Alluring crafts!
A foray into textile and paper computing
Electronic Popables by Qi and Buechley [1] is an important paper that shows paper craftwork could be enhanced by using simple but nifty electronic mechanisms. I genuinely wish I had read this paper back in the heydays of my childhood. The narrative possibilities seem endless! That in addition to these works of art: handcrafting textile sensors from scratch (thanks Adafruit!) [2] and Integrating Textile Materials with Electronic Making [3] make me bemoan the time constraints of a graduate student.
Design fiction?
On cursory glance Electronic Popables does seem like a cookbook for artsy folks to design paper-based dynamic and electronic storytelling tools. I think craft work is the process of realizing the fictional narrative in one’s mind into a tangible format for both oneself and others to participate in. If we use this definition, every creation of art becomes a diegetic prototype in at least a few minds who willfully agree [4] to partake in that process of craft.
Well… I sometimes feel that design fiction need not always lay in unrealized realities* but rather realizable tangibles. Hence from this particular point of view Electronic Popables does seem like a design fiction (fight me 🙂 ).
*Here ‘unrealized realities’ refer to sci-fi, magical, or even steampunk narratives which seem non-existent relative to the time of the observer.
On Skintillates
Serendipitously I was assigned this beautiful paper by Lo et. al. [6] for my reading assignment. It is neat to design paper and textile circuits but this research work shows that we could use the same underlying techniques to design tattoos! Tattoos are a very personal and artistic way to represent oneself. The paper discusses ways to envision new categories of suped-up tattoos that could do more by taking advantage of easy-to-fabricate flexible electronics. In addition to lighting up artistically placed LEDs, this technology can be used to make very interesting body-sensing interactions (capacitive surfaces, strain gauges, etc.).
The biggest takeaway is the impressive impact true ingenuity in the DIY community can make to the direction of human computer interaction. By understanding the basic principles of flexible electronics, screen printing techniques used in crafts and original artistry, the paper not only demonstrates beautiful applications but also stimulates our imagination to think of potential possibilities in future.
I personally think that it is important to consider how easily an artifact lends itself to generate an imaginary future for speculation. Though this paper does not delve into design fiction, I can think of a few scenarios where skintillates can be used as a diegetic prototype.
Case-in-point: Skintillate Corp 2042
Year 2042, humanity has figured out how to effectively use the ‘bioenergy’ generated within their bodies to power epidermal electronics. This advancement allowed people at Skintillate Corp to harness the techtoo** technology to create robust epidermal electronics that are more reliable and durable than the first garage-built skintillate prototype almost three decades ago!
**Techtoo: Advanced tattooing techniques in the 2030s used laser and nanomaterials that enabled safe and quick tattooing without the use of archaic needle-point tattooing machines. In addition, this also streamlined the tattoo-removal process that used to be both risky and tedious for centuries.
I have been wanting a tattoo for a while now, but there is something to be said for tattoo regrets. This concept seems interesting and encouraging though, let’s see.. 🤔
References
[1] J. Qi and L. Buechley, “Electronic popables: exploring paper-based computing through an interactive pop-up book,” in Proceedings of the fourth international conference on Tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, New York, NY, USA, Jan. 2010, pp. 121–128. doi: 10.1145/1709886.1709909.
[2] “HandcraftingSensors.pdf.” https://cdn-shop.adafruit.com/datasheets/HandcraftingSensors.pdf (accessed Feb. 01, 2022).
[3] I. Posch and G. Fitzpatrick, “Integrating Textile Materials with Electronic Making: Creating New Tools and Practices,” in Proceedings of the Twelfth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, New York, NY, USA, Mar. 2018, pp. 158–165. doi: 10.1145/3173225.3173255.
[4] M. Blythe, “Research through design fiction: narrative in real and imaginary abstracts,” in Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New York, NY, USA, Apr. 2014, pp. 703–712. doi: 10.1145/2556288.2557098.
[5] K. Hub, “Maths Related Art and Craft Projects for Kids,” The Knowledge Hub, Sep. 22, 2021. https://knowledge-hub.com/2021/09/22/maths-related-art-and-craft-projects-for-kids/ (accessed Feb. 01, 2022).
[6] J. Lo, D. J. L. Lee, N. Wong, D. Bui, and E. Paulos, “Skintillates: Designing and Creating Epidermal Interactions,” in Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on Designing Interactive Systems, New York, NY, USA, Jun. 2016, pp. 853–864. doi: 10.1145/2901790.2901885.
[7] 20116418blog, “VFX — Skin Replace/Glow,” Marc Logan — nextgen, Mar. 13, 2017. https://20116418blog.wordpress.com/2017/03/13/vfx-skin-replaceglow/ (accessed Feb. 01, 2022).
