Convivial Fabrication: Towards Relational Computational Tools For and From Craft Practices

Paper Title

Convivial Fabrication: Towards Relational Computational Tools For and From Craft Practices

Publication Info

• Topic area: Computational tools for fabrication in craft practices.
• Keywords: Craft practices, computational tools, materiality, conviviality, human-computer interaction, fabrication workflows, material dialogue, sustainability, design principles, relational systems.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Computational tools for fabrication often abstract away the relational and material dynamics central to craft practices, limiting the autonomy and creativity of craftspeople.
• Significance: Craft practices depend on intimate, responsive engagement with materials, which computational tools frequently disrupt, leading to a loss of embodied knowledge, accountability, and sustainability.
• Motivation and related work: Prior work in HCI and fabrication has focused on precision, speed, and reproducibility, often prioritizing predictable outcomes over material responsiveness. This paper builds on critiques of hylomorphic models and explores alternatives that foreground material dialogue and craftsperson autonomy.

Solution

• Proposed approach: Extending Ivan Illich’s concept of convivial tools to computational fabrication, emphasizing tools that support human-material collaboration across three orders of relations: immediate, mid-range, and extended.
• Novelty:
  1. Identification of three orders of convivial relations in craft: immediate (craftsperson-material-tool), mid-range (community-platform-material), and extended (institution-infrastructure-ecology).
  2. Seven design principles for computational tools that enhance material dialogue, collective knowledge, and accountability.
  3. Empirical insights from 23 expert interviews across diverse craft practices.
  4. Framework for rethinking computational tools to align with craft values and ecological contexts.
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with woodworkers, fiber artists, and metalworkers.
  • Analyzed craft workflows and challenges in computational tool use.
  • Developed design principles based on empirical findings and theoretical frameworks.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Computational tools often abstract material responses, disrupting craftsperson-material dialogue.
  • Platforms standardize techniques and fragment tacit knowledge, while infrastructures obscure material histories and ecological impacts.
  • Craftspeople adapt by cultivating material responsiveness, leveraging community knowledge, and engaging with local ecologies.
• Advantage over baselines:
  • Proposes a relational framework that goes beyond artifact-centric and efficiency-driven computational tools.
  • Offers actionable design principles to support autonomy, creativity, and sustainability in craft practices.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Interviews with 23 experts across diverse craft domains.
  • Thematic analysis of workflows, tool use, and material engagement.
  • Findings grounded in real-world craft practices and challenges.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited geographic scope (predominantly northeastern US).
  • Focused on specific craft domains; broader applicability to other fields remains to be explored.
  • Future work could investigate conviviality in other computational domains and expand on cross-order material relations.

Summary

This paper explores how computational tools for fabrication can better support craft practices by fostering richer material dialogue, collective knowledge, and ecological accountability. Drawing on 23 expert interviews, it identifies three orders of convivial relations—immediate, mid-range, and extended—and proposes seven design principles to guide tool design. These principles emphasize embracing material imperfections, fostering adaptive workflows, and bridging knowledge across relational orders. The findings contribute to HCI by offering a relational framework for computational tools that align with craft values, with implications for sustainability and material engagement in other domains.