Dear Joël,
You are moving into an interesting area at the intersection of several well-defined fields. There are some kinds of work being done on issues related to your questions in material culture and anthropology, in sociology, as well as in informatics, computer science, and information science. I’m not sure that anyone has asked this question in quite same way that you are asking it — that’s what makes it research. But it is also possible that someone has done so.
I’d suggest three courses of action.
First, contact people in the design anthropology community. They’d be likely to know. If you post a research request to the Yahoo Anthrodesign list, you may get some answers. You can learn more about this list at:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/anthrodesign/info
Second, find the people who are most likely to know about this kind of work because it is related to their own work. One specific person who may be able to help you is Prof. Judith Gregory, Associate Director of the Evoke Lab and Studio at University of California at Irvine. (Their motto is “Theorise, Design, Make.”) She has a good overview of the issues is this field, and will likely know about the work being done now.
http://evoke.ics.uci.edu
The other two people to contact are Prof. Christene Nippert-Eng and Prof. Erik Stolterman at the School of Informatics and Computing, Indiana University, Bloomington. You’ll find Erik on the IU web site. Chris has just moved from Illinois Institute of Technology. She is not yet on their web site, but you’ll be able to look her up by September.
If you spend some time on the web dipping into these fields and trying different search terms, you are likely to turn up at least a dozen or so more. None of these may be doing exactly the work you need, but this touches on work by many scholars. I have not followed this closely enough in recent years to give you more names, but Judith, Erik, and Chris will surely know.
Third, do an old-fashioned literature search. If you are located in a research university with a solid digital resource collection in the university library, I’d log on and search the journals. Your university library will also have a specialist librarian for the fields you need to cover. This may mean speaking with different specialist librarians for social sciences, sociology, and anthropology for one search, and informatics and computing for the other. These librarians can help you search. You can also check the ProQuest database of theses and dissertations to see whether anyone has done work on this issue or related questions for a master’s or a PhD. If someone has done, the thesis will have a literature review that provides you with a good starting point.
Yours,
Ken
Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University | URL: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/she-ji-the-journal-of-design-economics-and-innovation/
Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology | Melbourne, Australia
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Joël Gähwiler wrote:
—snip—
I'm currently starting with a research project that looks at everyday objects (things) and their interconnections. As more and more of these things are digitally connected, they begin to form invisible networks, for example in a smart home. Our goal is to find a model which designers can use to design these hidden connections, similar to have the ability to design the form of an object and steer its affordance.
If someone has done or stumbled upon some research that goes in this direction, please give me a note!
—snip—
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