Design by Play:Playfulness and Object-Oriented Philosophy for the design of IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) has garnered heightened interest and momentum in recent years. These connected devices have extended the concurrent rise of data collection and processing within the everyday objects that cohabit our human lives. Though technology has always changed the way we live our lives these ‘smart’ devices are adding new challenges—particularly concerning privacy and security—not previously experienced when using their older ‘dumb’ predecessors. These challenges are not always apparent to their human cohabitors and often only come to the fore when something untoward happens as a consequence of the data being collected. These objects are not to blame, they exist in their worlds governed by their own rules established by their creators rather than their users. Designers have traditionally been taught to present these objects as neutral participants in our human lives; there to help, but not supersede. However, these objects exist within many independent and interdependent assemblages of human and non-human actants that go beyond the previously experienced human-object relationship. Through this discourse, I highlight the overall aim of this thesis to ask questions around our traditional practices of design concerning IoT. In particular, this research strives to do many things: it attempts to intertwine philosophical debate with the act of design; it moves towards an argument of rethinking design orthodoxies around human-centeredness in favour of object-oriented-ness; it explores an alternative side to the phenomenon of the IoT, arguing for agency in a post-anthropocentric perspective of the world and its implications; it tries to bridge the gap between practice-based design research and theory by passing through a veil of philosophical intrigue. But at its core, is an advocacy for the presence of a playful attitude within the practice of design, arguing for an attitude of playfulness as an integral part of the design process. How being playfully charged to create artefacts can usher in unique perspectives for design and technology. The research is enacted through an iterative Research through Design ideology, using a transdisciplinary approach of Ludic and Speculative Design practice that explore alternative perspectives towards the design of IoT. It is conducted through an exploration of Object-Oriented Philosophy as a means to enact a metaphorical ‘carpentry’ of artefacts that practice philosophical arguments through their execution. In the process of designing three artefacts—a model for a philosophical view of IoT, a board game, and a bespoke deck of tarot cards—this research builds upon the idea of More-than Human-Centeredness for the design of IoT, by introducing the creation of bespoken method assemblages as a means for playful design exploration. It concludes on a debate around the implications and potential of design thinking in a post-anthropocentric perspective through the inclusion of playfulness and philosophy as assets for design, and, the use of philosophical carpentry as a methodology for understanding the nebulous nature of IoT

Design fiction:does the search for plausibility lead to deception?

Since its inception the term ‘design fiction’ has generated considerable interest as a future-focused method of research through design whose aim is to suspend disbelief about change by depicting prototypes inside diegeses, or ‘story worlds’. Plausibility is one of the key qualities often associated with suspension of disbelief, a quality encoded within the artefacts created as design fictions. In this paper we consider whether by crafting this plausibility, works of design fiction are inherently, or can become, deceptive. The notion of deception is potentially problematic for academic researchers who are bound by the research code of ethics at their particular institution and thus it is important to understand how plausibility and deception interact so as to understand any problems associated with using design fiction as a research method. We consider the plausibility of design fictions, looking at examples that are (1) obviously design fiction, (2) identified as design fiction, and (3) whose status is either ambiguous or concealed. We then explore the challenges involved in crafting plausibility by describing our experience of world- building for a design fiction that explores the notion of empathic communications in a digital world. Our conclusions indicate that the form a design fiction takes, and pre- existing familiarity with that form, is a key determinant for whether an audience mistake it for reality and are deceived. Furthermore we suggest that designers may become minded to deliberately employ deceitful strategies in order help their design fiction reach a larger audience

A Tarot of Things:a supernatural approach to designing for IoT

This paper looks at an alternative approach to design research for IoT, through a practical engagement with philosophy; based on the concept of Carpentry, introduced by design philosopher Ian Bogost. It presents this exploration through the design of a bespoke digital Tarot deck, rooted in Object-Oriented Ontology. This branch of philosophical inquiry withdraws from conventional perceptions of objects and people. Viewing them as equally important ‘things’, operating with a range of independent and interdependent perspectives; which have been described as “constellations”. Through our philosophical carpentry we present a Tarot of Things, which acts as boundary object, for understanding how taking constellation perspectives of networked IoT devices can produce new design approaches

