News + updates


10-1-2025
I will be moderating a panel with the incredible Lucy Suchman and Terry Winograd at Stanford HAI on October 10th. 
Link coming soon


09-17-2025
Excited to be speaking today on a panel around "AI Image Generation: Shaping Perception and Visual Influence" co-hosted by Harvard and Stanford IT Communities along with Dr. Douglas Guilbeault and Madeleine Woods. 
Link


09-05-2025
It was my pleasure to organize a gathering at 4S in Seattle around “Hope, Ontological Breakdown, and a World of Many Worlds,” with my wonderful co-organizers Mohammad Rashidujjaman Rifat, Jingyi Li, Alex Taylor, and Daniela Rosner.
Link


08-26-2025
I will be giving a talk at the IT University Human-Computer Interaction and Design.


08-13-2025
I will be giving a talk at Copenhagen University Human-Centred Computing (HCC).


08-18-2025
I will be attending Aarhus 2025.
Link


08-04-2025
I will be speaking as part of the NLP colloquium at The University of Bonn.
Link


07-09-2025
I will be spending time with the brilliant scholars at the Pioneer Center for AI (P1) in Copenhagen through the end of August. If you are in the area, I would love to connect with you!
Link


06-24-2025
I will be giving a talk at UCL Interaction Center seminar.
Link
06-15-2025
I will be attending HCIC 2025.
Link


05-12-2025
Last week, I presented our paper on “Ontologies in Design: How Imagining a Tree Reveals Possibilities and Assumptions in Large Language Models” at CHI 2025 in Yokohama.
Link 











Nava Haghighi



About me
Publications, Teaching, Mentorship
LinkedIn
Email





Select projects 


Purple Zone
Ontologies in Design
Stranj(ers)
Disobedient Agents
Installations, Materials, and Fabrication








© Nava Haghighi.  All rights reserved.




Purple Zone Explorations


Four projects:

P0: EDA real-time biofeedback studies (n=7)
P1: formal explorations (left)
P2: algorithm development (n=30, 10 days)
P3: purple zone study (n=25, 14 days)
The commitment to multiplicity and pluriversality challenges design to move beyond singular, stable conceptions of the human. Personal sensing systems offer a rich site for examining this challenge because they mediate and constitute relational understandings of bodies, selves, and technologies, yet typically assume bounded, rational subjects capable of optimizing discrete processes through feedback. Building on critical discourse around sensing technologies and embodied experience, we examine what it might mean to make space for multiplicity through technical design practice in sensing. We design a real-time biofeedback system that surfaces ``purple zone,'' marking the threshold of in/visibility in Electrodermal Activity that resists both categorization and conscious control. Through a two-week study with 25 participants, we examine encounters with purple zone, instances where ontological ambiguity around self and body emerge, and participants' strategies for dealing with such encounters. We conclude by reflecting on the inherent tensions in and possibilities for engaging with ontological multiplicity through design.

Prev    Next