Expressive Computation Lab

It’s official. I get to keep my job. Thank you to all the members and friends of the ECL community for supporting me on this weird and wonderful academic journey. I’m honored that I get to work and learn alongside you.

Last up at @acm_CHI 2026 is Stepdance: A Toolkit for Redesigning Existing CNC Machines Using Physical Metaphors Stepdance is co-authored by Ilan Moyer, @emxtyu , @devnfrost , and Maria Yang. Stepdance builds on our prior experiments with craft-aligned digital fabrication technologies. We sought to make it easier for designers and engineers to create CNC technologies that preserve elements of real-time interaction, manual control, and direct material engagement. Stepdance is a modular, creative motion-control platform that replaces the G-code or other motion controller in your CNC machine. You can use Stepdance modules to design mappings between live user input on custom physical interfaces, pre-programmed operations, and machine motion. We developed Stepdance during the 2025 Fab Lab Residency at @haystack_school . and used it with @3dpotter printers, @axidraw plotters, and @creality3d printers. For more details, check out stepdance.org Or see our presentation at CHI in Barcelona, Friday, April 17th, in the 11:15 AM session /chi/2026/my-schedule/content/223351

Next up at @acm_CHI 2026, a paper led by joyce.passananti and @emxtyu and co-authored with professor Tobias Höllerer and ceramic artist and professor Timea Tihanyi ( @sliprabbitstudio ) entitled "Clay ARTools: Precise Machine Toolpath Editing for Clay 3D Printing With Craft-Inspired Direct Manipulation Tools in AR" This work builds on our prior research in CAM-based design for clay 3D printing, extending the design environment to Augmented Reality. Clay 3D printing is often controlled by directly programming the deposition toolpath to fully exploit the capabilities of this fabrication method. But systems that afford this level of control are based on desktop interactions. We wondered, could we make precise toolpath editing feel more embodied? Augmented reality enables embodied interactions, but so far has only been applied to CAD. For toolpath editing necessary for clay 3D printing, we need to provide controllable ways to make edits. We do that by encapsulating edit operations as digital ceramic tools, inspired by ceramics tools. Joyce and Emile implemented this idea in a prototype AR system that lets people manipulate and combine tools and modifiers to edit a toolpath. In collaboration with Timea, we used Clay AR to design and fabricate ceramic vessels to demonstrate the wide range of effects that the digital tools and modifiers afford Check out the paper at /publication/clayar And if you’re at CHI, see Joyce's talk this Wednesday >> /chi/2026/program/content/223380

Next up at @acm_chi 2026 is award winning work led by Ilan Moyer and created in collaboration with Leo McElroy, Quentin Bolsée, Joshua Rivera Camacho, and Maria Yang. The Cantilevered Delta XY is a CNC mechanism that enables ***rackable digital fabrication*** - or digital fabrication machines that are designed to be physically narrow and deep so that they can be placed in shelving in ways not feasible with CNCs built for desktop use. This work is relatively unique within HCI for exploring the interaction opportunities afforded by novel CNC machine architectures. We won a Best Paper Award (top 1% of all papers at CHI) for this work! Ilan and co-authors envision new digital fabrication machine form factors with flexible and inconspicuous placement that supports ubiquitous fabrication, including site- and context-specific tools and personal factories enabled by shelf-optimized form factors that enable organization and functionality for collections of machines. These explorations necessitate new positioning mechanisms and machine architectures. The Cantilevered DeltaXY mechanism enables high lateral spatial efficiencies (LSE) in ways unmatched by prior CNC mechanisms.We contribute first-order design tools to aid the implementation of DeltaXY machines. We demonstrate DeltaXY by creating Fab Unit, a “bookshelf 3D printer” with an LSE significantly higher than similar commercial desktop 3D printers. Together, DeltaXY and Fab Unit open the design space of rackable digital fabrication for future HCI fabrication research. Check out the full paper and design tool at deltaxy.org/ And see the presentation Tuesday, April 14th, in the Interactive Design Systems for Fabrication Session at 12:15 PM in Room P1 133

The Expressive Computation Lab is fortunate to have four papers at CHI 2026! First up is work led by PhD student @paytoncroskey and co-authored with Professor Ruha Benjamin. In The Augmented Undercommons: A Framework for Liberatory HCI Research within Ethically Compromised Institutions, Payton builds from Harney and Moten’s undercommons to propose the Augmented Undercommons- a framework for strategic support of liberatory, culturally grounded technology development parallel and in opposition to ethically compromised institutions. We developed this paper in response to the current encroachment of authoritarianism in the US where we are located, and the impacts this development is having on both tech academia and industry. The augmented undercommons builds upon past knowledge from oppressed scholars to offer one possible survival strategy for our current moment, while critically reflecting on the HCI community’s current and future responsibilities. Check out Payton’s great work by reading the paper at /publication/undercommons And see her presentation Monday April 13th at CHI in Barcelona in the first morning session following the keynote.

