living matter

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.

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Inaugural Sustainability Research Initiative Research Fellows unveiled

Michael Kwolek — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 20:20:47 +0000

Inaugural Sustainability Research Initiative Research Fellows unveiled Michael Kwolek Mon, 02/23/2026 - 13:20

Assistant professor Mirela Alistar is a member of the first cohort of SRI Research Fellows selected by ��ñ��'s Research & Innovation Office.

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DNA origami: unfolding genetic breakthroughs

Michael Kwolek — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 17:39:32 +0000

DNA origami: unfolding genetic breakthroughs Michael Kwolek Tue, 11/18/2025 - 10:39

Michael Kwolek

Lab Venture Challenge

Johnson and Alistar competed as finalists in ��ñ��’s 2025 Lab Venture Challenge where their technology generated much interest from industry leaders.

Access to DNA is crucial in many branches of biomedical research. But making long strands of DNA is time consuming, error-prone and expensive.

Over the years, researchers have worked to make DNA synthesis more efficient, with important contributions made by Marvin Caruthers, distinguished professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the ��ñ��. This research has advanced a range of biomedical fields including drug and vaccine development, pathogen tests, and cancer diagnostics.

Making DNA involves complex biochemical and mechanical processes to assemble a strand base by base. At each stage, there is a small chance of failure, but in doing this process over and over for more bases, that chance increases.

The process of creating a DNA strand longer than 1,000 bases often takes several weeks, which can hinder research cycles. To solve this, biotech companies have pursued incremental efficiency gains in strand construction.

Now researchers in the ATLAS Institute’s Living Matter Lab aim to rethink DNA synthesis altogether.

A new way to build DNA

Lab director and assistant professor Mirela Alistar and post-doctoral researcher Joshua Johnson are working to develop nanorobots that will more quickly and accurately build DNA to meet researchers’ specifications in a matter of days instead of weeks.

They are employing DNA origami—a creative technique for shaping these building blocks of life—to create a nanorobot to speed the process of making new DNA strands. “It folds much like paper origami, but it is made of DNA,” Johnson noted. “Our particular nanorobot is rectangular with a rotating arm element. It is about 2,000 times smaller than the width of human hair.”

DNA origami research dates back to 2006, with scientists making simple but precise nanoscale shapes and patterns. Alistar and Johnson aim to apply this technique to the mechanical arrangement of molecules. “We are taking existing scientific concepts and combining them in new ways—much like engineering a normal sized robot but at the molecular scale," Johnson elaborated.

Alistar explained the team’s contribution to DNA origami research as “designing the DNA structure that becomes a robot such that it is more stable, translating the fabrication process from extremely highly advanced labs to a little bit of a lower-key lab in computer science, which means we have to be inventive with a lot of the processes.”

The right place for the research

The ATLAS Institute’s relationships with the College of Engineering and Applied Science create space for such breakthrough research. “We are interdisciplinary—I'm confident saying that,” Alistar said. “We do work with DNA for bacteriophages. We also work with microfluidics, which is also needed for the DNA nanorobot. So there are a lot of intersections in which we saw the potential for developing a DNA origami-based project in the lab.”

Sensing great promise in their research, the team is seeking a commercialization path to reach the real-world. “This nanomachine process that we developed could be substantially faster than anything else in the industry,” Johnson noted. “There is a clear market need: biotech and pharmaceutical companies wait weeks for their large DNA strands, and that slows down research.”

According to early market analysis, these companies would be willing to pay more to get their DNA faster. “We've identified that the gene synthesis market would benefit most because they need the longest DNA, they need it the fastest and they're willing to pay the most for it,” Johnson said.

Alistar also noted potential in cell-free research. “A lot of development in biology goes toward using merely DNA, not living cells. Applications are mostly in vaccines.” If, for example, you could more quickly make a vaccine even in remote places, that could have major implications for global health.

To commercialize this research, Alistar and Johnson are pursuing “a lot of support from ��ñ�� and the state of Colorado in getting to an actual product,” Alistar explained. “If everything goes right, we're gonna be enrolled in a national-level program for two months of customer discovery research.”

