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Unplatformed Repurposing: ‘Old’
Phones as a Family Craft Material
Abstract
The increase in short-lived devices (through planned
obsolescence) and the resulting e-waste prompts us to
advocate for change. As we tackle this problem from a
product design point of view, we argue another
approach is worth exploring: unplatformed repurposing.
The trend towards multifunctionality and
standardisation in domestic (IoT) devices lends them to
creative and craft-based reuse. We outline a need and
opportunity for less-technical, family-inclusive
Copyright held by the
owner/author(s).
Designing Interactive Systems
Conference 2020 Workshop
Proposition Paper, July 6–10, 2020,
Eindhoven, Netherlands
DOI: doi.org/10.13140/
RG.2.2.10942.92487
David Verweij
David S. Kirk
Open Lab, Newcastle
University, Newcastle upon
Tyne, UK
d.verweij2@ncl.ac.uk
david.kirk@ncl.ac.uk
Kay Rogage,
Kyle Montague
Department of Computer and
Information Sciences,
Northumbria University,
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
k.rogage@northumbria.ac.uk,
kyle.montague@northumbria.
ac.uk
Figure 1: An ambient information drawing indicates if chance of rain in the next 2 hours exceeds 75% (blue - left), or chance of cloud
is lower than 25% (yellow – right). Setup requires any ‘old’ phone, internet access, a copy of a Google Sheet and some creativity.
creativity.
approaches to DIY technology. We illustrate our
approach through an ongoing case study that leverages
the familiarity and low barrier of unplatformed
connectivity using ‘old’ phones, spreadsheet
programming and paper craft, to create ambient
information ‘drawings’. We aim to engage the workshop
attendees in a critical discussion of the potential and
longevity of unplatformed approaches for appropriating
‘obsolete’ tech in domestic environments.
Author Keywords
Unplatformed; appropriation; family; spreadsheets;
mobile phone;
Introduction and Background
Research into attachment (e.g. [19, 20]) motivates the
exploration of modularity, customisation and material
qualities to increase engagement with and (perceived)
durability of products. Similarly, humans have a long
history with Do It Yourself (DIY) practises, and
relatively recently an increase in DIY approaches to
technology (e.g. [14]). Products and objects created
through DIY processes benefit from enjoyment in the
process of creation, and foster increased feelings of
attachment [25]. Besides clear benefits from their
longevity of use, their DIY nature can also allow for
quick adaptation and appropriation by knowledgeable
creators adapting to ever-changing circumstances at
home.
The creation of bespoke solutions at home (also called
“free innovation” [12]) supports the benefits of DIY,
such as enjoyment and learning, and is based on
intrinsic motivations and responding to emerging needs
from the direct environment. However, as with most
domestic technology, these explorations are primarily
reserved for ‘technical’ household members [4, 9]. As
such, there is opportunity to make exploration of
technology, especially in the age of the Internet of
Things (IoT), more accessible for a wider audience – in
a similar spirit to DIY and maker practises [5]. More
specifically, such technology DIY practises need to be
supported to inspire creative use and motivate
collaboration, all whilst supporting a spectrum of
computational expertise – i.e. going beyond a “digital
mindset” [5]. This contrasts with the majority of DIY
IoT toolkits that primarily aim to teach coding to
school-going children.
One strategy we identified to “encourage end-of-life
upcycling, appropriation and reuse” [16] is to open up
appropriation of ‘discarded’ technology to a wider
audience using these DIY practises. This should
arguably focus on creativity rather than technical skill,
leverage ubiquitous services before proprietary
systems, and liberate personal data for personal gain
and use. Together, we see this unused potential as a
form of unplatformed repurposing.
Unplatforming, the use of existing (communication)
infrastructures rather than proprietary solutions, has
been shown to benefit social skills and strengthen
relationships in e-learning [1, 2] and coordinated
participation [15]. In software, products and services
increasingly connect themselves to integration systems
(e.g. IFTTT.com). Whilst these unplatform the
individual solutions – access to personal data is easily
granted and widely shared, a big concern within the
Human-Data Interaction [17] domain. Instead, the
developments of decentralized Apps (DApps) and linked
data infrastructures (e.g. SOLID “pods” ) aim to enable
independence from proprietary solutions. These
Figure 2: With the home-
security camera pointed at a bird-
house in spring, this ambient
information drawing indicates if
movement was recently detected
(blue left) and whether a new
photo has been taken (white
right).
developments put the control and agency of both data
and functionality in the owners’ hand, a much-needed
approach to combat dependency, software legacy and
potentially planned obsolescence. At this time, a
common (and more achievable) approach is to release
software ‘open source’, as in the revival of the Little
Printer [21]. Still, collaborative platforms for open-
sourced software, such as GitHub, are often out of
reach of less technical proficient users, a large potential
user group for DIY explorations with technology.
To explore possibilities for appropriating of discarded
technology for families – including those less-
technically invested – we took a look at upcycling
mobile phones. Whilst mobile phones have a relatively
short lifespan of ~2.8 years [24], their
multifunctionality and affordances show their stability
and versatility as networked design material – for
example in Research Prototypes [3]. Here, we aim to
leverage these affordances for a wider audience and
frame their use around household crafting, rather than
prototyping or coding. The result is a design exploration
to transform a phone into an ambient information
display [23], or ‘drawing’. Distributing this as a DIY
tutorial serves not only for dissemination, it contributes
to ongoing engagements between the DIY and
Research through Design (RtD) communities [6]. From
these engagements, we can start to understand how to
to involve family members in repurposing technology
who aren’t usually involved in its adoption or use.
