{"id":330,"date":"2007-06-25T21:45:36","date_gmt":"2007-06-26T05:45:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.techkwondo.com\/?p=330"},"modified":"2017-08-18T18:03:00","modified_gmt":"2017-08-18T18:03:00","slug":"left-to-our-own-devices-hardware-sketchingwhat-this-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/2007\/06\/25\/left-to-our-own-devices-hardware-sketchingwhat-this-means\/","title":{"rendered":"Left To Our Own Devices (Hardware Sketching..What This Means)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Making our own stuff \u2014 what does it mean, how do you do it? There is a sense that the ability to make our own electronic\/digital\/computational \u201cstuff\u201d is not just fun, but has some larger purpose that\u2019s related to impulses of DIY sensibilities. Making your own devices has a implicit cultural and political message. That is, we can be \u201cproductive consumers\u201d as Ruth described yesterday. We can produce the things we need or enjoy or desire based on our own principles, ethics, senses of fun and so forth. This I think is very good, and very important.<\/p>\n

Left To Our Own Devices (on SlideShare)<\/a><\/p>\n

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What does this phrase mean, “left to one’s own devices”?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them is crucial to making your own stuff, and developing the skills to think for oneself. This is a mistake I made recently that burned out part of a board. While it was a setback, it was only temporary and in the process, on my own, I learned.<\/p>\n

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Making mistakes or probing the boundaries of what works and what doesn\u2019t is a powerful way to learn, and, mostly, gain confidence and mastery. So \u201cleft to our own devices\u201d also has this sense of learning, or understanding about things that were previously a kind of black art.<\/p>\n

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And so what does this mean for \u201csketching in hardware\u201d? I want to suggest three things, or observations that I think describe what \u201csketching in hardware\u201d is about. Starting at the highest level is \u201csketching as critique.\u201d I think there\u2019s a kind of creative or cultural criticism that goes on when sketching hardware.<\/p>\n

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The \u201cWouldn\u2019t It Be Cool If..\u201d approach to making things.<\/strong> This is design that is driven by the imagination. I notice many projects that suggest this motivation \u2014 for instance, it would be cool to have a mobile phone that has no features except to make telephone calls. In fact, it might not even have a display, like an old analog phone. Why do we do this? Part of it is to demonstrate hardware sketching acumen and skills. But I think there\u2019s also an implicit criticism about the way things are that suggests a response. Making things different than they are.<\/p>\n

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The \u201cWhat Would The World Be Like If..?\u201d approach to sketching is kind of like writing science fiction by making things that ask what would the world be like if..<\/strong> These are things that are not necessarily \u201crational\u201d in the way we often think about rationality. But they are meant to provoke questions about certain aspects of life in the same way that the best of science fiction does. It forces us to consider ourselves and our ways of living by helping us find a partial perspective that is outside of our routine, quotidian lives.<\/p>\n

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This is the World\u2019s Slowest Instant Messenger, or \u201cSlow Messenger\u201d for short. You can send an instant message to it over, for instance AOL IM, and the message from your buddy will reveal itself over many hours or even days, one character at a time.<\/p>\n

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Why do this? To imagine what such a world might be like if we communicated slower than we do today. The reason for doing this is more as a thought experiment imagining a different kind of world \u2014 either a science fiction world where things are a little different, for instance a world in which slowly unfolding messages are considered a polite, perhaps regal form of exchange, rather than the terse, abrupt, disruptive \u201cfast\u201d mode of communication. It\u2019s also evocative of letter writing traditions, where much time was spent carefully composing a letter that communicated much more than the short message styles of digital exchange. It\u2019s a sci-fi device. But, it needs more than just a story about it \u2014 you need to create the device and live with it and share it with people and friends to learn more about the concept.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSketching\u201d implies of course making meaning through inscriptions \u2014 drawing or writing ideas, as in sketching the outlines of a thought that might be developed further, beyond the inscription.<\/strong> For instance, it might become something slightly more durable and enduring \u2014 into something that you can create and share with others. Refinement.<\/p>\n

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You can easily go from a prototype that\u2019s a bit messy and experimental..Refine that through a more formalized design that starts to close the gap between prototype and an \u201cend product\u201d whatever that might be.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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And doing the construction oneself is important \u2014 part of the trade craft is a familiarity with the process.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Being done, and refining is a rewarding part of the process of making your own devices.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Creating our own culture of devices is one way of finally ending the myth that there are things called \u201cend products\u201d \u2014 it indicates that everything that consumers may consume are always in flux in many terms.<\/strong> I don\u2019t know much about product design, but I do know that designs evolve continuously particularly in the hands of those who are in the cycle of evolving them.<\/p>\n

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\"Sketching07.014.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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What about toolkits?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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1. Need to be crafted carefully so that you don\u2019t have a glut of things that all look a like<\/strong> \u2014 the China Syndrome of knock-offs and copied ideas. This is a bad thing except insofar as it teaches fundamentals. When tool-kits become ways to make the same thing over and over again, creativity wanes.<\/p>\n

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\"Sketching07.015.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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2. Toolkits are not software APIs only. Sparkfun is a toolkit because it provides the resources to learn,<\/strong> not just an interface for connecting to some sort of sensor.Tom Igoe\u2019s a toolkit. Arduino.cc is a toolkit. I believe that \u201cSketching\u201d as we\u2019re talking about it here is a craft, and crafts take time and discipline to master and it can be hard. But that mastery is important to moving toward a position of creative abilities. Tools should not substitute for community engagement. Rather than just using \u201cturnkey\u201d tools at some point you want to participate with the ultimate toolkit \u2014 the community.<\/p>\n

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Thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Making our own stuff \u2014 what does it mean, how do you do it? There is a sense that the ability to make our own electronic\/digital\/computational \u201cstuff\u201d is not just fun, but has some larger purpose that\u2019s related to impulses of DIY sensibilities. Making your own devices has a implicit cultural and political message. That … Continue reading Left To Our Own Devices (Hardware Sketching..What This Means)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[31,72,162,204],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nLeft To Our Own Devices (Hardware Sketching..What This Means) - Near Future Laboratory<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.nearfuturelaboratory.com\/2007\/06\/25\/left-to-our-own-devices-hardware-sketchingwhat-this-means\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Left To Our Own Devices (Hardware Sketching..What This Means) - Near Future Laboratory\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Making our own stuff \u2014 what does it mean, how do you do it? 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