Exploring the Pluralities of More-than-Human Biographies Through Speculative Maps

Ron Wakkary; Lauren Thu; Tiffany Wun; Nazmus Sakib; Mandeep Mangat; Yuqing Lucy Li; Abdullah Tarik Celik

doi:10.1145/3800645.3812827

Exploring the Pluralities of More-than-Human Biographies Through Speculative Maps

Ron Wakkary^*
, Lauren Thu
, Tiffany Wun
, Nazmus Sakib
, Mandeep Mangat
, Yuqing Lucy Li
, Abdullah Tarik Celik

^*Corresponding author for this work

Department of Industrial Design

Eindhoven University of Technology
Simon Fraser University
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

Abstract

In the pursuit of more-than-human approaches to designing it is a challenge to understand the plurality of more-than-human worlds, especially the multiplicity of the more-than-human lives or biographies of things designed. In this pictorial, we experiment with speculative mapping as a process to explore pluralities of a thing we designed, called wi-fi-no-wi-fi. Using the wi-fi-no-wi-fi as a case study, we speculated through workshops, empirical investigations, and speculation to create speculative maps of different biographies. This pictorial offers three speculative maps and revealed design insights into materials as time, forming of assemblages and spaces, and multispecies perspectives of regeneration.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference
Editors	Ching Chiuan Yen, Jung-Joo Lee, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Clement Zheng, Daisy Yoo, Tony Tang
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	3188-3201
Number of pages	14
ISBN (Electronic)	9798400725630
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3800645.3812827
Publication status	Published - 12 Jun 2026
Event	ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2026 - Singapore, Singapore Duration: 13 Jun 2026 → 17 Jun 2026

Publication series

Name	DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

Conference

Conference	ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2026
Country/Territory	Singapore
City	Singapore
Period	13/06/26 → 17/06/26

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 Copyright held by the owner/author(s).

Keywords

biographies
mapping
more-than-human
speculation
speculative mapping
visualization

Access to Document

10.1145/3800645.3812827

Cite this

Wakkary, R., Thu, L., Wun, T., Sakib, N., Mangat, M., Li, Y. L., & Celik, A. T. (2026). Exploring the Pluralities of More-than-Human Biographies Through Speculative Maps. In C. C. Yen, J.-J. Lee, E. Y.-L. Do, C. Zheng, D. Yoo, & T. Tang (Eds.), DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (pp. 3188-3201). (DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1145/3800645.3812827

Wakkary, Ron ; Thu, Lauren ; Wun, Tiffany et al. / Exploring the Pluralities of More-than-Human Biographies Through Speculative Maps. DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. editor / Ching Chiuan Yen ; Jung-Joo Lee ; Ellen Yi-Luen Do ; Clement Zheng ; Daisy Yoo ; Tony Tang. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2026. pp. 3188-3201 (DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference).

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abstract = "In the pursuit of more-than-human approaches to designing it is a challenge to understand the plurality of more-than-human worlds, especially the multiplicity of the more-than-human lives or biographies of things designed. In this pictorial, we experiment with speculative mapping as a process to explore pluralities of a thing we designed, called wi-fi-no-wi-fi. Using the wi-fi-no-wi-fi as a case study, we speculated through workshops, empirical investigations, and speculation to create speculative maps of different biographies. This pictorial offers three speculative maps and revealed design insights into materials as time, forming of assemblages and spaces, and multispecies perspectives of regeneration.",

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author = "Ron Wakkary and Lauren Thu and Tiffany Wun and Nazmus Sakib and Mandeep Mangat and Li, \{Yuqing Lucy\} and Celik, \{Abdullah Tarik\}",

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doi = "10.1145/3800645.3812827",

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Wakkary, R, Thu, L, Wun, T, Sakib, N, Mangat, M, Li, YL & Celik, AT 2026, Exploring the Pluralities of More-than-Human Biographies Through Speculative Maps. in CC Yen, J-J Lee, EY-L Do, C Zheng, D Yoo & T Tang (eds), DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, pp. 3188-3201, ACM conference on Designing Interactive Systems, DIS 2026, Singapore, Singapore, 13/06/26. https://doi.org/10.1145/3800645.3812827

Exploring the Pluralities of More-than-Human Biographies Through Speculative Maps. / Wakkary, Ron; Thu, Lauren; Wun, Tiffany et al.
DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. ed. / Ching Chiuan Yen; Jung-Joo Lee; Ellen Yi-Luen Do; Clement Zheng; Daisy Yoo; Tony Tang. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2026. p. 3188-3201 (DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution › peer-review

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AU - Li, Yuqing Lucy

AU - Celik, Abdullah Tarik

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AB - In the pursuit of more-than-human approaches to designing it is a challenge to understand the plurality of more-than-human worlds, especially the multiplicity of the more-than-human lives or biographies of things designed. In this pictorial, we experiment with speculative mapping as a process to explore pluralities of a thing we designed, called wi-fi-no-wi-fi. Using the wi-fi-no-wi-fi as a case study, we speculated through workshops, empirical investigations, and speculation to create speculative maps of different biographies. This pictorial offers three speculative maps and revealed design insights into materials as time, forming of assemblages and spaces, and multispecies perspectives of regeneration.

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A2 - Yoo, Daisy

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PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc

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ER -

Wakkary R, Thu L, Wun T, Sakib N, Mangat M, Li YL et al. Exploring the Pluralities of More-than-Human Biographies Through Speculative Maps. In Yen CC, Lee JJ, Do EYL, Zheng C, Yoo D, Tang T, editors, DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. 2026. p. 3188-3201. (DIS 2026 - Proceedngs of the 2026 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference). doi: 10.1145/3800645.3812827

Exploring the Pluralities of More-than-Human Biographies Through Speculative Maps

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

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