Dear colleagues,
We are happy to announce the call for papers for our workshop on Nature and HCI at the upcoming CHItaly'21 conference.

In 2020, when most of the world population has experienced limitations to free mobility due to the COVID-19 pandemic, socialization and outdoor life started to be strongly desired and dreamed. Technologies such as smartphones, cameras, sports trackers, electronic tourist guides, head-mounted displays have the potential to enable, enhance or disrupt users' experience of and interaction with nature, broadly intended as an open-air setting that includes cities, peripheries, rural areas, wild natural environments. Thus, the use of technology outdoors offers a wide range of interesting aspects and challenges to be investigated, such as individual wellbeing, knowledge generation, sustainability, and social issues. Resonating with the CHItaly theme "Frontiers of HCI", this workshop aims to bring together researchers exploring the frontiers of
i) using technology outdoors, in terms of scope, opportunities, and limitations;
ii) spaces that are not only natural or artificial but hybrid and offer opportunities for remote and asynchronous outdoor experiences;
iii) interaction design in accounting for human interests over a variety of non-human ecologies.

For further information, visit our website: https://sites.google.com/view/naturehci/home.

TOPICS OF INTEREST
Possible topics include but are not limited to:

Technology enabling/enhancing/augmenting the natural experience
Ecotourism
The political ecology of interaction design
Outdoor sports
Citizen science
Socialization outdoors (e.g., parks and public spaces, community gardening)
Education & Serious leisure outdoors
Environmental sustainability
Technology for outdoor safety and safety when using technology outdoors
Natural and cultural heritage (e.g., cultural landscapes)
The indoorisation of natural elements (e.g., indoorisation of outdoor sports, virtual/augmented reality)

HOW TO APPLY?
Three types of submissions are welcome:

Position papers where authors discuss one of the workshop topics and describe how their expertise may be of interest for the workshop discussion (2 pages, references excluded);
Original research presenting preliminary insights/results. We welcome work at all development stages: papers can describe applied systems, empirical findings, or theoretically grounded positions (from 4 to 6 pages, references excluded);
Critical design fiction, in which authors may explore the future consequences of a prolonged distancing, limited experience of the outdoors, or the different mediating roles technology can have (from 4 to 6 pages, references excluded).

KEY DATES
Submission deadline: April 23, 2021, 11.59 pm CET on Easychair: https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=naturehci21
Notification: May 14, 2021
Workshop: July 12, 2021

ATTENDANCE
CHItaly and the NatureHCI workshop will be organized in a hybrid manner. Participants can choose whether to participate remotely or in-person in Bolzano. The workshop activities and discussions will be organized accordingly.

ORGANIZERS
Eleonora Mencarini, Bruno Kessler Foundation (Italy)
Linda Tonolli, University of Trento (Italy)
Amon Rapp, University of Torino (Italy)
Maurizio Teli, Aalborg University (Denmark)
Roberto Cibin, Masaryk University (Czech Republic)
Vincenzo D'Andrea, University of Trento (Italy)
Massimo Zancanaro, University of Trento (Italy)

If you have any questions, please drop an email at mencarini@fbk.eu.

Best regards,
Eleonora Mencarini (on behalf of the NatureHCI organizers)

Eleonora Mencarini, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
i3 Unit - Digis Centre - FBK0461/314576