Anticipating the Quantised Self in Design

Narratives in numbers: Sociotechnical storytelling with self-tracking

“…In focusing on this embeddedness, the approach is interested in both the literal talk about ‘your everyday’ of the participants in an interactionist sociological sense (Lyman and Scott 1989), as well as the more theoretical valuing (and critiquing) of the ‘the’ everyday (Lefebvre 2014), as elevated by Pink’s (2012) in illustration of the interrelationships between digitalised spaces, senses, and practices. However, this work is not taking a ‘rhythmanalysis’ approach to the study of self-tracking, as has emerged in recent years (Jethani 2021; Pitts et al . 2020; Vigren and Bergroth 2021).…”

“…But following Jethani's concern that assuming design norms apply consistently as simple variables ‘downplays the complex relationships that users develop with the devices and the data they produce’ (2021, pp. 125), the interview approach intends to hold a space for participant recollections: they authorise deeply personal reflections, and give narratives room to flourish in conjunction with, but beyond, the technological shaping of recordkeeping and logging time (Wajcman 2019).…”

“…While memory is a latent implication in design (Jethani 2021), often through the future orientation of metric goals (Li et al . 2010), participants are not just ‘colonising the future’ (Giddens 1991, pp.…”

“…While the terminology remains synonymous in some scholarship (Selke 2016), the ‘total capture’ and analytically intensive goals tied to the terms are generally unwieldy and impractical for everyday consumers. But memory remains essential in a latent sense, as the design intentions of self-tracking technology target human memory and draws on it as a logic with which to mediate embodied performance (Jethani 2021, pp. 114).…”