HCI as Heterodoxy: the Queering of Interaction Design

I present a thought experiment into socially-responsible technology development through a process of likening the rise of HCI as a field and a practice to the progress of feminism in the 20 century. This framing allows me to explore HCI, first, as part of a duality, next, as the Other, and, more recently, as damaged by oppositional relations that have emerged through attempts to define its value and scope. I argue that, if computers ‘disappear’ into a ubicomp world as predicted, oppositional positioning becomes increasingly inappropriate and that a ‘queering’ of interaction design needs to take place. In the process, I discuss what a critical practice based in experience would involve.