Day 15: (Tue Oct 21, Week 9) Parsimony

Notes for 2025-10-21.

New Assignments

I did not finish formalizing the assignment, the detailed document is still coming.

Due Tue Oct 28: Project Work Plan, results will be going in Assignment 7 Shared Folder.

In essence, we need to resolve everything short of detailed part design, so I’m asking for:

  • rough plan of project milestones

  • detailed hand or drawings of the full prototype showing all external and internal parts to scale and relation (not yet CAD)

  • a bill of materials identifying all purchased and fabricated components

  • a project or piece title, and concept statement updated as needed

Agenda

  1. reflection

    • all four projects are at their core an exploration of persuasion

    • all involve suspension of disbelief

    • all are framed as interaction between single human and machine

    • two are focused on empathic engagement; the agency is independent and unknown

    • two are focused on ritualistic prompting; the agency is personal in the form of a displaced personal goal

    • it’s not clear whether we are still exploring deception beyond embodied character

    • in the end, each machine is a foil provideing a glimpse of self-reflection

  2. metrics of persuasion

    • did the person pay attention?

    • did the person take action?

    • did the person take the suggested action?

    • what emotional state do their actions reveal?

    • what changes of belief are revealed by their actions?

    • what human disposition is revealed through action?

    • what else?

    • how long did someone engage?

    • exit surveys? this does reveal the invisible, but at the cost of invoking science project

  3. parsimony

    • “Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away…” (Antoine de Saint Exupéry)

    • “Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.” (Pablo Picasso)

    • this is relevant both conceptually and technically

  4. individual group meetings

    • “Phone Bed”

    • “Crazy Baby Alarm”

    • “Falling Dancer”

    • “Let’s Play a Game”