Caring through the language of the voice companions to mediate privacy concerns
As humans, we have an innate ability to care for the things around us. This care often mediates the relationship we build with them. These relationships took an interesting turn as we started interacting with connected digital things, raising the question of how care defines our relationship with these digital ‘beings.’ Do we really care for them? or does the relationship evolve to a more cautious one that leads to obsessions and concerns about their presence? This made me wonder if there is a way we could care for the digital things around us and if this care also reflects in the relationship we build with them over time.
In my research, I focused on voice assistants. Often called ‘assistants,’ the way we interact with these things is often less compassionate. We interact with them in the language we speak, and when we give these objects space in our intimate surroundings, it can often create a sense of intrusion into our private moments. I wonder if there could be a new type of voice companion with its own language and is alien to the language we speak. Will this unfamiliarity make it inherently virtuous to our private conversations?
| University | Umea Institute of Design |
| Project type | Graduation project for ‘Fluid Assemblage course’ |
| Student | Manu Revi Poovakkat |
Extra information
See the project website: https://medium.com/designing-fluid-assemblages/cube-caring-through-the-language-of-the-voice-companions-to-mediate-privacy-concerns-da2a70f70d71
Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences Bachelor Thesis Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design Delft University of Technology graduation project individual project Minor project Northumbria University post graduation Team project The Hague University of Applied Sciences Umea University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt University of Twente