569 research outputs found

    Connecting Theater and Virtual Reality with Cognitive Sciences: Positioning from computer science and artist meeting

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    International audienceThis positioning paper presents arguments in favor of collaboration between artists and computer scientists in touch with cognitive science. Each part met the other for a technical collaboration during one theater experimentation named " il était Xn fois ". The article starts with the scientists position relative to the link between cognitive sciences, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. This section highlights the need of autonomous entities to improve presence in artificial world and presents enactive artificial intelligence which aims at producing strong autonomous entities. The second part presents the purpose of the theatrical experimentation "il était Xn fois", which was publicly presented in 2009 by the theater dérézo. The last section is a synthetic view of what should complete artistic and computer scientists area

    Immersive Participation:Futuring, Training Simulation and Dance and Virtual Reality

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    Dance knowledge can inform the development of scenario design in immersive digital simulation environments by strengthening a participant’s capacity to learn through the body. This study engages with processes of participatory practice that question how the transmission and transfer of dance knowledge/embodied knowledge in immersive digital environments is activated and applied in new contexts. These questions are relevant in both arts and industry and have the potential to add value and knowledge through crossdisciplinary collaboration and exchange. This thesis consists of three different research projects all focused on observation, participation, and interviews with experts on embodiment in digital simulation. The projects were chosen to provide a range of perspectives across dance, industry and futures studies. Theories of embodied cognition, in particular the notions of the extended body, distributed cognition, enactment and mindfulness, offer critical lenses through which to explore the relationship of embodied integration and participation within immersive digital environments. These areas of inquiry lead to the consideration of how language from the field of computer science can assist in describing somatic experience in digital worlds through a discussion of the emerging concepts of mindfulness, wayfinding, guided movement and digital kinship. These terms serve as an example of how the mutability of language became part of the process as terms applied in disparate disciplines were understood within varying contexts. The analytic tools focus on applying a posthuman view, speculation through a futures ethnography, and a cognitive ethnographical approach to my research project. These approaches allowed me to examine an ecology of practices in order to identify methods and processes that can facilitate the transmission and transfer of embodied knowledge within a community of practice. The ecological components include dance, healthcare, transport, education and human/computer interaction. These fields drove the data collection from a range of sources including academic papers, texts, specialists’ reports, scientific papers, interviews and conversations with experts and artists.The aim of my research is to contribute both a theoretical and a speculative understanding of processes, as well as tools applicable in the transmission of embodied knowledge in virtual dance and arts environments as well as digital simulation across industry. Processes were understood theoretically through established studies in embodied cognition applied to workbased training, reinterpreted through my own movement study. Futures methodologies paved the way for speculative processes and analysis. Tools to choreograph scenario design in immersive digital environments were identified through the recognition of cross purpose language such as mindfulness, wayfinding, guided movement and digital kinship. Put together, the major contribution of this research is a greater understanding of the value of dance knowledge applied to simulation developed through theoretical and transformational processes and creative tools

    Being There & Being With: The Philosophical and Cognitive Notions of Presence and Embodiment in Virtual Instruments

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    International audienceIn this paper, we will discuss two main concepts, associated with the development of Virtual Worlds, which are "Presence" and "Embodiment". Presence is stamped as the sense of "Being there", that has to be reconstructed in Local world to render Distant Worlds accessible by net-worked or mediated communications. "Embodiment" could be the property of a Virtual entity to be incorporated by human as a second nature. We will show then, how (1) the first situation can be seen as a definition of "immateriality" and its correlative concept of infinity, (2) the second situation can be seen as a definition of "tangibility" with its correlative concept of instrumental embodiment. After exploring the complementary properties of these situations in detail, we will focus on the second one, identified as "the instrumental situation". We will propose some of its relevant properties, those that are able to trigger the sense of embodiment, as the main property supported in the real physical world by the feature of "tangibility". Consequently, we estimate that "embodiment" is more important than the tangibility in itself and we examine some criteria able to help us to recreate them in digital representations

    Landscapes of Affective Interaction: Young Children's Enactive Engagement with Body Metaphors

