“An animist outlook — one where people project behaviors, expectations and intentions onto objects and environments that may have nothing to do with how they actually function — may well be a major sea change in the way that designers have to design.
Rather than focusing on matching people’s capabilities (what they can remember, understand, how well the software domain matches the users’ tasks, and so on), user experience design will have to be more sensitive to respecting, creating, maintaining, and selectively breaking expectations.”
- Kuniavsky, Animist User Expectations in a Ubicomp World
Investigations are a series of small exercises designed to explore a conceptual space and culminates with a made artefact. The format is rapid explorations of a theme, idea or theory. This investigation will be organized in two parts: first, a short four week exercise to become familiar with developing discursive concepts and prototypes; and second, a four week collaborative exploration that generates a refined discursive design.
In the last module, we introduced the frame of spooky technology and how it might be a productive means to attend to the frictions and breakdowns we encounter with everyday intelligences. This mdoule will pick up this thread. We will consider what gives rise to spooky or haunting outcomes, and how we might reflect some of those concerns by producing critical, speculative, and discursive technologies?
“Devices whose computational capabilities exceed human comprehension have become our trusted companions, and yet we hardly know how they work.” - Betti Marenko
In this module, we’ll continue this exploration, explore this prompt, and ask questions about ubiquitous computing, by creating new and alternative technologies through supernatural, haunted, and otherworldly frames.
This investigation is designed to surface some early stage ideas of what we’ll respond to throughout the rest of this course, give you an opportunity to showcase existing skills for making and designing technological artefacts, and get familiar with how spookiness can potentially be explored with new forms of ubiquitous, physical and tangible computing. As part of this exercise, you will:
Conceptual
Technical
| Date | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 24 | Concepts | Introduction to the module and assignment; Animism, Interaction Design, and Device Intelligences |
| Jan 26 | Concepts | Design Methods: Design and Speculation: A brief introduction to Critical Design, Engineering and Making |
| Jan 31 | Tech | Hands on with Microcontrollers + Microcontroller programming |
| Feb 2 | Tech | Working with Sensors and Inputs |
| Feb 7 | Tech | Exploring Outputs: Relays, Motors & LED Strips |
| Feb 9 | Tech | Adding Intelligence with Teachable Machine |
| Feb 14 | Desk Crits | Group work & Desk crits |
| Feb 16 | Crit | Review of outcomes with invited guests |
| Due Date | Deliverable | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 26 | Case Study | Identify and describe a case study that explores a concept related to this module. Share on Slack in #cases |
| Jan 31 | Think Piece | Research a think piece on animism and device agency on Slack in #thinkpieces. |
| Feb 2 | Project Log | Post a short update on your experiments with critical making |
| Feb 7 | Project Log | Post a short update on your experiments with critical making |
| Feb 9 | Warm Up | Sketch a possible approach of your project in this module (2 hours max). |
| Feb 9 | Project Log | Post a short update on your experiments with critical making |
| Feb 14 | Project Log | Post a short update on your experiments with critical making |
| Feb 16 | Project | Present your prototype in class. |
| Feb 17 | Documentation | Deliver documentation of your creative project |
Do some research and find an existing creative work that relates to this module. Review examples from Spooky Tech module first. Identify and report on an example (research project, artistic installation, design project, etc.) related to the themes of the module: animism, enchantment, agency, intelligences, etc. The focus here is on discovering a product or project that you didn’t previously know about and represents an interesting approach, method or strategy that can inspire our work in this module. Read the full description.
On Animism, Agency and Intelligences: To help prepare for your project, research and report on a topic directly related to the themes of the module: relationship between everyday technologies (ubiquitous computing, tangible devices, designed technologies) and animism, enchantment; more-than-human perspectives, device intelligencesetc. Prepare 500-750 words (max) in a short essay on a topic of interest that elaborates a critical point of view, raises a question, or provoke conversation. Read the full description.
