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Crafts praxis for critical wearables design

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Abstract

This paper treats contemporary craft as an under-researched resource for wearable computing, and presents some of the alternative values and experiences that contemporary craft may be able to contribute to the design of personal technological products. Through design and implementation of a suite of wirelessly networked ‘Speckled’ jewellery, it considers contemporary craft for its potential as a critical design resource with especial relevance to wearable computing and the broad development of this paradigm into the everyday. ‘Critical design’ is given a working definition for the purposes of the argument, and a friendship group of five women of retirement age introduced as the user group for this research. Current practice in the contemporary craft genre of jewellery is analysed for its potential as a resource for a critical approach to wearable computing, and based on a set of semi-structured interviews with contemporary jewellery practitioners, the paper presents a set of propositions for a critical craft approach to wearables design.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank the participants in the interviews at the Edinburgh College of Art Silversmithing and Jewellery Department, Professor Dorothy Hogg, her doctoral supervisors Dr. Michael Smyth, Dr. Alison Crerar and Professor Jessie Kennedy in the School of Computing at Napier University, Edinburgh, and of course the five women who have taken part so willingly in the research over the past 2 years.

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Correspondence to Sarah Kettley.

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Kettley, S. Crafts praxis for critical wearables design. AI & Soc 22, 5–14 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-006-0075-0

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