This post is slightly different than the usual. It explains an exercise I sought to do as part of a PhD workshop. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I have doing it!
Initial concept š§
The guideline was as follows:
I invite you to prepare a narrative of your thesis in the form of a story. The type of fiction is left to your inspiration: novel, theater, story, film, series, cartoon, etc. Of course, you must prepare an outline of this fiction and not realize it entirely. Be creative and feel free!
Reading this inspired me highly as: 1) I could go with a fanciful idea, 2) I didnāt have to go all the way in, as only āan outlineā was requested. So, my first draft was to create a museum. Just because.
The idea behind it was to illustrate my PhD topic through various artifacts. As Iām supposed to explore Artificial Intelligence implications in healthcare, distinct parts of the museum could represent the diverse impacts of this technology. Advancing the concept further, the museum could be divided into a series of futures: some would be utopias, others dystopias. Each could track down the sequence of events leading to the scenario.
However, as I was figuring out how all of this could be represented, the idea of a museum felt less and less fun. The core concept of different paths was, on the other hand, worth investigating further.
Fortunately, I was working next to a friend of mine at the time. Having discussed it together, the following concept emerged:
Narrative fiction š©
Do you know the stories in which you are a hero, the āChoose-Your-Own Adventuresā ones? Bandersnatch, Black Mirrorās interactive movie, is a recent and famous example. This kind of narrative shifts directions according to the reader's choices. This way, I can model the possibilities and their hazardous nature.
Now, what could be the content of the story? Based on previous thoughts, I went for a romantic relationship between AI - whose real name is Artificial Intelligence, but everyone calls it AI - and Healthcare. (The anthropomorphic characters in this story are non-binary.) Moreover, as a relationship is a game of two, the reader can choose at the beginning either AIās or Healthcareās points of view.
In this mock-up, only the reader's choices influence what happens next. However, a more elaborate version could be designed with two players, each considering a different characterās point of view. Their choices would influence the other playerās possibilities in real time. Ultimately, if youāre up to a more elaborate version, how about a multiplayer board game, where secondary characters could provide extra layers of complexity?
Incipit of the story š«
AI is a young adult who has been dating Finance for several years, a sugar mama whose lavish lifestyle is exceedingly attractive. However, the venal and selfish nature of Fiance drives AI to seek more meaningful connections elsewhereā¦
AI has been hearing stories about Healthcare for some time. Apparently, Healthcare gives its all for others, to the point of risking a burnout! This passion, this zeal for life attracts AI a lot. AI also wishes to feel useful toward something vaster than itself. Yes, Healthcare is the way! AI is set on seducing it!
On its side, Healthcare is in an existential crisis. It is perpetually at the end of its rope, on the verge of collapsing. The State, its father, encourages the pursuit of a humanitarian vocation, but doesnāt really take the time to support Healthcareā¦
Will Healthcare be seduced by the charming promises of AI? In its state, Healthcare dreams of a lovely story so much! Yetā¦ Healthcare has habitually been on its guard, refusing many advances. Plus AI has some reputationā¦
So the game of love and chance begins! But bewareā¦ In the background, the secondary characters will not make the meeting between AI and Healthcare easyā¦
Feedback š
This exercise was fun. It allowed a fresh and more appealing way to look at my topic. Actually, thinking of the core concepts, simplifying my observations, and finding comparisons for the phenomenon helped to develop a deeper perspective.
On top of that, this exercise might help later on. In fact, even right now, I could conceive of another story -Ā one in which cartographers (read ādata scientistsā) try to draw a map (read āmodel a phenomenonā). The results depend on the state of mind and state of advancement one is in, as I observed within the other workshop attendees' stories.
Lastly, looking through all the attendees' narratives, the majority opted for a comic-based story. A picture is worth a thousand words, isnāt it? Also, as most decided to anthropomorphise the ideas or concepts, as a way to make them more life-like. There were also very creative works involving theater play, documentaries, and etc.
Only one participant chose to write about themselves and their position onĀ the PhD process. Although this process represents a personal journey, the academic formalism trains us to erase our very presence from itā¦ This contradiction holds more true in all social sciences, since they are highly contextual, and the researchersā viewpoint can (and does) significantly impact the results.
Takeaways š
It could be possible to apply the fictional narrative process to other abstract jobs. If it applies to your activity, you might find this exercise insightful, or at least a funny way to explain what it is that you are doing.
Although it wasn't explicit, my creative process partially owes its thanks to the CK methodology. The whole thing would take a proper blog post, but, in a word, the chief principle I used was to 1) deconstruct my first idea: [the museum as support + the multiple scenarios as the representation of my phenomena] 2) then change some of the elements (i.e. the premise switched from a museum to a choose-your-own-adventure story). Additionally, instead of personifying ideas, the process could have been applied to the variousĀ scenarios, for example, instead of a romantic story, theĀ scenarios have been in a battle royale, to see which victor remains, etc. Anyway, the point is to find the different dimensions to your idea and, change the elements in it to get something different.
Here is the rudimentary version of the story: http://www.cyocyoa.com/view.php?id=5956 However short, I hope you will enjoy it š
Take care and see you soon! š
Btw, remember you are awesome and can do many things!
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