Traditional handcrafts provide a rich domain for exploring new kinds of playable and computational experience. There is significant shared history and conceptual overlap between computer science and fiber-based crafts such as quilting and embroidery. This talk presents three projects that sit at the intersection of games, textiles, and computer science: 1) Threadsteading is a game designed and played on computerized quilting and embroidery machines; 2) eBee is a collaborative strategy game that merges electronics and quilts; 3) Hoopla is an interactive, procedural embroidery generator. These projects share common threads such as bridging the digital and the physical, questioning authorship and creativity, exploring new modes of interaction, and disrupting the gendered assumptions associated with computation and craft.

1. Computational Craft
Lessons from Playful Experiences at the Intersection of HCI, Textiles, and Games
Gillian Smith
Northeastern University
@gillianmsmith
www.sokath.com

2. background
➤ computer science
➤ artificial intelligence
➤ human-computer interaction
➤ beyond computer science
➤ fiber arts
➤ jewelry
➤ history
➤ language
➤ play
➤ music

4. why craft?
➤ tangible, tactile
➤ rooted in old traditions
➤ feminine and feminist practice
➤ intergenerational
➤ storytelling
➤ aesthetic importance

5. craft as play

6. craft as play

7. craft and gender

8. craft and computation

9. example projects
textiles
computationplay
threadsteading
hooplaeBee

10. eBee
2016 Most Innovative Tabletop Game Award

11. ebee game
➤ connect patches
➤ build circuits
➤ light up LEDs
➤ team-based play
➤ collaborative and co-operative modes

12. value-driven design
➤ social
➤ collaborative
➤ creative
➤ intergenerational

13. affordance-driven design
➤ tactile
➤ simple
➤ borrowing motifs
➤ aesthetics

14. bridging crafting and making
➤ laser cut pieces
➤ soft circuits
➤ traditional quilting techniques
➤ hand- and machine-sewing

15. design accidents
➤ from workshop design to board game
➤ educational game

16. lessons learned

17. hoopla

18. human-computer authorship
➤ quotes pulled from online source
➤ keyword-driven color palette
➤ build keyword set
➤ generate collections
➤ human stitching

19. craft as computation
➤ algorithmic
➤ rendering process
➤ symbolic
➤ formal

20. computation as craft
➤ labor-intensive
➤ aesthetically-oriented decisions
➤ reflective
➤ shared authorship

21. generative design as formalism
➤ what is an embroidery sampler?
➤ curation of sets

22. public-facing
➤ what do individuals find compelling
➤ ephemeral nature of generated art

23. threadsteading

24. game for embroidery machines?!
➤ …and also for quilting machines
➤ strategy-based play
➤ machine stitches play-trace

26. affordance-driven design: machine
➤ slow play
➤ unknown score
➤ limit sewing back over spaces
➤ single unbroken line

27. affordance-driven design: medium
➤ even density
➤ hexagon motif
➤ storytelling

28. permanent traces of gameplay
➤ visualize the “story” of play
➤ commitment to making a move

29. play as generative design
➤ mechanics chosen for desired aesthetics
➤ players as enactors of rules
➤ many emergent maps
➤ player-executed procedural content
generation

30. gender and computing
➤ computing in unexpected locations
➤ automation of highly gendered activity
➤ software for embroidery/quilting
➤ what else can we make?

31. craft, computation, and play

32. finding new audiences…

33. …and broadening horizons

34. adopting new technologies…

35. …and respecting old ones

36. Acknowledgments
ebee team: Celia Pearce, Isabella Carlsson, Jeanie Choi
threadsteading team: Jim McCann, Lea Albaugh, April Grow, Chenxi Liu
computational craft: Anne Sullivan, Josh Tanenbaum, Karen Tanenbaum
funding: Science Gallery Dublin, Disney Research Pittsburgh,
Northeastern University College of Arts, Media, and Design
@gillianmsmith
www.sokath.com