research-article

An anxious alliance

Author:

Kaiton WilliamsAuthors Info & Claims

CA '15: Proceedings of The Fifth Decennial Aarhus Conference on Critical Alternatives

Pages 121 - 131

https://doi.org/10.7146/aahcc.v1i1.21146

Published: 17 August 2015 Publication History

Abstract

This essay presents a multi-year autoethnographic perspective on the use of personal fitness and self-tracking technologies to lose weight. In doing so, it examines the rich and contradictory relationships with ourselves and our world that are generated around these systems, and argues that the efforts to gain control and understanding of one's self through them need not be read as a capitulation to rationalizing forces, or the embrace of utopian ideals, but as an ongoing negotiation of the boundaries and meanings of self within an anxious alliance of knowledge, bodies, devices, and data. I discuss how my widening inquiry into these tools and practices took me from a solitary practice and into a community of fellow travellers, and from the pursuit of a single body goal into a continually renewing project of personal possibility.

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Cited By

Krapp ENeuhaus RHassenzahl MLaschke M(2024)In a Quasi-Social Relationship With ChatGPT. An Autoethnography on Engaging With Prompt-Engineered LLM PersonasProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685501(1-16)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3679318.3685501
Bønlykke SMadsen KJenkins T(2024)Taking the bizarre seriously: dreams as a material for interaction designProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661562(699-713)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661562
Väkevä JMekler ELindqvist J(2024)From Disorientation to Harmony: Autoethnographic Insights into Transformative Videogame ExperiencesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642543(1-20)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642543
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Index Terms

An anxious alliance
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Other conferences

CA '15: Proceedings of The Fifth Decennial Aarhus Conference on Critical Alternatives

August 2015

183 pages

Conference Chairs:
Olav W. Bertelsen,
Kim Halskov,
Program Chairs:
Shaowen Bardzell,
Ole Iversen

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SIGCHI: ACM Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction

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Aarhus University Press

Aarhus N

Publication History

Published: 17 August 2015

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AA 2015

AA 2015: CRITICAL ALTERNATIVES 2015 The fifth decennial Aarhus conference

August 17 - 21, 2015

Aarhus, Denmark

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Cited By

Krapp ENeuhaus RHassenzahl MLaschke M(2024)In a Quasi-Social Relationship With ChatGPT. An Autoethnography on Engaging With Prompt-Engineered LLM PersonasProceedings of the 13th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/3679318.3685501(1-16)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3679318.3685501
Bønlykke SMadsen KJenkins T(2024)Taking the bizarre seriously: dreams as a material for interaction designProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3661562(699-713)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3643834.3661562
Väkevä JMekler ELindqvist J(2024)From Disorientation to Harmony: Autoethnographic Insights into Transformative Videogame ExperiencesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642543(1-20)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642543
Kaltenhauser AStefanidi ESchöning J(2024)Playing with Perspectives and Unveiling the Autoethnographic Kaleidoscope in HCI – A Literature Review of AutoethnographiesProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642355(1-20)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642355
Ambe ARoomkham SLovell DBrereton M(2023)Rethinking the Design of Human-Data Interaction through a Study of Older Adults’ WellbeingProceedings of the 35th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference10.1145/3638380.3638451(266-279)Online publication date: 2-Dec-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3638380.3638451
Homewood S(2023)Self-Tracking to Do LessProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581505(1-14)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3581505
Reime LTsaknaki VCohn M(2023)Walking Through Normativities of Reproductive Bodies: A Method for Critical Analysis of Tracking ApplicationsProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3581450(1-15)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
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Karlsson SOlsson ONormark M(2022)"I feel like I've never really achieved it"Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference10.1145/3546155.3546678(1-10)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2022
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Hakio KDolejšová MMattelmäki TChoi JAmpatzidou C(2022)Following Seals and DogsProceedings of the Participatory Design Conference 2022 - Volume 210.1145/3537797.3537869(167-172)Online publication date: 19-Aug-2022
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Tsaknaki VSanches PJenkins THowell NBoer LBitzouni A(2022)Fabulating Biodata Futures for Living and Knowing TogetherProceedings of the 2022 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3532106.3533477(1878-1892)Online publication date: 13-Jun-2022
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