Probing More-Than-Human Representation in Crisis Resilience Planning: An HCI Researcher Perspective

TL;DR

This paper explores how HCI researchers conceptualize representing non-human entities in crisis resilience planning, highlighting design challenges and tensions in emerging participatory technologies.

Contribution

It provides empirical insights into more-than-human representation in crisis contexts through workshop discussions and design probes, emphasizing design tensions.

Findings

Representation of non-humans involves complex legitimacy issues.

Design choices like voice and embodiment influence perceived authenticity.

Crisis planning is a critical context for examining AI-mediated representation.

Abstract

Crisis resilience planning raises urgent questions about how to include non-human species and ecological systems in participatory processes, which remain largely human-centred. This paper reports on a workshop with HCI researchers examining how more-than-human representation is approached in crisis contexts. The workshop combined scenario-based discussion with two design probes -- a voice-based conversational agent and an immersive embodied prototype -- to support sustained discussion of how emerging technologies shape engagement with non-human perspectives. Participants focused not on system usability, but on deliberating representational choices, such as voice, embodiment, and realism, and their potential role within participatory planning processes. The findings suggest that giving 'voice' to non-humans is not a neutral act of translation, but a design challenge that introduces tensions between legitimacy, authority, and authenticity. This paper provides empirical insight into how HCI researchers conceptualise more-than-human representation and positions crisis resilience planning as a critical site for examining AI- and immersion-mediated representation.