The Sweater Work / Shop

The Sweater Work / Shop is a project focusing on the utilization of DIY, crafts and making techniques in a design context. Setting out to develop a small-scale system, this Thesis explores the possibilities of working with textile waste in new and innovative ways through hands-on making while searching for an alternative to mass consumption. Theoretical research provides relevant and contemporary knowledge about the key areas of DIY, crafts and making, as well as their suggested benefits for the environment, society, individual wellbeing and the human-object relationship. Added to this, an extensive practical research provides deeper insights into these themes, related businesses and local projects, together with applied knowledge about the DIY, crafts and making process in a series of experiments with techniques and materials. An in-depth analysis summarizes the most significant problems and opportunities learned by application of the previously mentioned research methods, resulting in the formulation of a design brief for the practical prototype. The prototype itself is a small mobile kiosk to show, make and sell. It visualizes the process of un-knitting old garments, making recycled yarns and then knitting new products from these yarns. It serves both as a workstation and a small shop, therefore the title of this Thesis: The Sweater Work / Shop. This prototype is combined with an alternative pricing system, offering customized products for a lower price, and thereby creating value through engagement of the customer and the story of the making process instead of monetary investments. In the end, a real-life trial proved, that customized products offer a good balance of involvement; allowing even those who don’t want to craft, DIY or make to participate and benefit from some of the positive aspects of DIY, crafts and making

Development and Psychometric Properties of A Screening Tool for Assessing Developmental Coordination Disorder in Adults

Background: Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder affecting motor coordination. Evidence suggests this disorder persists into adulthood and may be associated with biomechanical dysfunction and pain. We report on the development and initial validation of a questionnaire to assess for DCD in adults. Methods: An initial item pool (13 items) was derived from the American Psychiatric Association criteria and World Health Organisation definition for DCD. An expert panel assessed face and content validity which led to a 9-item Functional Difficulties Questionnaire (FDQ-9) with possible scores ranging from 9-36 (higher scores indicating greater functional difficulties). The FDQ-9 was piloted on individuals recruited from convenience samples. The underlying factor structure and aspects of reliability, validity and accuracy were tested. The Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve was employed to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the test using self-reported dyspraxia as the reference standard. Results: Principal Axis Factoring yielded a two factor solution relating to gross and fine motor skills; for conceptual parsimony these were combined. Internal reliability was high (0.81), the mean inter-item correlation was 0.51 and preliminary findings suggested satisfactory construct validity. The Area under the Curve was 0.918 [95% CI 0.84-1.00] indicating a diagnostic test with high accuracy. A cut-off score was established with a sensitivity and specificity of 86% [95% CI 78%-89%] and 81% [95 % CI 73%-89%] respectively. Test-retest reliability was good (ICC 0.96 [95% CI 0.92 to 0.98]. Conclusion: The psychometric properties of the FDQ-9 appear promising. Work is required to conduct further psychometric evaluations on new samples and apply the scale to clinical practice

Making & Mending

This thesis examines how feminist ways of making and mending can be applied through a material investigation into postdisciplinary craft practices. Through practice-led research, material investigation and a conscious break from craft methods, I am embracing failure as a methodological framework. Some research motivations were guided by my own experience with influential women in my family. Through research and material investigations, craft practices were applied through a DIY method and were supported by sloppy craft theory. By embracing deskilling and reskilling within my work, I am investigating mending practices as a place for communal sharing and connection. By embracing interdisciplinary approaches, craft and private practices are melded with sculptural and industrial metalworking, culminating in the form of plaster and bronze hands and tools. These solid, sculptural pieces of work are designed to capture gestures, the human form and the tools that created both embroidery and crochet pieces in this art practice. The exhibition was meant to be set in a recreated, imagined domestic space - to reflect women’s work and the rise of feminist craft practices in contemporary art. This space was envisioned to break away from the white cube and invite the viewer to share their knowledge and memories through an interactive "mend-in" session

An Examination of the Myriad of Skills Properties Artisans Utilize and How They Are Attained

