Affective Corners as a Problematic for Design Interactions

Abstract

Domestic robots are already commonplace in many homes, while humanoid companion robots like Pepper are increasingly becoming part of different kinds of care work. Drawing on fieldwork at a robotics lab, as well as our personal encounters with domestic robots, we use here the metaphor of “hard-to-reach corners” to explore the socio-technical limitations of companion robots and our differing abilities to respond to these limitations. This article presents “hard-to-reach-corners” as a problematic for design interaction, offering them as an opportunity for thinking about context and intersectional aspects of adaptation.