General Exam
Responses & Reflections
Blair SubbaramanUniversity of Washington
May 24, 2023
Concentration
Agency and Expertise in Digital Fabrication Systems
Understanding Agency
- Practitioners have agency
- Computational compensation increases agency
- Agency can be evaluated a priori
Understanding Agency
- Practitioners have agency
- Computational compensation increases agency
- Agency can be evaluated a priori
- Practitioners + systems together produce different capacities for action
- Agency emerges in practice
- Agency changes over time
The Elasticity of 'Control'
"The term planning, in other words, exhibits an elastic quality: as a technical proposition it refers to a quite specific and circumscribed set of functionalities and algorithms, but as an empirical proposition it refers to anything at all that can plausibly be glossed with the term."- Agre, Towards a Critical Technical Practice
"To Create is to be Creative"
End-to-End Systems Occlude Practitioner Agency
Seizing Control
Prioritizing Practitioner Engagement
Ceding Control
Prioritizing Material Agency
"As practitioners, the builder, the gardener, the cook, the alchemist and the painter are not so much imposing form on matter as bringing together diverse materials and combining or redirecting their flow in the anticipation of what might emerge."- Ingold, The Textility of Making
Editable Agencies
Accounting for System Changes
From Expert Users to Users with Expertise
Further Provocations
“Design success rests on the extent and efficacy of one’s analysis of specific environments of devices and working practices, finding a place for one’s own technology within them.”
- Suchman, Located Accountabilities in Technology Production
Craft as Making's Foil
Craft
- Low Tech
- Embodied Skill
- Autographic
Making
- High Tech
- Computational Skill
- Allographic
The Technical Nature of Craft & Craft Sensibilities of Making
A Rubric for Describing Expertise
| Modalities of Interaction | How do practitioners engage the system? |
|---|---|
| Material Engagement | What materials can be used with the system? |
| System-Material Interdependencies | What is foregrounded, interactions with the system or with the materials? |
| Contextualization in a Workflow | Where are we in a broader workflow? |
| Visual Mappings | What is the mapping between software variables and machine parameters– if any? |
| Evaluation | Can we make artifacts that we like more or less? |
| Audience | Who is intended to use the system? Who actually is? Who is excluded? |
Methods
Systems Design and Empirical Methods in Digital Fabrication Research
Systems Design & Empirical Research
Individual Practice
- Evaluation methods
- Interpretive Flexibility: Technology can be continuously reinterpreted, used in new ways
- Domain-Specific Insights
Systems Design & Empirical Research
Communities of Practitioners
- New Empirical Settings: Online Maker Communities
- Comparison with In-Person Contexts
- Domain-Specific Insights
Systems Design & Empirical Research
Study 1: Pliable Machine Control
Systems Design
- Programmatic control of AxiDraw, PotterBot
- Domain-specific features
Systems Design & Empirical Research
Study 1: Pliable Machine Control
Systems Design
- Programmatic control of AxiDraw, PotterBot
- Domain-specific features
Empirical Study
- Month-long study with domain experts
- Interviews, code sketches, fabricated objects
Systems Design & Empirical Research
Study 2: Sharing & Reusing 3D Printing Workflows
Systems Design
- Social platform
- Project write-ups
- Public remix graphs
Systems Design & Empirical Research
Study 2: Sharing & Reusing 3D Printing Workflows
Systems Design
- Social platform
- Project write-ups
- Public remix graphs
Empirical Study
- Month-long study with domain experts
- Interviews, code sketches, fabricated objects, remix graphs
Theory
Theorizing With and Through the Body + Historical Contexts
Theorizing With & Through the Body
Bodies
- Simon, Science of the Artificial (1968)
- Suchman, Plans and Situated Actions (1987)
- Dourish, Where the Action is (2001)
Theorizing With & Through the Body
Bodies
- Simon, Science of the Artificial (1968)
- Suchman, Plans and Situated Actions (1987)
- Dourish, Where the Action is (2001)
Embodied Knowledge
- Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (1966)
- Pye, The Nature and Art of Workmanship (1968)
- Sennett, The Craftsman (2008)
Theorizing With & Through the Body
Bodies
- Simon, Science of the Artificial (1968)
- Suchman, Plans and Situated Actions (1987)
- Dourish, Where the Action is (2001)
Embodied Knowledge
- Polanyi, The Tacit Dimension (1966)
- Pye, The Nature and Art of Workmanship (1968)
- Sennett, The Craftsman (2008)
Materiality
- Orlikowski, Sociomaterial Practices (2007)
- Ingold, Materials against Materiality (2007)
- Rosner, The Material Practices of Collaboration (2012)
Theorizing With & Through the Body
Connections to Digital Fabrication
- Industrial Legacies
- Embodied Practice
- What Counts as Knowledge?
Historical Contexts
Digital Fabrication Tools for Conviviality
- Conviviality⇋Maker Culture
- Obsolescence & Repair
- Tools vs. Systems
Historical Contexts
Digital Fabrication Tools for Conviviality
- Conviviality⇋Maker Culture
- Obsolescence & Repair
- Tools vs. Systems
More Work for Makers
- Limits on Tools vs. Limits of Tools
- Work Processes of Digital Fabrication
- Tools to Support Work Process
Historical Contexts
Digital Fabrication Tools for Conviviality
- Conviviality⇋Maker Culture
- Obsolescence & Repair
- Tools vs. Systems
More Work for Makers
- Limits on Tools vs. Limits of Tools
- Work Processes of Digital Fabrication
- Tools to Support Work Process
Interpersonal Fabrication
- Storytelling as Knowledge Distribution
- Beyond Directive Documentation
- Machine Maintenance & Community Care