Abstract
Body sensors render human bodies as digital data, promising better self-knowledge. Yet, as people trust and learn to attune to these representations, system breakdowns expose tensions between embodied knowing and digital authority. Through Research through Design and Critical Design, this paper investigates how trust, control, and self-perception are negotiated in bodily interaction with data. Breathe Kritisk is a critical artefact that externalises breathing via an inflatable system linked to the user's solar plexus. Designed for estrangement, it resists attunement through a sensitive sensor and deceptive outputs — sometimes following the user’s breaths, other times acting on its own. We discuss insights from interviews and observations of interacting visitors at design festivals. Some visitors were convinced that they had complete control over the machine, while others questioned if they breathed properly. We interpret these reactions as a tendency to overtrust in the digital body representation, and discuss its implications.
Keywords
digital body representation, critical design, attunement, contest control
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2026.1787
Citation
Koowattanataworn, P., Lengua, M., Sundnes Løvlie, A., and Benford, S. (2026) Questioning one’s body: overtrusting in body-sensing technology, 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.2026.1787
Creative Commons License
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Included in
Questioning one’s body: overtrusting in body-sensing technology
Body sensors render human bodies as digital data, promising better self-knowledge. Yet, as people trust and learn to attune to these representations, system breakdowns expose tensions between embodied knowing and digital authority. Through Research through Design and Critical Design, this paper investigates how trust, control, and self-perception are negotiated in bodily interaction with data. Breathe Kritisk is a critical artefact that externalises breathing via an inflatable system linked to the user's solar plexus. Designed for estrangement, it resists attunement through a sensitive sensor and deceptive outputs — sometimes following the user’s breaths, other times acting on its own. We discuss insights from interviews and observations of interacting visitors at design festivals. Some visitors were convinced that they had complete control over the machine, while others questioned if they breathed properly. We interpret these reactions as a tendency to overtrust in the digital body representation, and discuss its implications.