Multiplicity and Welt

This article interprets Jakob von Uexküll’s understanding of different beings’ Innenwelt, Gegenwelt, and umwelt through Deleuzian insights of multiplicity, context, and particularity. This Deleuzian interpolation into Uexküll’s insights acknowledges the absence of a unitary ‘human’ view of nature, recognizing instead that plural viewpoints of cultures, subgroups and individuals understand and interpret natural signs variously not just because of ideology but because of physiology and contrastive fundamental ways of accessing the world. Recent formative research in comparative neurobiology suggests that universal anthropological claims of cross-cultural semiotic similarity are incorrect.Interpreting biosemiotics as the investigation of apprehending the Innenwelt of radically different others (species), such semiotic understandings themselves are not necessarily generalizable between different members of the same species in a group, same-species groups in different natural cultural contexts, or even (as with humans) the same animal at different points of time (based on new understandings, patterns, or events of meaning altering interpretations of self and events). Conjoining Deleuze’s insights of the complexity of multiplicity with Uexküll’s scientific-imaginative system of comprehending other creatures’ ways of understanding their world offers an increased self-reflexivity regarding the simultaneous levels of actual semiotic activity for biosemiotic inquiry

Adversarial Attacks on the Interpretation of Neuron Activation Maximization

The internal functional behavior of trained Deep Neural Networks is notoriously difficult to interpret. Activation-maximization approaches are one set of techniques used to interpret and analyze trained deep-learning models. These consist in finding inputs that maximally activate a given neuron or feature map. These inputs can be selected from a data set or obtained by optimization. However, interpretability methods may be subject to being deceived. In this work, we consider the concept of an adversary manipulating a model for the purpose of deceiving the interpretation. We propose an optimization framework for performing this manipulation and demonstrate a number of ways that popular activation-maximization interpretation techniques associated with CNNs can be manipulated to change the interpretations, shedding light on the reliability of these methods

Expressive Motion Synthesis for Robot Actors in Robot Theatre

Lately, personal and entertainment robotics are becoming more and more common. In this thesis, the application of entertainment robots in the context of a Robot Theatre is studied. Specifically, the thesis focuses on the synthesis of expressive movements or animations for the robot performers (Robot Actors). The novel paradigm emerged from computer animation is to represent the motion data as a set of signals. Thus, preprogrammed motion data can be quickly modified using common signal processing techniques such as multiresolution filtering and spectral analysis. However, manual adjustments of the filtering and spectral methods parameters, and good artistic skills are still required to obtain the desired expressions in the resulting animation. Music contains timing, timbre and rhythm information which humans can translate into affect, and express the affect through movement dynamics, such as in dancing. Music data is then assumed to contain affective information which can be expressed in the movements of a robot. In this thesis, music data is used as input signal to generate motion data (Dance) and to modify a sequence of pre-programmed motion data (Scenario) for a custom-made Lynxmotion robot and a KHR-1 robot, respectively. The music data in MIDI format is parsed for timing and melodic information, which are then mapped to joint angle values. Surveys were done to validate the usefulness and contribution of music signals to add expressiveness to the movements of a robot for the Robot Theatre application

Visualising Plastic Ocean Pollution: Designing Waste Ontologies

It is challenging to comprehend the extent of oceanic plastic pollution because of the sea depth and currents. This PhD by practice in design uses marine scientific findings and data on plastic waste recycling extrapolation to support an argument that the oceans are the world's largest mismanaged landfill. As the sea's landfill is not visible, the research applied various approaches to making invisible plastic waste present. Through Higher Education (HE) action-based workshops, research participants were invited to experience ocean plastics in ways designed to challenge perceptions. The HE action-based research co-created an aesthetically positive waste response and new experiential values that re-shaped the thinking of participants. Through a co-design approach with design students, research created meaningful connections with long-lasting plastic resources and re-imagined plastic pollution as oceanic species. This PhD thesis research comprises a series of three practice-based projects. First, HE-based waste symposium engagements facilitate landfill dialogue and promote plastic reuse. Second, HE participatory workshops enabled the visualisation of oceanic plastic pollution through making installations. Third, the research explored plastic pollution using craft expositions and participated in a sailing expedition. The PhD interventions promoted positive change through hands-on reuse tactics with plastic packaging, raising environmental and oceanic landfill awareness, and acknowledging that this may not lead to changes in stakeholders' behaviour. Through the design agency-praxis, the research draws on recent works in speculative design formulating experiential design futures and design fictions. These PhD thesis contributions funnelled visual strategy insights from three practice-based interventions into two experiential scenarios - future-based climate fiction narratives. The first future scenario unpacked the responses of HE design workshop stakeholders and proposed informal global services and design-led packaging solutions. The second fiction scenario is a visionary post-anthropocentric future that visually re-imagined the planetary plastic pollution changes through intersections of research and praxis. This participatory research re-imagining with plastic waste and visualising the complexity of plastic pollution contributes further to knowledge relating to design research in three clustered domains. First, various HE learning tools for oceanic environmental awareness and waste reuse were developed. Second, the research designed an innovative methodology that expands praxis vocabulary and forms a new eco-centric compendium through workshop interventions and waste aesthetic approaches. Lastly, through practice-based participatory action and speculative agency, the research uniquely constructs a socio-material narrative with plastic things making new interdisciplinary connections and design relations to nature. The PhD promoted hands-on plastic reuse and new perceptions of plastic waste in HE design education, connecting to discard study, marine science and feminist thinking. A co-creation design approach raised transformative environmental awareness and promoted novel waste aesthetic and design language towards engaged relationships with plastic pollution