Living With Your Own Ideas¶
Wearing My Health Data for 24 Hours¶
Wearing Health Data by agjarv
Reflections¶
What did you make? And why did it matter?
I decided to wear some of my health data "on the outside" for 24 hours. I had recently been struggling with sleep and downloaded an app on my phone for tracking sleep. I began reflecting on all the sleep and health apps I have on my phone already. I have had an interest in wearables and always enjoy downloading apps for my smart watch that I end up forgetting about after a short time. When I stop using the apps they are still sitting there collecting my data. I started wondering what happens to all of that information. I have also has some health struggles over the last year. I also started wondering if these apps can honestly give a real picture of the health of a person. All this information is collected but they don't really give me any answers on what is really going on. For this first person research experiment I wanted to explore this health data that my phone collects more deeply. I chose a few different data points and wrote them on a piece of cloth and attached it to my clothes.
What happens when you involve yourself?
Since this experiment was deeply personal it really only made sense to me with my personal data. I shared personal information with the world and also experienced something that day that no one else did in exactly the same way. It made me think more about the boundaries between my body, my data, and others. Those boundaries were made more physical by bringing the data out of my phone and physically displaying it on my body. I became way more self conscious about the outside of my body that day and was probably way more concerned about it than anyone else.
What happens when you use yourself as an instrument?
There was something both vulnerable and freeing about working this way. One one hand, as mentioned in the section above, I tend to spend a lot of time planning things and self-editing my ideas before I get to work on something that is a school or work related project. It was freeing to just try something out on myself because it is low stakes when it is just myself. On the other hand it still required me to be vulnerable by just doing something without thinking too much about it.
Did anything change about your way of working?
I think there is value in just quickly trying something yourself. I tend to overthink and imagine things a lot before I start on something. This experiment required me to just go for something without thinking too much about it since I only had 24 hours. I definitely ended up doing something I wouldn't normally do.
What does it mean for your future work?
I never really thought my personal experiences or opinions were all that important when thinking about research. Sometimes it is scary to put something so personal out into the world especially if I am not an expert on something. I was definitely inspired this week to do my own first-person research experiments in the future.
After seeing the videos of your design space collective, how does it change your understanding of it, present new opportunities or inspire new possibilities for collaboration?
It was definitely interesting to see what everyone else was doing. There were a whole lot more diverse interests and opportunities than I realized before. I identified a couple of other classmates that were also working in the areas of wearables and health data this week.
Created: June 20, 2023