Objects in Flux - RMIT Research Repository - RMIT University

Objects in Flux
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practices of consumer production pay little attention to European design
traditions or to the ‘affluent and image-conscious circles’ referred
to by Thompson.
Research into the qualitative aspect of consumer production is currently
quite limited, however studies from the domain of computerhuman
interaction (CHI) are beginning to address this field. Through
observation, participant interviews and workshops these studies have
identified various traditions within practices of consumer production
and have gone some way towards describing practitioner motivation
(Buechley, Paulos, Rosner, & Williams, 2009; Kuznetsov & Paulos,
2010; Torrey, et al., 2007). These studies focus mainly on the use of
computer-based technologies within consumer practices and the various
means by which practitioners use these technologies to make their
activities public.
Largely missing from these studies however is an account of the modification
experience. While this discussion is absent from academic
discourse, such accounts are prevalent within the practice itself. Consumer
production is a highly self-reflexive practice and practitioners
are not separate from, nor blind to, the meanings they create. Consumers
actively construct narratives of use that position their actions
within a specific social field and belief structure. These narratives give
valuable insight into the nature of consumer practices and the participant
experience.
1.4 Method
This research operates in the gap between academic discourse and amateur
practice-based accounts of consumer production. The research
was undertaken through a project-based model that involves active
participation within the field of object modification. In adopting an observant
participant approach the research is itself an amateur engagement
with the field of object modification, however this engagement
operates within an academic frame. Stories of object modification,
initially developed within the practice, are later reflected upon within
the academic context.
The research began with the question:
How does an object become something other than what it is?