unstable

From AI to material artifacts: ATLAS researchers explore many forms of human-computer interaction at DIS 2026

Michael Kwolek — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:54:40 +0000

From AI to material artifacts: ATLAS researchers explore many forms of human-computer interaction at DIS 2026 Michael Kwolek Mon, 06/08/2026 - 11:54

Michael Kwolek

Generative ghosts; co-creation with AI in physical environments; activism and justice; a robotic social dance game for children with cerebral palsy; tides; quilt making; the relationship between stories and material artifacts. The ATLAS community engages in a far broader range of human-computer interaction research than many people realize.

Over a dozen ATLAS researchers will have their work represented at this year’s ACM Designing Interactive Systems conference in Singapore, June 13-17, 2026, for over 600 registered attendees. The conference team reviewed 1,154 papers and accepted 248.

The theme of the event this year seeks to look beyond interaction. “In the face of climate change, pandemics, economic and political instability, and the accelerating pace of emerging technologies, the responsibilities of designing interactive systems have expanded well beyond the scope of traditional human-computer interaction.”

ATLAS professor Ellen Do is a conference general co-chair and doctoral consortium co-chair for this year’s conference. She noted, “Not surprisingly, there are a lot of papers on AI and virtual systems (AR, VR, XR) in the program. We can see researchers tackling how we co-create with Generative AI with mixed or extended reality, music, robots or cultural heritage, but also how these technologies impact our everyday lives in conversations, information seeking, education, banking, communications, exercises, and healthcare.”

“True to the legacy of DIS, the trend is very much about keeping interactive systems tangible, embodied, and deeply contextualized in physical spaces,” Do continued. “The conference's workshops and papers reflect a heavy emphasis on material learning and ‘digital/material craft.’ The program shows a strong push to move interactive systems out of isolated lab environments and contextualize them in complex, messy, physical ecosystems.”

Do concluded by saying, “The ATLAS presence at DIS 2026 shows how our research spans both deep technological innovation and profound human experience. ATLAS isn't just speculating about the future of interactive systems; our students and faculty are physically building it.”

Papers

Designing Conversations with the Dead: How People Engage with Generative Ghosts [Honorable Mention]

Jack M Manning, Daniel Sullivan, Dylan Thomas Doyle, Anthony T. Pinter, Jed R. Brubaker

We examine how people experience two choices in the design of generative ghosts, AI systems that are trained on data of the dead: representation, where an AI speaks about a deceased person in the third person, and reincarnation, where the AI speaks as the deceased in the first person. Through a qualitative user study with 16 participants, we explore how each shaped authenticity, affect, and risk. Reincarnation was preferred for its immediacy, but participants shared fears of over-reliance. Representation was preferred for engaging with memory over conversational presence, though participants often ignored this distinction, engaging in dialogue despite third-person framing. Across both modes, participants privileged affective resonance over factual fidelity. We conclude by showing how factors such as tone, language, and conversational rhythm -- factors unique to the user's memory of the deceased -- shape interactions with generative ghosts, and argue that those interactions are always collaborative.

Jack Manning Q&A

Jack Manning (BS-CTD, MS INFO) enters the Information Science PhD program in Fall '26 co-advised by Jed Brubaker (Associate Professor, INFO; ATLAS affiliate) and Anthony Pinter (Assistant Teaching Professor, ATLAS). This is his first published paper.

How does your generative ghosts research advance our understanding of how we interact with digital technology?

Our participants worried about generative ghosts the way many of us worry about new technologies, concerned for others more than themselves. They feared a grieving friend or family member might become too attached to the AI, leading to an unhealthy grieving process, even as they described their own experience as positive.

What does it mean to you to be able to present your research at DIS?

I get to take something I find genuinely interesting, do the work alongside brilliant people here at CU, and contribute to a body of work I've drawn inspiration from throughout this process.

Conceptual framework of in-situ co-creation in Editing Reality. The figure illustrates a broader co-creation ecology involving multiple users, a generative system, and the physical environment.

Editing Reality: Designing In-Situ Co-Creation with Generative AI in Mixed Reality

Suibi Che-Chuan Weng, Shih-Yu Ma, Sawyer Reinig, Pritalee Kadam, Ada Yi Zhao, Amy Banić, Ryo Suzuki, Ellen Yi-Luen Do

We present Editing Reality, a mixed reality system that enables in-situ co-creation with generative AI directly within physical environments. Rather than treating generation as a one-shot command, the system supports embodied and iterative creation through speech, sketching, and direct manipulation, allowing users to generate, modify, erase, and retexture real-anchored virtual and reconstructed scene elements in place. Using a Research Through Design approach, we investigate how co-creation unfolds through iterative system development, a formative workshop, and expert review. From this process, we articulate a set of designerly framings that characterize in-situ co-creation as a negotiated, spatial, and temporal practice shaped by previews, accumulation, waiting, embodied evaluation, and learning the system as a spatial actor. We instantiate these ideas in a working system and report expert feedback highlighting both its creative potential and its design implications. Our work contributes a conceptual lens for understanding generative AI in mixed reality not as a one-shot automation tool, but as part of an embodied, situated creative process.

