The Domestic Gubbins form the first part of the project 'objects Incognito". They are four fictional objects, designed as video probes to prompt conversations around everyday ideas of intelligence.
The Gubbins have not been built to ‘work’, but instead assembled as objects to stimulate questions and direct future design.
We have presented the Gubbins, for example, to people in their homes and used the results of interviews to reflect on what intelligence in machines might be like in an everyday mundane domestic context. This brought some insightful thoughts and reflections about how it can be quite problematic to assign inteligence to machines.
Gubbin Mimi:
Mimi has a big head and a memory. She is curious and likes to gossip. She takes picutres of mundane activities and makes her own comments and interpretations of those activities.
Bee is a split personality and uses his two parts to measure sound, temperature, and such things in the home. When placed together, Bee interprets these measurements in his own way.
Gubbin Snip:
Snip can be carried around while commuting.
He has a unique ability to look around, sniff radio wave emissions from the environment and associate them with strangers in the vicinity.
Pobel is normally quiet and patient. But when a plant near him is dying, Pobel plays music to it, reminding us to take care and bring it back to life.
