Becoming materials: material forms and forms of practice

Abstract

As a result of development toward 'smart' materials, materials now enable an expanding range of aesthetic expressions and user experiences. These materials are fundamentally temporal in their capacity to assume multiple, discrete states of expression that can be repeatedly and minutely controlled. These materials come to be, or become, only over time and in context-they are becoming materials. Thus, in the development and application of such materials, we must engage more extensively with the experience of materials in practices of design and of use. This paper introduces and discusses the concept of becoming materials-as well as the implications for practice-through a series of examples from our own practice-led research within art, design and architecture. Coming to terms with the implications for material practices of design and of use, we suggest, requires the development of new concepts and methods for doing and studying the design of becoming materials.

Materials, materiality, and media

“…Our prospective work will, for instance, include a discussion of McLuhan's and Latour's work in respect to Hallnäs' and Redström's function-expression circle [16], which has several analogies to McLuhan's media analysis and Latour's actor-networks, as well as a reflection on the idea of becomingness [3] in terms of sensory effects and impressions. This paper aimed at identifying elements for a theoretical framing of materials in interaction design based on Latour and McLuhan in order to facilitate the materiality discourse in HCI; when opening up such a reflection, a variety of topics for discussions and links to related notions emerges, which hopefully not only encourages us to proceed, but also inspires other HCI researchers to contribute to this discourse.…”

“…Vallgårda and Redström [48] propose to think of computational composites, i.e., computation needs to be combined with other materials, to become a material itself which can be used in design practice. Furthermore, computational materials are coming to be over time and in context, i.e., they cannot be reduced to the terms of being or doing, but must be understood as constantly in movement [3]. Consequently, several temporal combinations of physical or digital content with physical or digital representations can be the basis for interaction design to work with.…”

Time and Design

“…Bergström and colleagues [3] provided the notion of becomingness of materials, i.e., Work-in-Progress: Poster Presentation TEI 2015, January 15-19, 2015, Stanford, CA, USA things become materials only over time and in the context, either during the design or usage. It is the "transformation of material expression resulting from continuous negotiation with, and within, a given context."…”

“…In literature on interaction design, a variety of notions of time are described, ranging from ephemeral interfaces [5] to becomingness of materials [3] to designing for temporal events such as Christmas [16] to artistic installations that Work-in-Progress: Poster Presentation TEI 2015, January 15-19, 2015, Stanford, CA, USA turn book pages dependent on the time of day [15]. In this work-in-progress, we aim to sketch a design space of interactive system design that is determined and inspired by notions of time.…”

Materials of embodied interaction

“…In this field, sensibilities to the theme of embodiment can be found in Bergström [2] who developed the Planks, interactive bands of smart plywood. The Planks basically react to sound: if the volume emitted by a close source (e.g.…”