TY - JOUR

T1 - What Research through Art can bring to CSCW

T2 - exploring ambiguous futures of work

AU - Dunn, Kellie

AU - Shklovski, Irina

AU - Bjørn, Pernille

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 the author(s), published by De Gruyter.

PY - 2024

Y1 - 2024

N2 - As work is shifting and changing, we, CSCW researchers, must consider our role in creating work futures, and what experiences we want to produce through technology design. What qualities are important to consider about the human experience when designing work technologies for the future? Exploring the potentials of artistic practices for epistemological inquiry, we demonstrate Research through Art as a novel futuring approach for CSCW research, leveraging the power of artistic practice for exploring questions of human experience. We engaged with young artists who created art pieces that manifested their hopes, intuitions, and anxieties on the future of work. Our analytical inquiry of these artistic practices allowed us to explore what different futures might be imaginable and what might these futures feel like. We find that futuring entails engaging with ambiguities, which can be a productive resource for design. We identified the ambiguities of time, purpose, body, identity, and agency as foundational for the imaginaries produced by the artists. By intersecting the ambiguities, we can begin to systematically frame novel design questions for CSCW technologies of the future by conceptualizing these ambiguities as multifinalities – single points from which many possibilities emerge.

AB - As work is shifting and changing, we, CSCW researchers, must consider our role in creating work futures, and what experiences we want to produce through technology design. What qualities are important to consider about the human experience when designing work technologies for the future? Exploring the potentials of artistic practices for epistemological inquiry, we demonstrate Research through Art as a novel futuring approach for CSCW research, leveraging the power of artistic practice for exploring questions of human experience. We engaged with young artists who created art pieces that manifested their hopes, intuitions, and anxieties on the future of work. Our analytical inquiry of these artistic practices allowed us to explore what different futures might be imaginable and what might these futures feel like. We find that futuring entails engaging with ambiguities, which can be a productive resource for design. We identified the ambiguities of time, purpose, body, identity, and agency as foundational for the imaginaries produced by the artists. By intersecting the ambiguities, we can begin to systematically frame novel design questions for CSCW technologies of the future by conceptualizing these ambiguities as multifinalities – single points from which many possibilities emerge.

KW - ambiguity

KW - design

KW - future of work

KW - futuring

KW - multifinality

KW - Research through Art

U2 - 10.1515/icom-2023-0038

DO - 10.1515/icom-2023-0038

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85191388162

VL - 23

SP - 33

EP - 55

JO - i-com

JF - i-com

SN - 1618-162X

IS - 1

ER -