Neural Novelty — How Machine Learning Does Interactive Generative Literature

Sammanfattning: Every day, machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) embeds itself further into domestic and industrial technologies. Interaction de- signers have historically struggled to engage directly with the subject, facing a shortage of appropriate methods and abstractions. There is a need to find ways though which interaction design practitioners might integrate ML into their work, in order to democratize and diversify the field. This thesis proposes a mode of inquiry that considers the inter- active qualities of what machine learning does, as opposed the tech- nical specifications of what machine learning is. A shift in focus from the technicality of ML to the artifacts it creates allows the interaction designer to situate its existing skill set, affording it to engage with ma- chine learning as a design material. A Research-through-Design pro- cess explores different methodological adaptions, evaluated through user feedback and an-in depth case analysis. An elaborated design experiment, Multiverse, examines the novel, non-anthropomorphic aesthetic qualities of generative literature. It prototypes interactions with bidirectional literature and studies how these transform the reader into a cybertextual “user-reader”. The thesis ends with a discussion on the implications of machine written literature and proposes a number of future investigations into the research space unfolded through the prototype.