In this pictorial, we reflect on the design and display of Spectrospira—a sculptural data physicalization that embodies environmental sound data and a functional photobioreactor for growing cyanobacteria. Created through an artist-HCI researcher collaboration for an art museum exhibition, we share the museum context that motivates Spectrospira's design and the interdisciplinary partnerships that foreground the work. We then detail the design and fabrication process of Spectrospira through a hybrid craft workflow that involved collecting environmental sound data, 3D modeling and printing, blowing a glass vessel, and developing a photobioreactor system around the vessel to keep the cyanobacteria alive. We discuss Spectrospira's display at the art museum and its maintenance over four months. Finally, we conclude with our experience iterating on the next version of Spectrospira, as well as our takeaways on designing living artifacts for site-specific contexts and navigating various goals, methods, and outcomes of interdisciplinary collaborations.

The goal of this studio is to explore the design of sustainable experimental lighting fixtures—otherwise known as luminaires. We will first examine the unique interactions that occur between material and light by experimenting with a variety of sustainable materials (e.g., bio-based materials, found materials, waste materials) and light sources (e.g., incandescent bulbs, LEDs, natural light). We will then contextualize these interactions within a given space by designing and building luminaires. Lastly, we will discuss the impacts of lighting on human health, the environmental impacts of light pollution, the material impacts of lighting components when fixtures are disposed of, and how to address these impacts in fixture design. Ultimately, we aim to provide a hands-on space for participants to engage in lighting experimentation and share interdisciplinary practices across industrial and furniture design, materials and fabrication, lighting and electronics, control and interaction design, and sustainability.

This installation consists of a collection of light fixtures—also known as luminaires—ranging from table lamps to hanging pendants to wall sconces. As both functional objects and artistic artifacts, our luminaires aim to give form to the dialogues that occur when light and material interact, surfacing and celebrating the unique aesthetics and materialities that emerge. In this exhibit, we specifically showcase luminaires that we have designed around emerging sustainable and experimental biomaterials such as algae-based bioplastics, scoby biofilm, reed, and handmade paper. Through light, we activate the unique textures, colors, and opacities of these biomaterials, developing sculptural structures to situate light-material dialogues in everyday spaces. Developed through a collaboration between highly interdisciplinary practitioners, our luminaires further demonstrate a convergence of industrial and furniture design, material development and fabrication, electrical and control system design, interaction design, craft, art, and sustainability.

Amid escalating ecological challenges, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) researchers have begun adopting More-than-Human design (MtHD) approaches as a means of reimagining and strengthening the bonds between the human and non-human world. Taking a MtHD approach, this work investigates how loofah, a plant-based, biodegradable material, can be used to foster ecological awareness in everyday life. We present a material exploration of loofah, including initial encounters with loofah as a uniquely structural material, a design space focused on how loofah can be combined with various indicators that respond to different environmental factors like temperature, UV radiation, pH of water and soil, the Iron and moisture in soil and utilizing loofah as a substrate for plant growth. Based on this design space, we create two wearables: a hat and a glove. These artifacts incorporate environmental sensing capabilities and host live microgreens, highlighting loofah‘s potential as both an interface and habitat. Through a 15-day autoethnographic journaling process by the first and second authors, we reflect on the embodied experiences of “wearing” environmental change and cultivating on-body ecological practices. This pictorial contributes to the HCI community by introducing a biomaterial-based embodied interaction to provoke reflections on the relationships between materials, non-human forms, and the environment, while integrating functional considerations into MtHD.

Interactive technology design is situated within environmental and sociocultural context. This pictorial develops an In-Situ Seeding method for engaging with site-specific sensory experiences. This method stems from a previous TEI Studio, where we utilized Sensory Portfolios, digital sensors, and other materials to make sense of interaction in place. We present an annotated collection of our Studio experiences and autobiographical retrospective reflections. These Seeds supported in-situ sensory explorations and examination of entanglements between documentation, data, location, history, and human and more-than-human agents. We contribute to literature around (1) walk-and-talk sensory explorations, (2) situated entanglements with technological artifacts, and (3) relationships between human and non-human agents in shared locations and over varied timescales. Our reflections point towards continued development for In-Situ Seeding as a method and suggest its further use and guidance to support future sensory explorers.

