Physical variables to shape individual interpretations into collective knowledge. A participatory data physicalization method for women’s UTI symptoms.

Abstract

This doctoral research investigates how data physicalization can support awareness and communication of symptoms in women affected by urinary tract infections (UTIs). Drawing on feminist theories of situated knowledge, biosemiotics, and autographic design, it reconsiders symptoms as interpretative processes that acquire meaning through the continuous interaction between body, perception, and environment, rather than as fixed biomedical evidence. UTIs are among the most common bacterial infections, disproportionately affecting women and often recurring over time. Yet symptom communication remains limited because clinical practice privileges measurable biological indicators, while the qualities of lived experience, such as pressure, burning, discomfort, or urgency, are difficult to articulate and marginalised in clinical accounts. In response, the research identifies physical variables, understood as material properties such as texture, weight, and shape, as a way to translate embodied sensations into tangible and shareable forms. Physical variables therefore operate as participatory devices through which symptoms can be expressed, compared, and collectively interpreted. Through participatory data physicalization, making becomes a process of knowing. Participants work with tangible materials to express, reflect on, and communicate bodily sensations that are often difficult to articulate verbally. Five workshops were conducted between 2023 and 2024 in Switzerland and the United Kingdom, involving around fifty participants. Three sessions with women affected by recurrent UTIs and clinicians form the analytical core of the research. Participants used modular Data-Probes, supported by labels and a structured protocol, to construct artefacts representing their symptoms. The findings show that engagement with physical variables supports reflection, comparison, pattern recognition, and dialogue, transforming individual sensations into collective insights through shared material reference points. The main methodological contribution is the Physical-Variable Apparatus, a material-discursive arrangement that connects labels, protocols, material components, and a digital interface into a system for participation, physical engagement, and interpretation. Beyond UTIs, the approach offers a transferable model for bringing embodied data into participatory enquiry, showing how data physicalization can support collective knowledge production across contexts.