Temporary Living Rooms at the 2018 “Make the Breast Pump Not Suck” Hackathon.

Making Space for Joy in Community-Engaged Equity-Oriented Work in HCI [Honorable Mention]

Ricarose Roque, Jaleesa Trapp, Alexis Hope

Within the HCI community, there has been increasing attention to address issues of injustice through participatory and community-engaged approaches. In addition, researchers who conduct this collaborative work with marginalized groups are sharing the institutional vulnerabilities, challenges, and harms that can impact their well-being and their work. In this paper, we argue how the HCI community can learn from the knowledge and strategies of activists who engage in collective action and movement work. In particular, we discuss the role of joy in participatory, community-engaged, and equity-oriented work. Through testimonial authority, we present stories to describe the importance of cultivating joy, how we design for joy, what joy looks like in our work, and how joy can be a sustaining force for researchers and collaborators alike. We end with implications for HCI design and research work with marginalized communities.

Demos

User testing Chory Cloth Bot with children with cerebral palsy.

Chory Cloth Bot: A Robotic Social Dance Game for Children with Cerebral Palsy

Priyanka Balasubramaniyam, Casey Lee Hunt, Brad Gallagher

As children with cerebral palsy grow, they tend to become more socially isolated while their motor and gait skills often decrease or plateau. Thus, exploration of an interaction that assists the children be social and mobile is a critical area for development. This study brings an established approach to assistive technologies for children with Cerebral Palsy--robotics--to a new context, providing social comfort. We adapt evidence-based methods of providing social comfort, dance therapy and cooperative game design, to create Chory Cloth Bot, a robotic social dance game. Then, we present results of user tests of the Chory Cloth Bot prototype with 9 children with cerebral palsy ages [6 - 17], including preliminary findings that suggest increased motivation and social awareness among participants.

Workshops

Multispecies Response-ability in More-than-human Design Practice: Fabulation with Tides

Jiwei Zhou, Raphael Kim, Iohanna Nicenboim, Anton Poikolainen Rosén, Fernanda Soares da Costa, Netta Ofer, Serena Pollastri, Heidi Biggs, Doenja Oogjes, Bahareh Barati

This workshop invites participants with diverse backgrounds to imagine stories with tides, to explore response‑ability - a notion used by Donna Haraway to cultivate the capacity to respond with other species. As more HCI communities begin to engage with multispecies, we seek to move beyond “responsibility” as a solely human moral property towards relational and reciprocal ways of designing-with them. When the entities we "study" begin to respond to one another, their interactions evolve in ways we cannot fully predict, inviting design practice to stay open and caring for these shifting relations. Using tides as a spatial‑temporal site of inquiry, we will use speculative fabulation to imagine what multispecies response‑ability might look like in place and collectively develop practical guides for examining and incorporating it into design practice.

Patchwork Knowledge: Documenting Material Learning in Human-Computer Interaction

Karen Anne Cochrane, Fiona Bell, Georgia Loewen, Eldy S. Lázaro Vásquez, Phillip Gough, Ali Mazalek

In this workshop, we explore how material knowledge is taught, learned, and disseminated within HCI research. Through the activity of creating a quilt, the workshop compares how different forms of knowledge circulation—such as tutorials, oral instruction, mentorship, workshops, and community-based collaboration—relate to one another. We invite researchers, educators, designers, and practitioners to engage with themes including pedagogical forms of material knowledge; learning trajectories; tacit, sensory, and biological knowledge in making, care, and maintenance in material practices; access and participation in fabrication; and the design of pedagogical artifacts. Workshop activities revolve around creating quilt patches using different dissemination practices and assembling them into a collective quilt based on similarities and differences in how material knowledge is shared. Through these activities, the workshop aims to explain teaching methods, compare how knowledge is shared, and guide the creation of a simple toolkit for recording material processes.