Design and Scenario
Jimmy just got a new smartphone for their birthday to
replace a 4-year old phone with a smashed screen.
Whilst thankful for the gift, Jimmy was rather proud on
using their previous phone for such a long time.
Combined with a dinner conversation around predicted
stormy weather, Jimmy was prompted to put their old
phone to good use. First, they used their household’s
abundance of colouring pencils and paper to doodle
some potential illustrations that would communicate
the weather forecast in a quirky and personal way. A
few drawings in, Jimmy is satisfied and picks up their
(now redundant) phone. Following an online tutorial,
they select some options on a website and place the
phone behind the final drawing. Using their new phone
they edit an online spreadsheet template and find a
weather-related data source on IFTTT.com – the Met
Office seems eligible! A few taps later and the old
phone’s screen lights up the drawing according to the
temperature nicely. The next day, Jimmy changed the
drawing a bit to now also display rain forecast. All it
required was some changes to the spreadsheet. The
whole family got inspired, and dad now uses his old
phone to monitor the bird house out back (Figure 2),
whilst Jimmy’s sibling created a tool to indicate who
should clean the litterbox (Figure 3).
The familiarity of household crafts and visiting a web
browser aims to engage diverse family members in the
exploration of data for domestic uses through creative
practices. When formulated as a DIY tutorial, it thereby
focuses on creativity before skill, emphasizing a non-
coding, non-educational, approach and targeting
creative art-like explorations. At this stage, we have a
working prototype based on Google Sheets (see Figure
4). Below, we outline the potential of using such an
unplatformed approach.
‘Old’ Phones as a Family Craft Material
Aside from using mobile phones to power scientific
research [7, 13, 18], most suggested uses cases for old
Figure 3: Each day at 18:00, a
part of the family-portrait
drawing lights up red for 1 hour,
to indicate who’s turn it is to
clean the cat litter box.
phones involve using specifically designed apps.
Instead, we see an opportunity in leveraging their
integrated access to a web browser and thereby
adherence to web (W3C) and wireless communication
standards. Navigating a browser should feel familiar
and, depending on the device’s age, offer multiple input
and output modalities in a relatively stable and
coherent manner [3].
In our implementation we build upon spreadsheets.
Compared to 42 million users of the code collaboration
platform GitHub (2020) [10], Microsoft Excel and
Google Sheet boast 800 and 180 million users
respectively (2018) [8]. Admittedly, the spreadsheet
software requires some entry-level of skill – though
with its existence since the 1980’s and high current
user base we expect spreadsheets can engage a wider
audience than coding. Even more so, the benefits of
spreadsheet ‘programming’, including live feedback and
instant deployment, brands it “the most successful form
of end-user programming” [11]. Especially applicable to
Google Sheets, it’s cloud-based nature has added
connectivity features built in, which allows for
communication with other platforms and services
without any ‘coding’ required.
Our prototype currently only utilizes the screen as a
modality. Future milestones involve using other
modalities such as sound and vibration output, and
even touch, microphone or camera input, to enable the
creation of interactive objects. Increasing the
information throughput and sharing inspiring examples
to integrate with a multitude of crafts should allow
creators to explore the play of possibilities of different
design patterns around ambient information systems
[22].
Towards IoT as a Family Craft Material
We discussed the use of phones as a family craft
material, though argue this can more generally apply to
IoT devices. To generalise our approach, the IoT object
firstly needs to be designed to open standards (as
argued for the Little Printer [21]). Instead of fitting all
IoT devices with screens and web browser apps, we
foresee a potential to embed (if not hack) web
compatibility. Then, using other networked devices if
needed, these devices could be linked with any web-
based solutions and start their second life. If
successful, this can inspire the revival of more devices,
and, more importantly, provides “free innovation”
which product and service designers can learn from.
However, the approach in our prototype is not ideal.
Whilst the use spreadsheet programming is promising,
and IFTTT.com offers many possibilities, it thereby
heavily relies on 3rd party platforms. Even when it
increases data transparency, these parties have their
own data privacy agreements. In addition, apps would
provide more flexibility though due to continuously
updating operating systems and planned obsolescence
this remains challenging. This illustrates the need to
structure IoT around standardised and decentralised
protocols.
At the workshop, we would like to discuss an
unplatformed approach for families to repurpose
technology, and the feasibility and appropriability of
these in a profit-driven market. Could the ability to
easily revive an IoT product be used as a selling point,
or even as a requirement for the next generation of IoT
products?
Figure 4: Our current (working)
implementation sets up a
connection between an ‘old’
phone and a personal copy of a
Google Sheets template. The
template generates a unique ID
that needs to be entered on an
open source website on the old
phone. Using any other device,
data sources can be set up to
send data to the Google Sheet (a
existing feature at IFTTT.com).
The spreadsheet will act upon the
incoming data based on the
user’s formulas (or chosen
examples) within the
spreadsheet.
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