Conversation Piece

  Concept

 

The desire to include machines as part of the human world is very current and is extended to attempts to give the machine social and emotional intelligence. Conversation Piece is an artwork that explores the idea and experience of a seamless and unencumbered convergence of the 'real' and the 'virtual'. In this work a softly spoken, but just perceptibly synthesized, female voice renders the technical interface almost intangible. The work playfully questions whether and in what ways it is possible for humans to have meaningful social interactions with machines. For each user the illusion of meaningful social exchange is mediated by the extent to which he or she projects personality or emotional content into the synthesized voice, and how much he or she chooses to engage with the projected personality. Two points of reference for users of Conversation Piece are the Eliza Chatbot, originally designed by Joseph Weizenbaum in 1966 to emulate a psychotherapist, and the more recent Alicebot designed by Richard Wallace.

 

Conversation Piece was inspired by watching people on the street conversing on ‘hands free’ mobile phones. On seeing someone apparently talking to him- or herself in the street there is a moment of uncertainty as to how to categorise that person before the technology becomes evident. It is this sense of uncertainty – common to other human / machine interactions from intercoms to voice recognition systems - that we were interested in invoking both in participants and observers of the conversations in the installation.

 
 


Conversation Piece
ISEA 09, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast

 

Conversation Piece playfully addresses the following questions: “what if computers could convincingly perform human emotions?” and “can humans engage in meaningful social interactions with machines?” By emulating, but not quite replicating human social interaction, Conversation Piece also exposes some of the mechanics of human-to-human communication. For each user the illusion of meaningful social exchange is mediated by the extent to which he or she projects personality or emotional content into the synthesized voice, and how much he or she chooses to engage with the projected personality. On one level the work investigates the extent to which any human interaction is concerned with projection and imagination.

 

The work is  performative, in that individuals interacting with the synthesized voice become performers for other audience members. Although the physical installation of Conversation Piece is complex, the technology is hidden and the ‘work’ exists only when audience members engage in conversation with 'the voice'. The user’s experience of the installation is both theatrical and playful, but the work is also intended to raise questions concerning the fragility of our common experience of social interaction, and of the delicate balance of ‘normal’ human psychology and perception.