Colorful 3D letters spell out OUR SELF-CARE TECH, seemingly flying into the image. In front of the letters are 3D illustrations of two cute handheld gaming with faces. They have squishy looking googly eyes, eyebrows and mouths. One of them also has a moustache.

How can we make and think about technologies for self-care, inspired by games and ourselves?

Colorful 3D letters spelling out the word PROJECT

Join my collaborative workshop series!

Overview

Summary: A collaborative workshop series (3 workshops in total) to make an inspirational resource for people to start designing self-care technologies.

Project Pitch

  • Are you tired of people telling you that you can “cure” your depression by drinking enough green tea?
  • Would you rather sort your currently open browser tabs by alphabet than download another “mood tracking” app (that feels like work)?
  • Are you exhausted by mental health tech that is unrealistic and disconnected from your experiences?
  • Are you someone who enjoys video games or making them?

Infomercial introduction aside: Hi, I’m Velvet Spors, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham, based in the Mixed Reality Lab. For the last three years I’ve been researching, collecting and making sense of what self-care tech could be.

I think that people who make games, who push the boundaries of what interactive media can be, are the right folks for figuring out how technology for self-care could be done differently. After all, games connect us, make us cry or laugh (or both at the same time!). They also allow us an open, safe space to explore feelings and make sense of ourselves.

I am interested in creating a living, open-source community resource – documents, zines, memes, images, digital rituals, as long as we can upload it to a website, anything goes! – that other people can use as a starting point for designing and making self-care tech that is open-minded, genuine and maybe different in its approach. A resource that recognises that the playing field in our current society is not even for everybody and that people do not have to fit neatly into assigned boxes.

What would I have to do?

Take part in three 1h30 remote workshops (discuss, make, design, scribble) in November to December. Speculate, relate and dream about what self-care tech could be like. Receive £15 shopping voucher per call.

Overview TL;DR

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What? A collaborative workshop series (3 workshops in total) to make an inspirational resource for people to start designing self-care technologies.

Who can take part? Open to anybody with an interest in making games and personal experiences with mental health (issues, problems, distress, another word that works better for you!).

Organiser? Velvet Spors, a PhD student at the University of Nottingham

What’s the time commitment? 3 workshops, each 1h30 + 20mins of admin (filling out forms etc.)

When? 3 dates within 16 November-6th December (1 workshop in 3rd week of November, 1 workshop in 4th week of November, 1 workshop in 1st week December; to be scheduled together!).

How? Remotely, through the internet

Reimbursement? £15 Amazon voucher per workshop (£45 in total, or the equivalent in a currency of your choice!)

FAQs

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Could you give me a short overview of the project? Sure thing! I am interested in creating a living, open-source community resource – documents, zines, memes, images, digital rituals, as long as we can upload it to a website, anything goes! – that other people can use as a starting point for designing and making self-care tech that is open-minded, genuine and maybe different in its approach from what’s currently available. A resource that recognises that the playing field in our current society is not even for everybody and that people do not have to fit neatly into assigned boxes. I would like to explore making this resource in 3 workshops to think and dream about what self-care could be! The project is based on ideas found in social justice, humanistic psychology, disability studies and trust in people’s experiences.
Who can take part? This study is open worldwide.

You are 18+ years old.

You speak English.

You have an interest in games jams, game making and game design.

You have (had) experiences with mental health difficulties / issues / mental distress. Any experience, regardless of how long or short, is okay! You do not need to have a formal diagnosis, nor do you have to share anything you are not comfortable with.

You are currently not suicidal.

You feel like you have a stable support network and coping strategies for your mental health in place.

You are okay with telling someone you trust and that lives close to you (or with you!) that you are taking part in this workshop series.

You have access to stable internet (that can support video calling).

You are okay with having a short video call with Velvet (the main researcher).

