On Monday, February 3, 2025, CIS Ph.D. students Brook Connor, Kapono Gaughen and Yuri Kenney, alongside CIS faculty member Dr. Jenifer Sunrise Winter, presented their forthcoming paper on uncanny discourse — an idea that emerged from discussions in last fall’s CIS 701 course, Communication & Information Theories of Society.
The paper will be presented at the alt.CHI track of SIGCHI 2025, in Yokohama, Japan. Congratulations!
Title: “Uncanny Discourse: A New Space for Research in Interaction”
Abstract: Every interaction has become uncanny. Discourse, the pattern of interactions between two parties, has moved into a space on the boundaries of self and other. We identify the Uncanny Discourse to bring these concepts together to further human-computer interaction research. Interactions, whether mediated by information and communication technologies or not, have always been necessarily between two spaces. Now, the diametric conflict of those two spaces has become at once obvious and unsettlingly unknown. Interaction has become real and synthetic; informing and deceiving; and clear and cryptic. Sliding between these spaces is uncanny.
We raise a challenge for researchers in interaction — face the uncanny. Incorporate it in your design, in your research. And intentionally choose between strengthening the uncanny and mitigating it.
Bios:
Brook Conner
Interests: My dissertation is tentatively titled “A system architecture approach to digital transformations.” It builds on both my work experience and my prior research and publications. Prior research included some of the earliest and formative papers on interactive 3D graphics, the relationship of programming language mechanisms to interactive systems, 3D user interface design, and a redesign of the undergraduate computer science curriculum. Presently, I am a consultant advising organizations on cybersecurity and digital transformation.
Previous work includes five years at the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for the Hawaiʻi State Department of Education, where my team replaced the Departmentʻs core accounting system, modernized collaboration for all staff and students, and managed the educational technology needed to support distance learning during the COVID pandemic. Prior to that, I was the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Estee Lauder Companies, a Fortune 500 global retailer and manufacturer. I built the vulnerability management program for Morgan Stanley in response to a nation-state cyberattack, and re-architected core parts of the Bloomberg Terminal Service. I have an AB in art, an ScB in Math/Computer Science, and an MSc in Computer Science, all from Brown University. I am conversational in French and Hawaiian and enjoy stand-up paddling, role-playing games, video games, and wargaming.
Kapono Gaughen
Interests: Aloha, my name is Kapono Gaughen; I was raised on the Big Island, where I graduated from Kealaheke High School in 2010. I graduated from UH Manoa with a BA in Biology in 2015, at which time I returned home. I spent the next few years working as a busser, a Park Ranger, and a State Department of Agriculture Pesticide Inspector. I began making videos with my friends sharing our fishing trips, which we posted on YouTube. This ended up having a much larger impact on me than I would have ever expected. The channel grew a strong local community, and I found a possible solution to many of the issues the government agencies I formally worked for were trying to solve. Natural resource managers have a hard time connecting with the users and stakeholders of the environment. On my channel, a community of such stakeholders had self-organized. Could the marketing practices used to connect online communities with businesses work in a resource management setting? I returned in 2021 to Manoa and tested the theory in my Master’s Project. I worked, and I want to dive deeper. I am now here with the CIS program, seeking to understand how social media, online communities, and the environment interact and might benefit one another.
Yuri Kenney
Interests: I am interested in promoting public library/community relations and increasing job satisfaction for library workers.
Dr. Jenifer Sunrise Winter
My research addresses data governance, policy, and ethics related to big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT). I explore how we can harness health data resources for societal good, including the governance of AI and personal health information (PHI) for AI/machine learning innovations in healthcare. My research interests also include communication rights and ethics associated with the global expansion of the Internet and the governance of social media platforms to foster democratic discourse and constructive political action. My work has been funded by the National Science Foundation. I am Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society and Co-Chair of the Research Committee at the Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC).