693065 event 1791206127 1791210905 <![CDATA[Keeping Ideas in Motion: Computation, Craft, and Creative Agency]]>
Abstract: What should computation make easier, and what forms of exploration should it help sustain? This talk examines how computational tools can expand creative possibilities while preserving room for makers to interpret, experiment, and change direction. I argue that supporting creative agency requires attention to material qualities, making practices, and human expertise. This perspective frames a critical discussion of AI: what it might enable, what forms of exploration it might displace, and how its contribution should be evaluated beyond convenience and artifact quality. I develop these ideas through more than a decade of research on automata making, which combines engineering, craft, and storytelling through mechanical movement. Projects from Paper Mechatronics to MotionSmith, involving professional artists, educators, and young makers, provide cases for examining how computational support takes shape across tools, materials, and people. These cases reflect tensions around what to simplify, what to make understandable, and what to leave open for experimentation, revision, and creative discovery.

Bio: HyunJoo Oh is a designer, design researcher, and Associate Professor jointly appointed in the School of Industrial Design and the School of Interactive Computing at Georgia Tech. She directs the CoDe Craft group, which explores how computing technologies can expand the expressive and technical possibilities of everyday materials. Working with professional designers, hobbyist makers, K-12 students, and educators, she investigates how making and learning shape one another. Since 2020, she has served as PI or Co-PI on seven research projects, including five focused on K-12 and higher education, with support from the National Science Foundation, Frances Wood Wilson Foundation, Facebook Research, and Dolby Labs. Her group’s work has received best paper and honorable mention awards at ACM DIS 2019, CHI 2023, and TEI 2026, alongside design recognition from Core77, Fast Company, NYCxDESIGN, and Prototypes for Humanity. She received Georgia Tech’s College of Design Outstanding Faculty Award in 2026. She holds a PhD in Technology, Media, and Society from the University of Colorado Boulder. She earned her master’s degree in Entertainment Technology at Carnegie Mellon University with support from a National Global Scholarship awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism of South Korea (2010-2012). 

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IPaT: GVU Lunch Lecture Series

The IPaT: GVU Lunch Lecture Series is free and features guest speakers presenting on topics related to people-centered technologies and their impact on society. Lunch is provided at 12:00 p.m. (while supplies last) and the talks begin at 12:30 p.m. Join us weekly or watch video replays. Lectures are held in the Tech Square Clubhouse behind the Centergy One building in Technology Square.
https://peopletech.gatech.edu/news/lunch-lecture-series

]]> This talk explores how computation can expand creative possibilities while preserving makers’ agency, drawing on work with artists, educators, and young makers.

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