This study is intended to provide resources for those looking at becoming a prop artisan in the theatre industry. It is meant to provide aspiring artists with everything they need on their journey to becoming a competitive hire in the field, to aid in increasing one’s chances of finding work in the theatre industry, and to have a successful career as a prop artisan by compiling the multiple types of skills that prop artisans use and how they attain those different types of skills. The central research question of this study examines the myriad of skills prop artisans utilize and how they are attained. Previous research has shown routes people can take in order to gain these skills; however, the research is limited to a few credible sources. The goal for this thesis is to provide resources and to review data that suggests what skills are and are not being used in the theatre industry and how those skills were attained with the help of an anonymous survey. The anonymous survey in this study collected data from those already in the props field, questioning how those who have been in this career for years or decades have attained the skills they utilize in their day to day work. The methods used for this survey were a Likert scale, a multiple-choice question, and a few short answer questions. The main results showed that skills such as carpentry, furniture construction, furniture repair, reupholstery, fabric manipulation, MIG welding, soldering, faux painting, distressing & aging, faux fine art, foam carving, drafting/sketching/rendering, puppetry, faux food, molding/casting, the various sewing skills, and paper props are frequently being used in the industry. The data suggests that the most common way to attain these skills are through academics, through a professional setting, through books, self-learning, and the internet. The significance of the data and the results suggests that there are a number of confounding variables as to why these skills and attainment of skills are used in the industry today

“We Need a Showing of All Hands”: Technological Utopianism in \u3cem\u3eMAKE\u3c/em\u3e Magazine

Make magazine is a quarterly publication focused on do-it-yourself projects involving technology and innovation. The magazine also sponsors a biannual event, the Maker Faire, that brings “makers” together to share their knowledge. As a strategy for building audience loyalty and identification with the magazine, the Make products are skillfully crafted. However, they also invoke ideals such as environmentalism and nationalism in a potent mix that not only engages readers, but also represents an additional cultural demonstration of the phenomenon of technological utopianism

Sell (It) Yourself: Marketing Pleasure in Digital DIY

DIY (do-it-yourself) craft is in the midst of a North American renaissance, and the reasons attributed to the phenomenon\u27s meteoric rise are manifold. Thrift, conspicuous consumption, politics, environmental activism, nostalgia, individuality, community: each in turn has been cited as the driving force behind handicraft\u27s recent blossoming. In this dissertation I examine the work of professional and semi-professional crafters through an alternative explanatory lens, one that is noticeably absent from academic investigations of DIY and underutilized in the scholarship on creative work at large: the rhetoric of pleasure. Through an examination of in-depth interviews with Etsy sellers and DIY bloggers, textual analysis of promotional materials from individual crafters and from Etsy.com, and participant observation at indie craft fairs and local knitting groups, I trace pleasure\u27s effect on the chronology of commercial handicraft. First, drawing on Roland Barthes\u27s distinction between jouissance and plaisir, as well as Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi\u27s concept of flow, I argue that the pleasure crafters derive from the act of making DIY is itself bifurcated, at once concretizing and destabilizing their sense of self. I then direct my attention to the handcrafted object\u27s sale, maintaining that both jouissance and plaisir are folded into the professional crafters\u27 marketing narratives to build their personal brands and signal their creative authenticity. Finally I consider interactions between individuals in the craft community and the nature of the Etsy exchange, suggesting that commercial handicraft functions simultaneously as gift and commodity. However the primacy of pleasure throughout the sale of DIY obscures the challenges that creative entrepreneurship engenders. But in considering these oft unrecognized hardships--the loneliness and isolation; the endless administrative burdens; the pressures of a saturated marketplace--it becomes clear that there is a deep-seated irony at work: the more successful a maker becomes and the bigger her business grows, the farther away she moves from personally experiencing jouissance. I conclude by arguing that this paradox is emblematic of neoliberal creative work at large and points to the limits of the creative class thesis. I suggest that the surest path to the pleasures of creative production might in fact lie outside its professionalization

Build Your Own Robot Friend: An Open-Source Learning Module for Accessible and Engaging AI Education

