The emergence of the "ubiquitous computing" paradigm in the late 1980s introduced
a series of significant challenges for research and practice in human-computer
interaction, by moving the locus of interaction from the person sitting at a desk in
front of a PC to the person moving through a world suffused with devices and information.
This has supported an expansion of HCI's topics to include questions of spatiality,
tangibility and experience.
New theoretical understandings and new practical issues attend the design of
ubiquitous applications, but also shed light on issues at play in traditional
interaction models.
This class will survey classic and current research at the intersection of ubiquitous
computing and interaction. We will begin with a mixture of lectures and discussions,
with the emphasis on discussions of readings as the quarter moves along.
Grades will be based on participation in online and in-class discussion, and on a term
paper due at the end of the quarter.
The primary reading for the class is a book that I published last year with Genevieve Bell from Intel, entitled "Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing." While on one hand, it feels a little odd to assign a text that I wrote, on the other, it seems silly to ignore a book that captures exactly what I think on the subject!
Other readings are drawn from research research literature, especially at the Ubicomp and CHI conferences, and will be made available online (see class schedule below).
There may be more reading than you're used to (unless you've taken a class with me before, in which case there is actually likely to be less.) Make sure you give yourself enough time to read everything at least twice before the class sessions meet. You need to be familiar with the readings in order to participate adequately in class (which is a significant percentage of your grade.)
Most of the quarter is structured around in-class discussions of readings (see schedule below). For each class, two students will be selected to lead the discussion. Everyone else should post a response to the readings online, due 48 hours before the class starts (in order to give the discussion leaders time to use them to prepare for the discussion.) Your participation in discussions, online and in class, will count for 40% of your grade for the class.
The second component of your evaluation is a term paper. You may write these individually or in pairs. Term papers are typically around 5000 words, on any topic related to the subject of the class. Abstracts/topics for term papers are due at the end of week 4; drafts or outlines of papers are due at the end of week 7 (these drafts are not graded, but are an opportunity to get early feedback.)
The readings are stored on UCI's webfiles service.
To gain access, you will first need an
activated UCINet ID, and then to
register for a Webfiles account.
| 4/3 |
Introduction and course overview |
|
| 4/5 |
Class cancelled |
No class due to instructor illness. |
| 4/10 |
Seminal ideas: Discussion |
- Divining, chapter 2
- Weiser, W. 1991. The Computer for the 21st Century,
Scientific American;
- Abowd, G. and Mynatt, B. 2000. Charting Past, Present, and Future Research in
Ubiquitous Computing, ACM Trans. Computer-Human Interaction;
- Bell, G. and Dourish, P. 2008.
Yesterday's Tomorrows: Notes on Ubiquitous Computing's Dominant Vision. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.
|
| 4/12 |
Foundations of Embodied Interaction |
-
Dourish, P. 2001.
Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction.
MIT Press. Chapter 4.
-
Dourish, P. 2001.
Where the Action Is: The Foundations of Embodied Interaction.
MIT Press. Chapter 5.
|
| 4/17 |
Foundations of Embodied Interaction (contd.) |
|
| 4/19 |
Embodied Experiences |
-
Tolmie, P., Pycock, J., Diggins, T., MacLean, A., and Karsenty, A.
2002.
Unremarkable Computing, Proc. ACM Conf. Human
Factors in Computing Systems.
- Benford, S., Crabtree, A., Flintham, M., Drozd, A., Anastasi, R., Paxton, M., Tandavinitj, N., Adams, M., and Row-Farr, J.
2006.Can You See Me Now, ACM Trans. Computer-Human Interaction;
- Svanaes, D. 2001.
Context-Aware Computing: A Phenomenological Approach
Human-Computer Interaction.
|
| 4/24 |
Embodied Experiences |
- Gaver, W., Sengers, P., Kerridge, T., Kaye, J., and Bowers, J. 2007.
Enhancing Ubiquitous Computing with User Interpretation: Field testing the Home Health Horoscope, Proc. ACM Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems.
-
Heath, C., Luff, P., vom Lehn, D., Hindmarsh, J., and Cleverly, J.
2002.
Crafting Participation: Designing Ecologies, Configuring Experience.
Visual Communication, 1(1):9-33.
-
Ito, M. and Okabe, D. 2005.
Technosocial Situations: Emergent Structures of Mobile
Email Use.
In Ito, Matsuda and Okabe (eds.),
Personal, Portable, Pedestrian: Mobile Phones in Japanese Life.
MIT Press.
|
| 4/26 |
Class cancelled |
|
| 4/27 |
End of Week 4: Term paper topics due
|
| 5/1 |
Infrastructure |
- Dourish, P. and Bell, G. 2011.
Chapter 5: What Lies Beneath.
From Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing.
-
McCullough, M.
2004.
Embedded Gear.
From Digital Ground: Architecture, Pervasive Computing, and
Environmental Knowing, 67-94. MIT Press.
-
Star, S. 1999.
The Ethnography of Infrastructure. American Behavioral
Scientist, 43(3), 377-391.
