3.6. Background Research

3.6.1. Objective

Objective: write an analysis of an existing physical computing project for the course blog.

This assignment is intended to develop your skills at identifying the core questions of the course within existing work. It will also help develop a body of documentation inspiring work to share.

Please see Related Work for starting points for finding sources to research. In keeping with the scope of the course, please steer clear of projects involving projectors or video output since our focus is on projects centered on the embodiment of computing rather than graphics. Projects involving museums or children are especially encouraged.

The primary objective of the analysis is to briefly convey the core idea of a project to your fellow students. Here are some prompt questions to consider:

  • Who, what, when, where: make sure we know the basic context, what the thing does, etc.
  • What was the problem the project is addressing?
  • Why is it important? What is the context?
  • What new insight was involved in the solution?
  • How well did it work?
  • What are ways it relates to our themes?
    • How does it exhibit embodied computation?
    • How does it balance mechanism versus computation?
    • Where does it fit into the human world?
    • Can you articulate the energetic and informational processes which cross between the mechanical, electrical, and computational domains?
  • What is the one key takeaway lesson?
  • Is there a way your peers could apply this solution?

In general, please focus on the thought process of the author, not your own reflections. I.e., it isn’t that helpful for your audience to read your personal reactions; once they see the idea themselves they will naturally have their own response, but a fair assessment requires a fair hearing. The text of the analysis should be accompanied by images, drawings, diagrams, and brief video clips which reinforces the explanation.

3.6.2. Deliverable: Analysis Blog Post

  1. Please create a post with Category ‘Reports’ and a title which reflects the chosen project. It may be public or private.
  2. All sources must be cited. For papers, please use a standard bibliographic form. Web resources should be linked in a browsable form (e.g. make sure they are links).
  3. All media should be included in a browsable form, either as external links, Google Slides, or directly posted.
  4. Please do not post a PowerPoint, PDF, or document file: these aren’t browsable.