The team hopes to demonstrate market feasibility of their new synthesis method within three years to improve one of the main bottlenecks in biotech research and help smooth the way toward improved vaccines, gene therapy and more personalized medicine.

Living Matter Lab designs nanorobots for DNA production to speed biomedical research.

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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.

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Biodegradable nails make manicures more sustainable

Michael Kwolek — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 16:30:54 +0000

Biodegradable nails make manicures more sustainable Michael Kwolek Thu, 04/03/2025 - 10:30

ATLAS researchers developed press-on nails that are biodegradable, colorful and endlessly customizable with open-source technology and low-cost biomaterials for a more sustainable fashion moment.

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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.

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Microbiology as meditation: Living Matter Lab explores “livingness” in time

Anonymous — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 15:54:20 +0000

Microbiology as meditation: Living Matter Lab explores “livingness” in time Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 04/08/2024 - 09:54

Michael Kwolek

For millennia, scientists, engineers, philosophers and artists have pondered time. What is it? How do we measure it? How does it impact our sense of reality?

The Living Matter Lab at the ATLAS Institute considers these questions through the lens of microbiology and the emerging field of biological human-computer interaction, which combines living materials and digital technologies. By interfacing with microscopic organisms, we can better understand how different forms of life experience time and how we might rethink our human-centric perspective on this concept.

The ATLAS Institute champions radical creativity and invention by pushing the boundaries of multidisciplinary study. As such, Living Matter Lab director and assistant professor, Mirela Alistar, PhD, and her lab members deploy computer science, nanotechnology, microbiology, genetics, social science and art in pursuit of a deeper understanding of alternative perspectives on temporality. Alistar explains, “My fascination with living organisms stems from livingness as a shared experience, the ‘bios’ (life in Greek) we all share.”

Observing SCOBY time
Temporality can be thought of as our relationship to time, but it is more nuanced than that. Oxford Reference notes: “In contrast to the measurable and calculated notion of time/chronology, temporality is concerned with the way in which a sequence of events, a kind of history, is physically experienced by those who live through them or experience them.”

Alistar’s approach to temporality considers how, for example, kombucha SCOBY (Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast that lives in and ferments a tea medium) experiences time. Bacterial growth is a unique means for exploring multisensory measures of temporality in that it is possible to see, hear, smell and touch how the SCOBY develops over many days.

The Living Matter Lab team tracked ongoing changes in a kombucha SCOBY’s health and growth via sensors. Each day, the research team recorded observations, noting how biofilm developed and thickened on top while sediment collected on the bottom as the liquid medium lightened in color.

The sounds of temporality
This is where the research takes a surprising turn. At the time, Alistar was also working to engage the Boulder creative community with the SynthUX International Synth Design Hackathon. As a home to multi-disciplinary technical and creative talent, ATLAS is the perfect place to connect designers, engineers, artists and musicians together to explore new ways to make and manipulate sound—while competing with teams across the globe.

Though designers have created synthesizers played by natural elements (e.g., using wind, water or sunlight to trigger audio signals), Alistar saw a chance to take it further. “I was determined to have a non-human organism play the instrument live, while it is growing. Since the hackathon kit contained a photoresistor that measures light intensity, and SCOBY creates a layer that obstructs light, I put those together and designed a synthesizer.”

Bio-digital Calendar: engaging with non-human temporalities for multispecies understanding

Originally meant to produce musical tones, the prototype evolved to become a means to synesthetically measure time via light and through sound. Alistar dubbed it a “bio-digital calendar." She says, “it’s an imperfect name, but I had to call it something,” noting that although it is not quite equivalent, the project most closely resembles a calendar.

By translating the subtle changes in light passing through the SCOBY biofilm into corresponding sounds, the synthesizer adds a more pronounced marker to the subtle visual variations one could organically observe in the SCOBY over time. This became a process of “engaging with the organism as a means to incite humans toward recognizing and attuning toward nonhuman temporalities.” In other words, we get to experience microbiological time in terms humans can understand.

This multi-sensory approach to observe how another species experiences time decouples us from the way humans experience time as measured by Earth’s rotation. This allows us to sense different time scales and engender a greater appreciation for (relative) slowless beyond the static beat of a clock’s secondhand.

