Carrier bag narratives for more-than-human care: rethinking design, maintenance, and worldmaking in HCI

Abstract

Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) and its surrounding areas, such as Human-Building Interaction (HBI), and Media Architecture have long been shaped by narratives of progress, innovation, and problem-solving, often following the “heroic arc” of Joseph Campbell’s monomyth. While productive, these narratives tend to marginalize practices of maintenance, repair, and care, as well as the more-than-human relations through which sociotechnical systems persist. This full-day workshop invites participants to explore alternative narrative forms for HCI through Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, narratives centered on gathering, sustaining, and caring rather than heroic achievement. Through short provocations, peer annotation, and collaborative exercises, participants will bring existing research projects, probes, or artifacts and collectively surface and rethink the narratives embedded within them. The workshop will generate speculative narrative artifacts such as storyboards, diagrams, or care-oriented reframings. By foregrounding narrative and care, the workshop aims to expand how interactivity is understood at DIS, contributing to relational and care-centered approaches beyond interaction in HCI.