The Poetics of Socio-Technical Space: Evaluating the Internet of Things Through Craft

ABSTRACT

Drawing on semi-structured interviews and cognitive mapping with 14 craftspeople, this paper analyzes the socio-technical arrangements of people and tools in the context of workspaces and productivity. Using actor-network theory and the concept of companionability, both of which emphasize the role of human and non-human actants in the socio-technical fabrics of everyday life, I analyze the relationships between people, productivity and technology through the following themes: embodiment, provenance, insecurity, flow and companionability. The discussion section develops these themes further through comparison with rhetoric surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT). By putting the experiences of craftspeople in conversation with IoT rhetoric, I suggest several policy interventions for understanding connectivity and inter-device operability as material, flexible and respectful of human agency.

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Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)