Authors:
Chris Csíkszentmihályi
How do you describe your lab to visitors? The Critical Technical Practice (CTP) Lab at the Madeira Interactive Technologies Institute (M-ITI) is a multi-scale, multi-purpose lab+shop for research and education, tailored to the extremity of our location: a lovely small island in the middle of a big ocean. On this paradisiacal, warm, and verdant rock, we are trying to reimagine the possibilities of sociotechnical systems. Our parent organization, M-ITI, has a strong HCI reputation, with a foundation in CS and EE. Its founders recognized the importance of art, the humanities, and the social sciences for excellence in technical work and sought European funding to leapfrog into these areas. The lab is a place to experiment with these reconfigurations and to ensure that the H in M-ITI’s HCI is as robust as the C.
What is a unique feature of your lab? Location, location, location. Amazon Prime takes two weeks minimum; we are constrained by lead times and supply chains, but constraints drive creativity and we enjoy the challenge. As our most important work is deployed and scaled rather than merely prototyped for demo or exhibition, we also need to be able to make working parts when they are critical. This is why we have a lathe and an excellent CNC mill; we often make metal sprockets or gears, and molds for hard plastic parts. There is a lot of plywood and metal, not much foam core or acrylic. No 3D printer! We might build one, but we think these printers promote laziness when it comes to actually understanding how something might be built. We encourage mold making with our CNC mills, making jigs and machines to make things, and thinking about how an object would be manufactured.
As with our current projects in Uganda and Cabo Verde, we enjoy the challenge of thinking about how designs can be implemented with locally available materials and skills in different parts of the world. Our protest robots use wood from shipping pallets (and hoodies); discarded juicers and motorbikes litter our shelves. At the same time, we are investigating supply chains and energy on the island, looking at the cycle from import to garbage, and trying to extract useful waste throughout the process. We are a long way from sustainability, but the gripping remoteness and precarity of our beautiful location makes sustainability an ever-present concern, and we are addressing it from an unusual perspective.
 | We take safety seriously. |
How many people are in the lab, and what is the mix of backgrounds and roles? We built the lab to conduct our own research but also as a service to the greater community, embracing other researchers at M-ITI, the scientists at the Madeira Ocean Observatory, and other faculty at the adjacent university. Altogether that means we’re extremely heterogeneous, including American CMU/M-ITI MHCI students who spend their thesis year with us; Madeiran students who are the first in their families to go to college; a Ph.D. candidate from Uganda; an STS postdoc from Jamaica—indeed, students and postdocs from every continent. Europe has put a lot of energy into mobility, and the lab reflects this.
 | Products of a class on locally inspired wooden toys, organized by U. Madeira design faculty and led by Prof. Sergio Lemos, fabricated in the CTP shop at Madeira-ITI. |
What is one feature of your lab that you could not do without? The massive powered subwoofer.
What is the one thing you see as most important about the work you do there? We see technology as politics by other means, and we derive our designs by reading STS, postcolonial theory, and engaging in long-term interactions with communities. A lot of our thinking references the strengths of southern Europe and its response to austerity and global finance: What are technologies of autonomy and solidarity? But Madeira is closer to Africa than it is to Europe, and has been a historical nexus between the Atlantic continents. Unfortunately, during the 500-year war on Africa by Europe, Madeira was a sort of laboratory for prototyping slavery and extraction—the first sugar plantations and refinery were here, before the discovery of the Americas. We are trying to append this history by referencing African epistemologies in our work, and developing technologies with and for the Global South that are better than what we have in the West. This is obviously very different from the cozy bourgeois concerns of much speculative design. It is also more messy and requires a diverse and multidisciplinary team.
 | Examples of designs fabricated in Uganda by local craftsmen at Lo’gel Project, prototyped in Madeira-ITI. |
 | Portuguese military officers in training for promotion to the rank of General visit Madeira-ITI, reconnoitering v the peace-loving Probot protest robots. |
 | Another CTP design for weatherproof FM antennae, using agricultural materials available almost anywhere in the world, fabricated in Uganda. |
Footnotes
http://ctp.m-iti.org/interactions
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Post Comment
@Mark Albin (2012 06 30)
This is a very interesting article about social bots, thanks for sharing.
@Aman Anderson (2012 07 18)
This is great
“So what’s the center of a design? In one sense, it is the designer’s nuanced understanding of the problem or opportunity at hand. The focus of design is problem solving, not self-expression.” - Uday Gajendar, Interaction Designer
@Bill Killam (2012 07 31)
This is a long overdue article. And I couldn’t agree with it more. I’m current working on yet another Federal RFP that is asking for us to do work using short cut methods that are likely make it harder to get them quality results, and we can probably propose a cheaper and more data rich approach if they didn’t specify how we had to do the job. Sad.
@Demosthenes Leonard Zelig (2012 08 12)
Great Article, it is funny to notice that such huge corporations do not even bother to do a market research before releasing products on a new market. However, I guess we are still learning from our mistakes.
@karla.arosemenea@gmail.com (2012 10 24)
Hi everyone, In the Technological University of Panama there is also a movement. There is a 2 years MS in IT with a specializtation in HCI. We are also trying to include HCI as part of our main curricula. This year we started a research with a company interested on incorporating usability in their development. We expect to receive a Fulbright Scholar next year in this area…
Regards,
Karla Arosemena
Professor
@John Michael Sheehan (2012 11 06)
There are thousands of blogs that requires comments on them. What is the intention of blog comments? Sent From Blackberry.
