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Title of Abstract:

Agents of Change: from Collection to Connection (Ref #169)

Date:
06-10-2006 13:16:04
Status:
Accepted with revisions
Rating:
7
Details:
Motivation
This paper discusses the synthesis of technology and craft to create a new method of practice.
Craft has been accused of ?discontinuity? (Greer), failing to keep up with modernity and risking being considered an elitist practice, simply concerned with keeping traditions alive for the benefit of a privileged audience. This paper suggests that there is a new role for craft practitioners and craft thinkers as humanisers of technology.

Problem
The use jewellery object has been the focus of research as a method of integrating computers into the environment and onto the body, so called ubiquitous or pervasive computing. The use and adaptation of existing forms of jewellery tends to ignore the rich potential within the jewellery object as a carrier of multilayered meaning: the aesthetics of the artefact and the emotional quality of the interaction are often secondary considerations to the efficacy of technology. The mode and purpose of wearing jewellery makes it an appropriate choice as a controlling device in physical computing (Wallace and Dearden 2005).

Approach
The researchers have employed methods from their individual practices as contemporary jeweller and multimedia artist and to produce physical artifacts and digital media as vehicles for exploring user needs.
A hybrid of user-centred design methods and craft thinking are fundamental to the research. In user-centred design, the designers engage actively with end-users to gather insights that drive design from the earliest stages of product and service development, right through the design process (Black 2004). The value of the jeweller and visual artist as researchers is in applying the specific skills, knowledge and sensibilities of craft and visual art to conception and making.
However, within craft and visual art, evaluation frameworks as understood within other disciplines, simply do not exist: analysis of objects and their reception by wearers is based on implicit knowledge and subjective assumptions.
A key element of this research process has been the juxtaposition of craft methods with methods from design and human factors.

Results
The combination of methods from within and without craft has enabled the researchers to suggest new ways of synthesising jewellery and technology and suggested new areas for further research in terms of engagement and functionality.

Conclusions
The synthesis of methods from outside the traditional domain of craft, in particular from user-centred design has resulted in a new methodology for craft practice, repositioning the craftsperson from a guardian of tradition to an agent of change.


Keywords: Interaction, jewellery, multimedia, wearables, user centred design, craft

Reviewer Comments:

Review #1 : Left on 23-10-2006 11:30:57 #
Interesting use of a public and journalistic perception of craft s a motivator for the work. Are there other critical writings which offer similar or alternative motivation for the work?

Another hybrid method of craft is being proposed. Articulation of this, one that embraces the new opportunities offered by media technologies for craft practice is needed.

Also discussion about the development of an appropriate aesthetic and context for future crafts would provide new insight into craft thinking.

If the paper could develop these aspects of the argument, where validation of the intellectual reasoning is transparently communicated, a positive contribution to the crafts debate will be made.

7
Review #2 : Left on 11-12-2006 16:09:48 #
This is an area that I believe would be of interest to a great many delegates, not just in jewellery but in textiles for instance.

8
Review #3 : Left on 14-12-2006 16:32:35 #
This is an exciting area that a number of researchers are now contributing to - more detail is needed however about the ways in which crafts has the potential to humanise technology. Why is craft uniquely placed to humanise rather than design for example. Look forward to reading the paper.

7

Public Comments:

Comment left by L>D> on 08-11-2006 12:14:38 #
This could be really interresting!