Watching Myself Watching Birds: Abjection, Ecological Thinking, and Posthuman Design

In recent years, Sustainable HCI researchers have begun to investigate “noticing” as a design research method useful in efforts to decenter the human in design. Through an autoethnographic bird watching practice combining field observation, journaling, and making practices, we examine how noticing affects us and our way of relating to birds. We found that bird watching surfaces a feeling of abjection, or a simultaneous repulsion and fascination with a part of oneself one rejects in pursuit of personal growth. Along the way, we honed a practice of attunement through deep listening and field recording, which enabled immersive "ecological" experiences. We offer (1) an account of our method and process, (2) the framework of abjection as an approach to designing amongst the complexity of human/non-human interaction, and (3) reflections on how to design for ecological thinking in the push towards a posthuman design.