T02: Aesthetics in HCI

Sunday, 23 July 2023, 08:30 - 12:30 CEST (Copenhagen)
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Sanna Lehtinen (short bio)

Aalto University, Finland

 

Objectives:

The tutorial will provide:

  • Overview of what aesthetics refers to in the context of HCI
  • Insight into aesthetic qualities, preferences, and values
  • Conceptual clarity in discussing the value dimension based on human perception
  • Help in making visible the links between aesthetic value and other human values in HCI processes
  • Broad range of case examples from game design to interactive art and from new urban technologies to wearable computing

 

Content:

Why do humans value the things they do? Is there something further we can say about the role that attention, sensory perception, and evaluative judgment based on aesthetic qualities play in user experience? What significance do evaluations of beauty or ugliness for example gain in different instances of HCI? The tutorial takes insight from philosophical and applied aesthetics and philosophy of technology and shows how it can help in studying the aesthetic dimension and value formation processes. This insight is applied to different types of HCI cases. The participants will gain understanding, knowledge, and skills to conceptually distinguish between different factors of aesthetic experience and the ensuing judgments of taste.

 

Target Audience:

  • Design-oriented HCI professionals and researchers with an interest in the multisensory and value dimensions of user experience
  • UX/UI designers/professionals/students
  • Anyone with theoretical/applied/practical interest in aesthetics in HCI

 

List of materials or devices required by the participants:

Laptop or a mobile device with an Internet connection

Bio Sketch of Presenter:

Sanna Lehtinen (PhD 2015, Univ. of Helsinki) works as Research Fellow in the Transdisciplinary Art Studies unit (TAITE) at the Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture. She is also Docent in Aesthetics at the University of Helsinki. Sanna's research focuses on the intersection of urban aesthetics, philosophy of the city, and philosophy of technology. Sanna’s publications include journal articles published in Open Philosophy, Essays in Philosophy, Philosophical Inquiries, Sustainability Science, and Behaviour & Information Technology, invited articles in edited volumes published by Routledge, Bloomsbury, Springer, and Oxford University Press, as well as editing special issues for Environmental Values, Contemporary Aesthetics, ESPES, East Asian Journal of Philosophy, and Open Philosophy. Sanna is Codirector in the Board of the international Philosophy of the City Research Group (PotC) and an affiliate member of 4TU. Centre for Ethics and Technology (NL). Sanna is a member of the editorial boards of several international academic journals in addition to serving as Assistant Editor of Contemporary Aesthetics and Co-editor-in-chief of the new Philosophy of the City.