Abstracts: HASTAC 2017: The Possible Worlds of Digital Humanities

The document contains abstracts for HASTAC 2017

"Arte Factus" : estudo e co-design socialmente consciente de artefatos digitais socioenativos

Orientador: Maria Cecília Calani BaranauskasTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de ComputaçãoResumo: Atualmente, a tecnologia computacional tornou-se cada vez mais pervasiva por meio de computadores de diferentes tamanhos, formas e capacidades. Mas avanços tecnológicos, embora necessários, não são suficientes para tornar a interação com tecnologia computacional mais transparente, como preconizado pela computação ubíqua. Sistemas computacionais atuais ainda exigem um vocabulário técnico de entradas e saídas para serem utilizados. No campo da Interação Humano-Computador (IHC), a adoção da teoria da cognição enativa pode lançar luz sobre um novo paradigma de interação que preenche a lacuna entre ação e percepção. Sistemas computacionais enativos são um promissor tema de pesquisa, mas seu design e avaliação ainda são pouco explorados. Além disso, sistemas enativos, como já proposto na literatura, carecem de consideração do contexto social. O objetivo desta tese de doutorado é contribuir para o design de tecnologia computacional dentro de uma abordagem da cognição enativa, além de também sensível à aspectos sociais. Portanto, esta tese investiga os conceitos de sistemas enativos e socioenativos por meio do co-design de arte interativa e instalações. Para atingir esse objetivo, é proposto um arcabouço teórico-metodológico chamado "Arte Factus" para apoiar o estudo e o co-design socialmente consciente de artefatos digitais. O arcabouço "Arte Factus" foi utilizado em três estudos de design relatados nesta tese: InterArt, InstInt e InsTime. Esses estudos envolveram a participação de 105 estudantes de graduação e pós-graduação em Ciência da Computação e Engenharia de Computação no co-design de 19 instalações. O processo envolveu o uso de tecnologia pervasiva do tipo Faça-Você-Mesmo ("Do-It-Yourself, DIY"), e algumas dessas instalações foram estudadas em oficinas de prática situada que ocorreram em cenários educacionais (escola e museu exploratório de ciências). O arcabouço "Arte Factus", como a principal contribuição desta tese de doutorado, mostrou-se eficaz no apoio ao co-design socialmente consciente de instalações interativas que materializam o conceito de artefatos digitais socioenativos. Além disso, através do estudo dos artefatos criados no contexto desta investigação, esta tese também contribui para a construção teórica do conceito de sistemas socioenativosAbstract: Currently, computational technology has become more and more pervasive with computers of different sizes, shapes, and capacities. But technological advancements, although necessary, are not enough to make the interaction with computational technology more transparent, as preconized by the ubiquitous computing. Current computational systems still require a technical vocabulary of inputs and outputs to be interacted with. Within the field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), the adoption of the enactive cognition theory can shed light on a new interaction paradigm that bridges the gap between action and perception. Enactive computational systems are a promising subject of research, but their design and evaluation are still hardly explored. Furthermore, enactive systems as already proposed in the literature lack a social context consideration. The objective of this doctoral thesis is to contribute towards the design of computational technology within an enactive approach to cognition, while also being sensitive to social aspects. Therefore, this thesis investigates the concepts of enactive and socioenactive systems by enabling the co-design of interactive art installations. To achieve this objective, a theoretical-methodological framework named "Arte Factus" is proposed to support the study and socially aware co-design of digital artifacts. The "Arte Factus" framework was used in three design studies reported in this thesis: InterArt, InstInt, and InsTime. These studies involved the participation of 105 Computer Science and Computer Engineering undergraduate and graduate students in the co-design of 19 installations. The process involved the use of pervasive "Do-It-Yourself" (DIY) technology, and some of these installations were further studied in workshops of situated practice that took place in educational scenarios (school and exploratory science museum). The "Arte Factus" framework, as the main contribution of this doctoral thesis, has shown effective in supporting the socially aware co-design of interactive installations that materialize the concept of socioenactive digital artifacts. Moreover, through the study of the artifacts created in the context of this investigation, this thesis also contributes towards the theoretical construction of the concept of socioenactive systemsDoutoradoCiência da ComputaçãoDoutor em Ciência da Computação2017/06762-0FAPESPCAPE

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

Experienced inequality in the social media structures – a feminist perspective : Uncovering the gender inequality of social media platforms

