My past week has consisted of various interactions that have helped to reframe my original concept, expand my understanding of what something like this can be, and to help challenge the preconceived notion of what my project can actually be.

Teamwork Makes The Dream Work:

This past week was informed by a number of experiences, but one of the best decisions that I made was to attend the Feedback Collective, because the pouring of support for those of us who presented was pretty great. Everyone was also kind enough to provide access to resources that really did help inform what this project can be, while also bringing similar attempts to my attention.

Scope Expansion:

I also had the revelation that a more literal interpretation of my v1 original concept could be fruitful in attempting the latter iteration of this experience. I’ve attached a picture of what this doll expansion could look like, but I would have to look into that the creation process would look like for something like this.

I imagine a thin, silicone constructed square head with a kawaii base design that could transmute when a personality is loaded into it. I would display a specified picture on the cubed face, and could be a physical extension to the app.

 

Comparable Works:

Christina recommended that I check out some of her group’s previous work in one of our prior classes, and between that and another crowd recommendation I was made aware of the “Digital Version After Death” article over at the MIT Technology Review.

It depicted two relevant works:

1.) Hossein Rahnama’s attempts to converge personal data in the way that I’ve been considering with the firm “Augmented Eternity”. He has been attempting to compile a digital self in a similar way, but has very relevant comments on the issues with chat bots, and how they need context to function with proper depth.

2.) Eugenia Kuyda is also cited as having created a chatbot of her friend who passed away using a neural network driven by TensorFlow. I am looking into more details for this project, but this does bring the issue of scope to my mind.

Should I pursue a path these creators have worked on while risking work that is not individualized enough, or continue to stick with my niche which may be more limited?

Decisions, decisions…. 😀