@Junia Anacleto (2012 11 07)
A very shallow and naive view of a much more rich and complex context.
I am still waiting for a fair position paper to be presented.
@Rick Norton (2012 11 17)
Excellent article raising significant issues that are largely overlooked. The prospect that the collapse of sustainability for a growth/consumption related societal model is inevitable, is a topic I have often wondered about, given the nature of capitalism as we know it today. Even the “Great Recession” of current times gives me pause to wonder just how long we can keep this economic engine going before we have to face the reality that we are all going to have to learn to “live with less”. (A quantitative assessment, not necessarily qualitative.)
Keep up the good work. Hopefully, you will raise awareness of these topics.
@Noah McNeely (2012 11 27)
Very nice article, that raises meaningful questions. I actually think that the idea of sustainable products and sustainable product development is a bit of a myth. All products consume energy and other resources in one form or another during their production, use, or re-use. The key, ultimately is to balance resource consumption with resource production, but we will always need to be producing new resources. See my blog post on the subject at ( http://productinnovationblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/are-there-sustainable-materials_7159.html )
@ed.h.chi@gmail.com (2012 11 30)
The quote in the article mis-contextualize James Landay ‘s essay. James actually is actively working to break down those stereotypes, but you can’t do that without understanding what the deep problems are.
James’ blog post on this is at
http://dubfuture.blogspot.com/2011/12/china-will-overtake-us-in.html
@Lee Crane (2012 12 03)
This is a topic that is thought provoking and important. The message explores how humans can escape and survive the world they have jumbled. So many of the theories and ideas are basic. Our future may look a lot like the distant past. And indeed we may be happier for it.
@ 4996484 (2012 12 19)
this is a great article David and Silvia! I’‘m so excited that you guys wrote this up and are showing everyone the complexities in this space. I hope Interactions features more of this kind of research on China. Although I agree w/ @landay’s assessment of China’s creativity problem - but he’s working with a very different population than you guys. I think you research is absolutely on point - creative folks are going to hacker spaces like Xinchejian, they aren’t ending up in institutions like Tsinghua! I explain more here: http://www.88-bar.com/2012/12/where-are-all-the-creative-chinese-people-hanging-out-in-hacker-spaces-apparently/
@Joe (2013 01 04)
I think that if you study the Elliot Wave Theory it can answer your questions.
@Rafeeque (2013 01 06)
good one
@zhai (2013 01 17)
Enjoyed reading this article. I finally got why Harold wants to call it “the Fitts law”. If enough people write it that way I would never have to correct another submission making the embarrassing mistake of ‘Fitt’s law”.
I did not completely get the following remark though:
“The Accot and Zhai paper about the Fitts Law [3] has a clever title that illustrates
the rules on letters, “More than dotting the i’s…”—a bad pun on eyes.”
I came up with the title, but the word “eyes” never came to my mind. We meant that the point-and-click style of UI is like dotting the i’s everywhere—- placing a click on constrained targets as the fundamental action in interaction. Why not using ” Crossing the t’s ” as an alternative action? Indeed, we presented models of a new style of UI, which systematically reveals when crossing is superior to clicking, hence the subtitle of the paper “Foundations for crossing-based interfaces.”
Shumin Zhai
@Mohamadou M. Amar (2013 03 22)
I am a Doctoral student in I/O Psychology with Touro UW and need to access your articles.
@Mohamadou Amar (2013 03 22)
Need access for Doctoral Research
@William Hudson (2013 04 09)
Gilbert overlooks the important issue that the ‘big boys’ largely do not appreciate the need for design all and the problems that real people have with technology. I admit that we’ve had a hard time selling UCD but I am not persuaded by the arguments here to abandon it. Perhaps have a look at my article on a similar subject - User Requirements for the 21st Century - where I take a more pragmatic view of trying to address real users’ needs in the development process. http://bit.ly/agile-ucd
@ 0343665 (2013 04 29)
Fantastic text. I came here by searching for people that quote the Standford study on multitasking. The introduction is fantastic as it builds up an argument that attention has some features that do not change over time.
@Simon Taylor (2013 04 30)
not wanting to do anything so grandiose as building a (technology for) a world parliament, I have in essence been working on the same problems and facing the seven challenges with a project called ‘company.’ [https://gust.com/c/littleelephantltd]
In 2011, working with senior software developers - gratis - although neither the ethical undertaking nor the promise of sweat equity were enough to keep them involved - I established the technical feasibility of ‘company.’
h
In 2012, turning from the ‘voluntary’ ‘principled’ participation model - because the attractions of real paying jobs had lost me my team - I received financial support from the New Zealand government. This part-funded an Intellectual Property Position Review - which government considered a pre-requisite - as commercial due diligence - to investing in an initial build, or beta. The IPPR recommended I do proceed… However, government offers only part-funding and without a team - either technical or commercial - there has been little to no investor interest.
As things stand at present, I have the tools and schematics for a beta build of something which would fit the sort of use imagined here. If you have any interest in helping, please contact me.
Best,
Simon Taylor