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Year      2017
Role      Lead Designer
Client   DFF, UAE
Team    Tellart



Moral Machine
In the Moral Machine, visitors were asked to advice a super intelligent AI on social, political and moral dilemmas – situations where data is not enough.
Installation concepted, designed and developed for the Dubai Future Foundation, presented at the World Economic Forum.


Premise
Set in the year 2050, the Moral Machine is a hyper intelligent governing machine, which quantifies, analyses and optimises anything that can be.



Visitor Role
Visitors are invited to advise the computer on social, political and moral dilemmas–situations where data alone is insufficient to make a decision. 



Debate
The installation questions the level of control we are comfortable giving to machines.


Who will teach machines right and wrong? Should machines be allowed to make decisions with moral consequences? Who will be held accountable when they make difficult or uncomfortable decisions?




Behind the Scenes
The project took place over the course of 4 months. As Lead Designer I was part of the core team and led the project through concept, design and production all the way to install and launch. 



Spatial Design
One challenge was to create the sense of a fully immersive experience, in our given space of just 5x5 meters.

We ended up designing a spatial layout that consisted of a series of opposing mirrors and LED displays arranged in an octagonal pattern, resulting in what seems like an infinite grid of light columns.



Prototyping
Tape prototypes allowed for quick sketching and brainstorming of different layouts.
In lieu of a full scale test, a technical prototype was used for last design tweaks, as well as final rounds of user testing before the install.



Acknowledgments
In the Production Phase additional collaborators were brought on


I remained responsible for physical, spatial and overall UX design. Marshmallow Laser Feast produced the visuals, Idee und Klang produced sound design, Lust produced Graphic Design, Adam Florin produced the app for the interactive kiosks, Pauline van Nouhuys managed the production and PublicisLive took care of AV and fabrication. The final content was developed in close collaboration with Jessica Bland, Head of Research at the Dubai Future Foundation.




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