Layers of understanding
Alistar relates, “The transformative power of research is undeniable. For example, when listening to the livingness of non-human organisms, I end up making a bio-calendar and writing a research paper. However, I get way more than that: I learn more about life. That knowledge is not just a simple byproduct of my research. That knowledge has recursive impact: it transforms me in fundamental ways.”

The team recently presented their findings at TEI2024 (The ACM International Conference on Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction) in Cork, Ireland, and was awarded Best Pictorial for their efforts.

Alistar and her research group believe this research could lead to the design of bio-digital artifacts made from different types of organisms to encourage humans to engage with other lifeforms more deeply. “When I think of the future, I imagine computing interfaces that can biodegrade and personal laboratories that can democratize healthcare. Taking an open-source and collaborative approach, I seek to build a broad community that can actively contribute to research. I am constantly exploring more inclusive and democratic models for innovation.”

For more details on this project:

Fiona Bell, Joshua Coffie, and Mirela Alistar. 2024. "Bio-Digital Calendar: Attuning to Nonhuman Temporalities for Multispecies Understanding". In: Proceedings of the Eighteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI '24). (New York, NY, February 11, 2024).

Living Matter Lab Instagram

The Living Matter Lab pursues a deeper understanding of alternative perspectives on temporality through a surprising medium: kombucha SCOBY.

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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.

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16 Members of the ATLAS Community Present Groundbreaking Research on Human-Computer Interaction at ACM DIS 2023

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jul 2023 19:43:45 +0000

16 Members of the ATLAS Community Present Groundbreaking Research on Human-Computer Interaction at ACM DIS 2023 Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 07/05/2023 - 13:43

Michael Kwolek

ATLAS is well-represented at this year’s ACM Designing Interactive Systems (DIS) 2023 conference convening at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh from July 10-14, 2023. This year’s theme is resilience.

"Resilience is at once about flexibility, durability, and strength as well as a sense of mutuality and hope where solidaristic modes of engagement make new kinds of worlds possible.

This also recognizes that resilience takes many forms in design discourse, ranging across: indigenous knowledge, more-than-human perspectives, and the relationship between human, material and artificial intelligences."

It is exciting to see members across more than half of ATLAS labs represented in this year’s proceedings, with broad-reaching research covering microbiomes as materials for interactive design; 3D printing with spent coffee grounds; personal informatics systems; improving cross-disciplinary collaboration among artists and researchers; expressive movement for altering emotions and awareness; and the intersection of crocheting and data. Take a look:

µMe: Exploring the Human Microbiome as an Intimate Material for Living Interfaces
Fiona Bell (ATLAS PhD alum), Michelle Ramsahoye (ATLAS affiliate PhD student), Joshua Coffie (ATLAS MS alum), Julia Tung (ATLAS BS student), and Mirela Alistar (ATLAS Living Matter Lab director, assistant professor)

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.

Designing a Sustainable Material for 3D Printing with Spent Coffee Grounds
Michael L. Rivera (ATLAS Utility Research Lab Director, assistant professor), S. Sandra Bae (ATLAS PhD student)

The widespread adoption of 3D printers exacerbates existing environmental challenges as these machines increase energy consumption, waste output, and the use of plastics. Material choice for 3D printing is tightly connected to these challenges, and as such researchers and designers are exploring sustainable alternatives. Building on these efforts, this work explores using spent coffee grounds as a sustainable material for prototyping with 3D printing. This material, in addition to being compostable and recyclable, can be easily made and printed at home. We describe the material in detail, including the process of making it from readily available ingredients, its material characteristics and its printing parameters. We then explore how it can support sustainable prototyping practices as well as HCI applications. In reflecting on our design process, we discuss challenges and opportunities for the HCI community to support sustainable prototyping and personal fabrication. We conclude with a set of design considerations for others to weigh when exploring sustainable materials for 3D printing and prototyping.

For additional details, see our article on how this and other Utility Research Lab projects won awards at the Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival.

