Tobie Kerridge

Threshold devices: looking out from the home

Threshold devices present information gathered from the homes surroundings to give new views on the domestic situation. We built two prototypes of different threshold devices and studied them in field trials with participant households. The Local Barometer displays online text and images related to the homes locality depending on the local wind conditions to give an impression of the sociocultural surroundings. The Plane Tracker tracks aircraft passing overhead and imagines their flights onscreen to resource an understanding of the homes global links. Our studies indicated that the experiences they provided were compelling, that participants could and did interpret the devices in various ways, that their form designs were appropriate for domestic environments, that using ready-made information contributed to the richness of the experiences, and that situating the information they provided with respect to the home and its locality was important for the ways people engaged with them.

Materiality matters---experience materials

conceptualize the inseparability of digital materials, user experiences, and the social context. Aiming to address the current theoretical discourse in HCI focused on conceptualizing material integrations under the notion of materiality, we realized our panel session was quite timely. In browsing the technical program of last year’s CHI conference, we noticed that it contained at least three full papers on materials and materiality, one best paper, one alt.chi talk, two Doctoral Consortium papers, two posters, one interactivity presentation, one video presentation, and one complete paper session explicitly focused on materiality as a way to conceptualize these issues. We sought to contribute to this vibrant stream of research in our field.

Tracing design(ed) authority in critical modes of making

The workshop will consider the ways in which authority is distributed throughout the design process, what kind of authority inheres in design, and also the ways that we design authority into processes and materials. We will explore the relationship between particular critical modes of making and the forms of authority that they construct.

Designing Debate: The Entanglement of Speculative Design and Upstream Engagement

This full paper offers a critical reflection of a design practice in which a speculative approach to design became entangled with upstream engagement with biotechnology research. Given that both practices claim to enable a public discussion about emergent technology, what is the nature of their mixing, and how should an analytical account of such a design practice be made? I start with separate reviews of the respective features of these two approaches, considering practitioner accounts and histories along with analytical literature where those practices are objects of research. Then I take the case of the public engagement project Material Beliefs to develop an empirical account of their confluence. Initially I discuss labs as sites where designers, scientists, and non-experts come together to discuss and to problematize accounts of biotechnology research. Next, I examine the process of making speculative designs, and here I emphasise the ways in which issues, materials and practices become compiled as exhibitable prototypes. Finally I consider the circulation and reception of these designs in public settings, including exhibitions, workshops, and online formats. I argue that speculative designs’ move on upstream PEST is an imbroglio that goes beyond mixing the formal features of practice, and requires a discussion concerning the actions of the designer in relation to a broader set of accountabilities. Authorship of the processes that lead to design outcomes, the description of design outcomes, and the effects of those outcomes become distributed and negotiated by an extended set of commitments coming from researchers, policymakers, educators, curators and promoters. Ultimately, I contend that this mixing provides an opportunity to foster a reflexive and empirical account of speculative practice, to engage in analysis of the organisations and settings that support a speculative approach, and to provide a critique of upstream engagement.