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The emotional body in the main street: individual interpretations of biosensing data.

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Summary:Biosensing is becoming a popular method among urban scholars interested in the experience of urban space. Biosensing refers to the capture of physiological signals such as electrodermal activity, brain activity or heart rate through wearable devices. Such signals can be used to understand individual physical, emotional and cognitive responses to the urban environment. It has been widely argued that biosensing allows scholars to reduce the burden on research participants, while obtaining more precise data on the affectivity of urban space. However, biosensing studies show a different scenario. It has been shown that biosensing data is often ambiguous and thus must be contextualized with qualitative data through interviews or diaries. Despite the acknowledgement of the necessity of mixing biosensing techniques with qualitative methods, there is little exploration of how research participants understand and interpret biosensing data. With this in mind, this paper presents the results of a biosensing study which has been conducted in Avenida da Igreja, Lisbon (Portugal) between May and September 2022. In this study, 20 individuals participated in a two-step activity. First, participants undertook individual walks wearing a Empatica E4 wristband, which measures electrodermal activity. Secondly, a post-walk interview in which the biosensing data was elicited was conducted. The results of these study highlight the differing interpretations of biosensing data and the generativity of undertaking in-depth conversations through the elicitation of biosensing data.
Main Authors:Pedro, Tomás
Other Authors:Paiva, Daniel; Gonçalves, Ana; Ferreira, Daniela
Subject:Biosensing data Urban space Urban environment Urban Research Portugal
Year:2022
Country:Portugal
Document type:conference output
Access type:open access
Associated institution:Universidade de Lisboa
Language:English
Origin:Repositório da Universidade de Lisboa

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