Otherware needs Otherness: Understanding and Designing Artificial Counterparts

Abstract

Most approaches in Human-Computer Interaction follow the ideal of embodied interaction. However, more and more technologies evolve, such as chatbots, smart voice interfaces, and domestic or social robots, that imply a fundamentally different relationship between human and technology. This “otherware” presents itself either incidentally or by design as computational counterpart rather than as embodied extension of the Self. The predominant strategy to design form and interaction with otherware is to mimic humans or animals (i.e., naïve anthropomorphism or zoomorphism). While this strategy has some advantages, we call for exploring an alternative, namely to cultivate the otherness of computational counterparts rather than to mimic existing lifeforms. The workshop will bring together computer scientists, psychologists, designers and artists to speculate on alternative models of interacting with otherware and appropriate forms of otherness. It lays the foundation for a more nuanced perspective on how to design the interaction with computational counterparts besides embodied interaction.