touching computers

[TI-12] on carrying my website around, tangible computing, and computing shrines

Last fall while taking a hand-building ceramics class¹ with S, I had the wild idea that I wanted to make something to carry my website around with me. I was thinking about the logo for both my website and this newsletter, which comes from my Chinese name, 正. I wanted a physical, tangible representation of my identity, something that could explain more than words what I care about to people when I first meet them.

What if I made a trinket that held my website so I could carry around a thing that feels like one of the most true expressions of myself?

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Simultaneously, I'd been playing with NFC chips² more lately, and it felt like a perfect combination of mediums to achieve my vision. NFC chips can hold small amounts of data, including links that open when tapped by compatible devices. The idea was to make a ceramic trinket with my logo embossed on the front and somehow get an NFC chip on the inside.

After a few iterations, involving MATH(!!) to calculate clay shrinkages to size the container to the NFC chip and testing whether NFC chips survive sitting through a kiln (spoiler alert they do not), I finally made a version that feels pretty good and works really well! I fired it in two pieces, one acting as the "base" and one as the "lid" to insert the NFC chip after they came out of the kiln, sealed up the hole with epoxy putty, and SIGIL I was complete.

overhead view of the stamp in action

Reflecting on a few months of carrying SIGIL I with me, I'm really enjoying being able to carry around a tangible object that somehow represents me on a deeper level? The physical object feels nice and I enjoy its varied texture from the logo marks, an uneven layer of clay, and chipped glaze. It feels rough and incomplete yet deeply important, like my website. Whenever I get to show it to others (often when they want to learn more about my work, which leads me to ask "can I give you my website?"), there's this look of genuine wonder and delight from the whole experience. I especially love how this feels in more "professional" settings. The playful joy that emerges from the interaction feels like a tiny subversion against all the 3D chess politics that are usually involved in networking situations.

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This focus on physical augmentation has a long history in tangible computing from the MIT Media Lab. Their principles focus on direct manipulation and seamless integration between the digital and physical worlds. For example, a core exploration is around "ambient displays" that leverage physical space as an environment for digital material to be felt, such as a "wind of bits" causing pinwheels to spin.

from the slides of Hiroshi Ishii, the head of the Tangible Media Group

It's an interesting time to revisit these principles with the latest buzz in computing around the Vision Pro.

I still haven't gotten the chance to try it out³), but on first instinct, I feel less excited about augmented reality (AR) that involves overlaying software on the physical world for a solo experience, of which the Vision Pro seems to represent the apex achievement. This approach seems to only grow our attachment to the device rather than any of the reality being augmented. It hijacks physical reality and massages it into the optimal form for our digital realities.

Instead, I'm compelled by the kind that involves imbuing software into physical objects that are perceptible by everyone, in the same way physical objects already are. I want to imbue physical objects with computational properties. I want computing that brings people together where they already are, rather than more advanced and convenient ways of immersing into digital realities.

This is partially what makes my stamp feel so magical. It's meaningless without other people and the computational property activates a communal sense of joy and wonder. This shared sense of reality is a core part of the tangible computing explorations.

Compared to augmented reality, tangible computing is:

• an inherently shared experience because it involves enchanting physical objects that everyone can see rather than individual technological overlays

• adds functionality inherently tailored to a specific object's physical properties

I'm very excited about all the developments that continue to come out in this field from folks like folk and the innovations painting circuits. I imagine a day in the future when we can simply draw our computers and manipulate them from both our devices and the objects we already have in our lives.

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On my end, I'm excited to continue exploring this idea by creating NFC-enhanced objects. The next step in my explorations is to lean more into the "manipulable" property of the tangible computing principles. NFC doesn't allow for a ton of expressiveness. The communication is one-way. But what if we could communicate two-way, and visitors could shape not only the digital space the object holds but also the very object itself? One novel emphasis in my explorations, compared to prior work, is an emphasis on no or minimal battery power required.

The requirement of a constant power supply limits where these devices can be placed. But I want tangible computing devices that can be as commonplace and ubiquitous as the flyers that plaster telephone poles across cities.

I think embedding these tangible computing devices in public can help facilitate and strengthen local communities.

We already feel a latent connection to those in our communities even if we don't know them: the other regulars at our favorite cafe, those who love the same park bench that we always visit on our walks, our neighbors who we pass on the street day after day. That bond activates with a surprising strength when we learn something intimate about them. I think about how I feel seeing other people's works at the pottery studio, the fortunes people write at Buddhist temples, or the little messages people leave in the sidewalk.

a warm message on a San Francisco sidewalk

I think these public computing devices can become a kind of infrastructure to facilitate this. In the same way that we already share with our community through memorials, neighborhood libraries, and community fridges, I wonder what computing as a material can offer us if we could embed them in public areas as easily. Can we move beyond merely facilitating connection to building solidarity?

I want to make computing shrines⁴: communally created and maintained sites of intimacy and solidarity facilitated by the fabric of computing.

I want computers that I can touch and make me feel touched, by all the lives that I'm surrounded by.

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recent updates & asks

• playhtml react launch: I made a big update to playhtml to add react support. It feels oddly good to use to make small communal web experiences, like having a "choose-the-color" website and a cursor party. These two are part of my weekly(ish) experiments with playhtml that take less than an hour to make. Play around and I encourage you to make something simple with playhtml if you've been interested! If you run into any trouble, I'd love to help you out—just DM me.

• I debuted my latest piece of internet art at an event in New York a couple of weeks ago. You can experience some of it live on the web:

  https://cursorwatch.ing/

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1. a practice focusing on using your hands to make ceramics rather than a wheel.

2. Stands for "Near Field Communication" and refers to a technology that powers everything from tap payments, to transit cards, to keycard readers. Effectively, the technology involves tiny computer chips that are able to communicate sizable bits of pre-programmed information without a power source. I've taken to referring to them as the world's tiniest computers from conversations with Omar about them. I got a big pack from Amazon.

3. if you have one and are willing to let me try... let me know?

4. I started an are.na channel to hold inspiration. If you have ideas, please do comment or reply :)