Stories and Artifacts: Exploring Narrative and Material Practices in Design Research

Eldy S. Lázaro Vásquez, Gabrielle Benabdallah, Doenja Oogjes, Samuelle Bourgault, Sylvia Janicki, Heidi Biggs, Mirela Alistar, Kristina Andersen

This workshop focuses on cases where stories and material artifacts (e.g., swatches, and prototypes) become closely intertwined. Artifacts carry traces of labor, skill, and collaboration, while stories emerge from encounters with materials and practices. Although stories and artifacts often co-exist in HCI and design research, their entanglement as ways of articulating knowledge is not always foregrounded, shaping how design work is shared and understood. Participants will submit and share 2-4 page position stories alongside an artifact or representation. Through small-group discussion and zine-making, the workshop explores how stories are told with and through artifacts, the voices and choices involved, and what vocabularies emerge when stories and materials are brought together. The main outcome is a co-produced Glossary of Design Stories, a zine-based resource for design and HCI researchers that assembles entries from participants’ thing–story pairs to surface relations, vocabularies, and voices that may not easily appear in conventional academic accounts.

The ATLAS community aims to move interactive systems out of the lab and into complex, messy, physical ecosystems.

Off

Traditional

White

ATLAS community presents new research on interactive systems at DIS 2025

Michael Kwolek — Thu, 26 Jun 2025 17:14:27 +0000

ATLAS community presents new research on interactive systems at DIS 2025 Michael Kwolek Thu, 06/26/2025 - 11:14

The 2025 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS) in Madeira, Portugal, features work from ten ATLAS community members representing three labs. This year’s event has five focus areas: Critical Computing and Design Theory, Design Methods and Processes, Artifacts and Systems, Research Through Design, and AI and Design with an overall theme around “design that transcends human-centered perspectives.”

ATLAS researchers study a broad range of topics, from human-computer interaction to biomaterials to woven forms.

Ellen Do, professor and ACME director, explains what connects the work our community is presenting at the conference: “I think all of the papers and presentations we have are on designing interactive systems. Some of the systems could be physical, some could be digital, some could be human-and-people, human-and-physical objects. So I think the theme about interactive systems and how you make systems interactive, what kind of user experience or human experience or immersive experience with the object or system or even the ecosystem, or the human communication system—I think that's all there.”

ATLAS research at DIS 2025

"Chaotic, Exciting, Impactful": Stories of Material-led Designers in Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Gabrielle Benabdallah, Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez (ATLAS PhD student), Laura Devendorf (ATLAS Unstable Design Lab director, associate professor), Mirela Alistar (ATLAS Living Matter Lab director, assistant professor)

This paper explores the dynamics of interdisciplinary collaboration between designers, scientists, and engineers through ten stories as told from the perspective of material-led designers. These stories focus on material-led designers working in contexts like biodesign and smart textiles, where novel materials, fabrication methods, and technology often intersect, requiring cross-disciplinary collaboration. By including perspectives from designers within and adjacent to HCI, the study broadens the understanding of interdisciplinary teamwork that combines scientific, technical, and craft-based expertise. Our analysis highlights how designers navigate challenges like differing terminologies, epistemic hierarchies, and conflicting priorities. We discuss strategies such as material prototypes, attitudes of inquiry and openness, switching lexicons, and the value of interdisciplinary contexts. This research underscores designers as “translators” who mediate epistemological tensions, use tangible artifacts to communicate, and articulate possible applications. This research contributes ten stories as narrative resources for understanding strategies and fostering interdisciplinary spaces within HCI.

Towards Yarnier Interactive Textiles: Mapping a Design Journey through Hand Spun Conductive Yarns
Etta W. Sandry (ATLAS PhD student), Lily M. Gabriel (ATLAS undergraduate student), Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez (ATLAS PhD student), Laura Devendorf (ATLAS Unstable Design Lab Director, associate professor)

The ability to create a wide and varied set of interactive textiles depends on the materials that one has available. Currently, the range of yarns that can be used to bring interactivity to textiles is greatly limited, especially considering the diversity available in non-conductive yarns. This pictorial traces a design journey into hand spinning that seeks to address this limitation and contributes samples of techniques and materials that could be used to create conductive yarns along with reflection on design methods that enabled us to explore a wider range of aesthetic expressions. We advocate for an approach that reconnects with the textiles in e-textiles, embraces divergence, and prioritizes the material as the driver of a design concept. We offer pathways for readers and researchers to continue this exploration within varied domains and practices.

Connect! A Circuit-Driven Card Game
Ruhan Yang (ATLAS PhD alum), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (ATLAS ACME Lab director, professor)

Hybrid physical-digital games often rely on screen-based interactions, which can detract from their tactile nature. We introduce Connect!, a card game that integrates paper circuits and real-time LED feedback, enabling players to construct functional circuits as part of gameplay. Unlike traditional hybrid games, Connect! embeds feedback directly into physical components while preserving material interaction. We conducted a user study comparing gameplay with and without electronic feedback. Our findings suggest that real-time feedback not only increased engagement but also altered players' behavior, encouraging rule exploration and emergent play. Our work contributes to tangible interaction and game-based learning, demonstrating the potential of low-cost electronics in enhancing interactive experiences.

