Logo
ScienceStack
Table of Contents
Fetching ...
Sign In

Conversing with Objects toward Fluid Human and Artificial Identities during Life Transitions

Yuhui Xu, Minha Lee, Stephan Wensveen, Mahla Alizadeh, Mathias Funk

TL;DR

This paper addresses how identity shifts during life transitions can be supported through conversations with everyday objects mediated by a chatbot. Using a research-through-design field study with 12 international students over two weeks, it introduces trans-embodiment, a framework where object and other human identities are imaginatively embodied in a chatbot, producing emotional and reflective experiences. The study identifies three trans-embodied object identities—perceptual, contextual, and relational—and demonstrates how such interactions can facilitate emotional disclosure, self-reflection, and narrative continuity during relocation. The findings bridge life-transition research, object studies, and artificial-identity literature, offering design guidance for CA-mediated, object-centered reflection while cautioning about ethics, dependence, and the limitations of short-term RtD studies.

Abstract

People's identities change during life transitions, e.g., studying abroad. They bring everyday objects that embody memories and reflect their identities during such moves. To assist in these transitions, we ask how people's human identities could be influenced by their objects through an artificial agent. This paper presents an exploratory research-through-design study around how people undergoing life transitions experience conversing with their everyday objects through a chatbot. Drawing on a two-week field deployment and interviews with 12 participants, we contribute (1) a conceptualization of 'trans-embodiment' describing the asynchronous imagination of object and human identities on the chatbot, (2) empirical evidence of the resulting emotional and reflective experiences, and (3) three types of object identities for designing conversational agents that role-play objects. Our contributions sum up to triangulating human-agent-object identity as trans-embodiment in supporting life transitions.

Conversing with Objects toward Fluid Human and Artificial Identities during Life Transitions

TL;DR

This paper addresses how identity shifts during life transitions can be supported through conversations with everyday objects mediated by a chatbot. Using a research-through-design field study with 12 international students over two weeks, it introduces trans-embodiment, a framework where object and other human identities are imaginatively embodied in a chatbot, producing emotional and reflective experiences. The study identifies three trans-embodied object identities—perceptual, contextual, and relational—and demonstrates how such interactions can facilitate emotional disclosure, self-reflection, and narrative continuity during relocation. The findings bridge life-transition research, object studies, and artificial-identity literature, offering design guidance for CA-mediated, object-centered reflection while cautioning about ethics, dependence, and the limitations of short-term RtD studies.

Abstract

People's identities change during life transitions, e.g., studying abroad. They bring everyday objects that embody memories and reflect their identities during such moves. To assist in these transitions, we ask how people's human identities could be influenced by their objects through an artificial agent. This paper presents an exploratory research-through-design study around how people undergoing life transitions experience conversing with their everyday objects through a chatbot. Drawing on a two-week field deployment and interviews with 12 participants, we contribute (1) a conceptualization of 'trans-embodiment' describing the asynchronous imagination of object and human identities on the chatbot, (2) empirical evidence of the resulting emotional and reflective experiences, and (3) three types of object identities for designing conversational agents that role-play objects. Our contributions sum up to triangulating human-agent-object identity as trans-embodiment in supporting life transitions.
Paper Structure (39 sections, 4 figures, 2 tables)

This paper contains 39 sections, 4 figures, 2 tables.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Life Transition in Psychology and HCI
  4. International students and life transition
  5. Everyday Objects, Identity, and HCI
  6. Conversational Agents for Reflection and Well-Being
  7. Artificial Identities and Multi-Embodiments
  8. Methodology
  9. Probe Design Process, Rationale, and Implementation
  10. Participants and Data Collection Process
  11. Ethical Considerations
  12. Data Analysis
  13. Positionality
  14. Findings
  15. Trans-Embodiment: Fluid Identities of Human, Agent, and Object
  16. ...and 24 more sections

Figures (4)

  • Figure 1: A triadic relationship framing among the concepts of human, conversational agent, everyday object, and their connections.
  • Figure 2: Left: An example of a conversation from (a) to (b) in sequence, with chatbot prompts from 1 to 10 that form the structure of the conversation. Right: Explanations of the purpose of each prompt. Footnotes: Prompt 3 and 7 each contain a random component.
  • Figure 3: Left: An entity-relationship diagram that describes the parties involved and their interrelationships in this study from 1 to 10. Right: A table that explains the four entities and six interrelationships from 1 to 10 with examples in quotes.
  • Figure 4: Trans-embodiment: a presence in which the identities of objects (e.g., cups) and object-related other humans in participants' lives can be imagined on the chatbot across forms asynchronously. These trans-embodied identities are based on perceptual, contextual, and relational imaginations of objects. Meanwhile, people present different social identities correspondingly, resulting in embodied emotional and reflective experiences through the conversations.