Category: Provocations

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Provocations

Quantuition: Exploring the Future of Representing Biometric Data

In a future where we track everything, how will data representations dictate how we relate to ourselves and the world? This speculative design project explores the relationship between personal biometric data and the meaning we find in it.

Quantuition is a speculative self-tracking system that collects data from body-based nanosensors. The system renders that data into 3D data sculptures. Presented in the form of an Instagram feed, this speculation highlights how data-design influences the process of individual and social sense-making. We often ascribe power and authority to data representations — while simultaneously overlooking the hidden decisions embedded in those representations about what to measure, analyze, emphasize and display.

When self-tracking becomes pervasive, are we ruled by data or do we rule it? In the near future, personal sensors track everything: how fast our hair is growing, the amount of dust we inhale, how many tears we cry. As we become aware of these myriad personal data points, they could overwhelm us. How do we draw meaning from this data? How do our interpretations of this data influence our actions, and what are the implications of these new feedback loops?

This project raises several provocations for tangible data futures:

  • What new interpersonal interactions does data physicalization uncover?
  • What positive and negative feedback loops are present in a hyper-quantified future?
  • How will emerging technology shape the relationship between data representations and actions?
  • Where does the user’s control – and free will – begin and end?

This work was submitted to the TEI 2019 Student Design Competition, where it won the award for best concept/design.

Read the project paper | View the poster

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Provocations

HCI Amusements

In May, Laura presented some new research at the annual conference on human computer interaction (CHI) describing what the field of Human-Computer Interaction might learn from the artist network known as Fluxus. The work was a collaborative project between Laura, Kristina Andersen, Daniela Rosner, Ron Wakkary and James Pierce. The conference talks were not recorded, but you can view the transcript of our presentation below or read the paper here:

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Documentation Provocations

Designing Machines for Human-Wind Collaboration

An exploration into new mechanisms for jacquard weaving, as well as an ongoing interest in asking how non-human materials or forces can be engaged as collaborators resulted in the prototype of the wind loom—a modified tapestry loom that with every 4th warp connected to a sail that moves the warp position in and out. The fabrication of the loom was led by Jen Mah and Rachel Bork, who iterated between several prototypes for laser-cut heddle/hooks that can be attached to the yarn, arms are connected to umbrellas that can move when the wind blows, easily attachable and detachable components to support easy travel, and so on. The prototyping process was complex and frustrating, as the summer in which we prototyped was not very windy and it was hard to test in its specific working conditions we imagined for the loom. Local weaver, and friend, Julie Rodriguez, took the prototype out for a test and captured the photo above. Her approach was to wait for a gust, and then weave into the wind-produced shed with alternating colors that she chose.



The image above shows a detail of the arm design and how it connects to the warp yarns. First, a small piece of laser-cut acrylic attaches to the yarn. We cut a small “pig tail” in the acrylic to allow the small rectangular joint to be easily wound on and off the warp. That piece then fits into an arm that pivots around a post along the width of the loom. That arm has a long thin aluminum post attached to the back of it, upon which a we attach umbrellas made with nylon and 3D printed attachment joints. The length of the aluminum post determines the speed a which the umbrella will move. The longer the post, the weaker the wind. We found the weakest wind we could capture was roughly 6 mph. We originally had a second 3D printed joint between the metal post and the umbrella post (seen below) but this added to much weakness into the joint and became unruly in a wind gust.  All of our part files and instructions can be found on this Instructables post: https://www.instructables.com/id/Wind-Loom/

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Provocations

Pathfinders: Felt Experience versus Embodied Statistics


This is a summary of my (Gaspard Bos’) work done at the Unstable Design Lab  in the month of July 2018 as a practice-based researcher and residence. I sought to do a project abroad in an inspiring space, with inspiring people, where I could work with interactive, connected and intelligent tech on social/societal issues that are my drive as a designer. I was happy to have been given the opportunity to work with smart textiles on the topic of parenthood at the lab and build on the research and work that has already been done there.

The project I developed is called Pathfinders: Felt Experience versus Embodied Statistics. Pathfinders invites participants to experience and play with anxieties that our present day risk society projects upon prospective parents. Conceptualized as a designerly form of autobiographical storytelling, the experience is intended to prompt reflection and conversation on gender stereotypes, societal expectations that are reflected within and reinforced by statistics on health and parenthood. The piece is part of a broader collection of design objects and technologies that tell personal stories about the felt experience of becoming parents in a world of increasingly sophisticated techniques for quantifying risk, intervention, and genetic modification. The work was completed in collaboration with the Unstable Design Lab and used the groups experience in designing smart wearable technologies to produce an experience that is not only about becoming parents, but brings the participant into an embodied and felt experience of navigating the choices facing prospective parents.

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Open Source Provocations

String Figuring

The string figure sensor is a concept or early prototype for a string-based sensor that can know something of its own shape. We created a proof of concept by knitting conductive thread and wool around a wire core, resulting in a semi-rigid loop that feels similar to a pipe cleaner in one’s hands. When someone plays with the loop, the crosses and knots created in it result in measurable changes in resistance. We take resistance measurements at five points along the length of the loop to create a resistance “signature” that correlates to various shapes or figures created with the string.

Links:

Categories
Provocations

Beyond Hybrids: Metaphors and Margins in Design

Published at Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2017. This paper describes how the metaphor of the hybrid shapes how we imagine the future of technology. Drawing on feminist technoscience, We propose the alternative metaphor of coproductions to provoke visions for human-technology futures.