Making

Slide1: 

Making the Technology at Home University of Art and Design, Helsinki 11th September 2006

Harvey Sacks: 

Harvey Sacks “Here’s an object introduced into a world ... Now what happens is, like any other natural object, a culture secretes itself onto it in its well-shaped ways ... ... ... This technical apparatus is, then, being made at home with the rest of our world. And that’s a thing that’s routinely being done, and it’s the source for the failures of technocratic dreams that if only we introduced some fantastic new communication machine the world will be transformed. Where what happens is that the object is made at home in the world that has whatever organization it already has.” “A single instance of a phone-call opening; caller-called, etc.”, Lectures on Conversation (ed. Jefferson, G.), Lecture 3, Spring 1972, pp. 542-553, Oxford, Blackwell, 1992.

Basic Principles: 

Basic Principles Culture turns technology into something that is ‘at home’ in our everyday lives something that resonates with everyday life and is familiar, like the the fridge, the cooker, the washing machine and vacuum cleaner The ‘secretion of culture’ consists of situating the technology in the organization or orderliness of everyday life such as in the storing, preparation and eating of food, or the maintenance of a hygienic environment. The situating of technology in the organization of everyday life is done through routines through going shopping, making breakfast, lunch or dinner, washing clothes, etc. But how do routines ‘make the technology at home’?

Harvey Sacks: 

Harvey Sacks Routines enable us to incorporate technology into our ordinary, everyday lives: “It’s not that somebody is ordinary … it takes work … some kind of effort, training, etc. … Among the ways you go about doing ‘being an ordinary person’ is spending your time in usual ways … so that all you have to do to be an ‘ordinary person’ in the evening, is turn on the TV set. It’s not that it happens that you’re doing what lots of ordinary people are doing, but that you know that the way to do ‘having a usual evening’ is to do that. It’s not just that you’re selecting, “Gee I’ll watch TV tonight”, but you’re making a job of, and finding an answer to, how to do ‘being ordinary tonight’.” “Doing ‘being ordinary’”, Lectures in Conversation (ed. Jefferson, G.), Volume II, Part IV, Spring 1970, Lecture 1, pp.215-221, Oxford, Blackwell, 1992.

Basic Principles: 

Basic Principles Incorporating technology into our day-to-day routines takes ‘work’, ‘effort’, ‘training’, etc. This ‘work’ is - for members - ordinary, unremarkable, taken for granted or (in ethno terms) right in front of their eyes, “seen but unnoticed” What does this ordinary ‘work’ consist of then?

Harold Garfinkel: 

Harold Garfinkel Harvey Sacks speaks of a curiosity in the work and history of the social sciences: the “missing interactional what” in lay and professional studies of organization. Several observable phenomena make specific what he is talking about. 1) Available for observation is the omnipresence of accountable organizations of commonplace activities like “families”, “faculties”, “traffic” … 2) It is a matter for observation too that endlessly many inquiries accompany these accountable organizations as constituent features of them. It is to be observed in these accountable organizations and their inquiries that the occasioned, embodied, interactional just-so just-what of ordinary activities remains … ignored, unknown, unsuspected, and unmissed as technical phenomena. 3) Finally, there is to be observed that 1) and 2) taken together compose a technical phenomenon that is discoverable, is consequential, and for the study of naturally organized activities is criterial. The phenomenon consists of the essential, used, and ignored relevance to … ordinary activities, of the occasioned, embodied, interactional just-so-and-just-what of ordinary activities. About the Missed Orderliness of Ordinary Activities (unpublished manuscript), University of California Los Angeles: Department of Sociology and Anthropology.

Basic Principles: 

Basic Principles Ordinary ‘work’ consists of the interactions that make up our ordinary activities Through interaction with others and technology we assemble our ordinary activities, construct routines, organize everyday life, and thereby situate technological objects in the world What my colleagues and I want to do is tease out the ordinary interactional work that is at the root of the enterprise and from there unpack the routines and orderliness of everyday life to understand how technologies are ‘made at home’ in the world and, to thereby develop technologies that resonate with the naturally organized character of everyday life

Summary: 

Summary Technology is ‘made at home’ in the world by A culture ‘secreting’ itself onto it The ‘secretion’ consists of people situating technology in the organization of everyday life The organization of everyday life is produced through routines Routines are constructed through ordinary ‘work’ Ordinary ‘work’ consists of the social and technological interactions that make up our ordinary activities The aim is to explicate ordinary interactional work and identify the routines and orderliness of everyday life that emerge from it to inform design

A Practical Example: 

A Practical Example The Domestic Environment - a machine for living in … SITE - physical location of the home and construction requirements that ‘shape’ the building STRUCTURE - foundations and load-bearing elements SKIN - exterior surfaces (stone, brick, wood, concrete, etc.) SERVICES - ‘guts’ of the building (electricity, plumbing, gas, communications, etc.) SPACE-PLAN - interior layout (rooms, ceilings, doors, stairs, cupboards, etc.) STUFF - ‘furniture’ (kitchen units, sofas, tables, chairs, showers, etc., etc., etc.) Stuart Brand (1994) How Buildings Learn, New York, Viking.

