Considering “Relational Objects” in CSCW and HCI 46
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Exploring Photography in Rural Kenyan Households: Considering “Relational Objects” in CSCW and HCI SUSAN WYCHE, Michigan State University, Department of Media and Information, USA APRIL GREENWOOD, Michigan State University, Department of Anthropology, USA BRIAN SAMUEL GEYER, Michigan State University, Department of Anthropology, USA Domestic and personal photography are topics of longstanding interest to CSCW and HCI researchers. In this paper, we explore these topics in Bungoma County, Kenya. We used interview and observation methods to investigate how photographs are taken, displayed, organized, and shared, in 23 rural households. To more deeply understand participants’ photography practices, we also gave them digital cameras, observed what they did with them, and asked them to engage in a photo-elicitation exercise. Our findings draw attention to the ways photographs are “relational objects” – that is, material objects that support the maintenance, reproduction, and transformation of social relations. We then describe these relations: economic (i.e., working as cameramen producing and distributing printed images); family (i.e., parents and children using printed images to tell family histories); and community (i.e., people using printed images to present an idealized self). The introduction of digital cameras into these households did not appear to change these practices; instead, it reinforced them. We discuss how considering relational objects in CSCW/HCI is useful for balancing the technologically determinist perspectives that are the basis of many prior studies of photography in these fields. In particular, we detail how considering the concept provides new perspectives on materiality, as well an alternative to the individualistic perspective, which underlies these communities’ understanding of photography. CCS Concepts: • Human-centered computing → Human computer interaction (HCI) → HCI theory, concepts and models KEYWORDS Domestic photography; personal photography; photo-elicitation; Kenya; social media ACM Reference format: Susan Wyche, April Greenwood, and Brian Samuel Geyer. 2020. Exploring Photography in Rural Kenyan Households: Considering “Relational Objects” in CSCW and HCI. In Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 4, CSCW1, Article 46 (May 2020), 21 pages, https://doi.org/10.1145/3392852 1 INTRODUCTION For more than 25 years, photography has been a significant topic of interest to the CSCW and HCI 46 communities [62]. Scholars in these fields recognize that domestic and personal photography are central features of people’s lives. They continue to study how access to new technologies (e.g., digital cameras, smartphones, high-speed internet, and social media) changes how people take, store, share, and display photographic images. To date, this research has primarily focused on European and North American countries [34]. The goal of our research was to explore domestic and personal photography practices in an African country, and more specifically in Bungoma County, Kenya. This is a rural area where technical infrastructures, access to digital technologies, and the cultural norms that shape photography, mostly differ from those found at the sites of prior CSCW/HCI studies of photography (e.g. [15, 26, 28, 40, 45, 58, 71]). Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]. 2573-0142/2020/May – Article 46… $15.00 Copyright is held by the owner/author(s). Publication rights licensed to ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3392852 PACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 4, No. CSCW1, Article 46, Publication date: May 2020. 46:2 Susan Wyche et al. Studies investigating photographic practices in such contexts are useful for decentering the Western perspectives that mostly underlie these communities’ understanding of photography. Further, and as our findings suggest, they are also useful for drawing attention to the ways printed photographs are “relational objects”—that is, not just images, but social and material objects that support personal, economic, and community relations [28]. We argue that, by considering printed photographs as relational objects, we reveal broader implications for CSCW/HCI research. This is particularly the case in terms of balancing the technologically determinist perspectives (e.g., viewing technology as the driving force for change) that underlie many prior CSCW/HCI studies of domestic and personal photography [46]. This study is part of an ongoing five-year project investigating technology use in rural Kenyan households [13, 73]. We began our fieldwork in June 2016, when we visited 23 households (n=29; 17 men and 12 women) located in Bungoma County; we also gave them a digital camera, and asked them to use it for two weeks. In May 2017, we returned to these households, and asked participants to show and tell us about their photographic collections (e.g., framed images and photo albums). During these interviews, participants also told us what they were doing with the digital cameras we gave them, and took part in a photo-elicitation exercise—that is, we inserted photos they had taken with the cameras into the interviews, to investigate their motivations for taking them [36]. The findings presented here primarily come from these interviews and observations. These findings draw attention to the ways printed photographs are taken, stored, shared and displayed in our participants’ homes. We also learned that printed photos were important because they were relational objects. We detail the ways these photographs supported and maintained relationships between people [68]. These are: economic (i.e., cameramen earning a living by producing printed images); family (i.e., parents and children using printed images to tell family histories); and community (i.e., people using printed images to present an idealized self). The introduction of a digital camera into these households did not appear to change these practices; instead, it reinforced them. In our discussion, we elaborate on the importance of reconsidering the technological determinism that underlies prior CSCW/HCI studies of photography. We then explore how considering relational objects offers an alternative to this perspective. In particular, we detail how considering this concept benefits CSCW/HCI by providing new perspectives on materiality and an alternative to the individualistic perspective, upon which many prior studies of photography in these fields are built. Our contributions to the CSCW/HCI literatures include this discussion, as well as our novel findings about photographic practices in rural Kenya. 2 RELATED WORK The CSCW/HCI communities’ attention to photographic practices emerged in the early 1990s. The literature investigating photography in these fields is vast, and we do not report on all of it here. Instead, we review influential studies of domestic photography (the photographic activities of ordinary people taking and using images for non-professional purposes [62]), as well as personal photography (photography which is done by non-professionals for themselves and their friends and intimates [44]). Similar to our study, this research explores how photographs are taken, organized, displayed, and shared, in households. We also situate our research in some prior studies of photography in Africa, including Information Communication Technology and Development (ICTD) studies. 2.1 Domestic and Personal Photography in CSCW/HCI Early studies of domestic photography were motivated by the explosion of new products—such as digital cameras, scanners, and printers—that supported taking and processing photographs at home. These efforts primarily focused on how the transition from analogue (or film photography) to digital photography changed families’ photographic activities [25]. Notable CSCW/HCI studies include Frohlich et al.’s qualitative investigation of 11 American families. They documented how digital cameras and other technologies (e.g., personal computers) changed how families stored, organized, and shared photographs [31]. Related studies have been conducted in British households, including Crabtree et al.’s exploration of how families collaborate around and share paper-based photographs[16]. Rodden and Wood conducted a similar study with 13 British PACM on Human-Computer Interaction, Vol. 4, No. CSCW1, Article 46, Publication date: May 2020. 46:3 Susan Wyche et al. participants, investigating how they manage digital photographs [59]. Kirk et al. build upon this work by interviewing and observing 12 users’ photowork practices; that is, how they delete, file, use, edit, and share digital pictures at home [48]. Other studies of domestic photography broadened their focus to investigate how families display photos in their homes. These studies include Durrant et al.’s exploration of how British teenagers curate photos, as well as Swan and Taylor’s efforts to understand why families display photos on their mantelpieces, walls, and sideboards in their homes [65, 67]. Primary outcomes of