Link #1 – Eric’s Speculative Futures
Though we both included music as a major component of our speculative futures, both Eric and I went in completely opposite directions. Mine was more dystopian, leaning into a potential scenario that could exist as a consequence of today’s political climate in which technology becomes a crutch for survival at the cost of freedom. Eric’s scenario, however, took a more hopeful approach in which artificial intelligence bridges gaps for those with less experience (or even none) in music and provides opportunities for the elderly to relive their memories. Being able to provide support by accompanying anything that is played is not an unrealistic expectation. After all, the exploratory nature of jazz lends itself to what may sound like “random notes” a lot of the time when it really is a showcase of the complexity of music, so technically, why can’t every note be accompanied by some chord (not that I’m an expert in the topic)? There was a quote that signified the importance of equity, not equality: “That was the subtlety of progress here: not erasing class, but refusing to let it dominate the soundscape.”
Eric reflects on how the possibilities for AI to be our “assistant, rather than treating it as a replacement for human creativity” are endless. It is a wonderful thing to dream of how this technology can be used to give a voice to people who cannot physically speak, to help drivers be safer on the road, and even to help us save a few seconds by predicting the next words in our text conversations. But I wonder… are we past the point of no return where the uses of AI for good can outweigh the misuses and the invasions of privacy? While joining social media may have us sign an invisible clause to give away some of our information, is it okay for corporations to be building an algorithm off our personal and public lives? Is it okay for us to be fed certain information while others are held back from our view? That’s a conversation for another time.
Link #2 – Shui’s “What’s in your bag?”
Shui’s choice to put all of his contents into colored boxes made it easy to see how he organizes his daily life without compromising the actual layout of the photo. I remember that when I did this task, I used the limited space of my dinner table and wanted to make sure everything fitted in frame. The experience was like a game I played when I was a child where I had to fit various objects into the trunk of a taxi that had a grid-based inventory. There was always a solution, but it required out of the box thinking, rotating and shifting items. The spatial awareness that was developed then carried over into this task, but it was interesting how Shui and I approached it differently. I hadn’t even considered adding visual clarification or supports to my photo!
The two laptops in Shui’s bag reminded me of my personal and work laptops. I think he is very brave for carrying the weight of both on a regular basis. I used to have both laptops in my backpack as well, as I found my own device to be more familiar and have a larger screen for easier reading. However, I ultimately decided to remove it as my neck and shoulders began to get too tense from commuting with that weight for about three hours a day when I was in school. Shui also carries essential care items, a second pair of glasses, emergency chopsticks, and local currency depending on where he is at the time. Based on all of this, it is evident that Shui favors preparation over convenience. The wake of the pandemic definitely urged us in many ways to be ready for any situation.
Shui called his smartphone his “lifeline for staying connected.” Such a simple yet powerful statement made me realize how much we rely on this tiny piece of technology, and how this little computer in turn connects us to both our private network of friends and family and to the wider world.
The first thing I noticed when I clicked on Joy’s blog was the layout. Instead of dedicating a separate subpage for each task of this course, she opted to have them all listed in a chronological order, creating an elongated page similar to that of a comment thread on social media or a text conversation, except the words are accessible all at once. I figured this was an inconvenience at first, because without pressing control find (CTRL + F), it would be especially difficult to pinpoint the exact spot to return to if I wanted to revisit the site. I pondered the reason that drove this choice, but without directly asking Joy herself, I surmised that perhaps this was intentional – maybe Joy wanted us to use the feature built into our devices, or perhaps the experience was meant to feel linear, scrolling once through each post as a reminiscence of the course over the last semester and then being done with it. Nevertheless, this design choice grew on me.
I appreciated Joy’s candor on describing the hurdles she ran into while transliterating aspects of her show into emoji form. She noted the difficulty of accurately representing the title, of which I had a similar experience with my chosen movie, KPop Demon Hunters. The closest emoji I could find to represent “hunter” was a bow. I had briefly considered using the target emoji instead, but I was worried it would be misinterpreted as the literal “target” or something more abstract like “accurate.” With the bow, I had hoped that the context in which I placed it would hint at a more offensive connotation though the risks of it simply being recognized as the weapon still remained. To reinforce this idea, I tried to pair a bow with an X, creating a literal reference to Huntrix (Hunter + X), the main group of protagonists in the movie. Like Joy, arrows signified the passage of time, but I also used them to mean equality – “this person or object is also this.” A final point that was brought up was the Genmoji feature’s ability to generate custom emojis which I hadn’t thought about before but definitely would have trivialized the meaning behind the task.
