In theory, maker technologies such as 3D-printers, micro-controllers and other fabrication tools have the capacity to empower their users to create any designs they wish. However, what do people without any technical background need so that these can become useful tools for them in practice? In my Digital Civics research, I have collaborated with groups as diverse as hackers with disabilities, quilting sex workers and aging members of a Men Shed on making their own ‘useful stuff’. One of my particular interests is in experimenting with participatory and creative research methods and how co-design can be used as a means to establish healthy give-and-take-relationships between researcher and researched.

I am a co-founding member of fempower.tech, a group of intersectional feminists who raise awareness of feminist issues in HCI. I hold a Bachelors and Masters degree in Media Informatics and have previously worked in the IT-department of an Austrian governmental institution as well as in consulting services for a software company.

Thesis Title

Making Useful Stuff: A Context-Sensitive Enquiry of the Sociomaterial Practices of Makers-in-the-Making

After the PhD

Post-doc researcher at the HCI research group of TU Wien