Critical Ways of Making: Design Artefacts, De-Computation and Un-Crafting

This workshop intends to elaborate on new and emerging crit- ical approaches that aim to question the nature of contempo- rary computational artefacts. By interrogating interactive sys- tems from a perspective that is focussed on the arrangement of their constituent parts and the relations between them, we seek to challenge the constructive paradigms that might have led to those configurations. In particular, with this workshop we will introduce and further explore De-Computation as a methodology, and Un-Crafting as a method, both targeting a critical examination of contemporary computational arte- facts and the interaction paradigms they follow. Both De- Computation and Un-Crafting approach and explore possi- ble computational futures by critically examining the present. The workshop will include collaborative hands-on activities with reflection in practice and discussions around the topic. We are inviting interdisciplinary viewpoints that will enable us to further ground De-Computation and Un-Crafting in a diverse set of contexts

Investigating slowness as a frame to design longer-term experiences with personal data: a field study of olly

We describe the design and deployment of Olly, a domestic music player that enables people to re-experience digital music they listened to in the past. Olly uses its owner’s Last.FM listening history metadata archive to occasionally select a song from their past, but offers no user control over what is selected or when. We deployed Olly in 3 homes for 15 months to explore how its slow pace might support experiences of reflection and reminiscence. Findings revealed that Olly became highly integrated in participants lives with sustained engagement over time. They drew on Olly to reflect on past life experiences and reactions indicated an increase in perceived value of their Last.FM archive. Olly also provoked reflections on the temporalities of personal data and technology. Findings are interpreted to present opportunities for future HCI research and practice