Call for Participation

This in-person workshop will bring together 15-25 researchers, designers, and practitioners interested in the role of technology in supporting human–forest interactions. We approach this space as both promising and problematic: technology can help us notice, sense, and connect with forest ecologies in new ways, yet it can also risk alienation, commodification, or harm if designed uncritically. Our aim is to create a space to reflect on these tensions and speculate on how we can “get it right” and what might be different ways to do so.

The workshop will be structured as a research-through-design conversation across two 90-minute sessions. Participants will share personal “forest stories” through boundary objects, collectively build a metaphorical “shared forest” exhibition, engage in speculative prototyping, and discuss the outcomes of these activities to uncover emerging directions for designing forest-related technologies that contribute positively to human-forest interconnectedness.

We welcome participants from across HCI and neighboring fields, including (but not limited to) more-than-human design, sustainable HCI, design for the outdoors, playful/slow/speculative design, design anthropology, and ecology. Having done substantial work at the intersection of forests and technology is not strictly required. We especially invite diverse perspectives and positionalities, including those not traditionally present at CHI.

To take part, please submit a short expression of interest in any accessible format (text, pictorial, short video…) to ferran.altarriba.bertran@eram.cat before end of February 2026. Submissions should include:

• A brief bio

• A note on your interest in the theme

• Optionally, an example of related work.

Selection will aim for diversity of perspectives, expertise, and positionalities. There will be no formal proceedings; outcomes will include a public digital archive of the shared forest exhibition and potential collaborative publications (e.g., a pictorial or interactions article).