Markéta Dolejšová

Deciphering a Meal through Open Source Standards: Soylent and the Rise of Diet Hackers

A life without food - a leitmotiv of science fiction dystopias is becoming a voluntary choice for thousands of people consuming the powdered food replacement soylent. The DIY soylent powders are designed by a group of nutrition hobbyists who distrust existing healthy eating standards and crowdsource experimental soylent recipes in their online user forums. This DIY food-tech rebellion offers an opportunity to look at the issues around present food standards and policies from the HCI perspective. This paper reports findings from in-depth interviews with 21 soylent dieters, with the aim of identifying the risks and opportunities of the expert-amateur DIY food practices.

Future of Food in the Digital Realm

In recent years, Human Food Interaction (HFI) as a field of research has gained currency within HCI with a focus on how we grow, shop, cook and eat food using digital technologies. Advances in food printing technologies add an extra dimension to these established practices. Research is needed to understand how food printing technologies may affect our practices and relationship with food. This SIG meeting is structured to give HCI researchers an overview of current food printing practices and to discuss grand challenges associated with digital food. Our aims are to develop a stronger community surrounding digital food technology and Human Food Interaction (HFI) and help to move these fields forward via timely discussion and the sharing of successes and challenges. Participants will also engage in playful activities around food and will have an opportunity to create and taste 3D printed chocolates, helping them learn and debate the opportunities that exist with digitally printed food.

Edible Speculations in the Parlour of Food Futures

Human-Food Interaction (HFI) scholarship has discussed the possible roles of technology in contemporary food systems and proposed design solutions to various food problems. While acknowledging that there are food issues to be fixed, we propose that there is a room for more experimental and playful HFI work beyond pragmatic problem-solving. We introduce a design research project Parlour of Food Futures that speculates on emerging food-tech practices through the 15th-century game of Tarot. Based on three live Parlour enactments, we discuss what contributions and challenges speculative design methods afford to HFI.

Digital Health & Self-experimentation: Design Challenges & Provocations

Quantified self-experimentation with personal health is a growing activity among health enthusiasts, biohackers, and patients with chronic conditions. By collecting and sharing their health data through self-tracking devices and health networking services, self-experimenters engage in a unique form of n=1 citizen science-style research. This data sharing altruism is constrained by limited data security, validity, and socio-economic access. We will explore these issues as design challenges. The workshop invites various stakeholders (private, corporate, non-profit, academic) to engage in a discussion and a performative prototyping of a design framework for transparent and just health self-experimentation.