Conversation starters was a research project which I supported as a student during the conceptualization and prototyping phase. The project was part of the Iohanna Nicenboim's pHD project and was later displayed at the Dutch Design Week 2022.
Keywords More than human design
AI
Interactive prototypes
CONCEPT
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"This project takes a more-than-human design orientation to consider the agency of both people and agents in everyday (mis)understandings of AI. It uses the metaphor of growing things to imagine alternative interactions with conversational agents, in which, practices of sharing, experimenting, caring, and repairing could be valuable starting points to imagining agents that are more situated, responsible and response-able. "
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- Iohanna Nicenboim, Conversation Starters, 4tu.nl [1]
During the summer of 2022 I have participated in a group project with Iohanna Nicenboim, Neva Rustad and Shruthi Venkat.
Together we have explored the theme of more than human design, the method of noticing as a designer and the metaphors we could use to explain AI and conversational agents.
Before the start of the project I was unfamiliar with the themes that we have explored. I was able to research the topics on my own, with the materials provided by Iohanna. This sprint has helped me to quickly deepen my understanding of AI and more than human design just in time to be able to support the design activities of the project.
CONVERSATION STARTERS_final.mp4DUTCH DESIGN WEEK - PROTOTYPES
Apart from supporting the design research and the conceptualization of the project I have made interactive prototypes for the first tests and assembled the electronics of the final prototypes that were displayed at the Dutch Design Week (see below).
The jars presented conversational agents as living organisms, that grew, evolved and reacted to their environment. When a jar was opened by a visitor it told a story, inspired by the context where the jar was placed. The stories were made using AI writing tools such as Rytr.
PODCAST - NOTICING ENTANGLEMENTS
Another interesting aspect of the project was the research into the art of noticing for designers. Neva Rustad and I have together written and recorded a podcast series that introduces designers to this method through a series of exercises.
This was a unique opportunity for me to try out more performative ways of presenting my research findings which I truly enjoyed.
The podcast starts with an introduction, spoken by me and written by Iohanna Nicenboim and Shruthi Venkat.
AI CO-WRITTEN & DESIGNED STORYBOOK
Lastly the project explored the ways humans interact with AI, this was just months before chatGPT became mainstream but we were already experimenting with image and text generation through openAI.
One of the deliverables of the project was a series of bedtime stories for children, written and illustrated from a more than human perspective with the use of AI tools.
If you are interested in this project you can read more about it on the following websites:
Credits for images and the video go to Iohanna Nicenboim.
The prototypes for the Dutch Design Week were designed in collaboration with the Creme on Chrome studio and Studio Make (StudioLab, TU Delft).