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    Empirical research into embodied meaning making suggests specific sensorimotor experiences can support children’s understanding of abstract science ideas. This view is aligned with enactive and grounded cognition perspectives, both centred in the view that our ability to conceptualise emerges from our experiences of interaction with our environment. While much of this research has focused on understanding action and action processes in individual children or children in pairs, less attention has been paid to affective dimensions of young children’s group interaction, and how this relates to meaning making with body metaphors. Indeed, Gallagher describes how no action exists in a vacuum, but rather revolves around a complex web of affective-pragmatic features comprising a ‘Landscape of Interaction’ (2020, p.42). This research project addresses gaps in research in understanding young children’s affective engagement from an enactivist cognition perspective. It takes a Design-Based Research approach with an iterative design orientation to examine young children’s interaction with multisensory body-based metaphors through an embodied participation framework. A series of empirical studies with young children, aged 2-7 years, comprising of experiential workshops, build iteratively upon each other. A novel theoretically informed method, Affective Imagination in Motion, is developed involving several purpose-built multisensory body metaphors prompts to enable access to dimensions of young children’s affective engagement. This research makes theoretical and methodological contributions. It extends the theoretical notion of ‘affect’ from enactive and grounded cognition perspectives through identifying key interactive processes in young children’s engagement with multisensory action metaphors. In addition, the novel method offers a contribution as a way of ‘looking’ at affect within a group situation from affective-pragmatic and social embodiment perspectives. Finally, the research contributes to embodied learning design frameworks offering a guideline for designers wishing to inform their work from enactive cognition perspective

    The Translocal Event and the Polyrhythmic Diagram

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    This thesis identifies and analyses the key creative protocols in translocal performance practice, and ends with suggestions for new forms of transversal live and mediated performance practice, informed by theory. It argues that ontologies of emergence in dynamic systems nourish contemporary practice in the digital arts. Feedback in self-organised, recursive systems and organisms elicit change, and change transforms. The arguments trace concepts from chaos and complexity theory to virtual multiplicity, relationality, intuition and individuation (in the work of Bergson, Deleuze, Guattari, Simondon, Massumi, and other process theorists). It then examines the intersection of methodologies in philosophy, science and art and the radical contingencies implicit in the technicity of real-time, collaborative composition. Simultaneous forces or tendencies such as perception/memory, content/ expression and instinct/intellect produce composites (experience, meaning, and intuition- respectively) that affect the sensation of interplay. The translocal event is itself a diagram - an interstice between the forces of the local and the global, between the tendencies of the individual and the collective. The translocal is a point of reference for exploring the distribution of affect, parameters of control and emergent aesthetics. Translocal interplay, enabled by digital technologies and network protocols, is ontogenetic and autopoietic; diagrammatic and synaesthetic; intuitive and transductive. KeyWorx is a software application developed for realtime, distributed, multimodal media processing. As a technological tool created by artists, KeyWorx supports this intuitive type of creative experience: a real-time, translocal “jamming” that transduces the lived experience of a “biogram,” a synaesthetic hinge-dimension. The emerging aesthetics are processual – intuitive, diagrammatic and transversal