(These criteria are not in place to exclude anybody, but to keep everyone involved safe [organiser included] --- especially since the workshops will happen remotely!)
Will the tech in the workshops be safe, inclusive & accessible? We will do our very best to ensure this! To take part in the workshops, everybody has to agree to a baseline code of conduct that we will develop further as a group. This includes being respectful to each other, being empathetic and showing sensitivity.
In terms of tools that we will use during the workshops: All of the services we will use aim to handle your data in a safe and secure way. The majority of them are also made by a community of tech-y people who take security online very seriously.
Here is an overview:
• MURAL is a collaborative whiteboarding service. Think Google Slides or PowerPoint online, just a bit fancier. MURAL will be used for brainstorming and working together.
• We will use Meet.Jitsi to video call each other.
• To write documents together or do anything else that is text-based, we will use Cryptpad for this. Think Google Docs or Word Online, just safely encrypted.
For more info regarding safety, privacy and how the research handles data, please check the project’s Privacy Notice. If you have any more questions, or something is unclear, please drop me a line (velvet.spors@nottingham.ac.uk)!
Before the workshops I will ask if there is something I/we could do to make the workshops work for everybody (especially access needs).
What do I get for taking part? You get a £15 voucher per workshop (£45 in total). You also support research, a PhD thesis and meet new people.
Are there any risks for taking part? There are a couple of risks: As with all research that deals with mental health and care at its core, there is the possibility that the workshops get awkward or uncomfortable. You might not get along with other people in the workshops (arguments, disagreements) or find the workshop activities boring/meaningless. You might meet people you know in the workshops – this is something to consider if you are currently in a tricky situation where telling people about your mental health might open you to problems/more stress. You can drop out of the research at any point, without the need to give a reason -- just ping Velvet (velvet.spors@nottingham.ac.uk).
How are you keeping people safe? We will define what is acceptable for the group during the first workshop, to make a group code of conduct. This will also include discussing what should be shared with each other and outsiders and how we can best hold space for each other to spend our time together meaningfully.
If you’d like to be part of the project, I will ask you to nominate someone you are close with as your trusted person (both in terms of being close to you as a person and physically!). We will discuss when this person should be contacted together and figure out what would work best for you.
I will also have a small call with everybody before the workshops to make sure that all issues are ironed out and to check that people are real.
I have never used MURAL / a collaborative online space before. No worries! If you decide to take part, you will be sent an introduction and videos that explain how everything works and 2) how to interact with the space. All you need is a fairly stable internet connection and an up-to-date web browser (e.g. Firefox, Google Chrome ...).
I don’t think I could bring anything new to the workshops. I hear you 100%! The workshops are not necessarily about making or creating anything new: They are more about what we could do together as a group, to bounce ideas off each other and dream about different futures together. One of the branches of psychology and understanding mental distress I am working with believes that every is their own life’s expert, so that’s what I’m going with 😊!
Self-care and therapy through technology is super problematic (and I don’t want to condone it!) I totally get you. My personal research motivation also stems from looking at therapy being used in insidious ways, e.g. to increase productivity for productivity's sake instead of facilitating healing. I would love to hear where you see things go wrong, where the most obvious pain points for you are. Let's think up new spaces, tools and futures to show that alternatives to the status quo are possible.
I don’t want to take part, but can I still support this project? Thank you so much! If this project resonates with you, please share it in your personal networks, tweet about it and tell others about it! I am forever grateful!

The Researcher

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Summary: A PhD student interested in self-care tech from a personal, genuine perspective.

Researcher

Hey, hi! I’m Velvet. I’m currently doing my PhD at the Mixed Reality Lab, at the University of Nottingham, UK. I’m part of the Horizon Centre for Doctoral Training. My research aims to investigate:

  1. Can technology support people in “doing” self-care in groups, in semi-public spaces (like galleries or museum spaces)?
  2. Can personal data be used meaningfully in abstract ways in self-care technology?

The baseline of my research is informed by ideas of social justice & equity, lived experience and compassion. I spent a lot of my time thinking about empathy in/with/around technology and how we can collectively manifest different futures.

My research is also being supported by the National Videogame Museum (NVM) in Sheffield. Run as a museum/cultural centre, the NVM is interested in inviting people to be playful and experience video games as entertainment, art and culture.

My supervisors are Dr. Martin Flintham, Dr. Pat Brundell and Dr. David Murphy.

Please feel free to reach out to me! You can find me on twitter @niceotherwise, or email me (velvet.spors@nottingham.ac.uk).