Connect! game cards

From Data to Discussion: Interfaces for Collective Inquiry and Open-Ended Data Creation
David Hunter (ATLAS PhD student)

Data can enrich our understanding of the world and improve our society. However the datafication of our society comes with challenges for empowering communities. In designing systems for recording and representing data, a theme has emerged of these interfaces as the site of conversations and sense-making, and the participatory nature is valuable beyond the data itself. This insight has led me to investigate tools and experiences that enable open-ended data creation and exploration as a grounding for discussion and prompting action. The goal is to design interfaces and systems for exploring places and futures through data, to empower communities and supporting civic participation, learning and making, situational awareness, and scenario planning. In this pictorial I present five ongoing research projects investigating these ideas.

How to Data Walk

Knitting with unknown trees: assembling a more-than-human practice
Doenja Oogjes, Ege Kökel, Netta Ofer (ATLAS PhD alum), Hsiang-Lin Kuo, Jasmijn Vugts, Troy Nachtigall, Torin Hopkins (ATLAS PhD alum)

In this pictorial, we explore alternative ways of knowing urban trees through a more-than-human lens. Using a municipal tree dataset, we focus on “unknown” trees—entries unclassified due to error, decay, or absence—highlighting the limits of quantification and fixed knowledge systems. Urban trees, while critical for ecosystems, are often shaped by technological interventions (e.g., GIS, IoT sensors, AI diagnostics) that prioritize their utility over other expressions. We engage in knitting as a material inquiry to foreground nonhuman agencies and relational entanglements. Through reflective shifts and compromises, this project questions normative design practices, seeking to amplify nonhuman participation. We make two contributions. Firstly, we offer insights into fostering alternative, relational engagements with urban ecologies. Secondly, we reflect on our process of surfacing and working with agentic capacities, articulating guidance for other design researchers. Through this, we advocate for fragmented approaches that embrace complicity and complexity in more-than-human design.

Designing Interfaces that Support Temporal Work Across Meetings with Generative AI
Rishi Vanukuru (ATLAS PhD student), Payod Panda, Xinyue Chen, Ava Elizabeth Scott, Lev Tankelevitch, Sean Rintel

Temporal work is an essential part of the modern knowledge workplace, where multiple threads of meetings and projects are connected across time by the acts of looking back (retrospection) and ahead (prospection). As we develop Generative AI interfaces to support knowledge work, this lens of temporality can help ground design in real workplace needs. Building upon research in routine dynamics and cognitive science, and an exploratory analysis of real recurring meetings, we develop a framework and a tool for the synergistic exploration of temporal work and the capabilities of Generative AI. We then use these to design a series of interface concepts and prototypes to better support work that spans multiple scales of time. Through this approach, we demonstrate how the design of new Generative AI tools can be guided by our understanding of how work really happens across meetings and projects.

Members of three ATLAS labs show how interactive technology can create possibilities for new means of productivity, data analysis, creativity and play.

Off

Traditional

White

Devendorf weaves computer science and craft to explore new possibilities for textile design

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 27 May 2025 16:11:51 +0000

Devendorf weaves computer science and craft to explore new possibilities for textile design Michael Kwolek Tue, 05/27/2025 - 10:11

Michael Kwolek

Unstable Design Lab resources

ATLAS lab page

Unstable Design Lab website

Experimental Weaving Talk series

Instagram: @unstabledesignlab

When we think about engineering and computer science, textiles may not come to mind first. Yet woven forms can be extremely complex and are useful in many scientific applications in addition to being aesthetically engaging.

Laura Devendorf, associate professor and director of the Unstable Design Lab, blends computer science and materials research through the lens of weaving and textiles.

She has nearly completed her 5-year NSF CAREER award, which has supported her work in advancing e-textiles research while building a community of artists, artisans, engineers and designers dedicated to exploring new realms of textile technology.

In that time, Devendorf has created experimental woven forms that can record and replay sensory data, that behave in novel and useful ways, and that can even be programmed.

If e-textiles are to become part of our everyday lives, she believes they need to be more playful and soothing than typical smart devices generally feel—closer to a favorite sweater than a sleek smartphone.

Devendorf aims to change our minds about the importance of craft and expand where we consider solutions for challenges in everything from space suits to stents to treat coronary disease. She says, “It's not just a hobby for a lot of people. These practices of creativity have a lot of value professionally if you're an artist or if you're working in textiles or aeronautics.”

Software supporting soft goods

A key facet of Devendorf’s work has been the development of AdaCAD, “an experimental workspace that applies parametric design to the domain of weave drafting. It supports algorithmic and playful approaches to developing woven structures and cloth, for shaft, dobby and jacquard looms.”