Feminist research highlights the urgent need to challenge the oppressive design of commercial intimate technologies, particularly how the FemTech industry restricts access to intimate bodily knowledge through paywalls and proprietary systems. Yet, for decades, women and marginalized communities have turned to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) or ‘hacking’ practices to reclaim control over their own gynecology and intimate health, addressing gaps often ignored by medical research and healthcare. Inspired by visual themes from these movements, this pictorial critically explores how designers and HCI researchers might advance DIY approaches to intimate technologies. We exemplify this with reflections from a series of workshops on handmade intimate sensors, and draw out the joyful potential of collaborative making—building alliances, destigmatizing intimate health, and using craft to subvert gender stereotypes. We discuss matters of safety when making together and contribute to ongoing work on building feminist makerspaces.

The design of interactive systems and digital artefacts often makes use of digital or analog sensory data as a way to “capture” human senses and sensory experiences. Yet, designing for and with sensory data is complex because of our unique, embodied ways of making sense of our somatosensory experiences. Sensory data does not have one prescribed meaning for everyone. We propose a one-day Studio at TEI to start a dialogue about work with sensory data and its representation of human sensory experience. Specifically, we propose a guided walk and series of sensory explorations in Bordeaux to contemplate the interplay between first-person somatosensory experiences and streams of site-specific data from various sensors. By walking and noticing together, this Studio invites participants to engage in a process of creative reflection on their felt experiences, their connection to their surroundings, and their stance within or outside the design community.

Abstract

Community mural projects provide youth with the opportunity to learn new skills, have a voice, and deepen their connection to their communities. This pictorial reflects on a participatory community-based STEAM project in which a group of teenagers collaborated with a muralist (Author 2) and two interaction design researchers (Authors 1 and 5) to create an Interactive Mural—a traditional mural with embedded electronics. We analyzed students’ experience of agency, expression, and connection to community throughout the project. We discuss how large-scale community-centered projects that provide opportunities for student agency and expression are rich learning environments that can promote technological fluency.

This paper presents clay-dough, a 3D printable ceramic material that is made from a mixture of stoneware clay and a biomaterial dough. While all clays shrink when they are fired at high temperatures, clay-dough enables more dramatic shrinkage due to the dough burning away. We developed three clay-dough recipes made from different ratios of clay-to-dough and characterized the properties of each recipe; ultimately correlating shrinkage, density, strength, and porosity to the amount of dough in the recipe. We then leveraged clay-dough’s shrinkage in our material-oriented approach to create ceramic forms, where form is dictated by the pattern we load the clay-dough materials in for 3D printing. To exemplify this approach, we built a design space around basic cylindrical forms that change shape during the firing process into more complex forms and explored a range of non-cylindrical applications. Lastly, we reflect on the limitations and opportunities for clay-dough and material-centered research.

This paper introduces CeraMetal, a low-cost and robust approach to desktop metal 3D printing based on a custom "metal clay". We present three recipes for 3D printable bronze clay along with a workflow that includes print parameters and a sintering schedule. We introduce custom slicing software that generates continuous extrusion toolpaths for metal clay printing. We analyze the shrinkage, density, tensile strength and flexibility of prints produced with Cerametal and find the material’s performance comparable to parts produced via other bronze 3D printing methods. Finally, we provide several examples of 3D printed metal objects and a discussion of limitations and future research opportunities.

This paper introduces interactive murals—artworks that combine longstanding traditions in community mural painting with ubiquitous computing—as new sites for collaborative STEAM learning. Using research-through-design and participatory design methods, we conducted an intensive spring and summer workshop in which high school students were introduced to electronics and programming through the process of creating an interactive mural. We describe the workshop activities, the mural design process, and the data collection and analysis methods. Through documenting student learning in programming and electronics and the collaboration that occurred, we build an argument for the novel learning affordances of interactive murals, emphasizing the unique opportunities that they provide for collaborative STEAM learning.

Clay 3D printing is a relatively new technology and only a narrow range of geometries is 3D printable if one is employing commercially available slicing software. We experienced these limitations in an artist residency program where artists discovered that many desired geometries failed to print successfully. This motivated us to develop WeaveSlicer, a slicer optimized for 3D printing in clay that maintains constant wall thickness throughout the form. We achieve constant wall thickness by generating an oscillating path where the amplitude of the oscillation is determined by the form’s overhang angle. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by comparing a range of successful prints, sliced by WeaveSlicer, to failed prints of the same forms sliced by Cura, a widely used slicing software. We then showcase a collection of complex artifacts designed by artists in residence that were constructed with WeaveSlicer.

