User:AvitalB/thesis

Research, thoughts and more

In summer I deleted facebook and instagram apps from my phone. I felt the constant scroll through different feeds is making me anxious and depressed. At first it was very liberating and I found myself having more time to do other things. Then it became lonely- I realised that a lot of people were communicating with me just when I was posting snippets from my life (mostly instagram stories). Apparently, when you live in a different country then most of your friends if they don't have a reminder of you being through social media, they don't contact you as much. I began to think about the interfaces around me and how they make me feel and how my mood depends on them. The word interface can mean many things: screens, apps, software, operation systems. It's the GUI that we interact with and it's the core concepts of the digital products we use. I often feel manipulated, most of the time too indifferent to do anything with it.

Current Project Proposal (WIP)

In my project I would like to address the subject of human-computer-software-interface relationship. I want to reflect on the role it takes in our lives at these times. I want it to have a critical component but without judgment. I want to focus on online behaviours and the effects of these interaction on our daily environment. I will approach this large subject by capturing and distilling common experiences, and being able to tell them in a meaningful way. I intend my work to be for people to interact with and find relatable situations in it.

My research is based on texts about the subject of human-computer relation, approaches of explorative design and tools of online communications. I am experimenting with writing a sort of diary as a challenge for my self and as a way to explore different subjects. There is a narrative challenge in the project- how to convey a story and emotion about the digital life. I would like to use and try to hack different tools like: chats, bots, conference talk, emails, webcams and other ways of online communication.

I see my project as an online web based experience. I think I see the project concentration on 2-5 key idea and trying to create an interactive experience around them.

It will make me happy to make a project that many people can relate to and that can give them food for thought about their interaction with the the digital world. I think I will need help with finding what are the best topics to concentrate on and technical help with different tools and scripts (hacking chats, creating bots, using webcam layers). In this project I want to use the skills I gained as a digital designer for a very personal place. I know that dealing with technical tools will lead me to interesting places, as in last year. “Happy mistakes” are a big part of my practice and I feel will help me communicate my message.

Hackpact

I don't see myself as a written, but I found the process of writing really helpful in this project to try and understand what topics I want to talk about. That is why I'm making myself write a (hopefully) daily journal about online experiences I have.

>> This is the journal.

Timetable (for now)

• oct-nov continue my research while prototyping and experimenting with different tools. I will collect stories, interview people and write a personal journal. Through this I will decide the main topics and will try to use different tools to prototype an experience around them.
• dec Finalise main ideas and practices for the project

Interests

• The human component in our devices
• Emphatic and apathetic feelings toward interfaces
• The influence
• The critical approach towards the relationship we develop with our computers with the balance of evaluating technology from the personal/human point of view
• Online narratives- what is the common experience of our digital life?
• Confronting the fantasy with real life

Guiding terms

• Relationship
• Online behaviour
• Devices
• Interface communication
• Online communication
• Internet addiction
• Isolation

Optional techniques

• Bot interaction
• Conference calls (hacking?)
• Chat
• Interactive storytelling
• Data collection with Mediawiki
• Web interface

Resources

Books

• Sad by Design: On Platform Nihilism / Geert Lovink- The internet is effecting our emotions, behaviour and mindset
• Media Equation: How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Place / Clifford Nass and Byron Reeves
• The Second Self / Sherry Turkle
• Alone Together / Sherry Turkle
• Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace / Janet H. Murray | Notes
• Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation / Joseph Weizenbaum
• Discursive Design: Critical, Speculative, and Alternative Things / Bruce M. Tharp and Stephanie M. Tharp
• Seeing Like a Computer + Reading Like a Computer / Angie Waller
• Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion / Jia Tolentino

Articles/Journals

• That chatbot I’ve loved to hate / Sherry Turkle | Notes
• The journal of computational culture

Personas

• Eliza - early natural language processing computer program created from 1964 to 1966 by Joseph Weizenbaum and based on a Rogerian therapist
• Adam Harvey - more pixel = more data ?
• Lauren Mccarthy - performance artis
• Parry - chatterbot that attempted to simulate a person with paranoid schizophrenia
• Joseph Weizenbaum
• Sherry Turkel
• Kevin Lenzo - creator of Infobot and Purl

Projects

• Chimeria:Grayscale - uses an email interface as a storytelling device | Notes
• The Mouse Holds Us / Emma Rae Norton - relates to my concept of exploring in depth one graphical element (here she explores one device)
• Anatomy of an AI System / Kate Crawford & Vladan Joler - Deconstructing the AI device and confronting it with the physical world

Terms

• Plan 9- developed by Bell Labs to replace Unix with the concept of decentralised operating systems