Daniela Rosner · Stanford STS & UW Human-Centered Design and Engineering
Modern Craft: Locating the Material in a Digital Age

For many, the rise of computation suggests an accelerating transition from physical to digital media. However, the mounting popularity of craft---knitting, sewing, pottery---asserts a central role for skilled handwork in our digital world. How might the study of craft, which sits at the nexus of labor and leisure, reveal promising avenues for design and new possibilities for its interrogation?

Drawing on fieldwork conducted in both a knitting guild and bookbinding workshop, I will discuss how different craft materials, digital or otherwise, suggest design opportunities. Across these examples, traces of craftsmanship, wear and decay evoke shared narratives and confer valued status. I further explore these issues in a series of design interventions intended to prompt responses to the process and products of handwork. For example, I designed and developed Spyn, mobile phone software that associates digital records (audio/visual media, text, and geographic data) with physical locations on knit fabric. With Spyn, knitters transformed marked stitches into meaningful expressions for communicating with recipients: a vest became a "puzzle" and a fingerless glove a "travel journal." Through this work, I discuss the potential of digital technology to enrich handwork by imbuing it with additional symbolic value and emotional connotations. Moreover, I argue that digital media can be designed for longevity by incorporating material traces of personal investment. Based on these insights, I suggest new directions for human-centered design that emphasize the entanglement of social and material practices.

Daniela K. Rosner is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program in Science, Technology and Society (STS) at Stanford University where she examines the role repair practices play in generating changes in design and engineering. In the fall of 2013, she will join the University of Washington's Department of Human Centered Design and Engineering as an assistant professor. Her research combines design, computing and fieldwork to reveal the social conditions and cultural values that shape and are shaped by digital technology. She has taught interaction design at the California College of the Arts (CCA) and worked in design research at Microsoft Research, Adobe Systems, Nokia Research and as an exhibit designer at several museums, including the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum. She holds a Ph.D from UC Berkeley's School of Information, a M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Chicago, and a B.F.A. from the Rhode Island School of Design in Graphic Design. Daniela is also a regular columnist for Interactions Magazine, a bimonthly publication of ACM SIGCHI. In 2010, she was named an Anita Borg Memorial Scholar.