As the only open-source software for many hobbyist and professional weavers, AdaCAD supports a growing community of craftspeople, engineers and designers—a group Devendorf has dubbed “experimental weavers.”

She explains that AdaCAD is designed to give “a new representation for” the incredibly complex designs many weavers create. “That representation affords different points of connection, relationships and possibilities. It's not figuring anything out for you, but it's representing what you're doing in a more flexible format.”

Transforming an image into a woven textile with AdaCAD

CHI retrospective

Laura Devendorf and colleagues at CHI 2025

Devendorf had a substantial presence at ACM SIGCHI 2025 conference (Special Interest Group On Computer-Human Interaction) in Yokohama, Japan. The centerpiece was a demo booth where she created a sort of “lab in a box” showcasing over 7 years of research she and her colleagues conducted at the Unstable Design Lab.

Within the context of this engineering and science-focused audience, Devendorf notes the idea was to “promote weaving and weavers as an approach to doing interactive technology. We're highlighting our residency programs and we're highlighting some interactive demos that have emerged from these programs” including conductive yarns and textiles that enhance interactivity, along with resources designed for community building.

This bridging of seemingly disparate worlds—computer science and craft, lab research and community building—exemplifies Devendorf’s work. Creating visibility between craft and engineering is key for both worlds.

Devendorf observes, “If we're getting so jazzed up about 3D printing and fabrication, here's a fabrication method that has history, that has culture, that evolved in different spaces, that's multi-material.”

“Then that's where the residency programs and some of the resources come in to make complex textile design, not less hard, but to equip you with the right resources to navigate that difficulty so you can take advantage of the full potential of weaving looms and materials.”

“Your material range is huge and your ability to tune it is huge, so this idea of if we need to solve problems in the world and we're not using every available approach, we can't be getting the best solution. You have all these established materials and tools.” We don’t always need to invent a new polymer when we have textiles with centuries of history that could be adapted to the same properties.

While in Japan, she collaborated with master craftspeople who use historic Nishijin looms to make extremely complex and delicate silk kimonos. Together they are exploring ways to adapt AdaCAD software to support this craft steeped in centuries of tradition. She also toured a traditional indigo dyeing plant and other textiles facilities to further explore the interplay between legacies of craft and modern tools.

Devendorf and colleagues tour a weaving facility in Yokohama, Japan

Traditional indigo dyeing in Japan

Creating space

Building a community that bridges craft and engineering spaces means bringing new people into the lab setting.

“The people who gravitate to the research in my lab are not the same composition as the people who come to it through engineering and computer science. There's certainly overlap, but on a statistical level, people who would not typically pursue engineering and science are showing up for weaving and having their expertise validated as already worthwhile rather than having to prove that they matter—I think that's an important moment.”

She elaborates, “I could have made AdaCAD and not talked to anyone, and that wouldn’t have been unusual. It could have gotten published. But I think community-building was implicitly a goal the whole time. Also, even the lab itself, I want it to be a pleasant space. I don't want it to be a factory. I think it has a warmth to it, and it has people who care. And so it's well on its way” to becoming a community space.

Traditional machines, future possibilities

Weaving outside the context of craft is often misunderstood as an idle hobby that is prone to imperfection and unpredictability. Devendorf notes, “People have no idea that this is relevant to the extent I have to spend time in the grant explaining what weaving even is, how it works, and showing several examples that clearly demonstrate how useful it can be within engineering spaces.”

She concludes, “There's so much to explore in these machines, and I think the people who are the most capable of exploring it all are craftspeople. So there's a slightly propaganda piece of: I think these looms can give us better solutions than modeling something on a computer and printing.”

Devendorf presented a retrospective of her work at CHI 2025 including:

The Unstable Design Lab's demo booth at CHI 2025

Demo: Experimental Weaving at the Unstable Design Lab

This demo showcased "experimental weaving" as it has been explored by researchers and experimental weavers in residence at the Unstable Design Lab. The demo featured interactive woven textiles, software to support complex woven structure design and instructional resources for visitors to explore in their research.

Workshop: How do design stories work? Exploring narrative forms of knowledge in HCI

This workshop covered how stories are built, what narrative traditions they draw from, how they co-constitute research processes and what kind of knowledge can emerge from them. They explored the role of storytelling in HCI; the craft of writing stories; relations between fiction, truth and knowledge; and the risks, tensions and limitations of writing stories.

Workshop: Gathering Textiles at CHI: Convening a Meeting to Share, Make, and Speculate

This workshop created a meeting place for CHI researchers engaging textiles in any capacity through a day of skill sharing and collective speculating grounded in the textiles techniques and histories of Japan.

