Abstract
This paper explores self-tracking technologies through a more-than-human lens, focusing on the entanglements between protein consumption, urine monitoring, and environmental care. Using autoethnography, I reflect on the practices of measuring protein and nitrogen in urine as a means to interrogate how personal health data intersect with ecological concerns, particularly nitrogen runoff and its contribution to overfertilization of the Baltic Sea. The account highlights tensions between the precision promised by digital health apps and the uncertainty, messiness, and environmental costs of measuring itself. By mapping nitrogen metabolism across bodies, infrastructures, and the environment, the paper identifies potential points of intervention: dietary habits, public discourse, and wastewater treatment. This work positions self-tracking as a ritual of careful noticing that reveals blurred, leaky boundaries between body, infrastructure, and environment.
Keywords
self-tracking; more-than-human; abjection; data
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.778
Citation
Poikolainen Rosén, A. (2026) More-than-Human Self-Tracking: An Uncertain Account of Urine Monitoring, Protein Excess and Ecological Entanglements, in Simeone, L., Gray, C. M., Verhoeven, A., de Götzen, A., Bakırlıoğlu, Y., Zohar, H., Stead, M., and Buwert, P. (eds.), DRS2026: Edinburgh, 8–12 June, Edinburgh, United Kingdom. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.778
Creative Commons License
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Included in
More-than-Human Self-Tracking: An Uncertain Account of Urine Monitoring, Protein Excess and Ecological Entanglements
This paper explores self-tracking technologies through a more-than-human lens, focusing on the entanglements between protein consumption, urine monitoring, and environmental care. Using autoethnography, I reflect on the practices of measuring protein and nitrogen in urine as a means to interrogate how personal health data intersect with ecological concerns, particularly nitrogen runoff and its contribution to overfertilization of the Baltic Sea. The account highlights tensions between the precision promised by digital health apps and the uncertainty, messiness, and environmental costs of measuring itself. By mapping nitrogen metabolism across bodies, infrastructures, and the environment, the paper identifies potential points of intervention: dietary habits, public discourse, and wastewater treatment. This work positions self-tracking as a ritual of careful noticing that reveals blurred, leaky boundaries between body, infrastructure, and environment.