Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Design for rituals of letting go

Electronic data

  • Design for Rituals of Letting Go final

    Rights statement: © ACM, 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 23, 4, 2016 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2926714

    Accepted author manuscript, 1 MB, PDF document

    Available under license: CC BY-NC: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Design for rituals of letting go: an embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published

Standard

Design for rituals of letting go: an embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy. / Sas, Corina; Whittaker, Steve; Zimmerman, John.
In: ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), Vol. 23, No. 4, 21, 01.09.2016.

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Harvard

Sas, C, Whittaker, S & Zimmerman, J 2016, 'Design for rituals of letting go: an embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy', ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), vol. 23, no. 4, 21. https://doi.org/10.1145/2926714

APA

Sas, C., Whittaker, S., & Zimmerman, J. (2016). Design for rituals of letting go: an embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 23(4), Article 21. https://doi.org/10.1145/2926714

Vancouver

Sas C, Whittaker S, Zimmerman J. Design for rituals of letting go: an embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI). 2016 Sept 1;23(4):21. Epub 2016 Aug 1. doi: 10.1145/2926714

Author

Sas, Corina ; Whittaker, Steve ; Zimmerman, John. / Design for rituals of letting go : an embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy. In: ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI). 2016 ; Vol. 23, No. 4.

Bibtex

@article{3b28d99760a644a8b8ed3edac6ec7e60,
title = "Design for rituals of letting go: an embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy",
abstract = "People increasingly live their lives online, accruing large collections of digital possessions, which symbolically represent important relationships, events, and activities. Most HCI research on bereavement focuses on retaining these significant digital possessions to honor the departed. However recent work suggests that significant digital possessions may complicate moving on; they function as both comforting and painful reminders but currently provide inflexible methods for disposal. Little work has investigated the disposal of digital objects as a means of letting go. To better understand this we interviewed 10 psychotherapists who employ rituals of letting go to help patients overcome loss in situations such as a divorce, a breakup, or a stillbirth. Patients disposed of either natural artefacts or symbolic personal possessions through actions such as burning, burying, or placing in a body of water. Therapists noted people increasingly have digital possessions, and that the act of deletion does not offer the same cathartic sense of release as disposal of material artefacts. Based on analysis of this grief therapy, we propose a new conceptual framework for rituals of letting go that highlights temporality, visibility, and force. It provides a vocabulary to talk about disposal. We then offer design implications connecting the rituals of letting go to the disposal of digital things. Based on our interviews and analytic framework, we propose novel technologies that better connect the embodied nature of letting go rituals to the process of digital disposal.",
keywords = "Artefact disposal, rituals of letting go, embodiment, grief",
author = "Corina Sas and Steve Whittaker and John Zimmerman",
note = "{\textcopyright} ACM, 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 23, 4, 2016 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2926714",
year = "2016",
month = sep,
day = "1",
doi = "10.1145/2926714",
language = "English",
volume = "23",
journal = "ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)",
issn = "1073-0516",
publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)",
number = "4",

}

RIS

TY - JOUR

T1 - Design for rituals of letting go

T2 - an embodiment perspective on disposal practices informed by grief therapy

AU - Sas, Corina

AU - Whittaker, Steve

AU - Zimmerman, John

N1 - © ACM, 2016. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI), 23, 4, 2016 http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/2926714

PY - 2016/9/1

Y1 - 2016/9/1

N2 - People increasingly live their lives online, accruing large collections of digital possessions, which symbolically represent important relationships, events, and activities. Most HCI research on bereavement focuses on retaining these significant digital possessions to honor the departed. However recent work suggests that significant digital possessions may complicate moving on; they function as both comforting and painful reminders but currently provide inflexible methods for disposal. Little work has investigated the disposal of digital objects as a means of letting go. To better understand this we interviewed 10 psychotherapists who employ rituals of letting go to help patients overcome loss in situations such as a divorce, a breakup, or a stillbirth. Patients disposed of either natural artefacts or symbolic personal possessions through actions such as burning, burying, or placing in a body of water. Therapists noted people increasingly have digital possessions, and that the act of deletion does not offer the same cathartic sense of release as disposal of material artefacts. Based on analysis of this grief therapy, we propose a new conceptual framework for rituals of letting go that highlights temporality, visibility, and force. It provides a vocabulary to talk about disposal. We then offer design implications connecting the rituals of letting go to the disposal of digital things. Based on our interviews and analytic framework, we propose novel technologies that better connect the embodied nature of letting go rituals to the process of digital disposal.

AB - People increasingly live their lives online, accruing large collections of digital possessions, which symbolically represent important relationships, events, and activities. Most HCI research on bereavement focuses on retaining these significant digital possessions to honor the departed. However recent work suggests that significant digital possessions may complicate moving on; they function as both comforting and painful reminders but currently provide inflexible methods for disposal. Little work has investigated the disposal of digital objects as a means of letting go. To better understand this we interviewed 10 psychotherapists who employ rituals of letting go to help patients overcome loss in situations such as a divorce, a breakup, or a stillbirth. Patients disposed of either natural artefacts or symbolic personal possessions through actions such as burning, burying, or placing in a body of water. Therapists noted people increasingly have digital possessions, and that the act of deletion does not offer the same cathartic sense of release as disposal of material artefacts. Based on analysis of this grief therapy, we propose a new conceptual framework for rituals of letting go that highlights temporality, visibility, and force. It provides a vocabulary to talk about disposal. We then offer design implications connecting the rituals of letting go to the disposal of digital things. Based on our interviews and analytic framework, we propose novel technologies that better connect the embodied nature of letting go rituals to the process of digital disposal.

KW - Artefact disposal

KW - rituals of letting go

KW - embodiment

KW - grief

U2 - 10.1145/2926714

DO - 10.1145/2926714

M3 - Journal article

VL - 23

JO - ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)

JF - ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)

SN - 1073-0516

IS - 4

M1 - 21

ER -