Peer review event of Dila Demir’s case study “Caring Companion”

Peer review event of Art and Design PhD student Dila Demir’s second design case study „Caring Companion“ will take place on August 22, 14.00-15.30 at EKA, room A501.
Dila Demir will present the design process and analysis of the project. Along with the peer review event there will be a physical exhibition at EKA on the fifth floor. Case study „Caring Companion“ is part of the artistic doctoral thesis of Dila Demir.

The peer review event will be in hybrid format. Please find Zoom link to participate HERE

Reviewers: Dr. Vasiliki Tsaknaki, assistant professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, Dr. Claudia Nuñez-Pacheco, post-doctoral researcher at KTH, Royal Institute of Technology
Supervisors: Dr. Nithikul Nimkulrat and Dr. Kristi Kuusk.

Dila is working in the field of interactive textiles, bodily discomforting experiences i.e., pain, soma design, and somaesthetics. Her second design case titled Caring Companion discusses the emergence of designing discomforting interactions that demonstrates how repeated engagement with the discomfort can lead to new becomings and inform the design of better engaging wearable interactive artefacts (soma extensions). Dila regards bodily discomforts as disturbing experiences that disrupts the everyday flow of the bodies such as fibromyalgia, depression, IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) or chronic pain. She specifically works with the chronic pain and aim to induce sensory bodily awareness in her doctoral research. Accordingly, Caring Companion is a collection of various items in the form of a cultural probe kit (CPK) for encouraging people to engage with their bodily discomfort, specifically, chronic pain. Five participants with chronic pain used the Caring Companion kit for a minimum of four days a week for three weeks. For the study, they wore the soma extension – a soft textile artifact – that was included in the kit to practice yoga sequences shown in a YouTube video. They inserted their phones into the soma extension for localized sound effect. After each practice, they reflected on their felt experience of moving with the soma extension textually in the journal and visually by drawing body maps included in the kit and forming the plasticine. Additionally, they choose the words that best describe their felt experiences from the word list that includes 42 words to which they were free to add different words as well. The Caring Companion became part of their routines and supported them to engage and reflect upon their bodily experiences concerning pain.