Draw up a short speculative proposal for this project in the form of an online product page. This should be based on the three assigned elements (object, input and output). Use this to thing through and communicate the unexpected features, experience, behavior or response you are hoping to create. Complete this in no more than 2 hours. Read the full brief.
Engage a line of spooky inquiry and explore an everyday analog technology imbued with intelligence. Creatively experiment with the expected function of an everyday appliance, integrate intelligence into (or perhaps even subvert) that function to create a animistic, magical or agentive interaction. Read the full brief.
Review For Class
| Date | Description |
|---|---|
| Jan 24 | Excerpts from Spooky Technology. Essay: ‘That which is hidden’ Davies, D. (2015). Animism in Design. Creating an Internet of (quirky) things Kuniavsky, M. (2007). Animist User Expectations in a Ubicomp World |
| Jan 26 | Excerpts from Spooky Technology. Section: ‘Black Boxes’ Watch: What Is Design Fiction? Read: Chapter 5 - A Methodological Playground: Fictional Worlds and Thought Experiments. Speculative Everything. Dunne and Raby Review: James Pierces’ Counterfunctional Devices Study & Obscura 1C Digital Camera |
| Jan 31 | Chapter 3 - The Arduino Platform. From Getting Started with Arduino. Banzi and Shiloh. Chapter 4 - Really Getting Started With Arduino. From Getting Started with Arduino. Banzi and Shiloh. |
| Feb 2 | Chapter 5 - Advanced Input and Output. From Getting Started with Arduino. Banzi and Shiloh. |
| Feb 7 | Chapter 9 - TroubleShooting. From Getting Started with Arduino. Banzi and Shiloh. |
| Feb 9 | Watch: Art && Code Homemade: Irene Alvarado |
Below is a list of additional online material that relates to the module and provides a starting point for your explorations. This is by no means exhaustive i.e. you should read/research beyond it.
Google Maps Hacks - Simon Weckert (2020)
Artist talk (skip to 9:30min): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGXzjYZxcQA
Pierce, J., & DiSalvo, C. (2017, June). Dark Clouds, Io&#!+, and [Crystal Ball Emoji] Projecting Network Anxieties with Alternative Design Metaphors. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Designing Interactive Systems (pp. 1383-1393).
Ambiguity as a resource for design - Jacob Beaver, Steve Benford, William W. Gaver (2003)
Gaver, W. W., Beaver, J., & Benford, S. (2003, April). Ambiguity as a resource for design. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems (pp. 233-240).
Animistic design: how to reimagine digital interaction between the human and the nonhuman - Betti Marenko, Philip Van Allen (2016)
More info at: http://bettimarenko.org/animism-and-design/
Marenko, B., & Van Allen, P. (2016). Animistic design: how to reimagine digital interaction between the human and the nonhuman. Digital Creativity, 27(1), 52-70.
IoT Data in the Home: Observing Entanglements and Drawing New Encounters - Audrey Desjardins, Cayla Key, Heidi R. Biggs, Jeremy E. Viny (2020)
Desjardins, A., Biggs, H. R., Key, C., & Viny, J. E. (2020, April). IoT data in the home: Observing entanglements and drawing new encounters. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-13).
New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future - James Bridle (2018)
Bridle, J. (2018). New dark age: Technology and the end of the future. Verso Books.
Enchanted Objects - David Rose (2014)
Rose, D. (2014). Enchanted objects: Design, human desire, and the Internet of things. Simon and Schuster.
Internet Daemons: Digital Communications Possessed - Fenwick McKelvey (2018)
McKelvey, F. (2018). Internet daemons: Digital communications possessed. U of Minnesota Press.
Poetic Computation: Reader - Taeyoon Choi
Techgnosis: myth, magic & mysticism in the age of information - Erik Davis (2015)
Davis, E. (2015). Techgnosis: myth, magic & mysticism in the age of information. North Atlantic Books.
Haunted media: Electronic presence from telegraphy to television - Jeffrey Sconce (2000)
Sconce, J. (2000). Haunted media: Electronic presence from telegraphy to television. Duke University Press.