Culturally embedded computing explicitly situates embedded computing
in society, individual experience, culture, and history. Based on this new
emphasis, five projects explore alternatives to traditional humancomputer
interaction design.

Most discussions about ubiquitous
computing rely on an
engineering perspective, centering
on the fact that computing
is leaving the desktop. But
in leaving the laboratory and
workplace, computing is crossing
not only physical but also social and cultural
boundaries. It’s becoming embedded not only
in physical environments but also in culture,
society, and history

In culturally embedded
computing, we begin by examining how the technology
is emblematic of its cultural context

Cultural Switches
• Reflective design. Some of our products
are things to use; some are things
to think with. The latter might have
little practical use but can encourage
reflection on technology, its situated
meanings in people’s lives, and our
own role as researchers and designers.

Influencing Machine
(emotions ande technology)
• Focus on personal experience. In
developing ubiquitous systems, we
focus on the way interactive systems
shape people’s experiences of their
everyday lives.

The Miro installation senses, displays,
and influences the collective emotions
and activity level of a communal space
• Contextualizing technology in culture
rather than other technology. In technical
research, new technologies generally
build on previous technical advances.
Our research also focuses on
technology’s historical, cultural, and
social implications.

consumer culture is particularly
pertinent to ubiquitous computing

The iFortune and Trigger Spray Bottles
projects critique consumer culture
through their design. Examining the history
of domestic technology, home economics,
and gender roles is particularly
important to our work. These two projects
question and rethink the role of
technology in the home.

We identified several strategies at play
across the projects that honor this role of
participant as expert. First, as designers
and researchers, we must approach our
interactions with empathy and with a sincere
objective to learn, not analyze. Second,
establishing peer relationships with
people necessitates creating space for
diversions: listening to people, inviting
questions, and exploring familiar activities
that people would feel comfortable
talking about and reflecting on. Finally,
we must not only create technology
designs that give people pleasure but
must also craft user studies that people
enjoy participating in. Because our project
designs seek to balance the effort put
into technology with the effort returned
by technology, successful user studies
should leave participants feeling as enthusiastic
or inspired as the researchers and
designers.