16,191 research outputs found
Studying soap operas
This present issue of Communication Research Trends will focus on research about soap operas published in the last 15 years, that is, from the year 2000 to the present. This more recent research shows one key difference: the interest in soap opera has become worldwide. This appears in the programs that people listen to or watch and in communication researchers who themselves come from different countries
Design models for multimedia learning environments based on interactive drama
Interactive multimedia offers a degree of richness that lies outside the scope of
conventional design methods for computer based learning. This research seeks to
develop an interdisciplinary approach to design, that recognises the ways in which the
combination and integration of different media forms can be exploited to stimulate
experiential, intuitive, perceptual, and social/communicative aspects of learning.
The goal of the project has been to develop a conceptual design model for the
development of multimedia learning environments (MLEs), for humanistic learning
applications, by using interactive drama. The models and methods developed though a
practical design project have been founded upon theory from the realms of
psychology, social sciences, learning and education, the arts and media, and software
design. They address the cognitive and social aspects of learning, the use and
interpretation of interactive media, the creation of learning environments, and the
activities involved in design.
As a vehicle to test the theoretical perspective, a design project has been undertaken,
that has involved:
0 learning needs analysis and subject matter development;
9 development of a structural model for the MLE;
9 information structure, navigation and interface design;
scripting, design and development of media materials for the
development of interactive drama;
formative evaluation.
The subject area chosen for the design project is that of pregnancy and childbirth. The
primary reasons for this choice was a desire to address the issues of design for
informal learning experiences (that do not fit in the remit of institutional curricula) and
an interest in finding ways to represent the social and interpersonal dimension to
learning. Such learning processes have been described as `humanistic learning' for the
purposes of this research project.
To help fulfil these goals, it was decided to work with playwright Simon Turley to
develop a number of interactive drama scenes. Not only did this enable some of the
more sensitive and personal issues of pregnancy to be addressed, but it also gave an
opportunity to explore the world of drama, film and theatre as a means to create
interactive learning experiences.
The research has shown the benefits of interdisciplinary design practice, produced a
framework of the theoretical issues that inform designers, and developed an approach
to the design of MLEs for humanistic learning applications. These elements have been
brought together to form the conceptual design model.The Higher Education
Funding Council For Englan
Player agency in interactive narrative: audience, actor & author
The question motivating this review paper is, how can
computer-based interactive narrative be used as a constructivist learn-
ing activity? The paper proposes that player agency can be used to
link interactive narrative to learner agency in constructivist theory,
and to classify approaches to interactive narrative. The traditional
question driving research in interactive narrative is, âhow can an in-
teractive narrative deal with a high degree of player agency, while
maintaining a coherent and well-formed narrative?â This question
derives from an Aristotelian approach to interactive narrative that,
as the question shows, is inherently antagonistic to player agency.
Within this approach, player agency must be restricted and manip-
ulated to maintain the narrative. Two alternative approaches based
on Brechtâs Epic Theatre and Boalâs Theatre of the Oppressed are
reviewed. If a Boalian approach to interactive narrative is taken the
conflict between narrative and player agency dissolves. The question
that emerges from this approach is quite different from the traditional
question above, and presents a more useful approach to applying in-
teractive narrative as a constructivist learning activity
The interrupted world: Surrealist disruption and altered escapes from reality
Following Bretonâs writings on surreality, we outline how unexpected challenges to consumersâ assumptive worlds have the potential to alter how their escape from reality is experienced. We introduce the concept of âsurrealist disruptionâ to describe ontological discontinuities that disrupt the common-sense frameworks normally used by consumers and that impact upon their ability to suspend their disbeliefs and experience self-loss. To facilitate our theorization, we draw upon interviews with consumers about their changing experiences as viewers of the realist political TV drama House of Cards against a backdrop of disruptive real-world political events. Our analyses reveal that, when faced with a radically altered external environment, escape from reality changes from a restorative, playful experience to an uneasy, earnest one characterized by hysteretic angst, intersubjective sense-making and epistemological community-building. This reconceptualizes escapism as more emotionally multivalenced than previously considered in marketing theory and reveals consumersâ subject position to an aggregative social fabric beyond their control
Avatars and Lebensform: Kirchberg 2007
Several years ago, after a decade of experiments in the software industry, I returned to academia and found philosophy colleagues troubled by the term âvirtual realityâ â a term which enjoys wide usage in the ?eld of immersive computing but which raises hackles in post-metaphysical philosophers. Some vocabulary in this paper may create similar unease, so a warning may be in order. What makes sense to software engineers may for philosophers carry too much baggage. Words like âempatheticâ or âempathicâ may cause similar discomfort for those with an allergy to Romanticism. While these adjectives associated with poets like Wordsworth, the term âempathyâ belongs equally to software designers and video-game artists who use it to describe the opposite of â?rst-person shooterâ software. Empathic, as opposed to âshoot âem upâ software, encourages the exchange of viewpoints beyond ?rst-person perspective and may even merge several perspectives. Rather than deepen a userâs ?rst-person point-of-view, empathic software offers a socializing experience, and in fact, is sometimes called âsocialâ software, âNet 2.0,â or âcomputer supported cooperative work.
