pulp is a salon for writers (and readers) working at the intersection of design, business, social sciences, and technology. pulp functions like a long-running, peer-directed workshop: open discussion, critical feedback, lots of iteration, and deep respect for one another. At the top level of pulp, you find things in the midst of their evolution from notion to finished work. And that’s how we want it.

Designing Embedded System Interactions for Human Flourishing

by Ryan Brotman
January 24, 2010

Designers of human-computer interactions (HCI) work in a highly ambiguous space, investigating the middle ground between the user and the interface. However, what happens when the interface is not visible to the user? Such is the case with embedded ubiquitous computing (ubicomp) systems. These systems work through complex sensor networks that act as a constant, silent observer, monitoring user behavior. Through these systems, the domain of interaction expands from a keyboard, traditional game controller or even next generation game controllers such as WiiMotes and Project Natal, to a user’s home, car or office. While HCI researchers propose one value of embedded systems is as persuasive agents that motivate users in

Complex Adaptive Systems, Heroism & Disruptive Innovation in Multinational Corporations

by Tony Salvador
October 23, 2009

VERY EARLY DRAFT: DO NOT FORWARD, POST, REDISTRIBUTE. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN. THANKS.

Working title: Complex Adaptive Systems, Heroism & Disruptive Innovation in Multinational Corporations
Tony Salvador

Abstract
This paper reframes innovation practice within large multinational corporations through a merged lens of systems theory with mythology. There are several reasons for this reframing: First: the structure of innovation in a large corporation is theoretically and practically the same as the structure of heroism across mythology – the monomyth — as outlined in Campbell’s The Hero With A Thousand Faces. In both cases, the Hero must escape his/her current system, enter into, create and/or operate within another, and eventually establish a resolution with the

Practice makes… practice?

by Melissa Cefkin
October 14, 2009

A question, what is new with practice?  I don’t mean “our” practice (whoever the ‘we’ of that is), but I mean the notion of practice as a conceptual, theoretical or methodological object.

It seems to me that “practice” is a predominant notion upon which much ethnographic and human-centered design work in industry sits. Theories of practice have provided ethnographers in industry a theoretically nuanced yet empirically resonant object of analysis by which to frame and ground their work. I think it grounds the work of human-centered designers too. Even when practitioners themselves may not draw explicitly (or knowingly) on this trajectory, the general framing of the applied ethnographic research, design and

Lurking | Learning

by Rick Robinson (editor)
October 8, 2009

This has emerged as the main question folks have about the idea behind pulp:  “Why would I put anything I write up where all those lurkers can see it too?”

I don’t have a pat answer.  I think that thinking about thinking in an open-source sort of way does entail some risk of a form of idea piracy.  That’s not without basis, given the fact that a great deal of work in the design/research intersection has been ‘citation-free,’ largely, I think, due the perception among all kinds of practitioners that they need to be able to claim uniqueness in order to offer value, and that uniqueness has been understood as pure

Backpacks and diaper bags

by Katie W McGlenn (editor)
October 6, 2009

Teen mothers schlep a tremendous amount of stuff from home, to bus, to school, to programs. Beyond the everyday heavily backpacked highschool students, these young women pack for two people and two very different roles.  …

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