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Autosomatographical Narratives: Towards the Articulation of Felt Accounts of Pain for Somaesthetic Design

Published: 01 July 2024 Publication History

Abstract

Chronic pain can be debilitating, taking over our senses and potentially destroying our means of describing our experiences. In this pictorial, we contribute three concepts based on the analysis of autosomatographies, a first-person narrative approach from illness and disability studies to communicate experiences of pain. These concepts suggest designers consider pain as (a) self-agentic, (b) a tool for empowerment, and (c) a means of creative expression. We illustrate the generation of these concepts through the first author's autosomatographical journals, highlighting how visual research greatly contributes to articulating expressive felt qualities of pain for design use. To exemplify the translation of these concepts into tangible prototypes, we retrospectively analysed two soma design case studies created to appreciate our bodies and learn from pain. We discuss the importance of acknowledging the persistence of chronic pain and the ethics of engaging in this type of design work.

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        cover image ACM Conferences
        DIS '24: Proceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference
        July 2024
        3616 pages
        ISBN:9798400705830
        DOI:10.1145/3643834
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        Published: 01 July 2024

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