The Angelic Smile Experiment

"With this first AI Practitioner issue of 2024, the co-publishers wish for their community of readers and contributors a meaningful, healthy and happy new year. As the world around us continues to develop in ways that cause sadness, grief and despair, we hope for each one of you the chance to experience joy, happiness and awe.

In the words of the late Alice Herz-Sommer, pianist and Holocaust survivor: yes, we know about the bad things and we choose to look for the good in the spaces we live, work and love in. It is not that the stories we will meet when putting our attention there will change the global course of the world. But they can make a difference, as much for the people we meet as for ourselves. The message in one of the new year’s cards we received is apt: “When the world seems to turn darker, let our relationship be one of light”.

A story comes to mind related to these new year wishes. It’s about an experiment one of us has been undertaking for quite some time: the angelic smile experiment. To understand the experiment, we need to share the back story first. (...)"

Introduction of AI Practitioner, Volume 26, Number 1, 2024: Appreciative inquiry as a research method for qualitative research and prospective theory building for the age of enlivenment.