@conference{Lee2021,

title = {Conversational Futures: Emancipating Conversational Interactions for Futures Worth Wanting},

author = {Minha Lee and Renee Noortman and Cristina Zaga and Alain D. Starke and Gijs Huisman and Kristina Andersen},

url = {https://minha-lee.github.io/files/mlee_Conversational_Futures_CHI2021.pdf},

year  = {2021},

date = {2021-05-13},

number = {May 2021},

pages = {1-13},

abstract = {We present a vision for conversational user interfaces (CUIs) asprobes forspeculating with, rather than as objects to speculateabout. Popular CUIs, e.g., Alexa, are changing the way we converse,narrate, and imagine the world(s) to come. Yet, current conversa-tional interactions normatively may promote non-desirable ends,delivering a restricted range of request-response interactions withsexist and digital colonialist tendencies. Our critical design ap-proach envisions alternatives by considering how future voices canreside in CUIs as enabling probes. We present novel explorationsthat illustrate the potential of CUIs as critical design material, bycritiquing present norms and conversing with imaginary species.As micro-level interventions, we show that conversationswithdi-verse futuresthroughCUIs can persuade us to critically shape ourdiscourse on macro-scale concerns of the present, e.g., sustainabil-ity. We reflect on how conversational interactions with pluralistic,imagined futures can contribute to howbeing humanstands tochange.},

keywords = {Conversational user interfaces, critical design, design fiction, futuring, speculative design},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {conference}

}