Containing Family Clutter

In this paper, we present material from an ongoing ethnographic investigation of family life. Drawing on selected fieldwork materials, we look at the ways families deal with household clutter, and in particular how clutter can be contained in bowls and drawers. Based on this research, a case is made for rethinking digital media management in domestic settings. We argue that existing solutions, largely based around the PC, inhibit the casual storage and loose organization of content, properties afforded in both bowls and drawers. We explore a design perspective that aims to address this by building on physical properties of the bowl, using salient properties from fieldwork material to sketch out an early concept of an augmented bowl designed to hold physical and digital content.