Ceramics practice is an embodied activity where creators use manual tools in unique ways to shape physical material. Clay 3D printing uses the same material as manual ceramics craft, enabling new opportunities for form and texture by precisely controlling the 3D printing toolpath. However, current clay 3D printing design workflows require developing forms through digital software rather than tool-based making. We present Clay ARtools, an augmented reality (AR) system for designing clay 3D printed vessels. We developed Clay ARtools in collaboration with a professional ceramicist to create AR toolpath editing operations that reference manual use of ceramic tools. Through the design and fabrication of 3D-printed clay artifacts, we demonstrate how AR ceramic tools enable precise and controllable modifications of the toolpath, from the overall form down to individual toolpath points. We demonstrate how extending physical tool metaphors with digital representations and numerical precision enables craft-like interaction with CAM-based design techniques.

We present the Inner Ear: a porcelain device that both captures and represents data. In particular, we focus on sensing vibrations—for their hidden yet omnipresent qualities in domestic environments. We designed the Inner Ear in response and in contrast to a growing collection of ‘always on and recording’ smart home devices. With the Inner Ear, we purposefully let participants choose when to capture vibrations and which capture should be physicalized. In this pictorial, we describe the design and fabrication process of the capturing device as well as the data physicalization workflow. We contribute insights on (1) the design rationale and development of a double function artifact (to both capture and represent), as well as (2) design decisions involved in balancing legibility with leaving room for meaning making during the transcription of home vibration data.

In this pictorial, we present the ListeningCups: a set of 3D printed porcelain cups embedded with datasets of everyday ambient sounds. During a one-week pilot project, a ceramic artist and an interaction design researcher collaborated to explore meaning making around everyday data (sound in our case). We developed a workflow to capture data, prepare datasets, transcribe data from decibels to G-code, and create a set of 3D printed porcelain cups which represent this data in a textural and tactile form. We discuss how our work also included aesthetic investigative practices as well as data accidents. We conclude by contributing two concepts-data tactility and data stories-that can serve as starting points for designers, artists, or researchers interested in the intersection of materiality, data, fabrication, and ceramics.