In marketing research, social media has been a topic of interest since its early days of existence. The social networking sites are nowadays formed as platforms that facilitate critical activities for businesses, organizations and societies. Furthermore, the platforms have penetrated into people’s lives, providing or limiting the possibilities to function in our society. The social media companies have tremendous power in users’ lives, but yet it is unclear who’s goals are prioritized in these platforms and whose are not. Surprisingly, only little of the social media studies have focused on how the platforms are structured and thus, this study addressed the issue. This research aimed to answer this research gap by gaining an understanding of the experienced inequality in social media structures through taking a feminist perspective. Feminist perspective in this study referred to the idea that social medias made by humans cannot be value-free nor objective. Thus, the analysis for inequality must regard the biases of our society. The empirical study in this thesis was conducted as qualitative research and in two parts: first conducting a content analysis to further define the social media structures and then studying the experienced inequality by individual interviews. The study followed an abductive study as it combined earlier theories from platform structures, feminist theories regarding online spaces and user experiences on social media, and finally combing it with the knowledge gathered from the empirical study. The study results indicated that the experience of inequality in the social media structures was common across different genders and races, but the experiences of inequality are more intense and personal on gender minority users and people of colour. The social media structures defined in this study were affordances, algorithms and content moderation. The central findings were that on gender minority participants the experience of alienation was highlighted but the feeling of unsafety on the platforms was universal . The study produced valuable gender and race sensitive data for the purpose of developing social media platforms more equal.Sosiaalisen median alustat ovat olleet markkinoinnin tutkimuksen kohteena aivan niiden syntyhetkistä lähtien. Nykypäivänä sosiaalisten medioiden rooli on merkittävä niin yritystoiminnan, yhteiskunnallisen keskustelun kuin ihmisten välisen yhteydenpidon kannalta. Alustoilla on siis kasvava valta yhteiskuntamme rakenteissa. Viime vuosina on kuitenkin herännyt kysymys tämän vallan käytöstä ja sen jakautumisesta – kenen etuja sosiaaliset mediat ajavat ja kenen eivät. Aikaisemmassa tutkimuksessa epätasa-arvon kokemukset sekä ei-binäärinen tieto ovat jääneet vähemmälle huomiolle liittyen sosiaalisten medioiden käyttökokemuksiin. Tämä tutkielma vastasi tutkimusaukkoon pyrkimällä ymmärtämään epätasa-arvon kokemuksia sosiaalisen median rakenteissa feministisen perspektiivin kautta. Feministinen perspektiivi tässä tutkielmassa tarkoitti periaatetta, että sosiaalisen median alustat heijastelevat yhteiskunnassamme vallitsevia vinoumia, mikä tulee tutkimuksessa ottaa huomioon. Empiirinen tutkimus suoritettiin kahdessa vaiheessa: ensin tutkimalla sosiaalisen median rakenteita sisältöanalyysin kautta ja seuraavaksi keräämällä aineistoa yksilöhaastatteluista. Tutkielma seurasi abduktiivisen tutkimuksen periaatteita verraten aikaisempaa teoriaa uuteen kerättyyn aineistoon. Tutkimuksen tulokset valottivat, että monet sukupuolet sekä etnisyydet kokivat epätasa-arvoa sosiaalisen medioiden rakenteissa, mutta epätasa-arvon kokemukset olivat intensiivisempiä sekä henkilökohtaisempia sukupuolivähemmistöillä sekä ei-valkoisilla sosiaalisen median käyttäjillä. Rakenteet, joita tämä tutkielma analysoi olivat käyttömahdollisuudet, algoritmit sekä sisällön moderointi. Yksi keskeisimmistä löydöksistä oli, että sukupuolivähemmistöillä nämä rakenteet aiheuttivat vieraantumisen sekä ulkopuolisuuden tunnetta, mutta turvattomuuden tunne oli yhteinen eri sukupuolille sekä etnisyyksille. Tämä tutkielma tuotti arvokasta sukupuolieriteltyä tietoa kokemuksista sosiaalisen median alustojen rakenteissa sekä nosti esiin alustojen kehityskohteita

