Browsing by Subject "Digital artifacts"

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Documenting architectural practice
(2018-05) Pierce Meyer, Kathryn Alisa; Doty, Philip; Galloway, Patricia K; Clement, Tanya E; Moore, Steven A; Langmead, Alison
This study is a situated socio-technical examination of the culture of architecture, wherein the decisions and negotiations of actors in everyday practice effect artifact creation, management, and preservation. My argument is that all participants in architectural practice are making archival decisions when they actively select what to make, what to discard, and what to keep. As a historical narrative, the study addresses continuity of architectural documentation by examining how everyday practices, and the resulting artifacts, have changed over time. Working from a critical constructivist framework and employing an interpretivist methodology, I adopted mixed methods to provide a rich understanding of the history of architectural and archival practices in which to situate my analysis and address the following question: How might architectural artifacts be preserved in ways that illuminate the complexity of practice and the multiple layers of assumptions and values that inform the co-construction of the built environment? The story I want to tell about architecture requires investigation through three methods, each addressing one of the primary concerns of my research. The historical examination of computer technologies for architecture situates my understanding of the artifacts of practice within the context of debate about the value of specific tools for architecture and discussions about role of the architect within the industry. A reflective analysis of learning architectural technology describes my work to understand two specific tools used in architecture, AutoCAD and Revit. I introduce how complexity and uncertainty are woven throughout architectural practice, problematize the attribution of architecture to solo creators, and establish a framework for how to study complex workplaces, in particularly situated action in an architectural firm. Employing Howard Davis’ concept of “building culture” as a frame for considering the larger context within which people do architectural work, I describe historical cases of technological change and how information (as concept) is used in doing architecture. I examine an in-depth case study that provides an enhanced understanding of what contemporary architectural practice looks like and how artifacts are an integral part of the doing of architecture. Drawing on results of my research, I develop an “architectural information system” concept and address building social and technical infrastructure to document and preserve architectural artifacts.
Using physical and digital artifacts to make us who we are : the case of paper and e-books
(2018-05) Gruning, Jane Laurance; Trace, Ciaran B.; Dillon, Andrew; Lindley, Siân; Spinuzzi, Clay; Acker, Amelia
Material culture research has demonstrated how relationships to physical artifacts are central to human lives, and that people use artifacts in processes of constructing their own identities and representing those identities to other people—and that the display of artifacts is central to these practices (Douglas & Isherwood, 1979; Miller, 1987; 2010). Recent human-computer interaction (HCI) research has suggested that digital artifacts do not function in the same ways as physical artifacts for these (and other) purposes (Kirk & Sellen, 2010; Odom et al. 2014). Research on human interactions with physical and digital artifacts over the past decade has revealed that people see digital artifacts as less reliable, less “real,” and therefore less valuable than their physical counterparts (Golsteijn et al., 2012; Kirk & Sellen, 2010; Odom et al., 2012; 2014; Petrelli & Whittaker, 2010). Although we increasingly rely on digital technologies, we tend to see them (and the digital artifacts that they support) as “throwaway” things—exciting and even essential for a time, but quickly outdated and replaced with new versions. This has serious ramifications for the roles that digital artifacts and the technologies that support them can play in human lives more generally. This dissertation investigates interactions with physical and digital artifacts through an in-depth examination of two types of artifacts: paper and e-books. It examines vii readers’ everyday and long-term book-related practices through a multi-method approach consisting of a month-long diary study, home tours, and interviews with twenty-seven participants. This investigation revealed new nuances in the complexities of interactions with physical artifacts in home settings, and additionally found that participants valued digital artifacts differently depending on the rules for interaction with artifacts that applied within the digital system that supported access to those artifacts. This finding revealed, then, that it is possible to create digital systems that promote the value of the artifacts within them through supporting the visibility of digital artifacts, and supporting people in taking maintenance and collection management actions with those artifacts— that is, it is a combination of artifacts’ visibility and having reliable control over them (through ownership) that allows artifacts to become valuable for their owners.