Panel: Regenerative Material Ecologies in HCI

This panel brought together a diverse group of design researchers working hands-on with materials ranging from biological to algorithmic to discuss regenerative thinking, shifting the focus from merely mitigating environmental harm to actively fostering cohabitation within more-than-human ecosystems.

As a computer scientist and artist, Laura Devendorf blends engineering and weaving to empower the craft community while pushing the boundaries of textile science for applications in human-computer interaction, health, art, aerospace and more.

Off

Traditional

White

Fabrics That Remember

Michael Kwolek — Fri, 18 Apr 2025 19:30:44 +0000

Fabrics That Remember Michael Kwolek Fri, 04/18/2025 - 13:30

Laura Devendorf describes how wearable technologies like e-textiles can help people to gather insights into and reflect upon intimate moments rather than to modify or enhance them.

Off

Traditional

White

The Trouble with Wearables

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 04 Mar 2025 22:04:58 +0000

The Trouble with Wearables Michael Kwolek Tue, 03/04/2025 - 15:04

E-textiles and smart textiles have sustainability challenges related to recycling and reuse. ATLAS researchers are investigating novel materials and techniques to simplify how we can separate and recover valuable materials from textile waste.

Off

Traditional

White

Devendorf bridges engineering and craft communities with new initiative

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 15:54:01 +0000

Devendorf bridges engineering and craft communities with new initiative Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 08/13/2024 - 09:54

Michael Kwolek

Weaving and engineering might seem unrelated on the surface, but they in fact have a great deal in common. Laura Devendorf, assistant professor at the ATLAS Institute and Information Science, is determined to build bridges among practitioners across these disciplines to unlock the potential for new lines of scientific and creative innovation.

To support this work, Devendorf, who directs the Unstable Design Lab, was recently awarded a U.S. National Science Foundation grant of $297,630 for phase one of a larger project entitled, “Cultivating an Ecosystem for Interdisciplinary Smart Textiles Research.”

The research builds on software Devendorf and her team developed called, AdaCAD, an open-source tool they describe as an “experimental workspace that applies parametric design to the domain of weave drafting. It supports algorithmic and playful approaches to developing woven structures and cloth, for shaft and jacquard looms.”

The aim of this new research, as Devendorf describes it, is to, “take this software that we built for doing complex weave drafting and transition it to a project where it is sustained and grown by a larger community of weavers and [those] who we call ‘textile-adjacent engineers’.” That way, AdaCAD can develop and adapt to the needs of a wider user-base over time as all good open source software does.

This work exemplifies the radically interdisciplinary work that the ATLAS Institute champions. By bringing together disparate experts and communities—in this case, artists, artisans, engineers and researchers—we create new approaches to discovery.

From adjacent to integrated
Textiles are pervasive, yet often misunderstood in engineering spaces. The surprising mathematical complexity, materials knowledge and innovation that have arisen over centuries of textile practice are often overlooked. At the same time, weavers who come from a tradition of craftsmanship, art and design may be unfamiliar with meaningful advances in the engineering space.

By bringing together these two worlds, Devendorf hopes to open up opportunities for breakthroughs in technology and craft, whether that is in advancing electronic-textile science or pushing the boundaries of artistic expression.

For example, an engineering team may seek ways to monitor health without the use of adhesives often required for electrodes, while weavers already have options for materials and techniques that could replace such adhesives. Yet both groups are often unaware of each other’s needs and skills. But overcoming this knowledge gap, Devendorf believes engineers and weavers could together achieve greater impact.

There are signs this is beginning to take place, and she aims to speed the process. Research labs at CalTech and MIT as well as industrial design studios around the globe have acquired digital looms to experiment with weaving advanced materials and experimental forms.

But first: listening
Phase I of this project will focus on fact-finding and planning. The team will lead community-engagement activities and trainings and gather points-of-view from craftspeople, designers, engineers and others across many communities.

Devendorf and her team have begun interviewing people from a range of overlapping disciplines. They include a weaver with a fine arts background who now works on woven implantables for a medical devices company and a textiles expert researching stronger, lighter woven materials for the aviation industry. Still others in the cohort are studying zero-waste, “whole garment” clothing manufacturing and human-computer interaction surfaces on the body. The range of applications for textiles is growing at an impressive pace.

Devendorf explains this recent uptick in interest: “Ten years ago, it was all about the maker movement and digital fabrication, and it took a while before people realized that textile machines are also fabrication machines that can do things that we're still trying to get 3D printers to do. Textiles are inherently multi-material. They are flexible, they can be made stiff, they can be soft. It's a totally different mindset to control a textile machine [compared] to a printer that is making stacks. There’s a big learning gap there, but you see a lot of fabrication people jumping in.”

