Science friction
Despina Papadopoulos, Otto von Busch, Erik Sandelin, Magnus Torstensson · 2004
Digital technology is often conceived of as tools designed to support goal-oriented tasks and activities as efficiently as possible. In the wake of the rapid proliferation of digital technology new uses and new settings of use emerge that call for a dramatically different design rationale.The use of digital devices for communicative and social purposes is growing steadily, and digital devices become more and more integral in the processes in which we gain and maintain social relations.As social beings, however, we seldom behave in specifically goal-oriented ways. On the contrary, many human strategies for communication, self-expression, and negotiation of social status rely on practical difficulty, resistances, weights, ordeals, pain, and ambiguity.The Science Friction panel juxtaposes examples, imagery, and concepts from the domains of fashion and interaction design to provoke discussion and challenge established assumptions of personal digital technologies and start a healthy contamination of discourses: "Are tattoos user-friendly? Is that a desirable application? How does your shirt work? What is the software equivalent of high-heeled shoes?".