We explore how actively engaging with the temporalities of a nonhuman organism can lead to multispecies understanding. To do so, we design a bio-digital calendar that brings attention to the growth and health of kombucha SCOBY, a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast that lives in a tea medium. The non-invasive bio-digital calendar surrounds the kombucha SCOBY to track (via sensors) and enhance (via sound) its growth. As we looked at and listened to our kombucha SCOBY calendar on a daily basis, we became attuned to the slowness of kombucha SCOBY. This multisensory noticing practice with the calendar, in turn, destabilized our preconceived human-centered positionality, leading to a more humble, decentered relationship between us and the organism. Through our experiences with the bio-digital calendar, we gained a better relational multispecies understanding of temporalities based on care, which, in the long term, might be a solution to a more sustainable future.

In this studio, we will explore sustainable tangible interfaces by making a range of biomaterials that are bio-based and readily biodegradable. Building off of previous TEI studios that were centered around one specific biomaterial (i.e., bioplastics at TEI’22 and microbial cellulose at TEI’23), this studio will provide participants the ability to experience a wide variety of biomaterials from algae-based bioplastics, to food-waste-based bioclays, to gelatin-based biofoams. We will teach participants how to identify types of biomaterials that are applicable to their own research and how to make them. Through hands-on activities, we will demonstrate how to implement biomaterials in the design of sustainable tangible interfaces and discuss topics sensitized by biological media such as more-than-human temporalities, bioethics, care, and unmaking. Ultimately, our goal is to facilitate a space in which HCI researchers and designers can collaborate, create, and discuss the opportunities and challenges of working with sustainable biomaterials.

In this work, we introduce biodegradation as a process of more-than-human unmaking. We begin by positioning biodegradation amongst related works in design research before presenting a circular process of making and unmaking biomaterials and living organisms through biodegradation. To exemplify this process, we detail two existing works—ReClaym and Biomenstrual—that exemplify how biodegradability can be explored in design through different biomaterials, methods, and contexts. By diffractively reading these projects through one another, we identify six themes and corresponding suggestions for researchers engaging with biodegradation. Lastly, we discuss the broader design implications and limitations, as well as the more-than-human values that emerge from designing for biodegradation via biomaterials. Through this, we aim to provide design researchers with practical tools and insights for engaging with biodegradation to unmake anthropocentric hierarchies between humans, non-humans, and biomaterials, which in turn can promote environmental sustainability and support more-than-human collaboration and care.

Our bodies are home to an unseen ecosystem of microbes that live in symbiosis with us. In this work, we extend the “human” in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) to include these microbes. Specifically, we explore the skin microbiome as an intimate material for interaction design. Viewing the body as a microbial interface, we start by presenting a method to grow our microbiome such that it becomes visible to the human eye. We then present a design space that explores how different environmental parameters, such as temperature and growth media, can be controlled to influence the color of the microbiome. We further investigate how our interactions in a daily uncontrolled environment (e.g., exercising, hugging, typing) can impact the microbiome. We demonstrate several wearable applications that reveal and control the microbiome. Lastly, we address the challenges and opportunities of working with the microbiome as an intimate, living material for interaction design.

We present an interactive breastplate grown and fabricated from SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast) biofilm over the course of 13 weeks. Challenging the fail-fast and rapid prototyping trends that inhabit HCI research, we instead explore what it means to design at the pace of another living organism. To create our wearable, we combined DIY-Bio knowledge with digital fabrication methods and traditional crafting techniques in order to tune aspects of the SCOBY such as strength, flexibility, shape, color, and electrical conductivity. We then embedded sensors and LEDs within the SCOBY to create a wearable that visually signals based on touch interactions. We demonstrate the interactivity of the breastplate in an everyday context, where differing light responses result from the wearer being hugged, tapped, or brushed. Lastly, we analyze the biodegradability of the SCOBY breastplate and observe the limitations and opportunities of SCOBY as a grown microbial interface.

The goal of this studio is to facilitate a space in which HCI researchers and designers can explore SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast), a sustainable biofilm, grown in kombucha tea, that acts similarly to traditional leathers when harvested and dried. While SCOBY is a popular biomaterial in biodesign and DIYBio practices, we aim to introduce SCOBY as a biomaterial for HCI and ground it in sustainable HCI and slow design theory. Participants will then gain hands-on experience with SCOBY through a material exploration phase (e.i., learning how to embed colors, patterns, and electronics) followed by a structured SCOBY application creation phase. Ultimately, the goal of this studio is to give HCI practitioners who are interested in biodesign a space and time to collaborate, create and discuss the opportunities and challenges of kombucha SCOBY as a biomaterial for HCI.