Space-Plan and Stuff: 

Space-Plan and Stuff A dynamic relationship Elements of the home that are changed most often Partitioning walls removed or added Cupboards built and rebuilt Stairs altered or adapted Kitchen units and bathroom fittings replaced Communication and entertainment devices updated, etc. Understanding interplay between space-plan and stuff a prime are for IT development (elements of the home that we interact with most in our daily lives) The missing what of Brand’s study: the interactional interplay between the space-plan and stuff of the home

Unpacking the Relationship: 

Unpacking the Relationship “There is order at all points” (Harvey Sacks) Which means you can start your studies anywhere, with anything We started with 6000 hours of video from a previous project We sampled the video, but fixed camera angles limited its value It did put us onto some orderly features of domestic life, however Which we investigated through a small number of ethnographic studies with family and friends (who are, after all, competent inhabitants of the home)

Ethnographic Studies: 

Ethnographic Studies Looking at order from within Seeing the orderliness of everyday life from members’ point of view Through immersion in the setting of action Videoing what ‘goes on’ in the home Talking through videoed events with household members Analysing video without use of theory to tease out the routine and orderly character of ordinary activities in the home

Example of Order at All Points: 

Example of Order at All Points Handling the mail A known in common delivery / collection point Obviously contingent on particular home (detached house, terraced house, flat, etc.) Access to mail is far less contingent – just about any household member may collect mail, but not any may open it The Porch

Who Can Open Mail?: 

Who Can Open Mail? Working out entitlements Opening mail is not governed by names but by entitlements to open mail (e.g., parent/child) The visibility of the practical character of mail (conveyed by logos, organizational stamps, postmarks, and handwriting, etc.), articulates entitlement rights The Phone Bill

Who Is The Mail For?: 

Who Is The Mail For? Sorting mail The person who opens and / or sorts the mail is not necessarily the recipient of the mail Mail is subsequently placed at known in common sites to 1) announce that new mail has arrived Mail for Others in General

Should I Look At This?: 

Should I Look At This? 2) Display the relevance of mail to others The placement of mail is done in fine-grained ways to display its the relevance to particular people in the home For example, a card from a family friend may be placed by one partner at the other’s seat at the table to draw attention to its relevance Mail for a Particular Person to Read

Do I Need To Do Anything?: 

Do I Need To Do Anything? 3) Respond to mail Mail often requires a response of some kind Opened mail is placed to articulate at-a-glance the kind of action that needs to be taken in response For example, a bill may be placed at the front of the table to show that it needs to be taken out of the home and paid Placing Mail for External Use

Will It Wait?: 

Will It Wait? 4) Delay response Mail that requires no immediate action is placed on a pending pile, which displays outstanding tasks For example, bank statements, subscriptions, notifications of future events, etc., may be placed at the back of the kitchen table The Pending Pile

Do I Need To Be Aware Of This?: 

Do I Need To Be Aware Of This? 5) Keep track of important events Mail that is not of immediate relevance but which members need to be aware of is placed in a location that maintains its visibility For example, invitations, appointments, concert tickets, etc., may be placed on a notice board The Notice Board

Is It Special?: 

Is It Special? 6) Reflect the intimate character of mail Certain mail is put on show after it has been read in order to display its special character For example, birthday, anniversary, thank you cards, etc., may be placed on the mantelpiece This placing may also serve a mnemonic function ‘Thank You’ Card from a Friend

The Orderliness of Mail: 

The Orderliness of Mail Mundane interactions reveal The routine ways in which mail is handled: Through a known in common collection point (anyone) Entitlements to open mail (status of household member) Sorting mail into relevant categories of action: - 1) Displaying mail to announce to others that new mail has arrived 2) Displaying the relevance of mail to particular others 3&4) Displaying what kind of responsive action needs to be taken (immediate or pending) 5) Displaying mail to maintain awareness of events 6) Displaying the intimate character of mail And despite architectural and aesthetic contingencies, a distinct organization to mail handling in the home:

An Ecological Network of Coordinate Displays: 

An Ecological Network of Coordinate Displays

Studies a Resource for Design: 

Studies a Resource for Design E.g., thinking about email applications for the home Currently a peripheral feature of domestic life Interactional interplay between space-plan and stuff reveals mail to be a distributed feature of domestic life Email in the ‘Here and Now’

Making the Technology at Home: 

Making the Technology at Home Developing an ecological network of coordinate displays

Beyond Mail Use: 

Beyond Mail Use Managing the digital home Broad set of studies looking at interplay between space-plan and stuff Focusing on: Personal information management (mail, calendars, address books, etc.) Domestic media (films, music, radio, etc.) Sens-able and sens-ible configuration of sensors Aim to support the ‘work’ to make the home network work

Making the Technology at Home: 

Making the Technology at Home

Exploiting Space-plan and Stuff: 

Exploiting Space-plan and Stuff The digital home manager

Conclusion: 

Conclusion Unpacking the ‘secretion’ of culture prior to design E.g., the home Exploiting studies of the ways in which technologies of all kinds are ‘made at home’ as a resource for thinking about design (generating requirements) Studying the deployment of technology as resource for elaborating the design space (evaluation) Elaboration through iteration - study-design-deploy-study-design-deploy-study- … … … One can start anywhere - there is, as Sacks reminds us, order at all points