Designing for private and shared
memoralization through craft

Maria Elena Margarella

Digital Media, MS 2021

About EMMA

As an embodied memory maker, EMMA stands as a system that connects the physical practice of handcrafting with digital web affordances. Through slow-natured sewing activities, like English Paper Piecing, this kit provides space for private reflection and memorialization, resulting in a tangible embodiment of one's grief. Through the crafting process, participants may share in communal grieving in the form of a web interface that visualizes data collected from an enhanced sewing template. The template is embedded with a touch sensor that sends the frequency and length of use as a participant traces the necessary materials for their hand-sewn quilt.

This project speaks to a gap in contemporary memorialization practices that seamlessly merge digital and physical practices within private and shared spaces. Prioritizing an accessible, low-tech approach, this craft kit is designed to offer a personalized, hands-on method of processing grief and loss while remaining connected to the collective.

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How does it work?

EMMA consists of a wooden box containing an Arduino Uno that's connected to a digitally enhanced quilting template and a computer. A participant uses the template to size and trace the necessary pieces for their individual quilt, and as they use the tool, an embedded touch sensor registers the pressure applied and records the length and frequency of use as one makes their quilt. The Arduino sends the data to a Processing sketch, which then generates additive visual imagery in the form of flower-like animations.

The interface acts as a channel for communal grieving, as participants can see the visualizations rendered from others' crafting sessions in real-time. By merging the shared and private spaces, a participant can focus on their individualized experience while also receiving validation that they are not alone in their grief.

EMMA assembled

Inside the box

Representation of tech

Final Presentation

I successfully defended my Master's project on April 19th, 2021 in front Digital Media students and faculty. The 15-minute presentation was followed by a round of Q&A. You can access the slide deck at the link below.

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Future work

I want to revisit the digital visualizations and refine the meditative quality while incorporating personalizable options. The structure of the tool itself should be revisited as well with the aim of making it a free-standing sewing template. As a crafter myself, I found the templates available for online ordering unsuitable for beginners and ultimately for EMMA; because of that, I'd like to create my own resin molding of a template that will better support accessibility and the technical requirements of the touch sensor. On another note of accessibility, I'd also like to create instructional cards, or even a video, that will further lower the barrier to entry.

Credits

EMMA was created as a master's project in the Digital Media graduate program at the Georgia Institute of Technology. This work was advised by Dr. Michael Nitsche, who oversees the Digital World Image Group (DWIG) within the DM graduate program. I'd also like to thank committee members Dr. Anne Sullivan and Dr. Janet Murray for their incredible guidance and support over the past two years.

Designing for private and shared memoralization through craft