dourish ch.2 - tangible computing

A history of what could be, starting at the Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) with ubiquitous computing: computation by the inch (badges, pagers, coffee cups, etc. all over the place), foot (paper-sized, per person), and yard (desk or whiteboard, per room) (p. 30); EuroPARC's digital desk (p. 33); virtual and augmented reality devices; Universty of Toronto's reactive room (p. 38); MIT's Tangible Bits and their metaDESK, Phicons, geospace, ambient room, illuminating light, and urp (p.43-48).

Through these examples, we see that one aspect of tangible computing is that control is distributed or decentralized. Just as writing a note is a coordination of hand, arm, paper, pen, desktop, (etc.). Tangible computing is also generally not *a* unique new device, but entails features or extensions embedded into the design of something we are already familiar with (p. 50. The name badge, for example, is still a name badge, but takes on other computational affordances like Star Trek communicators. The metaDESK starts with the idea of the desk (comfy in our Discourse) and designs the opportunity for new experiences through it. See why this stuff is interesting to me? Can you say: "Discourse-bending Design Experiences (DbDE)"? Secondly, tangible computing moves away from ordered sequence -- it no longer requires the user to follow a rigid "program" (p. 51). Thirdly, tangible computing relies heavily on "the physical properties of the interface to suggest its use" (p.52). This is Gibson's (1979) affordances in action here. Finally, Dourish sums it up:

"...the essence of tangible computing lies in the way in which it allows computation to be manifest for us in the everyday world;a world that is available for our interpretation, and one that is meaningful for us in the ways in which we can understand and act in it (p.53)