Simtech 08 poster submission: digital upheavals: ethnographic studies on digital-DIY activity

This poster describes current work-in-progress on a digital-DIY research project, exploring how people experiencing life-change configure and re-configure their domestic entertainment, information and communication technologies. The project draws upon a number of theoretical concepts from human-computer interaction, the social construction of technology, material culture and design studies to understand the digital-DIY phenomenon and is methodologically rooted in the ethnographic tradition. This poster describes early pilot-study work utilizing Blythe et al’s (2002) ‘Technology Biographies’ method applied to (amongst other pilot studies) the author’s own autoethnographic study of moving home and concludes with a summary of themes and concepts emerging from this early data. The poster presents proposals for future empirical studies of people experiencing life-change