In this work, we use composted food waste to create ReClaym: a personal biomaterial, made at home, that reflects the makers’ relationship with food. We combine our personal compost with non-toxic binders to create a biomaterial that can completely biodegrade. We propose Intimate Making as an approach for working with ReClaym that leverages familiar, hands-on techniques to enhance maker-material communication, which in turn leads to a deeper material understanding. We explore methods to customize ReClaym via color, texture, sensing, and conductivity. We apply manual fabrication techniques (sculpting, molding, and hand-held extruding) and design explorations to create a collection of applications that include garden paraphernalia, games, and personal items found in the home. We then examine the entire life cycle of ReClaym, which both begins and ends with composting—giving food waste a second life and providing a sustainable end of life for ReClaym artifacts, thus making the process truly circular.

In this studio we explore designing with Alganyl, a sustainable biomaterial, made of food-grade ingredients, that can be fully recycled (zero-waste) or biodegraded in soil. Specifically, Alganyl is a bioplastic formulated to mimic the flexibility and strength of vinyl fabric. This studio will bring together researchers with diverse expertise that will explore embedding color, texture and sensing in Alganyl as well as a variety of fabrication techniques. Participants will have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience through making wearables that can sense ultraviolet light or temperature, as well as explore their own creative applications. Participants will also learn about material-centered design methodologies and sustainability within the context of HCI. Lastly participants will be encouraged to share their experiences with designing with Alganyl as well as discuss the impact of biomaterials in sustainable HCI research.

We explore designing with Alganyl, a highly customizable and sustainable biomaterial made of food-grade ingredients. To make Alganyl, we optimized existing bioplastics for flexibility and strength, resulting in a biomaterial that acts and feels similar to vinyl fabric. Moreover, Alganyl is a zero-waste material that can be fully recycled or biodegraded in 60 days. We further explored designing with Alganyl by embedding color, texture, and sensing pigments. We showcase a wide range of applications made entirely of Alganyl including a sculpture, doll clothing, environment-sensing accessories, and a recycled concert bag. We conducted a user study with 12 participants that made Alganyl at home, fabricated their own applications, and then speculated on future applications for Alganyl. Overall, participants found Alganyl to be an accessible biomaterial that can be used for many applications. We hope designers and HCI researchers will embrace Alganyl as a sustainable biomaterial for making recyclable and biodegradable artifacts.

Living matter is an emerging topic of interest in HCI as researchers are recognizing the unique affordances of biological materials. We explore direct interactions with Dinoflagellates, bioluminescent algae that produce light when exposed to oxygen through physical stimulation. Leveraging Dinoflagellates’ natural feedback mechanism, we propose directly engaging the human user with the organism through physical kinetic interactions. We take an organism-centered design approach, considering the well-being of the organism by focusing first on designing appropriate environments for the organism, then proceeding to exploring the available interactions within these environments. Our framework consists of four components (form, reception, feedback, and control) and can be used to guide designers in their design process with living matter. We demonstrate the framework with environments for Dinoflagellates and three real-life examples: a checkers game, a ball game. and hopscotch. Last, we discuss the constraints and limitations of integrating Dinoflagellates and living matter in interactive systems.

This work introduces “destaining” as an interactive component for the HCI community. While staining happens unintentionally (e.g., spilling coffee), destaining can be used as an intentional design tool that selectively degrades stains on textiles. We explore the design space using silver doped titanium dioxide (TiO2/Ag), stains and light as a set of design primitives for interactive systems. We then developed replicable and accessible fabrication and testing methods that enable HCI researchers and designers to upgrade various fabrics to self-destaining textiles. Next, we demonstrate a Self-deStaining textile interface with embedded Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and moisture sensors that activate cleaning. Lastly, we showcase how the textile can be used in everyday objects such as self-cleaning clothes, a patterning station for phone cases, and accessories that change patterns and colors based on the user’s experiences.

The Undyeing Swatch utilizes a combination of visible Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) and photocatalytic nanoparticles to diminish the color of organically dyed textiles. As such, this swatch explores ’undyeing’ as a design process that utilizes light and dye as materials for controlled interaction. The swatch itself consists of a knitted cotton I-cord coated with silver doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2/Ag) and dyed with hibiscus. The I-cord is used to encase a strand of LEDs and was then continuously woven into a swatch. When the LEDs are turned on, the light activates the nanoparticles which in turn break down organic matter (the dye). This swatch provides a proof of concept for the undyeing process, which I believe could be an interesting area of future exploration for HCI researchers and artists alike.