Academic TV & Video Narratives Installations Conversational AI RIK LANDER

Since 2016 I have been working with conversational systems. Of all the tech I have used to make participatory media, this offers the most agency for users and the strongest way to maintain quality and narratve structure. It started with I am Echoborg but now I am focussing on healthcare applications. There is a continuity from the experimentation in the installations and dramas to this more practical application of what I have learned about interactivity and participation.

Since 2016 I have been working with conversational systems. Of all the tech I have used to make participatory media, this offers the most agency for users and the strongest way to maintain quality and narratve structure. It started with I am Echoborg but now I am focussing on healthcare applications. There is a continuity from the experimentation in the installations and dramas to this more practical application of what I have learned about interactivity and participation.

Echoborg crew at 100th performance, June 2023.

Echoborg crew at 100th performance, June 2023.

 

I am Echoborg. Live participatory show. 2016-present.

This theatre show is created afresh each time by the audience in conversation with an artificial intelligence. It is essentially a power struggle between the audience and an AI. It is very hard for the people who talk to it to recognise the ways in which they are manipulated by the machine and their human conditioning. It is great fun and very thought provoking. We now try and do it as a workshop for universities and companies. In February 2021 we presented it at the House of Lords.

This is a pioneering use of AI as a tool to deliver genuine audience agency in the creation of an experiential exploration of the impacts of automation on what it is to be human.

Visit the website.

 

mimi.coach. A conversational system for training health care professionals in Motivational Interviewing

This is an example of the interactive and participatory systems I am now building. This product development has grown out of some academic research. I lead a cross-disciplinary group of academics at the University of the West of England. The team had specialists in linguistics, psychology, computer science and health care to consider how conversational AI could be used to improve training in medical settings. Since 2022 we have been developing it as a potential commercial project.

Website here.

 
 

ROMI.

A proposed web application that people with type 2 diabetes will be able to talk or text about their condition using their phone, tablet, or PC. ROMI would then send personalised advice - either verbally, as a text or as a graphic - to the patient. We are currently co-designing ROMI with people with type 2 diabetes and health care professionals.

Visit the website.

Cookies.

By using this website, you automatically accept that we use cookies. What for?

Understood