Physical Computing and Fabrication

Prototyping a Box for DHSI 2015

This week, the challenge is to prototype a box that’s meaningful as both a metaphor and a material object. As you proceed with your prototype, here are some questions to consider:

Balsamo’s Ten Lessons

As we prototype, we might find Anne Balsamo’s ten lessons about technoculture innovation informative (from Designing Culture, pages 8-25):

  1. Innovations are historically constituted.
  2. Innovations are not objects.
  3. Innovation is an articulatory and performative process.
  4. Innovation manifests the dual logic of technological reproduction (replication and novelty).
  5. Designing is an important process of cultural reproduction.
  6. Designing is as much about social negotiation as it is about creativity.
  7. Designing is a process where the matter of the world becomes meaningful.
  8. Technological innovation is inherently multidisciplinary.
  9. Technological innovation offers the possibility of doing things differently.
  10. Failure is productive.