The TC2 Loom by Digital Weaving Norway has also expanded access to advanced weaving techniques as a first-of-its-kind prototype-scale digital jacquard loom that is programmable with a bitmap image. Now you no longer need a factory-scale setup to experiment with textiles fabrication.

What’s next
For Phase II, the team will focus on cultivating the ecosystem through on-the-ground work with communities and creating opportunities for practitioners to share what they are making. Devendorf also aims to expand opportunities for craftspeople in scientific research and product design spaces.

She explains, “we have huge problems to tackle as a society. I believe that engineering can address some of those, but I don't think we can do it if we don't have access to every possible technique… We're overlooking a huge set of practices and people in communities that have knowledge we need to solve some of these bigger challenges. My hunch is that craftspeople understand materials, process and machinery where so much of engineering is happening at a simulation level [while] trying to engineer materials that behave like the simulations.”

By fostering interconnectivity between engineering and weaving communities, Devendorf and her team in the Unstable Design Lab will position textiles as a leading source for innovative solutions to global challenges.

The Unstable Design Lab director has embarked on the first phase of a years-long project to bring together engineering and craft communities to advance textile research across a range of scientific disciplines.

Off

Traditional

White

Wear it, then recycle: ATLAS Designers make dissolvable textiles from gelatin

Anonymous — Mon, 17 Jun 2024 19:24:50 +0000

Wear it, then recycle: ATLAS Designers make dissolvable textiles from gelatin Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 06/17/2024 - 13:24

In a new study, a team of ATLAS engineers and designers developed a DIY machine that spins textile fibers made of materials like sustainably sourced gelatin. The group’s “biofibers” feel a bit like flax fiber and dissolve in hot water in minutes to an hour.

Off

Traditional

White

ATLAS in Ireland: 12 community members present at TEI’24

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 19:05:23 +0000

ATLAS in Ireland: 12 community members present at TEI’24 Anonymous (not verified) Fri, 02/09/2024 - 12:05

Michael Kwolek

ATLAS is well-represented at #TEI2024 - the 18th ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction. This year’s conference, in Cork, Ireland, celebrates “cutting-edge scientific research and art that is on the edge of disciplines and on the edge of new unique developments and possibilities.”

Research from 12 members of the ATLAS community including faculty, alumni and students is featured at the conference. The work spans a range of disciplines, including weaving, biomaterials, mixed reality and robotics. In addition, ACME Lab director, Ellen Do, acted as Co-Chair of Graduate Student Consortium; PhD student, Sandra Bae, was an Associate Chair for Pictorials; and ATLAS PhD alum, Fiona Bell, was an Associate Chair for Papers.

Research ATLAS PhD students presented at TEI’24

Loom Pedals: Retooling Jacquard Weaving for Improvisational Design Workflows
Shanel Wu, Xavier A Corr, Xi Gao, Sasha De Koninck, Robin Bowers, and Laura Devendorf

Abstract: We present the Loom Pedals, an open-source hardware/software interface for enhancing a weaver’s ability to create on-the-fly, improvised designs in Jacquard weaving. Learning from traditional handweaving and our own weaving experiences, we describe our process of designing, implementing, and using the prototype Loom Pedals system with a TC2 Digital Jacquard loom. The Loom Pedals include a set of modular, reconfigurable foot pedals which can be mapped to parametric Operations that generate and transform digital woven designs. Our novel interface integrates design and loom control, providing a customizable workflow for playful, improvisational Jacquard weaving. We conducted a formative evaluation of the prototype through autobiographical methods and collaboratively developed future Loom Pedals features. We contribute our prototype, design process, and conceptual reflections on weaving as a human-machine dialog between a weaver, the loom, and many other agents.

Bio-Digital Calendar: Attuning to Nonhuman Temporalities for Multispecies Understanding
Fiona Bell, Joshua Coffie, and Mirela Alistar

Abstract: 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.

Wizard of Props: Mixed Reality Prototyping with Physical Props to Design Responsive Environments
Yuzhen Zhang, Ruixiang Han, Ran Zhou, Peter Gyory, Clement Zheng, Patrick C. Shih, Ellen Yi-Luen Do, Malte F Jung, Wendy Ju, and Daniel Leithinger

Abstract: Driven by the vision of future responsive environments, where everyday surroundings can perceive human behaviors and respond through intelligent robotic actuation, we propose Wizard of Props (WoP): a human-centered design workflow for creating expressive, implicit, and meaningful interactions. This collaborative experience prototyping approach integrates full-scale physical props with Mixed Reality (MR) to support ideation, prototyping, and rapid testing of responsive environments. We present two design explorations that showcase our investigations of diverse design solutions based on varying technology resources, contextual considerations, and target audiences. Design Exploration One focuses on mixed environment building, where we observe fluid prototyping methods. In Design Exploration Two, we explore how novice designers approach WoP, and illustrate their design ideas and behaviors. Our findings reveal that WoP complements conventional design methods, enabling intuitive body-storming, supporting flexible prototyping fidelity, and fostering expressive environment-human interactions through in-situ improvisational performance.

