User experience researcher and designer Mike Kuniavsky gave a very thoughtful talk about “Making things in a Read-Write world” at Lift France. Mike’s core point is that the nature of making things changes as the cost of moving atoms goes up and technologies for reproducing physical objects using computer-controlled tools moves into more media. Mike suggests that ubiquitous computing isn’t just about offices and homes, but garages, workshops and assembly lines.
In Mike’s view digital Read-Write culture (a concept invented by Harvard UC Professor Lawrence Lessig) started with the Apple LaserWriter and the MP3 and will expand to every other kind of making. Just as the economic and energy situation of the 18th Century England created the conditions for the Industrial Revolution and Read-Only culture, today’s conditions will dismantle the thinking of the last 250 years about how things are made and how we, as consumers and producers of culture, relate to it.
Mike started out doing web design in 1993 and has been a consultant for a lot of dotcoms. He also wrote a book called “Observing the User Experience” and will be coming out with another one called “Smart Things”. In 2001, he co-founded a web design and consulting company called adaptive path. Five years later, he co-founded ubiquitous computing consumer electronics company ThingM. Mike also runs an annual mini conference called Sketching in Hardware.
For an overview of all interviews and presentations from Lift France, please click here.
06.08.2009 at 14:08
[...] electronics prototyping platform Arduino. In her talk, Alexandra starts where Michael Shiloh and Mike Kuniavsky end in their presentations – talking about the future of their ideas on ubiquitous computing and [...]