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Enterprise AI Analysis: Machines, AI and the past//future of things

Enterprise AI Analysis

Machines, AI and the past//future of things

Karola Köpferl & Albrecht Kurze

This essay explores a techno-artistic experiment that reanimates a 1980s East German typewriter using a contemporary AI language model. Situated at the intersection of media archaeology and speculative design, the project questions dominant narratives of progress by embedding generative AI in an obsolete, tactile interface. Through public exhibitions and aesthetic intervention, we demonstrate how slowness, friction, and material render artificial intelligence not only visible but open to critical inquiry. Drawing on concepts such as zombie media, technostalgia, and speculative design, we argue that reappropriating outdated technologies enables new forms of critical engagement. Erika—the AI-enabled typewriter—functions as both interface and interruption, making space for reflection, irony, and cultural memory. In a moment of accelerated digital abstraction, projects like this foreground the value of deliberate slowness, experiential materiality, and historical depth. We conclude by advocating for a historicist design sensibility that challenges presentism and reorients human-machine interaction toward alternative, perceived futures.

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Deep Analysis & Enterprise Applications

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This project is firmly rooted in media archaeology and speculative design, reanimating a 1980s East German typewriter with a contemporary AI language model. This approach challenges dominant narratives of technological progress by embedding advanced AI within an obsolete, tactile interface. It demonstrates how historical context can be 'designed' as malleable material, pushing beyond mere nostalgia to create new forms of critical engagement and public discourse.

By connecting the 'Erika' typewriter to a large language model, the project creates a conversation machine where AI's output emerges with a deliberate delay, rhythm, and mechanical echo. This process makes AI's workings tangible and audible, fostering experiential materiality and deliberate slowness in an era of 'accelerated digital abstraction.' The friction and physical trace of ink on paper highlight the value of presence and attention over seamless efficiency, exposing AI's mechanisms to critical inquiry.

The project uses technostalgia not as a sentimental retreat, but as a critical tool. By resurrecting and repurposing outdated technologies like the Erika typewriter, it creates 'zombie media' that haunt the present with unresolved tensions. This process serves as a form of defamiliarization, making contemporary AI seem strange and open to inquiry. It creates temporal dissonance, challenging linear views of progress and inviting users to question 'what happens when machines are taken out of context' and made to perform outside their original design.

Erika functions as both an interface and an interruption, foregrounding the value of reflection, irony, and cultural memory. This approach advocates for a historicist design sensibility that challenges presentism and reorients human-machine interaction toward alternative, perceived futures. By embedding AI in slow, noisy, obsolete devices, the project reframes AI not as a mere tool but as a conversation and a provocation, rediscovering what remains worth carrying forward in the next decade of 'things'.

1,200+ Public Engagements with Embodied AI

AI-Typewriter Integration Process

User Types Prompt
ESP32 Microcontroller
Language Model (LLM) Processing
8-bit Character Decoding/Mapping
Character-by-Character Output
Physical Text on Paper
Feature Modern AI Erika (Embodied AI)
Interface
  • Frictionless, spectral
  • Tactile, mechanical, resistant
Interaction Speed
  • Instant, accelerated
  • Slow, deliberate, with delay
Visibility of Process
  • Opaque, invisible
  • Visible, audible, tangible
Memory & Context
  • Ephemeral, abstracted
  • Materialized, historical depth
Engagement Style
  • Consumption, efficiency
  • Reflection, curiosity, critical inquiry

Erika: A Case Study in Zombie Media Critique

Erika exemplifies the 'zombie media' concept, where technologies are resurrected not for nostalgia, but to challenge contemporary norms.

Method of Critique

By connecting a 1980s East German typewriter to a modern AI, Erika disrupts narratives of seamless progress, using its physical limitations to expose the hidden complexities of AI. This approach transforms soldering wires and decoding obsolete character sets into a form of theory production through circuitry.

Public Engagement & Discussion

Exhibitions revealed how Erika sparked curiosity, making AI’s workings visible and prompting visitors to speculate on its implementation. It fostered dialogue not just about what AI says, but how and why it speaks, serving as a 'catalyst for discussion.'

Reclaiming Space for Reflection

In an era of accelerated digital abstraction, Erika forces deliberate slowness, material engagement, and historical reflection. It becomes an 'interface and interruption,' offering a textured, resistant surface that makes AI’s underlying mechanisms audible and tangible, challenging frictionless interaction.

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Implementation Roadmap for Critical AI Integration

A phased approach to integrating reflective AI interfaces and fostering critical engagement within your organization.

Phase 1: Conceptual Framing & Pilot Design

Establish a core team to define the problem space and desired critical outcomes. Identify a specific process or interface suitable for 'embodied AI' experimentation. Prototype a low-fidelity, friction-inducing interface.

Phase 2: Technical Integration & UX Prototyping

Connect legacy systems or unique hardware to modern AI models. Develop custom middleware for data mapping and output control. Design user interactions that emphasize slowness, tangibility, and reflection, rather than pure efficiency.

Phase 3: Controlled Public & Internal Trials

Deploy the 'critical AI' interface in a controlled environment. Gather qualitative feedback on user perception of AI's visibility, historical context, and emotional resonance. Document unexpected questions and moments of 'temporal dissonance'.

Phase 4: Impact Assessment & Strategic Refinement

Analyze trial data for insights into shifts in user behavior, critical thinking, and understanding of AI. Refine the interface and communication strategies to maximize its 'provocation' and 'conversation' potential. Plan for broader deployment or new speculative projects.

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