Craft as a matter of care to inspire the design of computational things
Vasiliki Tsaknaki, Anna Vallgårda · Nordic design research conference · 2023
Craft, being the skillful process of turning materials into artifacts, bears many similarities with interaction design as a practice of giving form to computational materials. Zooming into the studios of five craftspeople and through interviews with them, we unfold stories of the joys and struggles they encounter in their practices. Departing from these, we unpack and discuss how craft is a matter of care, using the notion of care by de la Bellacasa. We argue that the dual movements of care in the making and through the artifact are linked and that the ability to generate care through artifacts comes from the care with which they were made. We end with three suggestions of how craft as a matter of care can inspire the design of computational things, formulated as questions that invite reflection and suggest paths to designing technologies with a care commitment.