-
Dunne, A. 2005.
Hertzian Space.
From Hertzian Tales, 101-121. MIT
Press.
-
Mainwaring, S., Chang, M., and Anderson, K. 2004.
Infrastructures and their Discontents: Implications for Ubicomp.
Proc. Ubicomp 2004.
|
| 5/3 |
Mobility and Spatiality |
- Dourish, P. and Bell, G. 2011.
Chapter 6: Mobility and Urbanism.
From Divining a Digital Future: Mess and Mythology in Ubiquitous Computing.
- Dourish, P., Anderson, K., and Nafus, D.
2007.
Cultural Mobilities: Diversity and Agency in Urban Computing
Proc. INTERACT 2007.
-
Graham, S. 2005.
Software-Sorted Geographies. Progress in Human
Geography, 29(5), 562-580.
-
De Certeau, M.
General Introduction
Excerpt from The Practice of
Everyday Life, xi-xxiv.
|
| 5/8 |
No class (CHI conference) |
|
| 5/10 |
No class (CHI conference) |
|
| 5/15 |
Case Study/Discussion |
-
Troshynski, E., Lee, C., and Dourish, P. 2008.
Accountabilities of Presence: Reframing Location-Based Systems,
CHI 2008.
-
Shklovski, I., Vertesi, J., Troshynski, E., and Dourish, P. 2009.
The Commodification of Location. Proc. Ubicomp 2009.
|
| 5/17 |
Domestic Space |
- Dourish, P. and Bell, G. 2011.
Chapter 8: Domesticity.
Divining a Digital Future.
-
Edwards, K. and Grinter, R. 2001.
At Home with Ubiquitous Computing: Seven Challenges.
Proc. Intl. Conf. Ubiquitous Computing.
-
Dodge, M. and Kitchin, R.
2009.
Software, objects, and home space.
Environment and Planning A.
-
Hand, M. and Shove, E. 2007.
Condensing Practices: Ways of Living with a Freezer.
Journal of Consumer Culture.
|
| 5/18 |
End of Week 7: Term paper outlines/drafts due
|
| 5/22 |
Shaping Norms |
-
Colsolvo et al., 2008.
Activity Sensing in the Wild.
Proc. ACM Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 2008.
-
Brynjarsdóttir, H., Håkansson, M., Pierce, J.,
Baumer, E., DiSalvo, C., and Sengers, P.
2012.
Sustainable Unpersuaded: How Persuasion narrows Our Vision of Sustainability.
Proc. ACM Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 2012.
-
Mancini et al.,
2011.
In the Best Families: Tracking and Relationships.
Proc. ACM Conf. Human Factors in Computing Systems CHI 2011.
-
Friedman, B.
1996.
Value Sensitive Design.
interactions.
|
| 5/24 |
Critical and Cultural Perspectives |
-
Spigel, L. 2005.
Designing the Smart House: Posthuman Domesticity and Conspicuous
Production.
European Journal of Cultural Studies, 8(4), 403-426. (See also the
Roll-Oh movie that Spigel brings up.)
-
Lillie, J.
2004.
Technotopic Narratives and Networked Subjects: Preparations for Everyday
Life in Cooltown.
American Communication Journal, 7(1).
-
Sengers, P., Kaye, J., Boehner, K., Fairbank, J., Gay, G.,
Medynskiy, Y., and Wyche, S. 2004.
Culturally Embedded Computing.
IEEE Pervasive Computing, Jan-Mar, 14-21.
|
| 5/29 |
Theory and Design |
- Dourish, P, and Bell, G. 2011.
Chapter 3: Social and Cultural.
Divining a Digital Future.
-
Bell, G., Blythe, M., and Sengers, P. 2005.
Making by Making Strange: Defamiliarization and the Design
of Domestic Technologies. Proc. ACM Trans. Computer-Human
Interaction.
-
Agre, P. 1997.
Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI.
In Bowker et a, "Bridging the Great Divide: Social Science, Technical Systems,
and Cooperative Work."
-
Sengers, P., Boehner, K., David, S., and Kaye, J. 2005.
Reflective Design.
Proc. Fourth Decennial Aarhus Conference on Critical Computing,
Aarhus, Denmark.
|
| 5/31 |
Enquiring Ethnographically |
-
Dourish, P. and Bell, G. 2011.
Chapter 4: A Role for Ethnography.
Divining a Digital Future.
-
Miller, D. and Slater, D. 2001.
Chapter 1 from
The Internet: An Ethnographic Approach.
-
Lindtner, S., Anderson, K., and Dourish, P. 2012.
Cultural Appropriation: Information Technologies as Sites of Transnational Imagination. Proc. ACM Conf. Computer-Supported Cooperative Work CSCW 2012.
-
Burrell, J. and Anderson, K. 2008.
“I have great desires to look beyond my world:” information and communication technology use among Ghanaians living abroad.
New Media and Society.
|
| 6/5 |
Term paper discussion |
|
| 6/7 |
Making Futures |
|
| 6/12 |
Term papers due (midnight. Pacific Time.)
|
