Walking. Sensing. Participation: Three Meditations for Experiential Computing

This paper uses three meditations to contemplate walking, sensing and participation as three ways with which we can extend the notion of ‘experiential computing’ proposed by Yoo (2010). By using the form of meditations, loosely associated concepts that are part introspective and part ‘causative’, i.e. aimed as some form of change in perspective within Information Systems Research, the paper weaves empirical incidents from fieldwork with theoretical concepts on movement, sensuality, and embodiment, suggesting directions for methodologies and techniques to be pursued if experiential computing is intended to also inform the design of technologies for the future. By emphasizing the senses and the body and their importance to an extended notion of sensory apprenticeship (Pink, 2009), the paper suggests alternative routes to knowing and representation in IS related fieldwork.