Paper short abstract:

Synthesising findings from two of the author’s research projects, this paper imagines a possible near future (neither utopian nor dystopian) in which AI systems enhance and work through AR glasses to provide stories and experiences that shape the way that we relate to each other and our environment.

Paper long abstract:

This paper brings together two of the author's recent practice-based research studies: one on the use of AI in a live theatrical show, the other a 4-year research project on the storytelling potential of AR headsets. In this synthesis of research findings, I will imagine a not-so-distant future in which AI systems work through and enhance AR glasses for storytelling. Rather than envisioning a dystopian future of ubiquitous metaverse devices, I shall propose a vision of AI-enabled AR glasses wherein artists can create meaningful, embodied storytelling and users feel agency over their personal data. Such a use of these devices can ​prompt us to reflect on how users relate to each other and their environment.

To understand the potential of AI and AR glasses, we must examine the storytelling affordances of both elements. Running since 2016, 'I am Echoborg' is an interactive live show in which the audience 'converse' with an AI chat system via a human interface. The audience is first confronted with some ethical dilemmas of AI before offering a verdict on how they envision a future society with these systems. I will also draw on my audience research from the work 'Through the Wardrobe', an interactive documentary installation that uses AR headsets. In this research, I propose a model for understanding the storytelling potential of AR headsets.

As major tech companies start developing AR glasses (integrating sophisticated machine learning algorithms) for everyday use, now is a time for imagining futures, based on the evidence of recent research.

Paper short abstract:

Virtual reality is a technology both about which and with which stories are told. It thus gets caught between fiction and fact. Ethnographically tracking the narrative method of worldbuilding shows the consequences of this entanglement, by which virtual realities come to shape civic realities.

Paper long abstract:

Worldbuilding is an approach developed by speculative fiction authors and Hollywood creatives for envisioning detailed worlds that, when imaginatively set in motion, generate stories to be told. While conducting ethnographic fieldwork in Los Angeles, I encountered worldbuilding as a method used both in developing virtual reality experiences and imagining civic futures. Those who used worldbuilding for developing VR experiences noted the resonances of holism and immersion between the method and the medium. This made it seem “natural” that worldbuilding was necessary for VR’s success and, because worldbuilding was also being associated with civic improvement, VR was also positioned as leading to the better worlds being imagined. This paper traces how worldbuilding became a method that can be deployed to produce a VR spectacle and also to rally citizen and government stakeholders around tackling urban problems. In the first context, worldbuilding pushes the bounds of the technoscience imagination. In the second context, worldbuilding pushes the bounds of the societal imagination. This paper explores how Hollywood players imagine themselves as simultaneously creating fantastical storyworlds for technological consumption and doing “on the ground work” of forging good relations to build better communities.

Paper short abstract:

This paper describes the methods for creating the multimedia art project Pelican Stairs, using this case study to discuss ramifications for the commodification of machine learning tools for artists in light of prior innovations for creatives like pre-stretched canvases, desktop photo editing, etc.

Paper long abstract:

Digital innovations such as desktop word processing, photo and video editing opened up new technology-assisted creative possibilities for those without specialist training in design, publishing, photography and film. Spreadsheets created new informational management capabilities for people who previously wouldn't have worked with domain-specific tabular data like accountancy worksheets. Similarly, tools like RunwayML, an online graphical-interface platform for machine learning tools like video editing and text generation, open up machine learning techniques like StyleGAN to those without data science skills, offering a new wave of creative exploration. This paper describes the methods for creating the multimedia AI-assisted pandemic memoir Pelican Stairs and discusses further ramifications for the commodification of machine learning tools for artists.

Paper short abstract:

Through the lens of 'imagineering', this paper analyses a case of prototype development by Danish SMEs and AI experts, illustrating how AI is materialised and practically integrated into the SMEs, but also how the fantasy of AI affects the distribution of resources and valuation of forms of labour.

Paper long abstract:

“We want to pull AI down to earth.” The words are spoken in early 2021 to the representatives of a small selection of Danish SMEs at the opening session of a project titled AI Denmark. They are the first of 6 cohorts that will participate in half-year long collaborations to develop technological prototypes with AI experts from Danish research institutions. AI prototypes expected to ‘generate value’ for the companies, the institutions, and perhaps the nation itself.

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with both SMEs and experts participating in AI Denmark, this paper explores how a high-level concept such as AI gains social meaning, affecting the flow of capital and labour as it is translated from policy to company level. Describing this process, I draw on the concept of ‘imagineering’, made famous in the development of Disney amusement parks to describe the practical process of engineering solutions that can bring the imagined, the fantasy, to life through steel pylons, fibreglass, and animatronics.

This paper explores how the concept of imagineering can help us understand the translation of fantastical AI creatures into python scripts, CSV files, and robotics. Moreover, how are the kinetics of this materialisation experienced by AI Denmark’s participants? By drawing attention to how the fantasy affects the distribution of resources for development and disparate valuation of the labour involved in its implementation, this paper hopes to use the lens of imagineering to develop a more nuanced and balanced approach to expectations of the ‘value’ offered by AI.