{"title":"Context, Culture, and Fabulations","authors":"Hafeni Mthoko, M. Adamu, S. Lazem","doi":"10.1145/3581642","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"I local challenges and opportunities or through the integration of HCI’s knowledge practices into capacity development programs and projects. In our collective conversations, we draw upon such initiatives to consider, How has/may HCI take root in Africa? [3]. With the proliferation of technology development on the continent, exposing technology enthusiasts and practitioners to HCI’s practices becomes crucial as a tool to curb the technocentric narrative that is pervasive in technological discourses. However, technology designers and implementers do not always have access to mainstream HCI facilities and resources, which are often curated for academic institutions. Moreover, existing HCI curricula have been met with complexities where there is a mismatch between the culture of origination and the context in which they are applied. Consequently, ongoing conversations with HCI researchers, academics, and practitioners in Africa highlighted the need for an African HCI curriculum since the early inception of the AfriCHI community [4]. In an attempt to reshape some of these narratives, a workshop to codesign an African HCI curriculum was In 2006, Jonathan Grudin posited that the field of HCI might have no home or many homes [1]. This raises a range of questions about the status of HCI as either a metadiscipline, an eclectic discipline, or an interdisciplinarity. The HCI narrative in Africa is even more sporadic, with the continued tensions faced when importing and uncritically adopting HCI methods, approaches, and techniques to technology design projects there. Asserting an alternative constitution of identities in HCI, the subprogram of African HCI came about as a community of researchers and practitioners designing and evaluating interactive systems for African communities [2]. This and growing decolonial efforts continue to challenge the status quo of technological innovation and reimagine interaction design that considers the plurality of the principles, practices, and knowledge foundational to any design project in Africa. As African HCI researchers and educators, we continuously quest for finding/making an intersectional space for our distinctive African HCI identities. This is not new, as Indigenous researchers have moved toward making HCI a household term in African institutions and industries [2,3], either through the design of living curricula to meet Context, Culture, and Fabulations: In Search of a Home for Our Veiled African Design Stories","PeriodicalId":73404,"journal":{"name":"Interactions (New York, N.Y.)","volume":" ","pages":"30 - 33"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-02-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Interactions (New York, N.Y.)","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3581642","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
I local challenges and opportunities or through the integration of HCI’s knowledge practices into capacity development programs and projects. In our collective conversations, we draw upon such initiatives to consider, How has/may HCI take root in Africa? [3]. With the proliferation of technology development on the continent, exposing technology enthusiasts and practitioners to HCI’s practices becomes crucial as a tool to curb the technocentric narrative that is pervasive in technological discourses. However, technology designers and implementers do not always have access to mainstream HCI facilities and resources, which are often curated for academic institutions. Moreover, existing HCI curricula have been met with complexities where there is a mismatch between the culture of origination and the context in which they are applied. Consequently, ongoing conversations with HCI researchers, academics, and practitioners in Africa highlighted the need for an African HCI curriculum since the early inception of the AfriCHI community [4]. In an attempt to reshape some of these narratives, a workshop to codesign an African HCI curriculum was In 2006, Jonathan Grudin posited that the field of HCI might have no home or many homes [1]. This raises a range of questions about the status of HCI as either a metadiscipline, an eclectic discipline, or an interdisciplinarity. The HCI narrative in Africa is even more sporadic, with the continued tensions faced when importing and uncritically adopting HCI methods, approaches, and techniques to technology design projects there. Asserting an alternative constitution of identities in HCI, the subprogram of African HCI came about as a community of researchers and practitioners designing and evaluating interactive systems for African communities [2]. This and growing decolonial efforts continue to challenge the status quo of technological innovation and reimagine interaction design that considers the plurality of the principles, practices, and knowledge foundational to any design project in Africa. As African HCI researchers and educators, we continuously quest for finding/making an intersectional space for our distinctive African HCI identities. This is not new, as Indigenous researchers have moved toward making HCI a household term in African institutions and industries [2,3], either through the design of living curricula to meet Context, Culture, and Fabulations: In Search of a Home for Our Veiled African Design Stories