Week 5
Talk by Feelers
This week, we had a talk by Feelers. They are a research lab that merges art and
technology with a focus on sustainability, inhabitability and creating a more lively
world. I really liked how they approach technology in such a poetic way instead of
purely technical.
Jevons paradox - the idea that when we try to make things more efficient, we often end
up making them more complex both economically and environmentally.
They also talked about how it can be easier and more fun to understand tech through
metaphors. I liked this because it makes the topic feel more approachable and
open-ended. I also liked their project about imagining internet relics or speculative
futures where we look back after the internet collapses.
Something Ashley mentioned was that I don’t have to be so fixated on tech but I can also
look at things in a poetic sense. How can we make tech visible without chasing or
relying
on trends.
Consult Notes for RPO Intro draft
I could have a sentence to explain that I see chatbots as non-human. I should also specify that it is about projection onto these chatbots and how it builds experiences with the way people interact with AI, could be short-term.
Because of how my psychological my topic is, I'm worried about how it will translate to design or how to ground my research in design. To this Andreas said to narrow
down my pillars, if one is about chatbots, one is about emotion, then the last one can
be the design aspect i want to use to explore. For example if its about tangible elements
then i can have a reading about tangibility, if its about interactivity then read about
interactivity.
In the end, I was overthinking this.
Full RPO draft peer review
Received feedback from peers on my RPO intro draft. Overall, the feedback was Today, we got to read other people’s full RPO drafts, and I actually really enjoyed it. It was helpful to see where everyone else was at and where I stand amongst them. My favourite to read was Janessa’s RPO because everything was so structured and easy to follow. Each of her pillars connected clearly, and her research objectives were already properly defined. It made me realise that mine are still a bit vague and I should make them clearer.
Most of the comments I got from peers were asking me to elaborate on my research objectives, which confirmed what I was already feeling about that part. But I also received some good suggestions for other points to look into. One person mentioned looking into the human condition and how it might just be human nature to emotionally project and make connections with non-human things. Someone else brought up anthropomorphism, which I’ve looked at briefly before, but I think it’s worth revisiting since it directly links to how people treat chatbots like emotional companions.