the soft computer is a thesis project exploring textiles as computational logic.
the soft computer
the soft computer is a soft, textile-based computing object that uses touch, craft, and embedded electronics to imagine gentler, more intimate ways of interacting with technology. rather than functioning as a productivity machine, it operates as a standalone computational artifact: a soft interactive form that senses touch and pressure, runs a small state-based system, displays ambient poetic text, and produces thermal receipts as physical traces of interaction.
the soft computer is designed to be sat with, not operated. it emphasizes presence over output, care over command, and material memory over digital abstraction. interaction is intentionally minimal and legible. gestures such as touch, holding, or pressure shifts the system’s pacing and language. the display reveals slow text and system moods, while the printer records encounters through short poems, temporal fragments, and subtle residues of prior use.
central question
what becomes possible when we design computers around softness rather than hardness, and around care rather than command?
- what kinds of relationships with technology emerge when interaction is touch, not click
- how textile interaction can function as computational logic, including inputs, states, and memory
- likely around two to six, depending on reliability and clarity
- how printed output can create material memory and intimacy
- what it means to design for slowness, legibility, and anti-optimization
motivation
my relationship to electronics and computation has always been shadowed by dissonance with the language of hardness that defines the field. hard drives, hard logic, hard science. yet underneath every rigid circuit is something fundamentally soft: flexible wires, malleable solder, human hands, and patient care.
this contradiction deepened as i learned computing history. long before silicon, computation lived in textiles. the jacquard loom used punched cards to control woven patterns, and ada lovelace described computation through weaving. the soft computer draws from that thread while insisting that softness can be a rigorous interface, not a metaphor.
as computing industrialized, its soft origins were systematically erased. women who wired eniac, who wove rope core memory for apollo, and who performed invisible computational labor were framed as assistants rather than inventors. meanwhile computing hardened. speed became virtue. precision became power.
the soft computer argues that softness is not weakness. softness is the ability to flex, mend, feel, and adapt. what if computers were companions of care? what if computation produced artifacts you could hold, rather than files stored in invisible clouds?
what it means to build a soft computer
- making an artifact: a physical, interactive device that embodies computing in textile form
- performing research: fabrication and material exploration used to critique and expand what computing means
- writing a counter-history: reclaiming the woven, embodied origins of computation and its hidden labor
system form
- soft sensing zones distributed across the textile surface
- likely around two to six, depending on reliability and clarity
- touch and pressure are the primary interaction materials
- display: e-ink preferred for calmness
- thermal printer: primary output, ritual receipts
- optional small peripheral only if core is stable
soft os states
a short ritual. the display greets you. a small opener receipt prints with a timestamp and one line.
active interaction. touch and pressure shift the mood of the text engine. printing is intentional and rate-limited.
idle ambient mode. the display drifts with self-generated text. rare dream residue receipts may appear.
- conductive textile swatches tested for capacitive and pressure sensing
- soft, foam-based functional button experiments to study tactile feel and responsiveness
- early arduino sketches mapping touch and pressure to system states
- thermal printer tests exploring receipt length, pacing, and paper types
- preliminary interaction flow: invitation → presence → imprint
- early form studies exploring soft enclosure and component placement
- long-term reliability of soft sensing materials under repeated use
- calibrating touch and pressure so interaction feels intentional, not noisy
- balancing poetic openness with interaction clarity for first-time users
- early material testing and stress cycles
- locking input zones and thresholds quickly
- short user tests focused on clarity and feel, not features
text generation
in parallel, i am taking reading and writing electronic text, a course centered on computational text and small-scale predictive models. rather than relying on large opaque language models, the soft computer uses lightweight and legible methods, small probabilistic systems, curated corpora, and modest models that align with the project’s values of transparency, slowness, and materiality.
audience + context
- creative technologists, makers, artists, and designers seeking alternatives to optimization culture
- hci researchers and educators interested in feminist hci, calm tech, embodied interaction
- installation context, public interaction
- itp spring show and future exhibitions
- receipts act as traces of shared time
documentation + openness
openness is central. build process, patterns, code, and circuit strategies will be documented so others can adapt the soft computer as a template for gentle, alternative interfaces.