Description
Our 1 day extended ‘Entangled Threads’ workshop was held at TEI 2024 (Tangible Embedded and Embodied Interaction) conference and took place at the Architecture Factory at Munster University’s Bishopstown Campus in Cork. The focus for the workshop was the use of embodied practices to explore the value of bringing a craft ethos to bear on issues associated with the IoT and the internet more broadly, including concerns about privacy, trust, bias etc. During the studio workshop we used embroidery as a communal/social practice to scaffold a discussion around our hiCraft framework of our craft characteristics; subjectivity, bespokeness, localism, embodiment, provenance, authenticity, and care-full-ness. Embroidery created a mindful craft process that served as a background for conversations around participants’ experiences of IoT and connection. The research value of the workshop lay beyond the literal objects made, creating space for a deep dive into issues with IoT.The workshop was made up of three phases. The first ‘Landscape of Craft’ task involved positioning craft ethos terms within a model scaled landscape. Reflecting on their creative practice or a recent project, participants defined their individual priorities and talked through their perspectives on IoT. The main activity was embroidery. It was principally used as an embodied practice that encouraged a slowing down, reflective and convivial atmosphere that provided a shared space to discuss the main themes of the workshop, while also facilitating the production of personalised embroidered badges that reflected a key message/issue/concern that each participant wanted to communicate. The final session, ‘Hopeful visions of IoT’, involved an envisioning exercise in which participants used a set of predesigned props to construct their hopeful vision of being connected through IoT by arranging miniaturised physical components to make individual connected networks which formed the basis of group discussions.
The participants were all connected to academia in some way and ranged in age and career stage. The workshop was intended to share and critique our proposed Craft Ethos and whether it brings a useful new lens on concerns within the field of IoT. In addition, it was used to promote the hiCraft project and create networks for future collaborations, which it was successful on both fronts.
| Period | 13 Feb 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Workshop |
| Location | CorkShow on map |