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Biosensing networks: sense making in consumer genomics and ovulation tracking

Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSNChapter

Published
Publication date18/10/2017
Host publicationQuantified Lives and Vital Data: Exploring Health and Technology through Personal Medical Devices
EditorsRebecca Lynch, Conor Farrington
PublisherPalgrave
Pages47-69
Number of pages23
ISBN (electronic)9781349952359
ISBN (print)9781349952342
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Publication series

NameHealth, Technology and Society
PublisherPalgrave

Abstract

How do individuals make sense of their biosensor data? Focusing on two different health biosensors – an ovulation monitor and the consumer gene test - we discuss how individuals interpret their biosensor data by engaging in exchanges on online forums. Here, participants share and discuss ovulation patterns and genetic susceptibilities by drawing on a range of materials. We argue that it is through these biosensing networks that genetic and ovulation data become meaningful, and it is through this process that the biosensing body is acquired. We show how discussion and speculation, artefacts and body sensations, anticipations and corporeal imaginaries are part of what constitute and hold together the biosensing body.