Laying the table for HCI

Abstract

Food contributes fundamentally to our well-being: physically, mentally, and socially. Unsurprisingly then, the importance of food to our lives has long been recognized in the social sciences, and more recently, in Human-Computer Interaction. Yet, despite ongoing trends towards the digital augmentation of domestic environments, little consideration has been given to the impact of the material aspects of food consumption in the home. This paper takes an ecological approach to uncovering the role spaces, tabletops, and artefacts play in the social organization of domestic eating practices. Based on our findings of interviews with seven households in England, we discuss implications for those seeking to digitally augment domestic dining.