Making visible : mediating the material of emerging technology
Original version
CON-TEXT. AHO, 2014Abstract
In this thesis I outline how interaction design may engage in the
exploration and understandings the material and mediation of new
interface technologies. Drawing upon a design project called Touch, that
investigated an emerging interface technology called Radio Frequency
Identification or rfid, I show how interaction design research can
explore technology through material and mediational approaches. I
demonstrate and analyse how this research addresses the inter-related
issues of invisibility, seamlessness and materiality that have become
central issues in the design of contemporary interfaces. These issues
are analysed and developed through three intertwined approaches
of research by design: 1. a socio- and techno-cultural approach to
understanding emerging technologies, 2. through material exploration
and 3. through communication and mediation. When taken together
these approaches form a communicative mode of interaction design
research that engages directly with the exploration, understanding and
discussion of emerging interface technologies.
I find that rfid interface technology can be explored through a
combination of multi-mediational visual investigations, both analytical
and productive, that construct new perspectives on the technology.
These new views challenge existing views of the technology as a
‘seamless’ and ‘immaterial’ phenomena, showing that it has both
cultural meanings and material phenomena. The main contribution
of this thesis is a range of concepts that offer cultural, material and
communicative perspectives on emerging technologies. The study builds
a body of knowledge about rfid and related emerging technologies, that
demonstrates potential of these concepts and approaches.
Description
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