Exploring Situated Making in Media Technology Education
marketed towards women - Color - beige, black, light brown, white, and silver, patterned. Exterior - small, purse-like, slim, soft edges. Material - fabric or leather. Recognizing these differences Juri chooses to focus on gender norms for his prototype. He begins working with Adafruit flora but then decides to move away from microelectronics and finds an interest working with wood (figure 4). He makes three conscious choices before starting to work with his prototype: 1. 1) A personal desire to create gender-neutral design 2. 2) Change standards for the business world by creating a case with material that doesn't connote luxury. 3. 3) Ridicule the case as a symbol of stature by creating a case that could be connoted as a cheap one.
Figure 3.
Figure 4.
Jonna’s keys Jonna picks keys because they are one of the objects she uses daily and she wants to explore her relation with them as they take a lot of space and are difficult to keep track on. She continues to situate them historically and materially, introducing different kinds of keys and where they are used. In her mind map on critical making she lists some issues and possible solutions. • Keys look the same --> difficult to find the right key -- use sound, blinking lights, patterns. • Easy to lose --> connect to mobile phone or an electronic key finder. • Take a lot of space ---> alternative keys --> code, alarm, finger print • Difficult to find keyhole for visually impaired --> add sound to key, cardkey. • Use mobile as key --> safe Jonna reflects on the practicality of the key finder product and if you still need to know where the badge is. Would it be better to connect it to the mobile phone? She further reflects on how future keys will be developed and whether lock systems will use codes instead of physical keys and how secure these systems are. As part of the module in creating a prototype in new material students are encouraged to browse through the Swedish magazine Crafts ("Hemslöjd"). Jonna is inspired by a method where you work with imperfection. For instance when knitting you shouldn’t stop to correct the pattern if you have made an error, just continue to knit. Jonna wants to use this method in her prototyping by producing an object without reflecting on what it would look like beforehand or look into correct production techniques. She decides to create a key in fabric. The prototype is soft and bendy, difficult to use in any existing keyholes and breaks easily. She experiments with new uses for her prototype and tries it as a door stop, umbrella hanger, window holder and mobile stand (figure 5). Her prototypes with
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