[ 3] Csíkszentmihályi, M., and E. Rochberg-Halton. The Meaning of Things: Domestic Symbols and the Self. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981, 17.

[ 4] Nonetheless, recent
HCI research has begun
to explore creative human-
centered approaches
to designing interactive
technology capable of
facilitating more envi-
ronmentally sustainable
behaviors in and around
the home—e.g. Woodruff,
A., J. Hasbrouck, and S.
Augustin. “A bright green
perspective on sustain-
able choices.” In Proc.
CHI ’08. New York: ACM
Press, 2008.

[ 5] The tradition of photography specifically as a mechanism of inventory documentation played an influential role in the development of the personal inventories approach, which is discussed in Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method (revised and expanded). Another interesting example of photo-ethnography is P. Menzel, Material World: A Global Family Portrait, San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1994.

has emerged as a key area of interest. Nonetheless, it remains a complex and diverse setting when compared with the relatively well-explored intersection of technology and the workplace. Csikszentmihalyi and Rochberg-Halton’s seminal study describes human relationships with artifacts in the home: “...one can argue the home contains the most special objects: those that were selected by the person to attend to regularly or to have close at hand, that create permanence in the intimate life of a person, and therefore that are most involved in making up his or her identity [ 3].” At the same time, the home represents a major site of resource consumption and premature disposal of interactive technology [ 4].

The personal-inventories approach consists of conducting in-home contextual interviews to probe participants’ reflections on the range of relationships they have with artifacts in their home and investigate the underlying reasons and motivations behind these orientations. These reflections are elicited as participants navigate their homes to demonstrate the various artifacts and spaces that arise during the interview. The interviews are therefore highly situational, since the interviewee does not necessarily remember her or his personal artifacts unless they are immediately present and can be pointed to. The “moving around” and “looking at things” in the home and the “probing” (pointing) from the interviewer is essential to the method. Photography also plays an important role during inventory sessions, in terms of providing a tool for on-site visual documentation [ 5]. In what immediately follows, we offer a glimpse into particular case instances encountered during our ongoing personal-inventories research.

as a writer. I can easily use it and wouldn’t soon give it up.”

The participant’s description characterizes the typewriter as an enduring device, endowed with meaning over time. Nonetheless, why is it that the typewriter took on such significance and the laptop did not? In our interpretation of these underlying reasons, a contrast emerges between the typewriter and laptops—the “ensouled” and “unensouled.” The typewriter was developed with notions of quality in mind—that is, superior parts withstanding time, which consequently promotes equality of experience. Moreover, as it endures from person to person, the typewriter ties to diverse histories of use and begins to achieve heirloom status. However, the inclusion of high-quality components does not always imply a design is likely to become ensouled; the way the components of a design form its whole is similarly important. The open design of the typewriter invites maintenance and renewal, and it is relatively transparent in terms of the participant’s ability to understand and engage with it on material, sensorial, and functional levels. Conversely, the closed, uniform design of the laptop presents a larger barrier to entry for participants to perceive it as anything other than a means to an end—that is, it represents a gateway to the information it provides access to, rather than a unique material entity in one’s life that may shift, change, and develop new significance over time. Nonetheless, the typewriter is obsolete for most people’s purposes, while the thing that replaced it—the computer—is not made to standards that would promote ensoulment or heirloom status.

September + October 2008

interactions

Durability and Transparency

Consider the typewriter and laptop. The typewriter continues to live on decades after it was created, while the laptop is unlikely to last as long. What are the underlying reasons behind one object’s endurance and the other’s relatively short lifespan? One writer we know said the following: “It [the typewriter] is one of my most loved things. I got it when I decided I would try literary and magazine writing on a professional level. It’s special to me because I use it a lot to type out quick letters, but it has also taken on a deeper significance—it’s come to represent the hard work of writing and motivates me to develop my craft

Conscious Care Over Time

Consider the digital kitchen timer and the now antique manually operated three-minute egg timer pictured. The digital device is the sixth timer the participant has owned in as many years, while the egg timer represents an heirloom object in its most classic sense—created 80 years ago, it has since been passed across three generations within the same family and continues to operate the same as it did when first used. While similarities exist in this and the previous case, a key difference lies in the quality of materials. The egg timer is constructed of tin, glass, and sand, which is relatively less physically durable than the metallic composition of the typewriter. How is it that the timer