I bought some teas during my trip to Atlanta for CHI 2010. One of them was a Cinnamon Rooibos tea from Caribou Coffee, and it was delicious. It has a delightful, strong taste that’s really enjoyable.

Yum!

Upon reflection, I wrote him an email to further our discussion about this topic. This is very similar to the email I sent Jed, with some edits.

Idea 1: Digital and Physical Materiality are different, and we conceptualizes them as being different

The notion of transference of everyday, physical -dare I say a Paul Dourishian** notion of embodiment- and understanding of materiality and how those notions apply to the digital realm, I think is a false transference in some sense. Our understanding our interactions with digital materiality is far different then physical materiality. In a physical world, objects do not miraculously copy themselves, but that does and has to happen all the time in the digital world and this does so with ease. (We always act and interact in an embodied sense, but our understanding and conceptualization of how the world works is a different notion (e.g. interaction vs. understanding).) ***

So we have these two co-forming notions of “how we conceptualize the world works” and “how we interact with that world”, and I think these two notions are constantly co-forming and co-evolving both our understanding and how we interact with different kinds of materiality. (Actually, it’s even more complicated because these notions are dependent upon prior knowledge/experience.)

However, with things like ubicomp, pervasive computing, and true Dourishian embodied computing are converging these two views of materiality, so our understanding of these materialities are still evolving.

Anyway, I think because of these materialities it’s our attention that is now the scare resource, not the objects themselves.

I think this idea relates to Mcluhan’s notion that our attention is now the resource (I think it was Mcluhan who said that…).

Idea 2: With photographs, it’s the experience / memory that matters, which is an inter-subjective (or just subjective) phenomenon, that is not really tied to the physical object.

I’m a phenomenologist at heart, and even though we may have these notions, I think it’s in the our actions that they become special or “meaningful” in considering the nature of digital materiality. Actions such as reminiscing, sharing, tools/aids for reflection, etc.

Basically, it’s us going through the activity and the experiencing that is important, not the object itself.

I know this raises a lot of questions, like are the materialities actually different? Should these cross-material notions apply? If so or if not so, how do we move forward with that understanding (aka what are the implications for our actions (or what are the design implications))?, etc.

I guess I’m saying, that I think in this new realm of the digital, things actually become more significant, the more they are shared with each other, and as they increase experiences. (So this is a different model of how we understand scarcity and rarity, etc; right? since << totally speculating here >> but I think notions of scarcity are derived or rooted in deep biological fears (i.g. do we have enough food / water, etc.), and do not fit well in a refined understanding of the digital materiality of artifacts and experience.

Now, unfortunately I’m not citing anyone in particular, but I know these are not solely my ideas. but bugger if I can remember my citations, or who said what, or how this relates to theorist X, who said Y.

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** Paul Dourish has a very specific notion of embodiment that he outlines in his book “Where the Action Is”;  I understand and define Dourishian embodiment as an approach to designing technology that both recognize that people have “natural” ways of doing things and that we as designers would do well to design for how people naturally act in the world.

*** Upon reflection, I realize this sounds very mind-body dualist separation. Sorry, my bad. I don’t actually think the mind and the body are separate, but I categorize them to show the distinctions. I also think it’s a byproduct of that particular type of epistemological upbringing. You can do stuff, and you can think about things, and all I meant was that we think about digital material in a different way than physical material.

Fave Plenary:

I love and adore Genevieve Bell’s work and her as a person. She’s flippin’ hilarious and spunky, and I’m kinda a big fan girl of her and her work.

My roommate, Binaebi (http://siriomi.com/), did some great sketches of her opening talk “Messy Futures: Culture, Technology, and Research” (http://www.flickr.com/photos/siriomi/4514432497), and got her signature too (http://www.flickr.com/photos/siriomi/4515363454).

Fave Talk:

Shaowen Bardzell’s Feminism and HCI talk was by far my favorite.

Binaebi’s Sketch Notes (http://www.flickr.com/photos/siriomi/4519703786)

Shaowen’s both a CHI superstar, and my personal mentor and thesis advisor, it naturally follows that I love her work.

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Another great talk was Lilly Irani’s (http://www.ics.uci.edu/~lirani/) Postcolonial Computing.

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Funniest Happening:

On Wednesday, I was speaking with a Korean SV, and had asked her if she knew Heekyoung, a Korean PhD student in the HCI program at IU. This woman did in fact know Heekyoung, well of course I gush about Heekyoung, because I think she is fantastic. Well, the next day this SV comes up to me and we begin to chat again, and starts to tell me, “Yeah… I meet with Heekyoung last night, and told her you said you two were lovers”. I start laughing and tell her, “No I meant we all love” paused for a second “her at informatics. Everybody at IU’s Informatics program loves Heekyoung. Love [space] her.” The SV and I had a good chuckle about this, and went on to say, “Oh that makes a lot more sense now.”.

