Denaturalizing 3D printing's value claims

Gabby Resch

Daniel R. Southwick

Matt Ratto

pp. 105-122

in: Michael Filimowicz, Veronika Tzankova (eds), New directions in third wave human-computer interaction I, Berlin, Springer, 2018

Abstract

This chapter examines how 3D printing has been framed as a liberatory technology that confers agency to users on the one hand, and an automated system that de-centers the user on the other. These entangled visions, we argue, can be traced to values that are threaded into 3D printing's DNA. By historically situating the social context of 3D printing, tracing its roots to the CAD/CAM revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, we denaturalize assumptions about the technology's users, its modes of interaction, and its societal impact, offering third wave HCI new insights for broadening how it considers context and values.