Session: Pasts + Futures CHI 2012, May 5–10, 2012, Austin, Texas, USA Revisiting the Jacquard Loom: Threads of History and Current Patterns in HCI Ylva Fernaeus Martin Jonsson Jakob Tholander School of Computer Science and Dept. Communication, Media Dept of Computer and Systems Communication, KTH and IT, Södertörn University Sciences, Stockholm University Stockholm, Sweden Huddinge, Sweden Kista, Sweden
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT Over the last few decades, use cases and concrete benefits In the recent developments of human computer interaction, of interaction resources beyond desktop and laptop settings one central challenge has been to find and to explore have been increasingly analysed and illustrated in research alternatives to the legacy of the desktop computer paradigm in HCI, especially in the areas of tangible and physical for interaction design. To investigate this issue further we interaction design. Given the physical manifestation of the have conducted an analysis on a fascinating piece of Jacquard loom in relation to this focus on physicality, machinery often referred to as one of the predecessors of embodiment and alternative forms of interaction in our the modern day computer, the Jacquard loom. In analysing research community, we see its design as particularly the Jacquard loom we look at qualities in design and interesting to explore. interaction from some different perspectives: how historical tools, crafts, and practices can inform interaction design, This paper aims to provide insights in the mechanics of, the the role of physicality, materiality, and whole-body interaction with, and some of the processes around a interaction in order to rethink some current conceptions of Jacquard loom, in the light of the kind of technologies that interaction and design of computational devices.