From personal to cultural computing : how to assess a cultural experience

Based on a short overview over the different paradigms for human computer interaction we introduce and discuss the most recent paradigm of cultural computing. Cultural computing addresses underlying and almost unconscious cultural determinants that have since ancient times a strong influence on our way of thinking, feeling and worldview in general. Different cultures worldwide will have different approaches to address their particular cultural determinants. In the East, the project ZENetic Computer is a first and very promising approach for cultural computing addressing Eastern cultural determinants. In the West, we propose an interactive experience based on the narrative ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ to address the main characteristic of the Western culture: analytical reasoning based on formal logic. The effects on the user’s self conception might be measurable via the mandala introduced as cultural archetypes by C.G. Jung.