Into the Furby-verse: The narrative production of electronic companions

Abstract

Since the mid 1990s, electronic objects designed for the sole purpose of providing human companionship have been widely available to consumers. Effectively, such objects offer a relationship, requiring interaction from a caregiver to “survive” and “evolve”. By offering an opportunity for human–nonhuman attachment, electronic companions raise questions regarding the value of relationships and what it is that makes something artificial or real. Following the success of Bandai Electronics’ Tamagotchi, Hasbro’s Electronic Furby became commercially available in 1998, and has since become a primary actor in marketing, design, media, and research narratives that raise hopeful, satirical, and fearful discussions surrounding our potential future with sociable and companionable technologies. All of these stories construct relationships with electronic companions that are generally human-centred and hierarchical, meaning that they look at electronic companionship in terms of how it will affect people. During this time there has also been a growth in online communities that engage in cultural production through fan fiction responses to existing cultural artefacts, including Hasbro’s Furby. In these stories, the notion of electronic companionship has been explored from diverse perspectives, including a non-hierarchical, animal-centred viewpoint that offers an unfamiliar view of interacting with nonhumans by bringing in aspects of the fantastic. By exploring these consumermade narratives there is an opportunity to understand how people articulate the boundaries of their relationships with technology. Through a combination of textual analysis, cultural studies and design research, this project aims to explore the role that storytelling plays in communicating and exploring the cultural and social impact of emerging companion technologies. An empirical analysis of seventy-two online fan fictions compares and contrasts popular themes and motifs in Furby narratives in terms of whether they render relationships with, and among Furbys as positive or negative. When positive, this analysis highlights that Furbys are treated in a similar way to animals in fantasy, as the story’s protagonist. Through these positively framed relationships we also learn what it means to be an ideal companion and caregiver to nonhumans, as the characters are empathic, compassionate, and selfless. My analysis of negative relationships with Furbys in fan fictions highlights a disconnection between the Furby characters as marketed by Hasbro, and what they become after entering the lives of their caregivers. Despite being sold as friendly and in need of care, Furbys often conjure monstrous and gothic associations that can be read as symptomatic of real anxieties surrounding technological innovation. Building on this preliminary analysis, eighteen still and moving image scenarios were designed to elicit stories, and sixty-four online responses were received. Analysis of these responses found that overwhelmingly fantasy-driven storytelling was used to explore the role of Furbys in the visual scenarios, and they were often written as biologically alive and equal to humans. Combined, my fan fiction and response analyses highlight the interplay between observational and imaginative storytelling to articulate the boundaries around human and nonhuman relationships. My thesis therefore suggests that design and marketing cannot set the boundaries of electronic companionship because they will always be redefined by the users, and designers could benefit from exploring the use of their designs once out in the world. My PhD research project offers: 1) a theoretical contribution by positing fantastic storytelling as a space for critical reflection and engagement with material objects, where the potential of electronic companionship can be explored beyond the imperatives of design and marketing; 2) an empirical case study of Furby fan fiction that expands the understanding of fan fiction to include consumer objects as source material for textual production; 3) a methodological contribution to interdisciplinary studies by combining narrative studies and design to explore our relationships with emerging technology, and 4) a design research contribution that explores user stories to support meaning making practices of storytelling about electronic companionship, and equally value the place of the nonhuman in design issues.