Link #4 – Emily’s Text-to-image
I completed Detain/Release, analyzing how the sole reliance on AI algorithms was harmful by its overall attempts to sway a user into making certain choices through its presentation of biases and withholding of information. For this entry, I deliberately chose someone who went with the other option for this task. Emily’s generations on what a future middle school science classroom might look like in both 5 years and 15 years was a perfect way of viewing artificial intelligence from a different angle. She postulated how the keywords in her prompts were connected to the data in which the AI model was trained, as well as her comment on stereotyping and generalizing what the future looks like, almost akin to past predictions of hovercars that would run on hydrogen. This is interesting to see in action, given that these images of the future were actually quite similar, even though there was a supposed 10 year time gap. I also stopped to reflect on the fact that both Emily and I could respond because of our prior knowledge of AI as well as the generated images. On the other hand, in Detain/Release, I could not respond to this level of depth because I did not know what was omitted from me or what the algorithm was doing in the background. Who or what did it prioritize as “high risk,” and how was it evaluated? Here, at least, the tropes are clear as day.
The “futuristic aesthetic seen in media” is evident, from the drone to 3D holograms to students using virtual reality and augmented reality technology. As Emily mentioned, it is “fairly unrealistic” that this can actually occur given the issues that come with funding, especially considering that many schools struggle to even get a full class set of iPads or laptops. It is also interesting to imagine – going a little bit into speculative futures again – the level of engagement students would actually have with the content versus the level of distraction by the technology, given what we know now about children being overstimulated with high-energy shows and with earlier use of phones, tablets, and other smart devices.
Playing through Eric’s game, “The Eyes of the Sun,” was such a blast. We both shared the same values when creating our experiences in that we wanted immersion and multiple endings. While I accomplished this mostly through text formatting, meta-narrative dialogue, and humor, Eric used descriptive language, a variety of puzzles that required multiple steps to complete, and images that evoked the wild adventures of Indiana Jones and Lara Croft from Tomb Raider. I had briefly thought about inserting images of my own, but found that I had to prioritize other things, such as figuring out how to set up the complex variables and cycling links. I am happy with my text-based final product as it gave the user freedom to create every scene and object in their mind, as if reading a book (I had lots of fun imagining the player choosing a banana as a hat, weapon, and shield in my scripted battle). I changed songs to represent different chapters of my story, choosing them because I thought they added excitement. “The Eyes of the Sun” used one jungle-themed song throughout and I found that it really grounded me in the setting and the plot. We both incorporated “bad endings” for anyone deciding to skip crucial parts of the story or for simply repeatedly saying no. He and I both agree that if we had more time, we would have liked to add more features. However, in taking the time to develop every element, we were able to appreciate how each passage connected to one another linearly and non-linearly.
Eric connects the permanency of hyperlinks to the vast network that they contribute to, including the ones that were created through the game creation process and even through something as simple as a Google search or prompt to Gemini. This made me wonder about the links that we are creating simply through these reflections of our classmates’ work, as well as the networks that have been retained by past cohorts.
Link #6 – Rosemary’s Attention Economy
Rosemary’s attention to detail (pun fully intended) on illustrating the distractions used as part of User Inyerface while remaining honest about her frustrations was a breath of fresh air. She began with a formal definition of dark patterns, a great idea for any readers who may stumble across the post and are unfamiliar with the concept. The first screen presented the challenge of finding the correct way to proceed, which was unclear and ended up being tiny, almost hidden text at the bottom saying “click HERE.” It was here that Rosemary said something that encapsulated the core design of Inyerface perfectly: “…the experience felt like standing at a starting gate before a race – ready to begin but unable to move forward.”
I loved how it felt like Rosemary was conversing with me in real time, describing everything she came across chronologically and pairing it with her thoughts in that moment. She also concurrently analyzed the purpose of the pop-ups and clock in disrupting the focus and flow of anyone trying to surpass these challenges. In my reflection of the experience, I clumped everything I noticed into a few paragraphs, narrating it like a story. It was insightful to see how effective Rosemary’s layout was.
Unfortunately, she was not able to make it to the final screen due to feeling uncertainty. However, in doing so, she highlighted the goal of anyone utilizing dark patterns – to trick, to cause self-doubt, and to have users eventually question themselves so much that they stop being critical of what’s on the screen. This point also proved that digital designers hold the power. When entering a website, we see what the creator wants us to pay attention to and engage with, whether it’s a collection of reels ready to encourage doomscrolling or simply a big green “NO” button.