ACM Interactions

CHI 2013 took place from April 27 through May 2 in Paris’s Palais des Congrès, not far from the Arc de Triomphe on the western edge of the city center. Besides being notable as the first CHI conference ever to be forced to turn away eager participants because they simply could not take on more visitors (I was told they planned for about 2100 to 2400, but that they had to stop at 3400!), the conference was memorable, for me, because the contents of many presentations, posters, and consequent discussions seemed more, well, grown up, or mature, than I remember from many conferences in the past three decades.

Perhaps it was the influence of this very sophisticated, elegant city of lights. Many Paris citizens looked like they had just stepped out from a fashion shoot. Even if a cancer-inducing cigarette was dangling vertically from silent, pouting, or even speaking lips, it just appeared more elegant, more cosmopolitan. Even the lady in a small sidewalk booth sporting a battery-powered electronic cigarette looked sophisticated as she tried to convince me to try one. I didn’t, preferring real, very occasional small cigars.

In the CHI social gatherings, elegant multicolored, complex sweet treats and other nibbles, served with beverages of our choice, seemed much more architectural and visually appealing, signaling, perhaps, that more was expected of conversations and presentations. 

In my opinion, this is exactly what I found. I comment on my own, admittedly limited, exposure to a plethora of activities.

My week started with my participation in a two-day workshop on “HCI in Third Places” organized by Roberto Calderon, Sydney Fels, and Junia Anacleto. I presented our own project, the “Learning Machine,” a mobile concept design for learning anywhere, anytime. At first I was a little uncertain about the value of the objectives and likely outcome, but as I had more exposure to the issues of concern, I realized that this workshop was focusing our attention on actual physical places where people gather outside of work/school and home, and how technology might help or hurt the truly human-human interaction and communication. The importance of these shrinking opportunities for real interaction, not isolated, limited, or virtual encounters, were important to cherish and nourish. Imagine our delight and surprise when we learned that much of Day 1 was devoted to field/contextual studies of Parisian cafés. I have never, ever spent so much time drinking coffee and observing people, in this case in the Latin Quarter! What a delightful, and insightful, experience.

Other workshops, which I noted from the program or heard about from other participants, seemed to focus attention on topics that have been touched upon in past conferences of CHI, UXPA, DUXU, and others, but the frequency with which these terms seemed to be used at CHI 2013 signaled a nuanced understanding: that concerns more than technical were at stake—more than abstractions, more than software, more than hardware, more than cognitive science, more than computer science—which have been the bases for CHI’s activities and interests for decades, its grounding communities of interest. I mean, for example, the terms mentioned in workshop titles focusing on children, ethics, families, seniors, sustainability, teenagers, and vulnerable people.

The opening keynote, “The New Frontiers of Design,” by Paola Antonelli, Senior Curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, discussed issues of how to understand, value, and respect HCI objects/devices/systems in the museum’s present and future collections. This topic added perhaps just the right spin to papers, panels, exhibits, and other events that emphasized design and the presence of designers at CHI. Perhaps many younger attendees may not appreciate that designers have fought long and hard to be included in the proceedings and sessions of CHI. As a former board member of interactions, I can recall when a member of the academic community cautioned about accepting design-based articles and sneered that the design rabble was infiltrating the august hallways dominated by computer science and cognitive science. The times, indeed, have changed. As the first member of the CHI Academy with an official design background, I am part of this change and (some would say) progress or maturation of CHI.

Even in posters, whether from student competitions or PhD dissertations, the variety of topics seemed much more diverse, much more socially aware, and much more curious about the world. I was surprised and touched to discover three Mexican women students from the Universidad Tecnológica de la Mixteca standing by their poster about a project to raise awareness of women about how to cope with and live a life free from gender violence. Another display entitled “Using Design Thinking to Empower Immigrant Youth as Information Mediaries” seemed to bring together urban civic organizations, technology providers, and social services groups in a fresh, productive way. It is not that these topics have not appeared in the past, but this conference seemed to carry many more of these themes. That seemed, also, to be a sign that CHI was maturing in its social, political, and cultural roles and responsibilities.

On a more techie note, I was delighted to see at least one display/presentation about the use of fingernails. I have suggested for several years that this part of the body might be at one of the forefronts of display innovation. Raphael Wimmer and Florian Echtler of the University of Regensburg showed a prototype of a device that would enable you to see on your own fingernail the enlarged letters or symbols that your finger was over, thereby making it easier to point, select, type, etc., on touch-sensitive surfaces or interactive buttons/keys.

One of the art/game-oriented exhibits also caught my attention: “Big Huggin’: A Bear for Affection Gaming,” by Lindsay Grace. Big Huggin' is a game played with a 30-inch custom teddy bear controller. Players complete the game by providing several well-timed hugs to propel an avatar on a wall display to leap over obstacles (see photo of teddy bear). 

The reason this project seemed especially poignant was that I had just heard a TED talk on National Public Radio by Sherry Turkle from MIT’s Media Lab, recanting her earlier enthusiasm for adorable robot technology used to calm Alzheimer’s patients or other patients with dementia. Turkle realized that technology was enabling all of us to “outsource” care and concern for vulnerable people, whether family members or not. She now feels such technology is leading us down a path that desensitizes us and makes us even more remote and isolated from others, we who seem no longer to wish to make the time to care for others and might not even know what to do given the opportunity to care. This controversial issue seemed to be hovering conceptually nearby, as I watched enthusiastic CHI participants hug the teddy bear and squeal with delight.

After roaming the corridors, social gatherings, and session breaks for a week, I realized that the most valuable part of CHI was the time I spent talking with people, not the presentations or the posters themselves. In fact, it seemed clearer than ever that the CHI conference was a giant version of the Parisian cafe. I felt I had just enjoyed a tremendous jolt of, not only caffeine, but of discourse, challenging discussions, renewals of old friendships, and close encounters of many kinds with new, strange, different people and ideas—not just technology—and an opportunity to make new friends.

Bravo! to the organizers/sponsors of CHI 2013 for providing such a rich, varied, and  “mature” environment in which to have these experiences. CHI has come a long way since its founding in 1982 and through its many transformations over the past three decades. I am glad I have been able to witness, and perhaps to have contributed a little to, these changes.

Additional CHI commentary

Mariann Unterluggauer, Vienna, interviewed Aaron Marcus and others at CHI 2013 in Paris, about their views of the conference. The broadcast took place on Austrian radio on May 19, 2013.

Mariann Unterluggauer interviewed Aaron Marcus at CHI 2013 in Paris on May 2, 2013. The interview was broadcast on German Radio.

Aaron Marcus