Technology of a Heart: My Tribute to Susan Klimczak
The technology of the heart is love, the art of relationships with people. — Mel King
Last February I learned that my colleague Susan Klimczak had transitioned. For over 20 years Susan had been the Education Co-Coordinator at South End Technology Center @ Tent City in Boston, MA. SETC was part of Fab Lab Network, as a flagship center. I first met Susan in the fall of 2014 after I had successfully defended my thesis and started working as the director of a STEAM Lab at Boston Arts Academy. At SETC, Susan ran out-of-school DIY maker program, Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn (L2TT2L) in which teens, mostly youth of color, learned cutting-edge technologies and then taught them to younger children in Boston parks, camps, and community centers.
At SETC Susan worked closely with Boston community organizer Melvin (Mel) King. I knew of Mel back when I was involved with the Community Technology Centers Network (CTCNet), a movement that started in the early 1990s when Antonia Stone ran Playing To Win II in Somerville, MA. I also ran this center for a very short time in 2000. I recall going to Mel’s house for brunch back then, and introducing him to my sister who had recently graduated from MIT. Years later, I visited Mel and Susan at SETC to observe and sometimes assist Susan with L2TT2L. Susan introduced me to a wearable electronics platform called a LilyPad that was used to create an interactive quilt commemorating Nelson Mandela and Mel King.
Susan and Mel’s daughter Pamela King let me experiment with a digital embroidery/sewing machine. Digital or machine embroidery is a process whereby a sewing machine is used to create patterns on textiles. It is used to machine embroider for personal sewing and craft projects. In this example, I learned how to digitally embroider an Adinkra symbol on fabric (see above). Susan also gave me my first Bare Conductive Touch Board that I tinkered with in 2015. Inspired by these technologies, I came up with a plan to create electronic projects that respond to people who come into proximity of them. This idea followed the techno-vernacular creativity framework I came up with for my PhD thesis.
L2TT2L helps youth reappropriate or, as artist Xenobia Bailey refers to it, “funk” things together by looking at how communities of practice solve problems with limited resources. I called this process reappropriation and Susan (and Mel King) called it technologies of the heart, an approach that “brings out the best in humanity and enhance[s] personal relationships.” Both approaches use the humanities to develop maker mind-sets by using coding, programmable circuit boards, and other electronic components. With this in mind, I worked with Susan, grad student Adia Wallace and L2TT2L youth on Beyond #BlackLivesMatter, with a goal to make technology that countered mainstream messages that only certain lives matter.
L2TT2L youth address community issues such as the pressure schoolteachers and students feel to not speak about state-sanctioned violence in their communities. The L2TT2L program came up with the “Making Liberation” project to link the iterative engineering design process with Black Lives Matter activists’ deployment of call-and- response participation to organize protests. —N. Gaskins, Techno-Vernacular Creativity & Innovation
Susan, an electrical engineer by education, was very interested in the human part of human-computer interaction. From 2015–2017 we worked together on different projects, giving L2TT2L youth the time and space to explore inventions like Grandmaster Flash’s modification of the crossfader. They learned about improvisation through graffiti and spoken word. Some of participants were interested in a project I worked on at home called a “piano glove” and they created one of their own for Beyond #BlackLivesMatter.
In turn, I did something with that Touch Board Susan gave me. I introduced it to the students who came to the BAA STEAM Lab and we created several projects such as creating MIDI controllers to trigger sounds and videos that were projected on walls and floors (ex. theatrical productions). Matt Johnson of Bare Conductive (the company that made the Touch Board) dropped by the STEAM Lab to meet with BAA teachers and students, as well as sound engineer/producer Hank Shocklee. This happened, in part, because of Susan Klimczak’s generosity, support and encouragement. She even brought her L2TT2L participants to the BAA STEAM Lab.
What excites me about this project is that it allows us to “de-center” or move away from the focus of activity design to apply “earth technologies” and use them for “mind technologies” — technologies that bring out the best in us and enhance our relationships with one another. — Susan Klimczak
One of the ideas I pushed when working with Susan and the L2TT2L youth was to see technology as ‘vernacular’ as everyday language, including how people embody experiences, or how they interact with each other and the environment. Vernacular is different from formal or official language: it’s the way people really talk with each other, like how people communicate or express themselves at home. For Beyond #BlackLivesMatter we explored call-and-response participation in culture and by interacting with sensors: calls or statements from users are responded to by computers via sensors.
I will wrap my tribute to Susan K. with her own words (from her blog):
I am privileged to witness our youth lead the way, understanding and lifting up how “making” is a great way to learn, but more importantly it is a tremendous opportunity to express and make real our shared humanity. Yes, personal learning can and will happen . . but it can also help to instill in youth the belief that they have within them the capacity to “make” the world work for everyone. — Susan Klimczak