Industry Keynote
TBC
Topic: tbc
Academia Keynote
Dr. Laura Devendorf
Dr Laura Devendorf is a design researcher working at the intersection of craft and engineering. Her personal practice explores how technology shapes reflection, particularly around experiences of motherhood. As director of the Unstable Design Lab, she works collectively with faculty, students, and visiting artists to build communities around “experimental weaving,” a term that captures a broad range of approaches to and applications of woven structures across art and science. Over the last several years, she has also led the design of AdaCAD, an open-source computer-aided design tool that applies the principles of computational design to the creation of woven structures. Her research has received several Best Paper Awards in the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and has been supported by a U.S. National Science Foundation CAREER Award.
Laura is an Associate Professor of Information Science in the ATLAS Institute at the University of Colorado Boulder. She received her PhD from the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, and holds bachelor’s degrees in computer science and studio art from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Title of presentation: Weaving Counterfactual Narratives of Technical Progress
Counterfactual thinking is a form of asking “what if” questions that consider how the present might have unfolded if historical events had different outcomes. In this talk, I draw from my research as an artist, computer scientist, and design researcher to present a counterfactual narrative of technical progress rooted in my deep fascination with and immersion in the world of complex weaving—the practice of creating complex 3D, electronic, and/or robotic structures. For example, how might our relationships with devices change if we handcrafted them from fiber, mended them with thin metals, and adapted them to our changing bodies with crochet hooks? I weave together historical narratives of textiles and technology with the work of students and artists-in-residence at the Unstable Design Lab to craft a vision of technology that emphasizes humility, care, and community.