SEICA Initiative

Live presentation equipment for formal IRL introductions of SEICA Human Interaction Labs (#3-P, Founding Director's Voice Amp Mic, SEICA)
​and foundational equipment for core operational activity ​(#2-P, Founding Director's Computer, SEICA)

Synthetic Empathic Intelligent Companion Artefacts (SEICA) Human Interaction Labs is a virtual organization that takes a speculative approach to (re)searching human interaction in relation to networked consumer electronic devices. Founded by Laura Hyunjhee Kim, our core activity is manifested on a website and our (re)discoveries are realized and disseminated through various digital and physical tools that support remote access.

​Reflecting on the modern human-(tech)-human interaction, our multimedia-based research actively blends and bends publicly re-search-able content from popular scientific papers to consumer technology-related articles and is presented in various output forms of new media works including digital and material-based robot prototypes, namely Companion Artefacts.

'INNOVATION' neon sign (#16-D, SEICA)

SEICA Story

SEICA: The Prologue

We have a dedicated team that believes in a vague but exciting mission following an ambitious vision.

SEICA is an organization that is not operated by traditionally-recognized engineers, scientists, philosophers, innovators or futurists, but by those who are attracted to conversations around how consumer technology is viewed, used and where it is heading. Hence, we take this initiative as a means to communicate that we are all in this together. Continuing the nontraditional legacy and approach to technological evolution, we use a creative filter to observe and help make the next generation more thoughtful and wary about everyday technology that is becoming more and more accessible and deeply embedded into human lives.

Functioning as a collaborative team full of passionate uncertified researchers, our organization is consisted of virtual labs that conduct multimedia-based research as a means to reflect on the current state of networked experiences, experiment with technological potentialities in forms of parafiction, imaginary media, speculative narratives, and propose alternative thought-provoking views that lead into the future.

SEICA Leadership

What will be in every household in 100 years from now?
​What will stay the same and never change. Us, humans?

To strategically engage with these ambitious questions, SEICA operates two major collaborative virtual labs on site:

SEICA Organization consists of the Virtual Research Labs and Prototype Lab

​SEICA VIRTUAL RESEARCH LABS

SEICA Virtual Research Labs study key shifts in human behavior and experience in relation to new-er commercially available consumer-facing technology:

Living Thing Research Lab (LTRL)
Human Condition Research Lab (HCRL)
Speculative Human Research Lab (SHRL)
Intermediary Interface Research Lab (IIRL)

SEICA PROTOTYPE LAB

SEICA Prototype Lab focuses on three types of Companion Artefacts that cater to the specific needs based on various stages of the human life cycle:

Playbots
Emobots
Therabots

Title Unknown (Kitteh Remix of Michelangelo's Creation of Adam), Courtesy of Unknown Artist Online, Date Unknown

Modern consumer technology is a manifestation and materialization of dream narratives and desires of past events considering it takes a long time for any type of technology to normalize and permeate into consumer culture. As proven by history, we believe imperfections make humans beautiful and there is a possibility that the projections humans cast towards innovation and acceleration may not be perfect as well. Pioneering artist and humanist Nam June Paik once stated, People talk about the future being tomorrow, but the future is now! The possibilities of how ubiquitous technology will pave its way and impact future humanity is indeed in our hands now. Which is why, at SEICA, we think it is important for us to think about these questions now.

Although some may argue that our interactions have become more efficient and effective, we are living in a post-apparatus universe where our physical interactions with each other have become significantly reduced into wandering gestures and symbols bound to the electronic devices that make decisions our behalf. What SEICA proposes is to creatively and critically view the technology we engage with everyday and use it as a tool to re-imagine possibilities and strategize alternative initiatives to do so.
​
In the spirits of Jane Goodall and Nam June Paik, our team hopes to virtually research and dwell among these Synthetic Empathic Intelligent Companion Artefacts that in-real-life-as-real-as-it-gets already dwell among us in various shapes, sizes and forms.

SEICA Presentation, AltspaceVR Scenes and Screens Festival, 2018

SEICA Artefact Inventory (#36-D, Inventory, SEICA)

SEICA
re-constructs the past,
de-stabilizes the present,
and re-imagines the future.
​SEICA
​represents the unpresentable future.