    Cyber-Archaeology: Notes on the simulation of the past

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    [EN] Thirteen years after the book “Virtual Archaeology” (Forte, 1996, 97) it is time to re-discuss the definition, the key concepts and some new trends and applications. The paper discusses the introduction of the term “cyber-archaeology” in relation with the simulation process deriving from the inter-connected and multivocal feedback between users/actors and virtual ecosystems. In this new context of cyber worlds, it is more appropriate to talk about simulation of the past rather than reconstruction of the past. The multivocality of the simulation opens new perspectives in the interpretation process, not imposing the final reconstruction, but suggesting, evocating, simulating multiple output, not “the past” but a potential past. New epistemological models of cyber archaeology have to be investigated: what happens in a immersive environment of virtual archaeology where every user is “embodied” in the cyber space? The ontology of archaeological information, or the cybernetics of archaeology, refers to all the interconnective relationships which the datum produces, the code of transmission, and its transmittability. Because it depends on interrelationships, by its very nature information cannot be neutral with respect to how it is processed and perceived. It follows that the process of knowledge and communication have to be unified and represented by a single vector. 3D information is regarded as the core of the knowledge process, because it creates feedback, then cybernetic difference, among the interactor, the scientist and the ecosystem. It is argued that Virtual Reality (both offline and online) represents a possible ecosystem, which is able to host top-down and bottom-up processes of knowledge and communication. In these terms, the past is generated and coded by “a simulation process”. Thus, from the first phases of data acquisition in the field, the technical methodologies and technologies that we use, influence in a decisive way all the subsequent phases of interpretation and communication. In the light of these considerations, what is the relationship between information and representation? How much information does a digital model contain? What sorts of and how many ontologies ought to be chosen to permit an acceptable transmittability? Indeed, our Archaeological communication ought to be understood as a process of validation of the entire cognitive process of understanding and not as a simple addendum to research, or as a dispensable compendium of data.[ES] Trece años despuĂ©s de la publicaciĂłn del libro "ArqueologĂ­a virtual" (Forte, 1996, 97) es el momento de volver a discutir sobre la definiciĂłn, los conceptos clave y algunas nuevas tendencias y aplicaciones de la arqueologĂ­a virtual. El presente documento analiza la introducciĂłn del tĂ©rmino "cyber-arqueologĂ­a" en relaciĂłn con el proceso de simulaciĂłn derivado de la interconexiĂłn y la retroalimentaciĂłn multivocal y entre los usuarios / actores y ecosistemas virtuales. En este nuevo contexto de mundos cibernĂ©ticos, es mĂĄs adecuado hablar de simulaciĂłn del pasado que de reconstrucciĂłn del pasado. La multivocalidad de la simulaciĂłn abre nuevas perspectivas en el proceso de interpretaciĂłn, no imponiendo la Ășltima reconstrucciĂłn, sino sugiriendo, evocando, simulando mĂșltiples resultados, y no "el pasado", sino un potencial pasado. Nuevos modelos epistemolĂłgicos de la arqueologĂ­a cibernĂ©tica deben ser investigados: Que ocurre en un entorno inmersivo de arqueologĂ­a virtual cuando cada usuario es "materializado" en el espacio cibernĂ©tico? La ontologĂ­a de la informaciĂłn arqueolĂłgica, o la cibernĂ©tica de la arqueologĂ­a, se refiere a la interconectividad de todas las relaciones que produce el dato, el cĂłdigo de envĂ­o, y su transmisibilidad. Porque depende de las interrelaciones, por su propia naturaleza, la informaciĂłn no puede ser neutral con respecto a la forma en que se procesa y percibe. De ello se deduce que el proceso de conocimiento y la comunicaciĂłn han de ser unificadas y representadas por un Ășnico vector. La informaciĂłn 3D se considera como el nĂșcleo del proceso de conocimiento, porque propicia la retroalimentaciĂłn, entre el usuario, el cientĂ­fico y el ecosistema. Se argumenta que la Realidad Virtual (tanto fuera de lĂ­nea como en lĂ­nea) representa un posible ecosistema, que es capaz de ser anfitriĂłn de los procesos de conocimiento y comunicaciĂłn tanto de arriba a abajo como de abajo a arriba. En estos tĂ©rminos, el pasado se genera y codifica por "un proceso de simulaciĂłn". AsĂ­, desde las primeras fases de adquisiciĂłn de datos sobre el terreno, las metodologĂ­as tĂ©cnicas asĂ­ como las tecnologĂ­as que usamos, influyen de manera decisiva en todas las fases de interpretaciĂłn y comunicaciĂłn. A la luz de estas consideraciones, ÂżcuĂĄl es la relaciĂłn entre la informaciĂłn y la representaciĂłn? ÂżCuĂĄnta informaciĂłn quedarĂĄ incluida en el modelo digital? ÂżQuĂ© clase y cuĂĄntas ontologĂ­as deberĂ­an ser elegidas para permitir una transmisibilidad aceptable? De hecho, la comunicaciĂłn arqueolĂłgica debe ser entendida como una fase de validaciĂłn de todo el proceso cognitivo de comprensiĂłn del conocimiento, y no como una simple adiciĂłn a la investigaciĂłn, o como un compendio de los datos prescindible.The Virtual Museum of the Ancient Via Flaminia was supported by Arcus spa and managed by CNR-ITABC (scientific direction) and National Roman Museum in RomeForte, M. (2011). Cyber-Archaeology: Notes on the simulation of the past. Virtual Archaeology Review. 2(4):7-18. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2011.4543OJS71824ANTINUCCI, A., 2004, Comunicare il museo, Laterza, Roma, 2004.BAUDRILLARD J.. 1994, Simulacra and Simulation, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994.BATESON, 1967, "Cybernetic explanation", in SEM, 410.BATESON, 1972, Steps to an Ecology of Mind , San Francisco, Chandler Press.BATESON G., 1979, Mind and Nature. A Necessary Unit, Dutton, New York.BIOCCA F. 1997, The cyborg's dilemma: Progressive embodiment in virtual environments, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, vol. 3, n. 2, 1997. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.1997.tb00070.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ct.1997.617676DELEUZE G., GUATTARI, F., 1987, A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia, University of Minnesota Press, 1987FORTE, M. 1997, (ed. by) Virtual Archaeology, (forward by Colin Renfrew) Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1997 (1st edition 1996, Milan).FORTE, M., 2000, About virtual archaeology: disorders, cognitive interactions and virtuality, in Barcelo J., Forte M., Sanders D., 2000 (eds.), Virtual reality in archaeology, Oxford, ArcheoPress (BAR International Series S 843), 247-263.FORTE M., 2003, Mindscape: ecological thinking, cyber-anthropology, and virtual archaeological landscapes, in "The reconstruction of Archaeological Landscapes through Digital Technologies" (eds. M.Forte, P.R.Williams), Proceedings of the 1st Italy-United States Workshop, Boston, Massachussets, USA, November 1-3, 2001, BAR International Series 1151, Oxford, 2002, 95-108.FORTE M., 2005, A Digital "Cyber" Protocol for the Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape: Virtual Reality and Mindscapes in Recording, Modeling and Visualization of Cultural Heritage (eds: E.Baltsavias, A.Gruen, L.Van Gool, M.Pateraki) Published by Taylor & Francis / Balkema ISBN 0 415 39208 X, 339-351, 2005.FORTE et alii, 2006; M.Forte, S.Pescarin, E.Pietroni, C.Rufa, 2006, Multiuser interaction in an archaeological landscape: the Flaminia Project, in (M.Forte, S.Campana, eds.by) From Space to Place, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology, Rome, December 4-7, 2006, BAR International Series 1568, Archaeopress, Oxford, 2006, 189-196.FORTE, M, Pescarin, S. Pietroni, E., 2006, Transparency, interaction, communication and open source in Virtual Archaeology, in (M.Forte, S.Campana, eds.by) From Space to Place, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Remote Sensing in Archaeology, Rome, December 4-7, 2006, BAR International Series 1568, Archaeopress, Oxford, 2006 535-540.FORTE, M., 2007, Ecological Cybernetics, Virtual Reality and Virtual Heritage, in "Theorizing Digital Cultural Heritage. A Critical Discourse" (Edited by Fiona Cameron and Sarah Kenderdine), MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 389-407. http://dx.doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262033534.003.0020FORTE M., 2008 (ed.), La Villa di Livia. Un percorso di ricerca di archeologia virtuale, L'Herma, Rome, 2008.GALLESE, V. 2005, Embodied simulation: From Neurons to Phenomenal Experience, "Phenomenology and the cognitive sciences", 4, 23-48. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11097-005-4737-zGIBSON, J. J., 1999. Un approccio ecologico alla percezione visiva (Il Mulino: Bologna).INGOLD, T., 2000, The perception of the Enviroment. Essays in livelihood, dwelling and skill, London and New York, Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203466025KORZYBSKI A., 1941, Science and Sanity, Science Press, New York, 1941.MATURANA, H, Varela, F., 1980, Autopoiesis and Cognition: the Realization of the Living, Boston Studies in the philosophy of science, Cohen, Robert S., And Marx W. Wartofsky (eds.), vol. 42, Dordecht (Holland): D. Reidel Publishing Co., 1980. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8947-4MATURANA, H, Varela, F., 1992, The Tree of Knowledge: the Biological Roots of Human Understanding, Boston: Shambhala, 1987, (Revised Edition: same publisher, 1992).MELLET-D'HUART D., 2006, A Model of (En)Action to approach Embodiment: A Cornerstone for the Design of Virtual Environments for Learning, in Win W. & Hedley N., Eds. Journal of Virtual reality, special issue on education. Springer London. 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    Participatory Research in Cyber-archaeology