Being, Having, Doing, and Interacting: A Personal Informatics Approach to Understanding Human Need Satisfaction in Everyday Life
Michael Jeffrey Daniel Hoefer, Stephen Voida, (ATLAS affiliate assistant professor, founding faculty, information science)

A grand challenge for computing is to better understand fundamental human needs and their satisfaction. In this work, we design a personal informatics technology probe that scaffolds reflection on how time-use satisfies Max-Neef's fundamental needs of being, having, doing, and interacting via self-aspects, relationships and organizations, activities, and environments. Through a combination of a think-aloud study (N=10) and a week-long in situ deployment (N=7), participants used the probe to complete self- aspect elicitation and Day Reconstruction Method tasks. Participants then interacted with network visualizations of their daily lives, and discovered insights about their lives. During the study, we collected a dataset of 662 activities annotated with need satisfaction ratings. Despite challenges in operationalizing a theory of need through direct elicitation from individuals, personal informatics systems show potential as a participatory and individually meaningful approach for understanding need satisfaction in everyday life.

Enhancing Accessibility in Soft Robotics: Exploring Magnet-Embedded Paper-Based Interactions
Ruhan Yang (ATLAS PhD student), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (ATLAS ACME Lab director, faculty member)

This paper explores the implementation of embedded magnets to enhance paper-based interactions. The integration of magnets in paper-based interactions simplifies the fabrication process, making it more accessible for building soft robotics systems. We discuss various interaction patterns achievable through this approach and highlight their potential applications.

[Workshop] Towards Mutual Benefit: Reflecting on Artist Residencies as a Method for Collaboration in DIS
Laura Devendorf (ATLAS Unstable Design Lab director, assistant professor), Leah Buechley, Noura Howell, Jennifer Jacobs, Hsin-Liu (Cindy) Kao, Martin Murer, Daniela Rosner, Nica Ross, Robert Soden, Jared Tso, Clement Zheng (ATLAS PhD alum)

While cross-disciplinary collaboration has long been, and continues to be a cornerstone of inventive work in interactive design, the infrastructures of academia, as well as barriers to participation imposed by our professional organizations, make collaboration for some groups harder than others. In this workshop, we’ll focus specifically on how artists residencies are addressing (or not) the challenges that artists, craftspeople, and/or independent designers face when collaborating with researchers affiliated with DIS. While focusing on the question “what is mutual benefit”, this workshop seeks to combine the perspectives of artists as well as researchers collaborating with artists (through residencies or otherwise) to (1) reflect on benefits or deficiencies in what we are currently doing and (2) generate resources for our community to effectively structure and evaluate our methods of collaboration with artists. Our hope is to provide recognition of and pathways for equitable inclusion of artists as a first step towards broader infrastructural change.

Refer to the Unstable Design Lab website for more details on this research.

[Demo] SoniSpace: Expressive Movement Interaction to Encourage Taking Up Space with the Body
Ruojia Sun (ATLAS PhD student), Althea Vail Wallop (ATLAS MS student), Grace Leslie (ATLAS Brain Music Lab director, assistant professor), Ellen Yi-Luen Do (ATLAS ACME Lab director, faculty member)

Movement forms the basis of our thoughts, emotions, and ways of being in the world. Informed by somaesthetics, we design for "taking up space" (e.g. encouraging expansive body movements), which may in turn alter our emotional experience. We demonstrate SoniSpace, an expressive movement interaction experience that uses movement sonification and visualization to encourage users to take up space with their body. We use a first-person design approach to embed qualities of awareness, exploration, and comfort into the sound and visual design to promote authentic and enjoyable movement expression regardless of prior movement experience. Preliminary results from 20 user experiences with the system show that users felt more comfortable with taking up space and with movement in general following the interaction. We discuss our findings about designing for somatically-focused movement interactions and directions for future work.

[Demo] Crochet and Data Activity Book
Mikhaila Friske (ATLAS affiliate PhD student)

This demo focuses around crocheting and data. In addition to a physical workbook for conference goers to peruse and try, there will be a few small set-ups for specific activities and a small craft circle for people to craft within if they so choose.

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Kombucha chic: How one student uses microbes, and time, to grow her own clothes

Anonymous — Thu, 04 May 2023 20:05:51 +0000

Kombucha chic: How one student uses microbes, and time, to grow her own clothes Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 05/04/2023 - 14:05

Biodesign researcher Fiona Bell says that anyone, anywhere can grow their own clothing right from their kitchens. You start by brewing a batch of kombucha.

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