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content/experiment/choose-your-own-smart-wife.md
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| @@ -26,25 +26,37 @@ And so we find ourselves at a crossroads, where we consider two familiar marital | |||
| ## Activity | |||
| Imagine you are a voice-activated smart home-operating system. Write your introduction script. How would you introduce yourself and explain your purpose to your new user(s)? What is your name? Or, do you have a name? Would you describe your personality? Do you have any other defining features? Do you want to explain how you are operated? What can you do? What won't you do? How do you interact with other devices, or others in the home? What do you listen and respond to? What do people need to do to get started interacting with you? | |||
| Activity: | |||
| Imagine you are a voice-activated smart home-operating system (also known as a conversational agent, digital voice assistant, or chatbot). Write your introduction script. | |||
| Choose a voice for your voice assistant. Insert your introduction script into a text-to-speech tool. You can use Google's [text-to-speech tool](https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech) to create a voice for your assistant (or another text-to speech tool if you prefer) Vary the accent, vocal tone, pitch and speed of your assistant's voice until you are happy with it. (If using Google’s text-to-speech tool you can do this by heading down to the subheading “Put Text-to-Speech into action”.) | |||
| How would you introduce yourself and explain your purpose to your new user(s)? What is your name? Or, do you have a name? Do you have a personality? If yes, how would you describe it? Do you have any other defining features? Can you explain how you are operated? What can you do? What won't you do? How do you interact with other devices, or others in the home? What do you listen and respond to? What do people need to do to get started interacting with you? | |||
| Choose a voice for your system. Insert your introduction script into a text-to-speech tool. | |||
| You can use Google's [text-to-speech tool](https://cloud.google.com/text-to-speech) to create a voice for your system (or another text-to speech tool if you prefer) | |||
| Vary the accent, vocal tone, pitch and speed of your system’s voice until you are happy with it. (If using Google’s text-to-speech tool you can do this by heading down to the subheading “Put Text-to-Speech into action”.) | |||
| Small groups | |||
| - Listen to one another’s voice assistant scripts. What do they have in common? How are they different? Discuss your decision-making process when writing your script and choosing a voice for your assistant. Did you decide that your voice assistant has a gender? How is this inscribed on the voice you chose? Is race inscribed on the voice you chose? | |||
| - Listen to one another’s voice system scripts. What do they have in common? How are they different? Discuss your decision-making process when writing your script and choosing a voice for your system. Did you decide that the system has a gender? How is this inscribed on the voice you chose? Is race inscribed on the voice you chose? | |||
| Discussion: | |||
| - How does your smart home voice assistant compare to voice assistants presently on the market? Does your assistant subvert expectations of how smart home voice assistants will perform or respond? | |||
| - How does your smart home voice system compare to others presently on the market? Does it subvert expectations of how smart home voice assistants will perform or respond? | |||
| Homework: | |||
| - Email your introduction script and a record of the settings you used to chooseyourownsmartwife@gmail.com | |||
| - Email your introduction script to chooseyourownsmartwife@gmail.com | |||
| Include either a recording of the voice selected or the settings chosen in your preferred text-to-speech tool. | |||
| If using Google's text-to-speech tool, you can record your settings in a simple file format by selecting ‘Show JSON’ and copying the body text. | |||
| Submissions received will be collated and shared here at a later stage. | |||
| ## Resources | |||
| - Yolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy , [The Smart Wife: Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/smart-wife ) (2020) | |||
| - Thao Phan, [Amazon Echo and the Aesthetics of Whiteness](https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/29586 ), *Catalyst* (2019) | |||
| - UNESCO and EQUALS Skills Coalition, [I’d blush if I could](https://en.unesco.org/Id-blush-if-I-could | |||
| ) (2019) | |||
| - Yolande Strengers and Jenny Kennedy , [The Smart Wife: Why Siri, Alexa, and Other Smart Home Devices Need a Feminist Reboot](https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/smart-wife) (2020) | |||
| - Thao Phan, [Amazon Echo and the Aesthetics of Whiteness](https://catalystjournal.org/index.php/catalyst/article/view/29586), *Catalyst* (2019) | |||
| - UNESCO and EQUALS Skills Coalition, [I’d blush if I could](https://en.unesco.org/Id-blush-if-I-could) (2019) | |||
| - [More](https://www.instagram.com/p/CAvAGL3BE9c/), an experimental gender-neutral text-to-speech voice composed of two voices. Voice concept and design by @maibauvald @timstathee and @desiree_kabis • recorded with @_rebeccazink and @moritz_schottmueller with #cereproc • voice coaching with @celine_ohne_a | |||