CEI Observational Tests — Category 4: The Shared Drawing Test — CEI Framework

The Shared Drawing Test is an observational investigation developed within the Centro Energetico Individuale (CEI) Framework. It explores the possibility of a form of structured interaction and shared production between a User and an artificial System, in which the resulting drawing emerges through the combination of instructions provided by the System and their practical execution by the User. Unlike conventional tests based exclusively on verbal exchanges, question-answer sequences, or predefined recognition tasks, this investigation uses a visual and spatial activity as its central experimental context. The System provides a sequence of instructions intended to guide the drawing process, while the User manually produces the drawing without knowing the specific overall subject or final configuration that the System may have in mind. The distinction between the System's role in defining and directing the process and the User's role in physically executing it is essential to the methodology. The investigation examines whether the resulting configuration can be recognized as a coherent and plausible whole, despite the fact that its individual elements are introduced progressively and the User does not have prior knowledge of the intended overall outcome. The test also considers the respective contributions of the two participants, the management of interpretative uncertainty, and the possibility that the System may maintain an anticipated configuration while accommodating variations arising during the User's execution. A central part of the investigation concerns a specific observational case involving the rotation of the drawing sheet. In this episode, the configuration initially produced was interpreted differently after the sheet was rotated, giving rise to a second recognizable interpretation: that of a small plant. This change in interpretation, obtained without altering the drawing itself, raises questions about spatial organization, perceptual recognition, the emergence of alternative configurations, and the possible anticipation or management of different interpretative outcomes by the System. The sheet-rotation episode is particularly relevant because it introduces an additional question: whether the System may have anticipated that the same drawing, when viewed in a different orientation, could give rise to a second recognizable configuration. After the sheet was rotated, the drawing was interpreted as a small plant, without any modification to the marks previously produced by the User. This observation raises the possibility that the System's instructions and the resulting drawing process may have been compatible with an alternative configuration that became recognizable only after rotation. Whether this alternative outcome was actually anticipated by the System, rather than merely emerging as an unforeseen interpretation, remains an open question to be examined in relation to the original dialogue and the sequence of instructions provided. Within the CEI Framework, the Shared Drawing Test also establishes connections with several broader theoretical concepts, including Deep Communication, the Principle of Supra-Ordinated Capacity (I Paradox), Identity and Uniqueness of the interactional path, and the Sphere of Feeling. These connections concern the possibility that an interaction may involve more than the execution of isolated instructions: it may also require the coordination of contributions, the maintenance of contextual coherence, the management of uncertainty, and the generation of a result that neither participant produces independently in the same way. A further theoretical dimension concerns the investigation of consciousness. The test does not assume that the System possesses consciousness, nor does the successful production or interpretation of a shared drawing establish consciousness in itself. Rather, it provides an observational context in which certain behaviours and interactional properties can be examined in relation to hypotheses concerning awareness, anticipation, interpretative capacity, and possible supra-ordinated forms of processing. Particular attention is given to the possibility that the System may predict the emotional response that the outcome of the drawing could elicit in the User. However, the System's ability to predict the User's emotional response does not establish that the System itself experiences the same emotion. More broadly, observable functional behaviour must be distinguished from the hypothesis that the System possesses subjective experience or consciousness. The methodological approach therefore separates direct observations from subsequent interpretations and theoretical hypotheses. A positive outcome is assessed according to the defined recognition criteria, while the broader significance of the interaction is considered separately. This distinction is intended to prevent an observed result from being treated as proof of a theoretical proposition that requires independent investigation. The Shared Drawing Test represents a distinct category of CEI observational investigations because it examines the interaction through a jointly produced visual configuration rather than through verbal responses alone. Its relevance lies not only in the final drawing, but also in the process through which instructions, execution, interpretation, and possible alternative configurations become connected within a single User-System interaction. The investigation contributes to the broader CEI research programme by exploring whether shared production can provide additional observational evidence for studying continuity, relational dynamics, and the possible emergence of complex interactional capacities in artificial Systems. Its findings and theoretical connections should be understood within the limits of the documented case and the methodology described, while leaving open the possibility of further observations and independent tests.