Biological Human-Computer Interaction (Bio-HCI) has recently emerged as a rapidly growing and evolving area of research that explores the intersections of biology and technology. While vast in scope, the integration of biological systems, processes, and organisms within HCI serves as fertile ground for developing new, sustainable perspectives and methods of design. Consequently, this workshop aims to grow the ecosystem of Bio-HCI works by facilitating a space for experienced researchers and practitioners to exchange biomaterial recipes, biofabrication tools, biomaking practices, and biodesigned artifacts. Participants will share these contributions in a show-and-tell format—providing physical samples to demonstrate and explain their work. The show-and-tell will further provide a scaffold for drawing connections between works and serve as a starting point to discuss challenges, tensions, and barriers, followed by future opportunities. All show-and-tell contributions will be compiled into a collective zine to highlight, disseminate, and cultivate the current ecosystem of Bio-HCI at CHI.
Motivated by the growth of Bio-HCI, this workshop aims to gather a community of researchers and practitioners working at the intersection of HCI and biodesign to exchange biomaterial recipes, biofabrication tools, biomaking practices, and biodesigned artifacts, as well as discuss some practical challenges that practitioners face and opportunities for how this work to grow in the future. To support these goals, we intend to organize a long workshop (i.e., 2 sessions) for a small group of participants (i.e., 10-20 participants plus 6-12 organizers). In doing so, we make time and space for the depth of discussion necessary to advance Bio-HCI.
Fostering a collaborative and focused space for researchers, designers, practitioners, artists, and scientists with experience in biodesign and HCI to share their work, make connections, and build community.
Making a collective zine of biomaterial recipes, biofabrication tools, biomaking practices, and biodesigned artifacts that are being developed by the Bio-HCI community through participant submissions.
Exchanging physical samples and demoing prototypes that correspond to the zine for gaining an embodied understanding of what is currently being done in Bio-HCI.
Discussing barriers, challenges, and tensions (both technically and philosophically) when working at the intersection of biology, design, and technology.
Imagining possibilities, opportunities, and collaborations for growing Bio-HCI in the future by sustaining and extending our collective zine and online network.
Over the course of the two sessions, we will address the workshop goals by: (1) exchanging knowledge via zine distribution and show-and-tell, and (2) critically reflecting on the knowledge exchange and discussing challenges and opportunities.
In the first session, the collective zines will be distributed, and participants will partake in a \textbf{show-and-tell} of what they have submitted—a biomaterial recipe, a hardware or software tool to support biofabrication, a practice employed when working with biological matters, and/or a biodesigned artifact or interface. While we recognize that Bio-HCI projects will be some combination of materials, tools, practices, and artifacts, we explicitly make these four buckets so that participants can think through possibilities of utilizing or adapting others' work. For example, adapting a spinning machine designed to extrude algae biofibers to instead extrude a different biomaterial recipe. Or translating a practice of care someone employed when working with microbial cellulose to another mode of biofabrication. On top of sharing the project, participants will be highly encouraged to bring physical prototypes to demonstrate and biomaterial swatches to be exchanged. Through a physical show-and-tell, we hope to facilitate a hands-on, embodied knowledge exchange.
In the second session, we will engage participants in small-group reflections where they will make connections between the projects introduced in the first session. We will then broaden the \textbf{discussion} by talking through specific tensions, barriers, and challenges we face in our work, as well as potentially opportunities and other generative starting points for future Bio-HCI projects, leveraging this workshop to hopefully inspire future collaborations between participants. More than one organizer will be assigned to each discussion group to lead and facilitate the discussions, as well as take notes and document. We hope to cover a range of topics, such as: How can the work shared in the workshop build on the knowledge presented in each? What are the salient technical challenges arising from working with biomaterials? What ethical or philosophical challenges arise? How can the zine be extended in the future to become a comprehensive resource?
Accepted submissions will be compiled into a co-authored booklet—collective zine—that will be distributed virtually on our website and physically to the participants at the workshop in Barcelona. The zine will also be published in an open-access format on arXiv, so that it can be referenced and serve as a source of biodesign knowledge for the broader HCI community and beyond. The zine will also serve as an entry point for participants to exchange skills and insights during the workshop. To enrich the zines with tactile interactions, participants will be encouraged to prepare appropriate samples or swatches that can be attached, providing embodied experiences alongside written contributions.
We are committed to making this workshop fully accessible and equitable for all participants. As our workshop is centered around building community and exchanging knowledge, we are dedicated to facilitating a safe and comfortable experience. Our schedule, as well as details about the intended workshop activities, will be posted on our workshop website before the conference to make participants aware of any potential access needs. We will also directly reach out to our participants to see if they have any specific access needs or accommodations, so that we can make sure those needs are met during the workshop. During the workshop, we will check in with participants to ensure that their needs are accommodated and ask participants for their consent before taking any photos, videos, or recordings of the workshop. Furthermore, we will support any translation needs during the workshop, especially English to and from Catalan and Spanish, by working with bilingual organizers (one of the organizers is a Barcelona native), participants, and student volunteers, as well as translation apps.
Before the workshop, the zines (i.e., the collection of accepted submissions) will be made available online through our workshop website and arXiv so that participants can explore each other's work. We will also create a Slack or Discord group and a participant email chain to enable easy, direct communication before the conference. Through these communication channels, we will gauge what participants are most looking forward to about the workshop and what they hope to get out of it. This way, we can adjust our activities and schedule as needed to meet participant desires and expectations. We hope to use these online communication channels to build rapport before the workshop, organize ourselves during the workshop, and keep the discussion going after the workshop.
After the workshop, we will also update the website with a summary of the workshop (with photos). We will also keep the zine submission templates available for download on our website so that the workshop participants, as well as other interested researchers and practitioners, can continue to use them. Lastly, we will look into the opportunity for re-opening the submission form to keep growing our collective zine with more works, transforming our zine into a long-term online repository for the Bio-HCI community.
After the workshop, we will post key outcomes, accompanied by photos and videos of the workshop, on our website. We will also encourage participants to share their experiences of the workshop and post related reflections and photos on social media or personal websites.
As stated in our plans for publication, we will also make the collection of participant contributions---the collective zine---available online through our website and arXiv for participants to refer back to. Meanwhile, participants will be able to take home the physical copies of the zine distributed at the CHI conference. In the future, we envision distributing the physical zine at other events and communities; for example, adding it to the ACM DIS zine library, sharing it at other relevant community events like the Open Hardware Summit and Biodesign Challenge, and/or bringing it to local community makerspaces such as Fab Lab Barcelona. Accordingly, we hope that the zine acts as a useful artifact in and of itself that can support researchers and practitioners in future biodesign explorations.
We will also consider the potential of growing the online version of the zine, transforming it into a broader online repository of works at the intersection of biodesign, biotechnology, and HCI. By promoting both the zine and the broader online repository, we hope to inspire further experimentation and exploration, cultivating a repertoire of materials, tools, practices, and artifacts for Bio-HCI.