I thought it was a cute moment, that illustrates how tricky communication can be sometimes.

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- Lynn

My friend, Chad’s capstone is about capturing digital experiences of MMORPG players.

After combing through capstone papers related to digital memories, and I’ve noticed that many papers refer to capturing “real” physical experiences, but do not mention online counterparts. Things such as playing MMORPG’s, facebook exchanges, or chats are real and should be captured if a person so chooses. (We already do this to some degree in all three mentioned areas, but there is still much word to be done (i.e. sense and meaning making, etc.).)

A concept I need to introduce for my capstone will be dealing with both online and physical experiences.

The idea is fantastic, and I wonder how the ability to create some, although not directly and immediately, changes the process of design and creation. Do people create things differently in Maya, when they are designing for real-world fabrication vs. when they are designing for online, virtual spaces? How does the process of creating metal via metal work and Maya and uploading change the process? What do these two different populations think about? How do they think about things differently? How do the changes change the practice of metalwork? Will applications like Maya have the same implications in metalworking as Illustrator did for typesetting?

Somehow, my gut tells me the act of actually feeling and working with a tangible object, must be quite different than producing something in Maya (i.e. a truly embodied action vs. an application). The act of creation, and knowing that an artifact you will be creating, has real world engineering limitations (i.e. stress, force, etc.).

Anyway, I thought some were very pretty, and quite intricate.

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Some of the pieces look very much like they are coming from a 3D program; however, others are very natural almost handcrafted looking.

Interesting pieces:

Waist Band (Natural)

Feathered Bracelet (Very 3D looking~)

Five Hearts Pendant (Pretty &  intricate)

A couple students (Babs, Chad, Yuebo, Casey, and myself) got together and decided to clean the HCI/d design lab today. It’s been a little grimy in the lab since end of the last semester, and the students wanted to spiffy it up prior to the “new” HCI/d kids showing up in the fall.So we rolled up our selves, got out the elbow grease, and got to scrubbing the walls and tidying up the place.

We also compiled a design lab wishlist: cork board, printer access, first aid kit (yes, there may have been cases when it was necessary to use such a kit — don’t let anyone fool you design can be dangerous), a tea kettle, projector, more storage, etc.

I think many of us are getting excited for another school year to come around, since with the new year brings us new challenges and a chance to help the incoming class.
Image Information: Chad, Yuebo, Casey; http://www.flickr.com/people/jacob-hcid/

The Materials of the project:

• An Arudino Board
• Two Infrared sensors
• Tri-colored ShiftBright LEDS
• Random pieces from the local craft store

The Two Modes:
Mode 1 – During the first mode, if the people hold the two objects together, the color will grow brighter and brighter, until it has reached a sustaining level.
Mode 2 – In the second mode, if the people hold the two objects near each other, the two colors fuse together to form a third new color.

The Meaning:
We attempted to develop interesting interactions for two people; the first mode is supposed to symbolize working together makes you stronger. The second mode, is supposed to represent that working with different people can create beautiful results.

The Team:
Chad Camara
Yuija Zhao
Lynn Dombrowski

Where do you folks go for your design inspiration? I’m gonna bust out my favorite sites about design:

Ideas:www.faveup.com (showcases graphic design relating to flash, html/css, and logos) www.ted.com (technology, entertainment, and design:  fascinating talks but some really smart people) (ok ted.com isn’t really a design site, but I’m putting it in the category of “life-inspiration” design)www.psdtuts.com (Really good, step by step instructions for creating photoshop designs)

Color: Kuler.adobe.com (good site for trying to come up with color swatches)http://www.colourlovers.com/ (lots of user-generated content to help you create beautiful color schemes)

Alright, these are the best that I have to offer, what are some of your favorite design (graphic or life-inspiration) sites?

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Reflection:

This blog snippet is the first blog I wrote for my Interaction Design Practicum (IDP) courses. When I re-read my previous content, I realized that my thinking was still very early in the process of understanding what it meant to be designerly, and to have designerly thinking. I was definitely thinking of graphic design, and not interaction design.

Graphical design is meaningful and important in its own right. Graphic design it is also quite distinct from interaction design, and they must use each other to both be successful. However, for graphic design to be have its full potential, interaction design must proceed graphic design, so that the graphical portion is informed from the research and experience of the interaction designer.