The Entoptic Field Camera as Metaphor-Driven Research-through-Design with AI Technologies
Abstract
Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are widely deployed in smartphone photography; and prompt-based image synthesis models have rapidly become commonplace. In this paper, we describe a Research-through-Design (RtD) project which explores this shift in the means and modes of image production via the creation and use of the Entoptic Field Camera. Entoptic phenomena usually refer to perceptions of floaters or bright blue dots stemming from the physiological interplay of the eye and brain. We use the term entoptic as a metaphor to investigate how the material interplay of data and models in AI technologies shapes human experiences of reality. Through our case study using first-person design and a field study, we offer implications for critical, reflective, more-than-human and ludic design to engage AI technologies; the conceptualisation of an RtD research space which contributes to AI literacy discourses; and outline a research trajectory concerning materiality and design affordances of AI technologies.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2301.09545,
title = {The Entoptic Field Camera as Metaphor-Driven Research-through-Design with AI Technologies},
author = {Jesse Josua Benjamin and Heidi Biggs and Arne Berger and Julija Rukanskaitė and Michael Heidt and Nick Merrill and James Pierce and Joseph Lindley},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2301.09545},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
To be published in Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '23), April 23--28, 2023, Hamburg, Germany