Discourses, Modes, Media and Meaning in an Era of Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all aspects of our everyday lives – from the political to the economic to the social. Using a multimodal discourse analysis approach, this dynamic collection examines various discourses, modes and media in circulation during the early stages of the pandemic, and how these have impacted our daily lives in terms of the various meanings they express. Examples include how national and international news organisations communicate important information about the virus and the crisis, the public’s reactions to such communications, the resultant (counter-)discourses as manifested in social media posts and memes, as well as the impact social distancing policies and mobility restrictions have had on people’s communication and interaction practices. The book offers a synoptic view of how the pandemic was communicated, represented and (re-)contextualised across different spheres, and ultimately hopes to help account for the significant changes we are continuing to witness in our everyday lives as the pandemic unfolds. This volume will appeal primarily to scholars in the field of (multimodal) discourse analysis. It will also be of interest to researchers and graduate students in other fields whose work focuses on the use of multimodal artefacts for communication and meaning making

The experience as a document: designing for the future of collaborative remembering in digital archives

How does it feel when we remember together on-line? Who gets to say what it is worth to be remembered? To understand how the user experience of participation is affecting the formation of collective memories in the context of online environments, first it is important to take into consideration how the notion of memory has been transformed under the influence of the digital revolution. I aim to contribute to the field of User Experience (UX) research theorizing on the felt experience of users from a memory perspective, taking into consideration aspects linked to both personal and collective memories in the context of connected environments.Harassment and hate speech in connected conversational environments are specially targeted to women and underprivileged communities, which has become a problem for digital archives of vernacular creativity (Burgess, J. E. 2007) such as YouTube, Twitter, Reddit and Wikipedia. An evaluation of the user experience of underprivileged communities in creative archives such as Wikipedia indicates the urgency for building a feminist space where women and queer folks can focus on knowledge production and learning without being harassed. The theoretical models and designs that I propose are a result of a series of prototype testing and case studies focused on cognitive tools for a mediated human memory operating inside transactive memory systems. With them, aims to imagine the means by which feminist protocols for UX design and research can assist in the building and maintenance of the archive as a safe/brave space.Working with perspectives from media theory, memory theory and gender studies and centering the user experience of participation for women, queer folks, people of colour (POC) and other vulnerable and underrepresented communities as the main focus of inquiring, my research takes an interdisciplinary approach to interrogate how online misogyny and other forms of abuse are perceived by communities placed outside the center of the hegemonic normativity, and how the user experience of online abuse is affecting the formation of collective memories in the context of online environments

HyperBody: An Experimental VR Game Exploring the Cosmotechnics of Game Fandom through a Posthumanist Lens

Interdependencies among ACGN (Anime, Comics, Games, and Novels) communities in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are growing. However, game studies and fan studies remain distinct disciplines. This cross-disciplinary thesis bridges this gap by investigating "game-fandom" practices in VR production, defined as the fusion of game and fan studies within the ACGN context. Drawing from Yuk Hui's "cosmotechnics" and Karen Barad's posthumanist perspective, this research reconsiders the relationship between cosmology, morality, and technology (Hui 2017). It employs "intra-action" to emphasise the indivisible, dynamic relations among specified objects (Barad 2007). Cultural practices in C-pop idol groups, Chinese BL (Boys' Love) novels, science fiction, and modding communities are analysed, illuminating the ACGN fandom's cultural, technological, and affective dimensions. This work features the creation, description, and evaluation of an experimental VR game, "HyperBody", which integrates the written thesis by reflecting game-fandom's cosmotechnics and intra-actions. The thesis offers two significant contributions: "queer tuning", a theory illuminating new cultural, technological, and affective turns within fandom and computational art, and a "diffractive" approach, forming a methodological framework for posthuman performative contexts. This diffractive framework enables practical contributions such as creating and describing experimental VR productions using the sound engine. It also highlights a thorough evaluation approach reconciling quantitative and qualitative methods in VR production analysis, investigating affective experiences, and exploring how users engage creatively with queer VR gamespaces. These contributions foster interdisciplinary collaboration among VR, game design, architecture, and fandom studies, underscoring the inextricable link among ethics, ontology, and epistemology, culminating in a proposed ethico-onto-epistem-ological framework

Role of Technologyin Reducing Social Isolation Amongst Seniors

AbstractThe purpose of this major research project is to understand what seniors’ social situation as they age and the effects of social isolation can have on them, and how information communication technologies (ICT) can be a means to reduce social isolation. Through an inclusive research method of participatory action research and co-design, three participants aged 65 years and older were selected to use Facebook Messenger, a popular social application for a period of three weeks. During this time, participants assessed if such an application is easy to use and access. Participants’ experience demonstrates that social applications such as Facebook Messenger are not designed taking into consideration requirements of the aging population. For social applications to be inclusive, the researcher proposes that design teams should be diverse to identify and understand various user group requirements