Making Biomaterials for Sustainable Tangible Interfaces
Fiona Bell, Shanel Wu, Nadia Campo Woytuk, Eldy S. Lazaro Vasquez, Mirela Alistar, and Leah Buechley

Abstract: 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.

Paper Modular Robot: Circuit, Sensation Feedback, and 3D Geometry
Ruhan Yang

Abstract: Modular robots have proven valuable for STEM education. However, modular robot kits are often expensive, which makes them limited in accessibility. My research focuses on using paper and approachable techniques to create modular robots. The kit’s design encompasses three core technologies: paper circuits, sensation feedback mechanisms, and 3D geometry. I have developed proof-of-concept demonstrations of technologies for each aspect. I will integrate these technologies to design and build a paper modular robot kit. This kit includes various types of modules for input, output, and other functions. My dissertation will discuss the development of these technologies and how they are integrated. This research will address the considerations and techniques for paper as an interactive material, providing a guideline for future research and development of paper-based interaction.

Research from 12 members of the ATLAS community including faculty, alumni and students is featured at the 18th ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction.

Off

Traditional

White

ATLAS PhD Shanel Wu completes Open Hardware Creators fellowship

Anonymous — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 18:08:55 +0000

ATLAS PhD Shanel Wu completes Open Hardware Creators fellowship Anonymous (not verified) Tue, 10/31/2023 - 12:08

Michael Kwolek

ATLAS PhD Shanel Wu recently concluded their participation in the Open Hardware Creators in Academia Fellowship, an initiative run by the Open Source Hardware Organization (OSHWA).

The fellowship, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, brought together nine diverse, passionate researchers in the open hardware field to create assets to assist other academics studying the topic, support the movement, foster collaboration and amplify the power of open hardware in academia. Wu says, "I was excited to be part of OSHWA's work in building an academic community in open hardware, especially because the organization has been so involved with promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion."

As a member of the ATLAS Unstable Design Lab, directed by assistant professor Laura Devendorf, Wu centered their PhD research on making things that are both useful and beautiful, and exploring technical complexities through handcraft, including e-textiles, wearables and unique materials with embedded electronics. This culminated in their recently-published dissertation, Retooling E-Textiles for Coproduction: Weaving Circuitry as Cloth.

Wu embarked on an extensive set of research outputs through the course of the fellowship, including talks, essays, documentation and articles, with particular focus on Loom Pedals, an open-source customizable interface for a Jacquard loom, designed to promote improvisation and experimentation for makers. In this work, Wu relates, "I learned to trust in my ability to contribute to my field and to have confidence in my value as a researcher."

An open-source approach to research and tool development is particularly important to Wu as they “believe in sharing knowledge outside of traditional institutions as widely as possible, [as the] work will be more impactful if it is openly available.”

According to OSHWA, the fellowship program has achieved critical outcomes including:

Innovative Designs: Participants have designed cutting-edge open source solutions in fields ranging from robotics and electronics to museum studies and environmental monitoring.
Open Source Resources: A wealth of educational materials, guides and documentation has been created, making open source more accessible to the broader academic community and beyond.
Community Building: The program has fostered a global network of open source enthusiasts, encouraging collaborative research, idea exchange and support.
Increased Visibility: The fellowship has increased the visibility of open source research in academia, contributing to the global conversation about open science and technology in academia.

Wu has now embarked on post-doc research at Carleton College in Ottawa as Research Associate in the Creative Interactions Lab working on wearable technologies and accessibility. The lab, headed by professor and Associate Dean (Research), Audrey Girouard, studies computer-human interaction through the lens of deformable materials and flexible displays. On this new endeavor, Wu says, "Working in the HCI accessibility space will be a great opportunity to do more community-based research, while continuing to explore textiles and handcraft in wearables."

ATLAS PhD Shanel Wu recently concluded their participation in the Open Hardware Creators in Academia Fellowship, an initiative run by the Open Source Hardware Organization (OSHWA).

Off

Traditional

White

Unstable Design Lab 2023 Residency in Review

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:59:50 +0000

Unstable Design Lab 2023 Residency in Review Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 09/28/2023 - 11:59

The 2023 Experimental Weaving Residency, featuring Elizabeth Meiklejohn, has left us with new understandings about electromagnetics and cloth movement.

Off

Traditional

White