New paper at ACM UIST by @farwest , @emxtyu , Megumi Ondo, and Alejandro Aponte. The WORM system enables craft practitioners to program robot arms to perform carving, painting, and other craft fabrication actions through a combination of manual demonstration and computational variation. Check out the full paper at expressivecomputation.com/publication/worm AT UIST in Busan? Check out our live demo! Thanks to Electrix for providing the UR. #cobot #digitalfabrication #craft

“All of the machines that we’ve been building together are trying to keep the hand in the digital fabrication process.” 🫴 Session 4 Fab Lab Residents Jennifer Jacobs (@expressivecomputationlab ) and Ilan Moyer are reimagining digital fabrication machines as extensions of traditional craft tools. This work situates technologies in craft communities to co-design products and workflows that reflect a craft-centric vision of digital fabrication. Selected for their expertise in craft and digital fabrication, the Fab Lab Residents undertake independent research and experimental projects aimed at advancing the field of craft through innovative techniques and materials. The Fab Lab Resident program provides an opportunity for Residents to push the boundaries of craft, explore new processes, and contribute to ongoing research in the Fab Lab. 🎥: Interview with resident artists Jennifer Jacobs and Ilan Moyer, interspersed with work samples, starting with text “Fab Lab Residents - Jennifer Jacobs and Ilan Moyer” set to the song “Ambient Summer” by makesoundmusic. #HaystackMountainSchoolOfCrafts #CraftSchoolExperience #CraftWorkshops #CraftArtists #STEAM #HaystackSchool #CraftCommunity #Haystack2025 #MadeAtHaystack #MakersMovement #CraftAndTechnology #FabLabNetwork #DigitalFabrication #3DPrinting #ResidencyProgram #VisitDeerIsle #DownEastMaine #BlueHillPeninsulaChamberOfCommerce

Just finished presenting our course on Computational Craft at @acmsiggraph 2025, alongside co-presenters @emxtyu , Hannah Twigg-Smith, and Emily Whiting, and co-organizers Nadya Peek and Mackenzie Leake. Full course slides available at expressivecomputation.com/craftcourse

Last up for @acm_dis papers is work led by recent @expressivecomputationlab alumn @farwest1138 and conducted in collaboration with Rubaiat Habib Kazi and Li-Yi Wei of Adobe Research. The paper, Narrative Motion Blocks: Combining Direct Manipulation and Natural Language Interactions for Animation Creation received a Best Paper Award! The system, AniMate, bridges the gap between direct manipulation and natural language tools for animation using narrative motion blocks: clip-like components located on a timeline that let animators specify animated behaviors with a combination of textual and manual input. See the full video and read the paper at: expressivecomputation.com/publication/motionblocks

Next up at @acm_dis is work led by @anuzk and @quirkycouture and co-authored by Tobias Höllerer, @kaithaler , and Emilia Yang. In our paper, Lessons from AR Memorialization: Artists’ and Activists’ Approaches to Responsible AR Development, we sought to inform responsible AR development through interviews with human rights memorialization AR creators. We analyzed eight AR memorialization works to identify responsible technical development principles for general AR applications. Read the full paper at expressivecomputation.com/publication/arlessons Many thanks to: Elder Tobar(4 Rios), Glenn Cantave (Kinfolk), @yesladypheonix (Breonna's Garden), Masaki Fujihata (Be Here/ 1942), Melanconnie (KAIA), Ram Devineni (Priya’s Shakti), Şölen Kıratlı (Cacophonic Choir), and Tamara Shogaolu (Un(re)solved) for allowing us to speak with them about their work. All illustrations by @anuzk

We have several papers at @acm_dis this coming week. First up is work by @ashley.del.valle and @emxtyu ! texTile is a system for supporting a modular garment design workflow that integrates digital fabrication, computational design, and handcraft. Ashley and Emilie created 3D-printed connectors that allow for easy assembly and disassembly of crochet squares. They also developed a computational design software that assists users in planning manual assembly and reassembly steps to convert one garment into another. They tested their workflow with experienced crochet craftspeople. See the full paper at our website expressivecomputation.com/publication/textile

Congratulations to @quirkycouture , who, just after successfully defending her master's research on liberatory data collections, recently received the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship! 🎉🎉🎉🎉 We are incredibly excited about Payton's next steps in the PhD, where she will investigate culturally meaningful forms of AI production.