Towards Materials for Computational Heirlooms: Blockchains and Wristwatches

This paper explores the contrasting notions of "permanance and disposability," "the digital and the physical," and "symbolism and function" in the context of interaction design. Drawing from diverse streams of knowledge, we describe a novel design direction for enduring computational heirlooms based on the marriage of decentralized, trustless software and durable mobile hardware. To justify this concept, we review prior research; attempt to redefine the notion of "material;" propose blockchain-based software as a particular digital material to serve as a substrate for computational heirlooms; and argue for the use of mobile artifacts, informed in terms of their materials and formgiving practices by mechanical wristwatches, as its physical embodiment and functional counterpart. This integration is meant to enable mobile and ubiquitous interactive systems for the storing, experiencing, and exchanging value throughout multiple human lifetimes; showcasing the feats of computational sciences and crafts; and enabling novel user experiences.

• Publication year

  2018

• Venue

  Conference on Designing Interactive Systems

• Publication date

  2018-06-08

• Fields of study

  Materials Science, Computer Science

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1145/3196709.3196778
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

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