Paper Short Abstract:

This paper introduces a project which develops an AI-based automated tool for collecting, recording, transcribing and saving interviews of experiential narratives. We will discuss the benefits and challenges of the tool from an ethnological perspective. The project is connected to Research for JYU Mobile at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Paper Abstract:

This paper introduces a subproject of a larger multidisciplinary project “The Finnish Digital Citizen Science Center” at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. The larger project aims to develop AI-based, automated mobile applications for different research purposes, including the fields of 1) Natural sciences, 2) Health sciences, 3) Educational sciences and 4) Humanities and social sciences. We will introduce the humanities subproject which aims to develop an automated tool for qualitative interview that records, saves and transcribes narratives about nature experiences. The tool is based on two existing applications of Research for JYU Mobile: AI-based bird-watching app (see e.g. Nokelainen et al. 2024) and MyJYU AI transcription. We will ask what observing nature means to the participants and how does the digital tool affect observations and (sensory) experiences of nature.

An automated tool might produce a large dataset but it is unclear how the digital and mobile tool affect the quality of experiential data. In our presentation, we discuss the use of the tool as a part of an ethnological research process. How does the interaction and narration of nature experiences change when the dialogic partner in the interview is mobile technology instead of the physically and bodily present researcher? Can an AI-based tool provide something new and unpredictable for qualitative research and citizen science in arts and humanities?

References:

References Nokelainen, Ossi et al. 2024. ”A Mobile Application–Based Citizen Science Product to Compile Bird Observations”. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice 9 (1). https://doi.org/10.5334/cstp.710