2015 CHI presentation of Hybrid Practice in the Kalahari, Jennifer Jacobs and Amit Zoran http://web.media.mit.edu/~jacobsj/#_kalahari

1. CHI 2015
Hybrid Practice in the Kalahari:
Design Collaboration through Digital Tools and Hunter-Gatherer Craft
Jennifer Jacobs
MIT Media Lab
Amit Zoran
MIT Media Lab & The Hebrew University

2. Across cultures, people have
practiced diverse making traditions,
resulting in a multitude of design
styles. Yet, despite the diversity of
human making, digital making has
developed mostly within an
industrial context
The dialog on technologically
supported making can be enhanced
through a better understanding of
making practices in traditional
indigenous cultures

3. How non-digital craft cultures can inform the design
of digital tools?
What methods can help us understand other cultures
in ways that are relevant to digital practice?

4. Hypothesis
By engaging with non-digital crafting societies through the mechanism of
collaborative making, we can bridge differences in communication, resulting in
an enhanced understanding of the making practices of these cultures.
We posit that by incorporating digital tools in collaboration with a non-digital,
non-industrial culture, we can gain new insight into the affordances and
limitations of this technology.
To examine this hypothesis, we apply digital design and fabrication technology
to the craft of a people with a unique worldview: hunter-gatherer societies.

5. THE JU/’HOANSI CULTURE AND CRAFT

6. 6
THE JU/’HOANSI CULTURE AND CRAFT

7. 7
THE JU/’HOANSI CULTURE AND CRAFT

9. THE JU/’HOANSI CULTURE AND CRAFT
- Minimal notions of ownership, hierarchy, and division of labor
- The Ju/‘hoansi material culture emphasizes immediate applications
- They invest in social ties rather than material storage
- Their symbolic culture does not embody long-term principles
- Aesthetic preferences are driven by personal desire
- Aesthetic preferences are rarely described in abstract terms

10. Freedom of Creation,
www.freedomofcreation.com 2010
RELATED WORK

11. honeybuild.comPeter Schmitt servo laser Fab Labwww.ulsinc.com
RELATED WORK

12. Neil Gershenfeld and the “Fab Lab”
RELATED WORK

13. Zoran, A and Buechley, L. 2013. Hybrid reAssemblage
Jacobs, J., and Buechley, L. 2013. Codeable objects
RELATED WORK

14. TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES
Traditional and manual techniques

15. TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES
Computational techniques

16. TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES
Computational techniques

17. TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES
Computational techniques

18. TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES
Computational techniques

19. COLLABORATION METHODOLOGY: Techniques

20. COLLABORATION METHODOLOGY: Communication

21. COLLABORATION METHODOLOGY: Risks picture of bush store if amit has it

22. WORKSHOP: Timeline
first visit to Grashoek(1 day)
first visit to //Xaoba (1 day)
second visit to //Xaoba (3 days)
hiatus and restocking (3 days)
third visit to //Xaoba (2 days)
second visit to Grashoek (>1 day)
introductions
style comparison
long-term collaboration

23. WORKSHOP: Results
40 hours of collaborative making
All Ju/‘hoansi makers were women
60 collaboratively created artifacts

24. WORKSHOP: Results
Categories
3D-Printed hybrids Digitized iconography Modular Assembly

25. WORKSHOP: Results
Style diversity with 3D-printed hybrids
Grashoek //Xaoba

26. WORKSHOP: Results
Style diversity with 3D-printed hybrids
Grashoek //Xaoba

27. WORKSHOP: Results
Style diversity with 3D-printed hybrids
Grashoek
//Xaoba

28. WORKSHOP: Results
Digitized Iconography

29. WORKSHOP: Results
Digitized Iconography: Appropriation

30. WORKSHOP: Results
Digitized Iconography: Parametric Modeling

31. WORKSHOP: Results
Digitized Iconography: illustration

32. WORKSHOP: Results
Digitized Iconography: illustration

33. DISCUSSION
Joint affordances in digital and traditional tools
ImmediacyAppropriation

34. DISCUSSION
Joint affordances in digital and traditional tools
ImmediacyAppropriation Creative Variation

35. WORKSHOP: Results
Modularity and precision

36. WORKSHOP: Results
Modularity and Precision: Multi-part standalone configurations

37. WORKSHOP: Results
Modularity and Precision: Multi-part standalone configurations

38. WORKSHOP: Results
Modularity and Precision: Modular bead systems

39. WORKSHOP: Results
Modularity and Precision: Modular-press fit components

40. DISCUSSION
Barriers Between Abstract and Concrete Practices

41. DISCUSSION
Barriers Between Abstract and Concrete Practices

42. DISCUSSION
Making as a form of cross-cultural communication

43. DISCUSSION
Making as a form of cross-cultural communication
When making with people of different cultures:
Use artifacts as a means of communicating values and ideas.
Prepare a diversity of creative avenues.
Use making as practical form of communication

44. DISCUSSION
Reinforcing community through making

45. We deeply thank all the Ju/’hoan makers that participated in this collaboration
also
Megan Biesele and the Kalahari Peoples Fund
Karin Le Roux from OMBA trust
Polly Wiessner
Joi Ito
and
T. Rucham, A. Aksamija, S. Follmer, J. Brandt, D. Mellis and M. Resnick.

46. Hybrid Practice in the Kalahari:
Design Collaboration through Digital Tools and Hunter-Gatherer Craft