Sybil


2020

Sybil is an interactive divination device that blends oracular traditions with machine learning, inviting users to engage with the mystery of technical systems through embodied interaction. Instead of positioning AI as a tool for utility, efficiency, or surveillance, Sybil fosters interpretation, imagination, and ritual, offering AI-generated prophecies based on the participant’s breathing patterns.

The device consists of a glowing glass orb that pulses with light, guiding users into sync with its rhythm via a diaphragmatic breath sensor. Once attuned, Sybil analyzes their breath and produces a cryptic prophecy generated by a recurrent neural network (RNN) trained on riddles. These enigmatic responses, rather than offering clear answers, invite the participant to engage in interpretation, attunement, and playful meaning-making.

Designed as part of a larger effort toward re-enchantment in technological design, Sybil explores how digital interactions can cultivate presence, ritual, and embodied engagement rather than reinforcing instrumental logic. I developed the system as an exploration of how AI might evoke mystery and wonder, rather than control and prediction, transforming everyday interactions into moments of imaginative inquiry.


Gabrielle Benabdallah. 2020. Sybil: A Divinatory Home Device. In Companion Publication of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS' 20 Companion). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 275–279. https://doi.org/10.1145/3393914.3395857


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