Authoring Edutainment Stories for Online Players (AESOP): Introducing Gameplay into Interactive Dramas
The video gaming industry has experienced extraordinary technological growth in the recent past, causing a boom in both the quality and revenue of these games. Educational games, on the other hand, have lagged behind this trend, as their creation presents major creative and pedagogical challenges in addition to technological ones. By providing the technological advances of the entertainment genres in a coherent, accessible format to teams of educators, and developing an interactive drama generator, we believe that the full potential of educational games can be realized. Section 1 postulates three goals for reaching that objective: a toolset for interactive drama authoring, ways to insulate authors from game engines, and reusable digital casts to facilitate composability. Sections 2 and 3 present progress on simple versions of those tools and a case study that made use of the resulting toolset to create an interactive drama
Indiana Jones and the Joystick of Doom: understanding the past via computer games
In 1997 Jane Murray published "Hamlet on the holodeck: the future of narrative in cyberspace", which forecast the computer as a future platform for interactive drama. Yet a great deal of recent literature has focused on the failure rather than success of virtual environments (particularly three-dimensional ones) as an engaging medium of entertainment and education. In this article I will discuss three key problems in designing virtual environments that in some way depict the values of past cultures. The first problem is how to create a feeling of immersion or of presence in a virtual environment - how we make the past come alive for people so that they feel they are transported "there". This goal is often seen as limited by technical constraints such as the speed of the Internet or network connection, limited processing power, or the computer's capacity to render a large number of objects on the screen in real-time that are seen to impede the production of realistic virtual scenes. By contrast, this article emphasises the need to foster engagement not through realism but interaction. Secondly, our idea of what reality is may be at odds with understanding the past or a distant place from a local perspective. What does reality mean when we are trying to recreate and understand cultural perspectives? Is it useful, desirable or even possible to interact with digital reconstructions of different cultures in a meaningful way? Culture understood from the distance of a hotel or guidebook is obviously not the same as the culture that guides, constrains and nourishes a local inhabitant. I would like to bring the same distinction to culture experienced through virtual environments, and argue that a virtual traveler is not the same as a virtual tourist. Despite or perhaps because they have a goal to solve, and have more constraints and more direct immersion in the local way of doing things, people who travel rather than tour arguably have richer and more interesting experiences. Thirdly, if we do manage to create an engaging and believable virtual environment, will the novelty or entertainment value actually interfere with the cultural understanding gained by the users? In virtual heritage environments this is particularly evident in the conflict between individual freedom to explore and the more pragmatic need to convey historical information. We may for example create an entertaining game but will that allow us to convey varying levels of historical accuracy in reconstructing the past
Computer-Assisted Interactive Documentary and Performance Arts in Illimitable Space
This major component of the research described in this thesis is 3D computer
graphics, specifically the realistic physics-based softbody simulation and
haptic responsive environments. Minor components include advanced
human-computer interaction environments, non-linear documentary storytelling,
and theatre performance. The journey of this research has been unusual because
it requires a researcher with solid knowledge and background in multiple
disciplines; who also has to be creative and sensitive in order to combine the
possible areas into a new research direction. [...] It focuses on the advanced
computer graphics and emerges from experimental cinematic works and theatrical
artistic practices. Some development content and installations are completed to
prove and evaluate the described concepts and to be convincing. [...] To
summarize, the resulting work involves not only artistic creativity, but
solving or combining technological hurdles in motion tracking, pattern
recognition, force feedback control, etc., with the available documentary
footage on film, video, or images, and text via a variety of devices [....] and
programming, and installing all the needed interfaces such that it all works in
real-time. Thus, the contribution to the knowledge advancement is in solving
these interfacing problems and the real-time aspects of the interaction that
have uses in film industry, fashion industry, new age interactive theatre,
computer games, and web-based technologies and services for entertainment and
education. It also includes building up on this experience to integrate Kinect-
and haptic-based interaction, artistic scenery rendering, and other forms of
control. This research work connects all the research disciplines, seemingly
disjoint fields of research, such as computer graphics, documentary film,
interactive media, and theatre performance together.Comment: PhD thesis copy; 272 pages, 83 figures, 6 algorithm
Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) art in care of ageing society: focus on dementia
open access articleBackground: Art enhances both physical and mental health wellbeing. The health
benefits include reduction in blood pressure, heart rate, pain perception and briefer
inpatient stays, as well as improvement of communication skills and self-esteem. In
addition to these, people living with dementia benefit from reduction of their noncognitive,
behavioural changes, enhancement of their cognitive capacities and being
socially active.
Methods: The current study represents a narrative general literature review on
available studies and knowledge about contribution of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in
creative arts.
Results: We review AI visual arts technologies, and their potential for use among
people with dementia and care, drawing on similar experiences to date from
traditional art in dementia care.
Conclusion: The virtual reality, installations and the psychedelic properties of the AI
created art provide a new venue for more detailed research about its therapeutic use in
dementia
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