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Extended Senses: Embodying Technology
  • ISSN: 2397-9704
  • E-ISSN: 2397-9712

Abstract

This article explores how communication and interaction design were used in the augmented reality experience, It aims to demystify some of the ethical and personal concerns around the donation of organs, tissue and body data for scientific and medical research. The research finds different modes of provoking thought around a central question: can augmented reality be used to open debates on who has access to our biological and digital traces beyond death? Taking into account how COVID-19 has made the public deeply reconsider their biological and data bodies, the paper documents and contextualizes the making of , which was created in collaboration with interactive design collective body>data>space and scientists from the Human Cell Atlas project (HCA). In doing so, it explores the contested histories of human tissue in research and contemporizes these relations by looking at the way HCA members use and care for human tissue and data in their work. A range of methods that were used to capture diverse public attitudes and ethical concerns about donation using participatory approaches included: the co-creation of design probes with HCA scientists, online workshops, qualitative interviews, a documentation zine and public maker jam. These methodological lenses, and the data they produce, were used to construct a non-linear narrative and digital bricolage that is experienced as a hybrid public walking tour. Five themes were generated for the augmented reality experiences: care, trust, immortal, consent, future. This triangulation of science, technology and the arts was materialized in a webAR walking trail that ran during November 2021, which was accessed by the public via QR codes as part of the larger online exhibition, funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • Wellcome Trust (Award 218597/Z/19/Z)
  • Wellcome Sanger Institute
© 2022 Intellect Ltd
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/content/journals/10.1386/vcr_00064_1
2023-03-20
2025-12-05
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/content/journals/10.1386/vcr_00064_1
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Donate Yourself: An AR trail exploring the future of organ, tissue and body data donation
Virtual Creativity 12, 103 (2022); https://doi.org/10.1386/vcr_00064_1
/content/journals/10.1386/vcr_00064_1
/content/journals/10.1386/vcr_00064_1
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  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): augmented reality; body data; human tissue; immortality; interaction design; legacy; organ donation; WebAR

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