Abstract

Designing for sociable systems requires, among other abilities, a sensitivity to the meanings, structures, and nuances of technology-mediated experiences that are simultaneously felt by users to be intimate and also social. Such a sensitivity is not easily acquired, and design researchers have recommended the use of social theories to guide designers' readings of technology-mediated social experiences. We use philosopher Michel Foucault's theory of identity (and social power, discourse, sexuality, creativity, and style) known as "the care of the self," as a scaffold with which to produce a sensitive interpretation of the intimacy (and expert social creative) practices of adult users of the virtual world Second Life (SL). This reading sheds light on several skilled and creative intimacy practices in SL. It also offers a philosophically grounded hermeneutic strategy for designers interested in analyzing intimate experiences.

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    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '14: Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 2014
    4206 pages
    ISBN:9781450324731
    DOI:10.1145/2556288
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    Published: 26 April 2014

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    Author Tags

    1. amateurs
    2. creativity
    3. design
    4. hci
    5. identity
    6. intimacy
    7. maker culture
    8. making
    9. sexuality
    10. sociability
    11. user experience

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    April 26 - May 1, 2014
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    CHI '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 465 of 2,043 submissions, 23%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

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    • (2023)Comfort Activism: Online Photography for Social Change in a Minority GroupProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35794687:CSCW1(1-33)Online publication date: 16-Apr-2023
    • (2023)Interacting with Masculinities: A Scoping ReviewExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3585770(1-12)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
    • (2023)Online Dating as Context to Design Sexual Consent Technology with Women and LGBTQ+ StakeholdersProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3580911(1-17)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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    • (2020)Taking the Long, Holistic, and Intersectional View to Women’s WellbeingACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction10.1145/339715927:4(1-32)Online publication date: 20-Jul-2020
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