Abstract
Rest is a vital aspect of wakefulness. Technology has impacted our ability to rest through its colonisation of our attention, sleep, and recovery. Human-computer interaction researchers and designers have expressed the desire to contribute to human flourishing. However, design to support restful states remains largely tethered to human-centric paradigms. This paper identifies an oversight in human-computer interaction research and recognises rest as a more-than-human phenomenon that emerges through a dynamic interplay of multiple species, technologies, and ecosystems. We discuss this topic through the Daoist concepts of ‘Yin-Yang’ and ‘Wu-Wei’ as theoretical foundations for frameworks that reimagine the future of rest.We critically evaluate anthropocentric approaches to rest by reflecting on how embodied knowledge and practice can serve to bridge relational theories with practice. We propose a manifesto for ‘More-than-Human Yin-teraction’ that outlines design principles foregrounding rest as a dynamic and evolving ecology where regenerative states emerge through the entangled relations between human, nonhuman and natural systems.
Keywords: rest, human-computer interaction, entanglement, more-than-human, yin-yang, wu-wei, qigong, daoism
Full text coming soon.