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At a conference a group builds electronics flowers, using them to explore dimensions of sharing and network technologies (Ratto and Hoekema 2009); in a city, urban agriculturalists use simple robots to explore smallscale farming and automation (DiSalvo 2012); in their workplace, designers construct an IV bag in the shape of a teddy bear and rely on the cognitive dissonance to convey affectual sensibilities about health and childhood (Dunne and Raby 2001); in a design firm, a group of designers and sales people build wearable sensors to test theories of cognitive plasticity and embodiment (Ratto 2010); at the university, a class of students uses arduinos and electronics to explore critical information issues (Ratto 2012); and in her studio, an artist clones ten trees and places them around the world as part of a material experience-experiment on nature-nuture relations (Jerimijenko 2001).

These examples, drawn …