haha / humoristic interactions in human-machine-communication

haha / is about finding ways to design humoristic interactions and to evaluate the togetherness of humans and machines with the help of a framework of 6 humor strategies. Humor is also a vehicle for discussions about the contemporary technological development and a tool to make communication with machines more suitable for humans. 4 interactive Things make the topic experienceable. The machine-machine-communication is not comprehensible for humans. We are excluded from the conversation in codes, sent via electronic signals. What are machines talking about, if no one is listening? What if humans could take a peek as a voyeur? »Dirty Talk« allows you to spy on the conversation of two simple machines.

»Extreme Input« asks for an inconvenient interaction and gives back a disproportionately output. High expectations are created, only to be broken in the very next moment by disappointing with a surprisingly small effect. Beside the humoristic moment, it questions the inconsiderate implementation of digital, smart or »too« complicated interfaces for usually simple interactions. The interface of this machine is a big crank, by turning it the expectations raise. And in the end, just a tiny light is switched on.

The first appearance of smart toilets on the market are the base for »Toilet Claims«. It is a metaphor of a needy, talkative and intrusive machine which questions the need of talkative things around us. To sit on the toilet is maybe not the best idea, because it will talk to you, tell you endless stories of its life and experiences. And it will make you feel guilty about leaving it alone again.

Lots of projects about joke telling artificial intelligences try to answer the question: can machines be funny? »You laugh, you lose« has been trained on short jokes via machine learning and wants to challenge you. Who laughs first? Does it have a comprehension of humor? Or did it develop its own sense of humor, which we don’t understand?

 

Till Maria Jürgens
Master of Arts Integrated Design
www.hahathings.de