The Internet of Things Game:Revealing the Complexity of the IoT

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a phenomenon wherein everyday objects are capable of interacting together through the Internet, producing complex interdependencies between human and non-human actants. However, much of this complexity is not legible to users of IoT and can produce concerns relating to areas such as privacy and security when the independent-but-interdependent motivations and perspectives of the actants are incongruent. To address this issue this paper presents The Internet of Things Board Game which has been designed such that its procedural rhetoric makes legible these independent-but-interdependent relationships and reveal how they manifest in the management of our security and privacy within IoT. The results of play-testing the game through multiple iterations highlight the valuable contribution games can play in revealing the ever-increasing complexity of relationships between the digital and the physical and the human and non-human

The process of gaining an AI Legibility mark

Researchers and designers working in industrial sectors seeking to incorporate Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology, will be aware of the emerging International Organisation for AI Legibility (IOAIL). IOAIL was established to overcome the eruption of obscure AI technology. One of the primary goals of IOAIL is the development of a proficient certification body providing knowledge to users regarding the AI technology they are being exposed to. To this end IOAIL produced a system of standardised icons for attaching to products and systems to indicate both the presence of AI and to increase the legibility of that AI’s attributes. Whilst the process of certification is voluntary it is becoming a mark of trust, enhancing the usability and acceptability of AI-infused products through improved legibility. In this paper we present our experience of seeking certification for a locally implemented AI security system, highlighting the issues generated for those seeking to adopt such certification

Design (Non) Fiction:Deconstructing/Reconstructing the Definitional Dualism of AI

2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) speculates on humanities technological ascension through the exploration of space and the ultimate transcendence of humanity galvanised by the invention of AI. Every detail of this portrayal was an exercise in World Building, with careful considerations of then state-of-the-art technology and informed predictions. Kubrick’s speculative vision is comparative to the practice of Design Fiction, by suspending disbelief and leveraging a technologies emergence to question the future’s sociotechnical landscape and its ramifications critically. Discovery’s AI system, Hal9000, is a convincing speculation of intelligence with Kubrick’s vision showcasing current and long-term aims in AI research. To this end, Hal9000 uniquely portrays Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) underpinned by visualising ‘narrow’ AI subproblems; thereby, simultaneously highlighting then current research agendas within AI and manifesting them into the aspirational research agenda of human-computer symbiosis. As a result of Kubrick’s mastery in suspending a viewer’s disbelief despite portraying a particular reality for AI, and humanities fascination with artificial life, the term AI simultaneously refers to the grand vision of AGI as well as relating to the contemporary reality of narrow AI. This confusion, along with establishing AI’s ontology, are current challenges that need addressing to create effective and acceptable realisations of AI. This paper responds to the ontological confusion by reviewing and comparing Kubrick’s speculative methodology to the practice of Design Fiction by unpacking Hal9000 as a diegetic prototype while defining the active threads of ‘AI’s Definitional Dualism’. The paper will also present a Design Fiction submerged in the reality of narrow AI and the adoption of a More-Than Human Centred Design approach to address the complexity of AI’s ontology in alternative ways. Finally, this paper will also define the importance of researching the semantics of AI technology and how film and Design Fiction offer a discursive space for design research to transpire

Using Game Engines to Design Digital Workshops for AI Legibility

Like many researchers responding to the pandemic, we have had to adapt design practices traditionally done face-to-face to online experiences. While online services provide adequate support for communication and sharing, they do not readily support the physical tools designed for workshop activities. This paper presents our experience of turning a face-to-face workshop into a digital experience that sustained the primary research goals relating to AI legibility and took advantage of the online world, rather than merely adapting to it, by utilising the game engine Godot. This paper explores the theoretical scaffolding that led to the creation of the workshops, which explore AI legibility through iconography and the transition of the workshop experience from face-to-face to online. The workshop’s conception followed the original approach of Research through Design and allowed participants to fully engage with our research during the pandemic

Signs of the Time:Making AI Legible

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming widespread. There are many benefits associated with AI, but it’s adoption brings challenges relating to fairness, bias, and transparency. Such issues are particularly hard to address because conventions that highlight when an AI is present, how it works, and the consequences of using are not yet established: AI has a legibility problem. Design-led research can play a key role in exploring this challenge. Applying Research through Design (RtD) this paper explores AI legibility in three ways: (1) explaining why it makes sense to address AI legibility with design; (2) the presentation of prototypical icons designed to enhance AI legibility; (3) experimenting with how the icons may be used in the context of signage relating to potential applications of AI. Via these three lenses the paper argues that design’s role in improving AI legibility is critical