Exploring Educational Affordances of Interactive Murals

Interactive murals are a new technology that blend traditional mural painting and embedded electronics. My work contrasts traditional STEAM projects by introducing youth to programming, building electronics, and interaction design principles within the context of designing and constructing interactive murals. Accordingly my dissertation addresses the following: 1) How can we integrate traditional mural practices and ubiquitous computing in an interactive mural, 2) How do interactive murals support youth in learning how to program and build electronics, and 3) How can we design learning activities that support youth as interaction designers? To address my research questions, I first conducted technical tests to determine suitable materials for constructing interactive murals that will be permanently located outdoors, which would be subject to extreme weather. I then collaborated with a professional muralist, Nanbiah Chacon, to design and construct the first interactive mural. We developed a workflow that we would later employ in a workshop with youth. I co-taught a mural workshop with Nanibah, in which we designed and constructed an interactive mural with diverse youth, where they learned how to program and build electronics. Expanding on this workshop, I conducted another interactive mural workshop that further introduced interaction design principles to youth. This work is significant because it introduces a new and creative pathway for diverse youth to gain technological literacy and competency while making a real-world impact on their local communities.