CS547 Human-Computer Interaction Seminar   (Seminar on People, Computers, and Design)

Fridays 11:30am-12:30pm PT · Gates B3 · Open to the public
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Eric Paulos


University of California, Berkeley
Plastic Dynamism: Delightful Decomposition, Destruction, Decay, Deformation, and Digestive Designs
February 11, 2022

This talk will present and critique a new body of evolving collaborative work at the intersection of art, computer science, material science, and design research. I will present an argument for hybrid materials, methods, and artifacts as strategic tools for insight and innovation within computing culture. The narrative will interrogate a series of early research moving toward two primary themes -- Unmaking and Hybrid Dynamism.

The access and growing ubiquity of digital fabrication has ushered in a celebration of creativity and "making." However, the focus is often on the resulting static artifact or the creative process and tools to design it. In this talk, I describe a post-making process that extends past these final static objects -- not just in their making but in their "unmaking." By drawing from artistic movements such as Auto-Destructive Art, intentionally inverting well-established engineering principles of structurally sound designs, and safely misusing unstable materials, this talk will demonstrate an important extension to making -- unmaking. Unmaking allows designs to change over time, is an ally to sustainability and re-usability, and captures themes of "aura," emotionality, and personalization. I will also describe an exploration into Hybrid Dynamism -- the design of novel interactive electronic systems that leverage novel materials that are both dynamic and entirely decomposable.




Eric Paulos is the founder and director of the Hybrid Ecologies Lab, a Professor in Electrical Engineering Computer Science Department at UC Berkeley, Director of the Master of Design (MDes) program, Associate Director of the Jacobs Institute for Design Innovation, Director of the CITRIS Invention Lab, a Co-Director of the Swarm Lab, and faculty within the Berkeley Center for New Media (BCNM). Previously, Eric held the Cooper-Siegel Associate Professor Chair in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University where he was faculty within the Human-Computer Interaction Institute with courtesy faculty appointments in the Robotics Institute and in the Entertainment Technology Center. Prior to CMU, Eric was Senior Research Scientist at Intel Research in Berkeley, California where he founded the Urban Atmospheres research group. His research interests include cosmetic computing, critical making, citizen science, urban computing, telerobotics, and new media. Eric received his PhD in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley but his real apprenticeship was earned through three decades of explosive, excruciatingly loud, and quasi-legal activities with a band of misfits at Survival Research Laboratories.