Workshop Objectives

This interactive gathering aims to explore and experiment with the possibilities of operationalizing silence as an embodied experience of knowledge production and dissemination. To our knowledge, this is the first-of-its-kind engagement within the AfriCHI community where silence (not enforced) is encouraged as a means towards elevating lived experience-led and diverse perspective-based knowledge. Across HCI, initiatives that centred around well-being and resilience have been explored within the wider community (e.g. Silent SIG: Reflection in Action and Group silence in the midst of the hurricane that is CHI). More recently, the ACM CHI steering committee have noted how the format of the premier venue for HCI research and practice "keeps scaling to accommodate our growth—we keep adding parallel tracks, resulting in a bloated, overwhelming, and difficult to navigate program with little structured networking time or time for discussion of content or ideas—we have lost the ‘confer’ part of our conference". However, as African researchers, we realise two fundamental issues with such realities:

First, when we attend conferences, we are often overwhelmed by the level of verbal interaction we are subjected to as a result of its structuring as space for networking and sharing. We are constantly forced to talk and listen, to interact and interject, with little space for deeper reflection and inner reciprocity. Our pre-conference work-shop activities will provide an immersive experience for contemplating upon the knowledge created and shared during the conference as a site of power. Building on the Silent SIG: Reflection in Action @ ACM CHI 2018 call for more reflective activities after the conference “frenetic schedule”, what if we encourage participants to experiment with Buddhist meditation and Islamic prayers as interventionalist actions where contemplation in silence (against communication with divine beings) is adopted as a self-directed engagement in a world obsessed with noise, and the immersement in pre-conferences activities as a sort of transit lounge for escaping the enclosure of the world we live and work. 

Second, while workshops tend to be at the start of the conference program, our walk-shop proposal is deliberately designed to create new avenues for reflection and reflexivity where participants are encouraged to consider what was learned and unlearned as a result of our normative formats of conference engagement. Our post-conference walk-shop activities, as a cooperative exhibit of critical and constructive engagement with the diversity of African histories and aesthetics are undecided as we’re keen on more enchanting experiences, to be jointly decided by participants on site.  

Format: On site (open to remote participation) 

Planned Activities

Before the workshop

Prospective workshop participants will be encouraged to submit knowledge artefacts (papers, voice notes, zines, drawings, pictures, and so on) that highlight their quest(s) for or experience(s) with silence as a knowledge production and dissemination mechanism or in any other capacity. Alternatively, participants can outline their understanding of, and interest, in silence and indicate their aspirations and desires about the nature of participation in silence. The intention of embracing personalised knowledge artefacts is to incite some form of reflection/contemplation on what was learned  (and unlearned) during the previous conference (or similar experiences). 

During the Workshop

The pre-conference workshop will be half-day, with the first part focusing on establishing the limits of the HCI normative norms of knowledge production and dissemination by identifying other creative and artistic formats of academic expression. The second part will focus on exploring and enacting silence through various embodied exercises. As a two-part activity, participants could engage in the critical design of knowledge-bounding objects in silence and contemplate/reflect on the experiences of silent designing as a cooperative activity and process. 

1. Settling In 

   1. Outline the background and objective of the workshop using the knowledge artefact submitted 

   2. Exploring the diversity of cultural hospitality, e.g. fireplace sitting, object sharing, etc.

2. Collective reflection on the AfriCHI experiences (from 2016 to 2025) 

   1. Reflections on the power relations of knowledge systems in HCI, how conferences are a site of power, and what forms of power are exercised as a result of our current conference practices 

   2. Contemplation on powerful knowledge and the knowledge of the powerful

3. Silent designing and designs via walk-shop in the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities (for example)

   1. Overtly re-assembling of historic, creative, and aesthetic artefacts across the Museum as silent designing with situated knowledge

   2. Presentation (and preservation) of silent designs as a mechanism for richer engagement with knowledge artefacts

   3. Joint pledge and actions for expanding the pool of participation in HCI knowledge practices. 

After the Workshop

The organizers will follow up with the participants to share their experimental utilization of silence within their research/work contexts after the conference. These reflections will be grouped and formulated as silenced case studies as part of the what-if reflective notes.

Call for Participation

We invite participation from the African HCI community and beyond with an interest in exploring and promoting more subtle discussions about HCI knowledge production and dissemination practices. Intending participants are encouraged to submit a 2-pager summary of research interests’ alignment with the theme of the workshop, the motivation for attending, and the expected outcome of attendance.  The submissions will be assessed on their alignment with the workshop objectives and the conference theme and juried by the workshop organizers

We also encourage sharing fables/stories in any format imaginable of what might be considered intermediate-level knowledge or lived experience-led knowledge that might be lost in transit or translation.  There is also the option to submit a short position paper if participants would like to reflect on what they perceived to be the evolution of HCI conferences or discuss emerging directions of HCI identities and futures.  This can be in any format that best reflects their views on the desired future of HCI in Africa and elsewhere - in terms of subject matters, discourses, and knowledge production. As an interactive session, we also encourage sharing fables/stories in any format imaginable of what might be considered intermediate-level knowledge that might be lost in transit or translation. 

Please submit your 2-pager or position paper/stories/reflection with the lead organiser m.adamu@nottingham.ac.uk by the 1st of August 2025 (AOE). There is no specific template for submissions; however, we recommend using the ACM single-column template. 

Organizing Team

If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Muhammad Adamu at m[.]adamu[@]nottingham[.]ac[.]uk