Designing for an everyday ubicomp with tangible and embodied materials

This paper describes research from the author's PhD studies that explore the use and development of digital tools and methods to enable prototyping and fabrication of digital artefacts that may belong in the next generation of ubiquitous or pervasive computing. By expanding from the current interest in physical computing, digital making and the DIY culture grown from the Internet, the research aims to show a new direction by an open source approach to the field. It is the author's thesis that whilst those envisaging the near-future technologies of ubiquitous computing, place much effort on networking protocols and embedded technologies, it is necessary to examine how these technical and mediated connections will be held on a more practical level. In such there is a role for design and creative approaches to act as an interlocutor, both in methods and materials. How in everyday life will we understand our networked watch, pen or broach, how could it embody our knowledge or emotions, and could it in turn have its own agency and knowing? This research has focused on three areas of study, methods, tools and communities. In each of these areas, projects have been or are being carried out; case studies, design proposals, participatory tools and the creation of exemplar artefacts. This paper will introduce some of the findings to date.