Nov. 25 - Dec. 2, 2021
Partners: Dany, Greta, Ramya, Rylee
Brief: Design an experience of paper that explores its material, cultural and emotional qualities
Research Method: Literature Review
"Studying the history of paper exposes a number of historical misconceptions, the most important of which is this technological fallacy: the idea that technology changes society. It is exactly the reverse. Society develops technology to address the changes that are taking place within it" (Kurlansky, 2016, p. xiv).
During our first meeting, we brainstormed all the ways that we still use paper today. We noticed that bureaucratic documents such as contracts and tax forms had mostly migrated to the digital sphere, whereas paper that held emotional significance, such as birthday cards and wedding invitations, still remained largely in physical circulation.
Post Office
We made a quick trip to the post office to observe what people were buying and sending. From this excursion, we saw that paper acted like a thread connecting people across time and space. We noticed that the post office was well-stocked with cards for special occasions. People were also sending money to relatives abroad.
What Makes Paper So Special?
We started thinking more about greeting cards and agreed that receiving a handwritten card made more of an emotional impact than reading a text message.
But a question remained: why? What brings about this emotional impact?
Is it because we can see the imprint of the person who wrote the letter? Is it because it feels like the person writing held us in their mind and hearts for at least as long as it took them to write the letter?
The key question for us was what differentiates paper from other digital formats? Why has it remained in circulation despite seemingly ubiquitous digital technology? After pinpointing the answer, we would be able to create a prototype that would build upon these qualities in the form of augmented or interactive paper.
Affordances of Paper
In order to determine what makes paper so special, we wanted to take a closer look at its affordances (Gibson, 1979). Paper engages multiple senses: touch, smell, and sound. We realized that the emotional impact of paper and the materiality of reading was worth examining more closely. For example, why do so many of us still prefer hard copy books to Kindles or tablets?
Literature Review
For our literature review, we looked at some of the affordances of paper.
Affection exchange theory (AET) Floyd — Dany
Cognitive effect learning— (eg: writing on the paper is more memorable) — Ramya
Dopamine — Greta
Affect theory — Vicki
How does sound and scent affect emotion — Rylee
Through our literature review, we learned that writing on paper aids memory retention. We also wanted to look at texture and affect and how different kinds of paper produce different affects.
Human Imprint
With certain pulpy textures of paper, you get high absorbency, and this creates a channel (whether intentional or unintentional) for people to leave traces of themselves behind on the paper. We thought of letters written by soldiers during the Civil War. Not only was the writing quite vivid, but the ink, fingerprints, and stains on the paper also provide a snapshot of the moment of writing and a direct link to the author. In other words, the importance of paper is that it can act as a vessel for human imprints. These imprints can consist of lipstick, oil from fingertips, ink stains, sweat, or tears.
Paper Size
After visiting the print lab and gathering some scrap posters and paper, we observed that the size of the paper alters its purpose. Different sizes and textures of paper give rise to different meanings and purposes. For example, postcard size paper is the more common mode for communication and connotes a more intimate connection as compared to A4 office size sheets of paper.
Prototyping
So, for our prototype, we implemented the two concepts of imprint and paper size.
Input: the feelings that the paper conveys by its thickness, material, texture, color and other features
Output: the sensory imprint that the volunteers create, how they augment the paper with their personal touch
We decided to give the volunteers different sets of postcard sized paper. Although we agree that seeing a person's handwriting can lead to high emotional affect, we ultimately removed writing from the experience for the following two reasons:
1) privacy: perhaps they wouldn't feel comfortable revealing something personal to the public and
2) we wanted our volunteers to engage with multi-sensory elements to focus more on the paper’s texture, smell, weight, and the human imprints, such as stains, fingerprints, and lipstick
For the presentation, we provided various textured and colored paper for the volunteers to choose from, then asked them to think of someone to whom they would like to send the paper or of a certain situation in which they would like to use the paper. We brought scissors, water, makeup, ketchup, and mustard for them to use on the paper as an imprint. We gave them three minutes to complete this activity.
Outcome
Our three volunteers, Zhe, Effy, and Ranga, all decided to write to people close to them, such as their mothers or friends. Unexpectedly, Effy and Zhe altered the paper by cutting them into the shape of hearts. They also used other tools to write little notes on the paper, even though we had tried to remove writing from the experience. We saw how writing was still deeply interconnected with letters.
Feedback
For our feedback, Tonicha noted that the affordances of paper do not only include how it is made or used, but also the culture behind paper. It seemed like we had created a toolbox for our prototype in which we asked our volunteers to communicate with their loved ones without using writing.
John also noted that there was a big gap between the texture of the paper and the feeling it creates. He suggested that we delve deeper into the culture of postcards and their journey through the postal system.
With this feedback, we decided to take a closer look at the culture of letter writing and the experience of 1) sending a letter and 2) receiving a letter.
Reflections
I really like working with this group. Everyone puts in their best effort and I feel like we have a nice group dynamic. It's great when people can set aside their ego and focus on what would produce the best possible project, not on whose idea is best. I'm grateful to end the term with a group like this.
Bibliography
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