{"title":"Rejected By My Own Robot: Studying the Potential for Artists to Subvert Technological Expectations Using Critical Design","authors":"Adam Cole","doi":"10.1145/3569009.3576181","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This paper provides a framework for how artists can use critical design to subvert deeply ingrained expectations around technology. I begin by defining the technological understanding of being as introduced by Martin Heidegger and break down expectations of technology into efficiency, control, and pleasure. I then ask if the burgeoning HCI practice of critical design could be an effective tool for artists in subverting these expectations. My methodology to study this question is to install a provocative object, in my case a disobedient kissing robot, in a public space and analyze participants’ reactions to it using both video and survey analysis. Results show over 70% of users experienced some degree of surprise, friction, or disappointment with the device due to broken expectations about how they assume technology should work. Our study concludes with a discussion of what value there is in challenging the status quo, how artists can take this work further, and what element humor has in provocative critical design.","PeriodicalId":183744,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction","volume":"46 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2023-02-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Proceedings of the Seventeenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1145/3569009.3576181","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"","JCRName":"","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This paper provides a framework for how artists can use critical design to subvert deeply ingrained expectations around technology. I begin by defining the technological understanding of being as introduced by Martin Heidegger and break down expectations of technology into efficiency, control, and pleasure. I then ask if the burgeoning HCI practice of critical design could be an effective tool for artists in subverting these expectations. My methodology to study this question is to install a provocative object, in my case a disobedient kissing robot, in a public space and analyze participants’ reactions to it using both video and survey analysis. Results show over 70% of users experienced some degree of surprise, friction, or disappointment with the device due to broken expectations about how they assume technology should work. Our study concludes with a discussion of what value there is in challenging the status quo, how artists can take this work further, and what element humor has in provocative critical design.