As artificial intelligence (AI) is playing an increasingly important role in our society and global economy, AI education and literacy have become necessary components in college and K-12 education to prepare students for an AI-powered society. However, current AI curricula have not yet been made accessible and engaging enough for students and schools from all socio-economic backgrounds with different educational goals. In this work, we developed an open-source learning module for college and high school students, which allows students to build their own robot companion from the ground up. This open platform can be used to provide hands-on experience and introductory knowledge about various aspects of AI, including robotics, machine learning (ML), software engineering, and mechanical engineering. Because of the social and personal nature of a socially assistive robot companion, this module also puts a special emphasis on human-centered AI, enabling students to develop a better understanding of human-AI interaction and AI ethics through hands-on learning activities. With open-source documentation, assembling manuals and affordable materials, students from different socio-economic backgrounds can personalize their learning experience based on their individual educational goals. To evaluate the student-perceived quality of our module, we conducted a usability testing workshop with 15 college students recruited from a minority-serving institution. Our results indicate that our AI module is effective, easy-to-follow, and engaging, and it increases student interest in studying AI/ML and robotics in the future. We hope that this work will contribute toward accessible and engaging AI education in human-AI interaction for college and high school students.Comment: Accepted to the Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence (2024

Characterizing the Online Learning Landscape: {W}hat and How People Learn Online

Hundreds of millions of people learn something new online every day. Simultaneously, the study of online education has blossomed within the human computer interaction community, with new systems, experiments, and observations creating and exploring previously undiscovered online learning environments. In this study we endeavor to characterize this entire landscape of online learning experiences using a national survey of 2260 US adults who are balanced to match the demographics of the U.S. We examine the online learning resources that they consult, and we analyze the subjects that they pursue using those resources. Furthermore, we compare both formal and informal online learning experiences on a larger scale than has ever been done before, to our knowledge, to better understand which subjects people are seeking for intensive study. We find that there is a core set of online learning experiences that are central to other experiences and these are shared among the majority of people who learn online. We conclude by showing how looking outside of these core online learning experiences can reveal opportunities for innovation in online education

CRAFTING RESISTANCE: HANDMADE CULTURE AS A THIRD-WAVE FEMINIST RESPONSE TO CONSUMERISM

This thesis explores a resurgence of the handmade movement as a specifically third-wave feminist response to corporate consumer culture. Websites such as Etsy.com and Craftster.org have recently emerged and provide a means for crafters and purveyors of handmade goods to engage in trade, community building, and commerce with one another and consumers. I am fundamentally concerned with how the resurgence of the handmade movement relates to the greater discourse of third-wave feminism in the context of production and consumption, the rejection of corporate profiteering, and the reclaiming of one’s own labor through the handicrafts. Etsy.com and other craft websites have multiple ties to the third-wave feminist magazine, BUST, and this relationship is rigorously examined. My argument is built on a framework of feminist theory, consumption theory, and craft theory. Semiotic analyses of crafting texts and in-depth interviews with twenty-seven active crafters and Etsy members are employed in this research

CRAFTING RESISTANCE: HANDMADE CULTURE AS A THIRD-WAVE FEMINIST RESPONSE TO CONSUMERISM

This thesis explores a resurgence of the handmade movement as a specifically third-wave feminist response to corporate consumer culture. Websites such as Etsy.com and Craftster. org have recently emerged and provide a means for crafters and purveyors of handmade goods to engage in trade, community building, and commerce with one another and consumers. I am fundamentally concerned with how the resurgence of the handmade movement relates to the greater discourse of third-wave feminism in the context of production and consumption, the rejection of corporate profiteering, and the reclaiming of one’s own labor through the handicrafts. Etsy.com and other craft websites have multiple ties to the third-wave feminist magazine, BUST, and this relationship is rigorously examined. My argument is built on a framework of feminist theory, consumption theory, and craft theory. Semiotic analyses of crafting texts and in-depth interviews with twenty-seven active crafters and Etsy members are employed in this research