Intergroup contact with participatory telerobotic puppetry Tricksters in the face of intractable conflicts

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School of Arts, Design and Architecture | Doctoral thesis (article-based) | Defence date: 2025-10-09
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Date

2025

Department

Taiteen ja median laitos
Department of Art and Media

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Mcode

Degree programme

Language

en

Pages

115 + app. 81

Series

Aalto University publication series Doctoral Theses, 202/2025

Abstract

In a time when the Internet often fuels conflicts and polarizes societies, we should develop technologies that unfreeze political stagnation. In the 1954 seminal book The Nature of Prejudice, Gordon Allport stated that under the right conditions, contact between members of conflicting groups could reduce prejudice and promote peace and understanding. However, contact in the digital age tends to fall short of this promise, especially in the context of deep-rooted, intractable conflicts. In this thesis, I introduce a yet unexplored medium for contact, telerobotics, and apply it to a novel method of peacebuilding: participatory telerobotic puppetry. The concept is inspired by the work of Augusto Boal, "Theater of the Oppressed", and is integrated with research on participatory design and puppetry to promote long-term collective action at the grassroots level toward peace and equality. Based on a review of the literature on human-robot interaction and intergroup contact and a survey in Israel and Palestine on acceptance and preferences for telerobotic contact, I developed the following concept: Israeli and Palestinian participants co-design a remotely operated robotic puppet theater about the conflict, with the aim of performing it simultaneously in Israel and Palestine. The concept was designed to bypass both spatial and mental barriers of contact. I implemented a prototype kit for a workshop and conducted it in collaboration with Tech2Peace, an organization that promotes dialogue through technology education in Israel and Palestine. The results showed that the proposed format can facilitate intergroup contact in two stages. First, as participants physically meet to learn telerobotic technology and design a political puppet theater, and later, when new audiences are exposed to intergroup encounters through remote public performances. The analysis also produced facilitation guidelines for future workshops. I also present preliminary results for a follow-up intervention that I developed as a response to the war that started on October 7, 2023, and is ongoing at the time of writing. The theme of boundary-crossing highlights the contribution of this thesis. First, by its multiple integration of research areas with intergroup contact theory as a base, and second, with the recognition that to approach intractable conflicts, we need to facilitate boundary-crossing in the face of seemingly impassable contradictions. For this, Boal defined the facilitating role of the Joker. I augment the Joker with technology to define the Digital Joker, and discuss how both stem from the mythological archetype of the trickster. I present a triangle of three 'divine' forces that can be used for boundary-crossing in intractable conflicts: technology, puppetry, and humor.

Description

Supervising professor

Leinonen, Teemu, Prof., Aalto University, Department of Art and Media, Finland

Thesis advisor

Hasler, Béatrice S., Dr., University Liechtenstein, Liechtenstein

Keywords

intergroup contact, participatory design, human–robot interaction, telerobotics, theater of the oppressed, Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Other note

Parts

  • [Publication 1]: Peled, Avner and Leinonen, Teemu and Hasler, Béatrice S. The Telerobot Contact Hypothesis. Computer-Human Interaction Research and Applications: 4th International Conference, CHIRA 2020, Virtual Event, November 5–6, 2020, Revised Selected Papers, 74-99, 2022.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202212227252
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-22015-9_5 View at publisher
  • [Publication 2]: Peled, Avner and Leinonen, Teemu and Hasler, Béatrice S. Telerobotic Intergroup Contact: Acceptance and Preferences in Israel and Palestine. Behavioral Sciences, 14, 9, 854, 9 2024.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202409256520
    DOI: 10.3390/bs14090854 View at publisher
  • [Publication 3]: Peled, Avner and Leinonen, Teemu and Hasler, Béatrice S. Telerobotic Theater of the Oppressed in Israel and Palestine: Becoming Digital Jokers. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact., 2 2025.
    Full text in Acris/Aaltodoc: https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-202508276824
    DOI: 10.1145/3717064 View at publisher

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https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-64-2775-1

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[diss] Taiteiden ja suunnittelun korkeakoulu / ARTS