Projects

The Interdisciplinary Centre for Extended Reality (ICXR) is an ongoing research initiative at Aarhus University. The center brings together researchers from across faculties and disciplines who investigate or apply Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and related technologies. ICXR provides a collaborative platform for sharing research, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue, and exploring the future potential and societal impact of immersive and spatial technologies.Description

The DARE project operates within the interdisciplinary field of Humanities research in Human-Robot Interaction (HRI), combining philosophical expertise (social ontology, phenomenology, axiology, ethics), anthropological fieldwork, and constructive design research. With a focus on assistive robotics for supporting independent living among older adults, the project investigates the complex interplay between value hierarchies (e.g., autonomy vs. dignity), self-conceptions in aging, and robot appearance.
The world is facing a major demographic challenge in the coming decades, as the number of elderly citizens increases while the workforce declines. Welfare robots are predicted to play a significant role in addressing this challenge by assisting older adults with daily tasks, thereby extending their ability to live independently at home. However, despite promises of increased autonomy and dignity, many older adults hesitate to welcome robots into their homes. Research points to robot appearance as a central reason for this resistance—many robots have toy-like, futuristic, or mechanical designs that clash with older adults’ values and perceptions of home.
To address this issue, the DARE project explores how robot design can better align with users’ values and environments. Drawing on insights from recent design studies of shape-changing objects, the project introduces a new design category: “enabling social interiors.” This concept moves away from imitating living beings or machines and instead draws inspiration from everyday objects and furniture, aiming to create robots that integrate seamlessly into domestic spaces.
The project seeks to understand and improve the acceptance of welfare robots by examining the relationship between values, self-understanding, form, and interior design. Through an interdisciplinary theoretical and methodological approach—including philosophical and phenomenological value analysis, anthropological methods, and constructive design research—the project explores a new innovative design space at the intersection of objects, furniture, interiors, values, and individuals.
Ultimately, the DARE project contributes knowledge not only to the specific domain of elder care robotics but also to the broader development of social robots. It offers new approaches to adjusting robots’ social signals and physical form to better suit specific contexts, enhancing their acceptance and effectiveness in real-world environments.
Description

Research Project 1 funded by the Independent Research Fund DenmarkDescription

Generative AI (such as ChatGPT, Bard, Midjourney, Dall-E, etc.) can create new content based on so-called prompts that people write to them in everyday language. These technologies have rapidly been developed and have proliferated recently, but at the cost of transparency and comprehensibility. It is generally challenging to discern where the texts and images originate from and why they appear as they do. HAIC-III aims to combine humanistic methods with art and design practices to explore Generative AI as an expressive, creative, and cultural interface. The project draws on interdisciplinary research fields, including digital literature, critical data studies, and software studies. HAIC-III analyzes how Generative AI is constructed as an interface and how it establishes new relationships with cultural archives. Additionally, HAIC-III experiments with designing alternative interfaces for Generative AI and employs artistic research to examine how AI impacts current societal and cultural perceptions. Fundamentally, the project investigates how we can use artistic and design-based approaches to address and manage problematic aspects of Generative AI use through a focus on creative human-AI collaboration. HAIC-III prioritizes human-AI collaboration over automation and views Generative AI as a cultural expression engine and creative interface.Layman's description

Emerging artificial intelligent (AI) technologies are instrumental in the green transition towards more inclusive and sustainable futures, with a pivotal role in managing natural and green energy resources in diverse cultural contexts. Yet, the technologies are designed based on Westernised values, principles and models of prediction that challenge local participation, agency and empowerment. Addressing the urgent need for humanistic research for driving technological innovation and green transitions, P-AIAdevelops design anthropological approaches to explore and codesign decolonising forms of AI based on diverse local values, knowledges and lifeworlds in Namibia and Denmark. Through two complementary cases of net zero communities, responsible AI, and sustainable energy collectives, P-AIAcontributes with novel knowledge, methodologies and frameworks for developing everyday green automation for sustainable AI futures in highly culturally diverse local and global contexts.Description