Crafting Interactive Decoration

Benford, Steve; Koleva, Boriana; Quinn, Anthony; Thorn, Emily-Clare; Glover, Kevin; Preston, William; Hazzard, Adrian; Rennick-Egglestone, Stefan; Greenhalgh, Chris; Mortier, Richard

Abstract

We explore the crafting of interactive decoration for everyday artefacts. This involves adorning them with decorative patterns that enhance their beauty while triggering digital interactions when scanned with cameras. These are realised using an existing augmented reality technique that embeds computer readable codes into the topological structures of hand-drawn patterns. We describe a research through design process that engaged artisans to craft a portfolio of interactive artefacts including ceramic bowls, embroidered gift cards, fabric souvenirs and an acoustic guitar. We annotate this portfolio with reflections on the crafting process, revealing how artisans addressed pattern, materials, form and function and digital mappings throughout their craft process. Further reflection on our portfolio reveals how they bridged between human and system perceptions of visual patterns and engaged in a deep embedding of digital interactions into physical materials. Our findings demonstrate the potential for interactive decoration, distil craft knowledge involved in creating aesthetic and functional decoration, highlight the need for transparent computer vision technologies, and raise wider issues for HCI's growing engagement with craft.

Citation

Benford, S., Koleva, B., Quinn, A., Thorn, E., Glover, K., Preston, W., …Mortier, R. (2017). Crafting Interactive Decoration. ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction, 24(4), 1-39. https://doi.org/10.1145/3058552

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 6, 2017
• Publication Date: Aug 11, 2017
• Deposit Date: Mar 24, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 11, 2017
• Journal: ACM Transactions on Computer-Human Interaction (TOCHI)
• Print ISSN: 1073-0516
• Electronic ISSN: 1557-7325
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 26
• Pages: 1-39
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3058552
• Keywords: Craft, hybrid-craft, tangible, embedded, material, maker, DIY, fabric, wood, lifespan, sustainability, obsolescence, augmented reality, tangible and embedded interfaces, computer vision, seamful design, ambiguity
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/877395
• Publisher URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3058552
• Additional Information: © ACM, 2017. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 24, 4, Article 26 (2017), http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/3058552.