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

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    Orientador: Maria CecĂ­lia 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 tecnolĂłgicos, embora necessĂĄrios, nĂŁo sĂŁo suficientes para tornar a interação com tecnologia computacional mais transparente, como preconizado pela computação ubĂ­qua. Sistemas computacionais atuais ainda exigem um vocabulĂĄrio tĂ©cnico de entradas e saĂ­das 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 sĂŁo um promissor tema de pesquisa, mas seu design e avaliação ainda sĂŁo pouco explorados. AlĂ©m disso, sistemas enativos, como jĂĄ proposto na literatura, carecem de consideração do contexto social. O objetivo desta tese de doutorado Ă© contribuir para o design de tecnologia computacional dentro de uma abordagem da cognição enativa, alĂ©m de tambĂ©m sensĂ­vel Ă  aspectos sociais. Portanto, esta tese investiga os conceitos de sistemas enativos e socioenativos por meio do co-design de arte interativa e instalaçÔes. Para atingir esse objetivo, Ă© proposto um arcabouço teĂłrico-metodolĂłgico chamado "Arte Factus" para apoiar o estudo e o co-design socialmente consciente de artefatos digitais. O arcabouço "Arte Factus" foi utilizado em trĂȘs estudos de design relatados nesta tese: InterArt, InstInt e InsTime. Esses estudos envolveram a participação de 105 estudantes de graduação e pĂłs-graduação em CiĂȘncia da Computação e Engenharia de Computação no co-design de 19 instalaçÔes. O processo envolveu o uso de tecnologia pervasiva do tipo Faça-VocĂȘ-Mesmo ("Do-It-Yourself, DIY"), e algumas dessas instalaçÔes foram estudadas em oficinas de prĂĄtica situada que ocorreram em cenĂĄrios educacionais (escola e museu exploratĂłrio de ciĂȘncias). O arcabouço "Arte Factus", como a principal contribuição desta tese de doutorado, mostrou-se eficaz no apoio ao co-design socialmente consciente de instalaçÔes interativas que materializam o conceito de artefatos digitais socioenativos. AlĂ©m disso, atravĂ©s do estudo dos artefatos criados no contexto desta investigação, esta tese tambĂ©m contribui para a construção teĂłrica 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 systemsDoutoradoCiĂȘncia da ComputaçãoDoutor em CiĂȘncia da Computação2017/06762-0FAPESPCAPE

    Interactive Art and the Action of Behavioral Aesthetics in Embodied Philosophy

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    AN ENACTIVE APPROACH TO TECHNOLOGICALLY MEDIATED LEARNING THROUGH PLAY

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    This thesis investigated the application of enactive principles to the design of classroom technolo- gies for young children’s learning through play. This study identified the attributes of an enactive pedagogy, in order to develop a design framework to accommodate enactive learning processes. From an enactive perspective, the learner is defined as an autonomous agent, capable of adapta- tion via the recursive consumption of self generated meaning within the constraints of a social and material world. Adaptation is the parallel development of mind and body that occurs through inter- action, which renders knowledge contingent on the environment from which it emerged. Parallel development means that action and perception in learning are as critical as thinking. An enactive approach to design therefore aspires to make the physical and social interaction with technology meaningful to the learning objective, rather than an aside to cognitive tasks. The design framework considered in detail the necessary affordances in terms of interaction, activity and context. In a further interpretation of enactive principles, this thesis recognised play and pretence as vehicles for designing and evaluating enactive learning and the embodied use of technology. In answering the research question, the interpreted framework was applied as a novel approach to designing and analysing children’s engagement with technology for learning, and worked towards a paradigm where interaction is part of the learning experience. The aspiration for the framework was to inform the design of interaction modalities to allow users’ to exercise the inherent mechanisms they have for making sense of the world. However, before making the claim to support enactive learning processes, there was a question as to whether technologically mediated realities were suitable environments to apply this framework. Given the emphasis on the physical world and action, it was the intention of the research and design activities to explore whether digital artefacts and spaces were an impoverished reality for enactive learning; or if digital objects and spaces could afford sufficient ’reality’ to be referents in social play behaviours. The project embedded in this research was tasked with creating deployable technologies that could be used in the classroom. Consequently, this framework was applied in practice, whereby the design practice and deployed technologies served as pragmatic tools to investigate the potential for interactive technologies in children’s physical, social and cognitive learning. To understand the context, underpin the design framework, and evaluate the impact of any techno- logical interventions in school life, the design practice was informed by ethnographic methodologies. The design process responded to cascading findings from phased research activities. The initial fieldwork located meaning making activities within the classroom, with a view to to re-appropriating situated and familiar practices. In the next stage of the design practice, this formative analysis determined the objectives of the participatory sessions, which in turn contributed to the creation of technologies suitable for an inquiry of enactive learning. The final technologies used standard school equipment with bespoke software, enabling children to engage with real time compositing and tracking applications installed in the classrooms’ role play spaces. The evaluation of the play space technologies in the wild revealed under certain conditions, there was evidence of embodied presence in the children’s social, physical and affective behaviour - illustrating how mediated realities can extend physical spaces. These findings suggest that the attention to meaningful interaction, a presence in the environment as a result of an active role, and a social presence - as outlined in the design framework - can lead to the emergence of observable enactive learning processes. As the design framework was applied, these principles could be examined and revised. Two notable examples of revisions to the design framework, in light of the applied practice, related to: (1) a key affordance for meaningful action to emerge required opportunities for direct and immediate engagement; and (2) a situated awareness of the self and other inhabitants in the mediated space required support across the spectrum of social interaction. The application of the design framework enabled this investigation to move beyond a theoretical discourse
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