September 22, 2024

Brainstorm and Plan 

The topic we chose was "Connection Paradox". Among the three topics, this topic is the closest to our lives and happens all the time around us. Just like we set out in the performance, people enjoy the convenience of being extraordinary, with the "freshness" at their fingertips. However, just as people prefer vegetables and fruits to vitamin tablets, fast food suppresses people's most primitive and sincere feelings, and people always have a thirst for real physical and mental connection. In the story, C longs for the starry sky and the moon, the forest and the campfire, and also longs for a soulmate who shares the same hobby. However, people who have been immersed in the virtual world for a long time may be unfamiliar with real conversations: how to start a conversation? How to get the conversation going? Is the other party sincere? Because of "social fear", we often miss the beginning of a relationship in our lives. Similarly, in the face of many "nodding friends", who can be our true friends? Or, I treat you as a friend, do you see me as a friend too ? 

With all of the above considerations, our equipment was born. It looks like a desk phone which was the original way of communication between people who are thousands of miles apart, and we chose this form to awaken people's earliest desire to communicate in a nostalgic way - we used technology to connect people far away from each other, but now technology has made people invisibly build high walls between each other- which is also an irony. The ten buttons on the phone form a loop, representing the depth of the topic, and also a metaphor that every step (every question) is indispensable, the relationship between people is in-depth step by step, and the achievement of the tenth step must require the beginning of the first step and the advancement of other parts. We used a pop-up effect for the smiley face in the middle, and if the two people agreed, the smiley face represented the joy of the two people when they couldn't wait to meet. will jump out, and the two will be teleported to the same place by the mind for physical interaction. Powerful AI is built into the phone call to infer from the respondent's voice tone and facial expressions whether the person is honest and genuinely wants to have the conversation. If one of the answers is no, the next question will not be activated.

Constructing

Teamwork

In the group activity, I made a version of the handset model of the telephone (the one that ended up being used with the main body of the telephone). I also looked for a video of how to make a telephone out of cardboard and shared it with the group members. I figured out how to make a smiley pop-up trap (using hidden paper springs). But in general, the main work is done together. At the first meeting, everyone showed off their ideas. To be honest, English was still one of my difficulties, I was not able to express my thoughts fluently and completely, and I was not able to understand the thoughts of the group members thoroughly. I was a little sad when my idea was rejected. But it is undeniable that the final work we present is the result of a concerted production. Tiri came up with a model of the telephone, and on that basis, everyone began to think about how to force people to get out of the virtual world and communicate sincerely. At the beginning, we also set up a question answering reward, that is, only friends who treat each other sincerely can get "prizes", but we can't come up with a prize that everyone wants, and the existence of "prizes" makes "communication" utilitarian, which we don't want to see, so we abandoned the idea of setting "prizes" later. 

Thanks to Chris for completing the basic model of the telephone on his own when the rest of the team were busy, to Ella for creating the novel idea and the rough outline of the draft and script, and to Tiri for taking on the interpretation of the important protagonist, her vivid interpretation is a big plus. For the most part, we communicate well and all the team members respect each other. Everyone's schedule was very tight, and there were even occasional emergencies that collided with our original group schedule, but everyone was able to understand each other, readjust their time, find time to complete the project, and hand in a very good answer.I am really really happy for that.

Script(and some background information)

Performance 

Success and failure

In my opinion, the success of our artifact lies in the fact that it can help people who are unfamiliar with "interpersonal communication" to start a real interpersonal conversation with simple questions, help people relieve their anxiety and fear about interpersonal communication, and easily meet new people. In the same way, we also use sophisticated calculations (built-in AI) to intelligently give the best "next step" to advance the relationship between two people, which helps to reduce the relationship in life that "fades without a common topic". 

For the artifact itself, it is a good embodiment of the concept of interaction. In terms of human-computer interaction, we use the form factor of the telephone, so that the user can use it very well (the user has experience using a regular phone). We've also set the 10-question buttons in the shape of arrows and numbered them so that users can easily understand how the device works and what they should do. In terms of human interaction, the device can provide questions and timely feedback (such as whether to jump to the next question) so that both users can build a complete dialogue loop. We also use the "Sincerity Test" to ensure that this communication is valuable, effective, engaging, and enjoyable for both parties, just like Tiri and I in the performance.

The point of failure is that, as we showed in the show, this device can fuel people's inert thinking, people no longer master the art of "communication", leading to over-reliance on this device. After all, after the smiley face pops up, the two people who have established an intimate relationship need to maintain the relationship on their own. This artifact does not fundamentally improve people's active communication skills.

For another group...

"Connectolens" is a group I like very much. They designed a special pair of glasses that can see people's information and there is a built-in AI to help generate the most appropriate communication and conversation suggestions. 

There is no doubt that this work is practical, convenient and effective, and it is very realistic, and it can even be put into mass production. Their work is a good fit for the assignment, which aims to help people use technology to communicate instead of preventing them. Their performance is also a good example of the two sides of the device - it is simple for people to use the glasses to communicate, but after taking off the glasses, they are back in trouble, which creates a high reliance on technology, which is actually the same contradiction as our group's work. At the same time, their work also refers to people's privacy issues, which deserve people's attention and provoke people to think about the boundaries of technology. 

As for the suggestion, I personally feel that this privacy issue is serious and there is no way to solve it in this artifact, because if this product goes viral, people will be scared at the first moment they see someone wearing these glasses, because people don't know how much their information is being displayed. So the glasses may even directly cut off the communication between the two people – because people know that the person who comes to you with the glasses has a purpose, and the human instinct is to fear or get tired of this asymmetrical, result-oriented relationship.