Talk to me, you'll understand
Animation (01:13)
KADK -- Royal Danish Academy
2019
Talk to me, you'll understand is a short animation about hidden gender bias in voice technology, researched and developed during my MA at KADK.
It is inspired by a podcast episode by the Feminist Internet, which raises some questions in regard to the responsibility of tech giants (such as Amazon and Apple) to create voice technology that upholds social values of equality and inclusion, rather than perpetuating outdated gender stereotypes.
With the aim of raising awareness on the issue, I decided to use an excerpt from the podcast episode as a script and create a short introductory animation on the subject matter.
I was happy to hear that the video was featured in an interview article with the Feminist Internet on AIGA - Eye on Design.
Research, Concept Development & Design
Everyday voice technologies
as characters of the animation
What better way to talk about the subject matter, than by bringing to life some of today’s most common voice technologies?
By giving these objects an anthropomorphic look and making them the narrators of the story, we get reminded that under the illusion of machine neutrality, hide human bias.
Animation
Synthetic voices and animation through body tracking
Each character’s voice was created with Amazon Polly, an AI Text to Speech software, which provides access to a diverse library of synthetic voices, categorized by accent and gender. By seeing each object having its own unique voice, we get to reflect on the importance of creating more inclusive technologies.
The characters were animated using body tracking in Character Animator, a technique that allows to easily replicate human-like movements.
Talk to me, you'll understand
Animation (01:13)
KADK -- Royal Danish Academy
2019
Talk to me, you'll understand is a short animation about hidden gender bias in voice technology, researched and developed during my MA at KADK.
It is inspired by a podcast episode by the Feminist Internet, which raises some questions in regard to the responsibility of tech giants (such as Amazon and Apple) to create voice technology that upholds social values of equality and inclusion, rather than perpetuating outdated gender stereotypes.
With the aim of raising awareness on the issue, I decided to use an excerpt from the podcast episode as a script and create a short introductory animation on the subject matter.
I was happy to hear that the video was featured in an interview article with the Feminist Internet on AIGA - Eye on Design.
Research, Concept Development & Design
Everyday voice technologies
as characters of the animation
What better way to talk about the subject matter, than by bringing to life some of today’s most common voice technologies?
By giving these objects an anthropomorphic look and making them the narrators of the story, we get reminded that under the illusion of machine neutrality, hide human bias.
Animation
Synthetic voices and animation through body tracking
Each character’s voice was created with Amazon Polly, an AI Text to Speech software, which provides access to a diverse library of synthetic voices, categorized by accent and gender. By seeing each object having its own unique voice, we get to reflect on the importance of creating more inclusive technologies.
The characters were animated using body tracking in Character Animator, a technique that allows to easily replicate human-like movements.