A generative framework for computer-based interactive art in mass transport systems.

Over the course of the past decade the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) stations in Taiwan have become open air art galleries: with more prominent and frequent display of various artistic creations in stations, including interactive artworks. However, unlike the audiences in more meticulously choreographed exhibition contexts, those in stations are usually involuntary. New criteria for the creation and evaluation of artworks in these context are necessary to enhance the connection between the audience and the artwork, and to elicit meaningful experience via interactivity. This research aims to uncover the critical factors that can turn an indifferent passenger into an explorative participant, subsequently leading them to obtain meaningful experiences through interaction with computer-based interactive artwork. This research focuses on artworks that are permanently installed in the stations, with three case studies conducted in MRT stations forming the backbone of the research. Field observation was the first step in each case study, conducted in order to understand the fundamentals of the interactivity between the passengers and the artworks. This was followed by in-depth interviews with the passengers and three professional interview groups. A critical Analytical Framework was formed throughout the course of the research, identifying five engaging characteristics: Incentive, Transfer, Accessibility, Play, and Challenge. These five characteristics were eventually reapplied to re-examine the case studies and the content of the interviews with the professionals. The findings of this research articulate how the Analytical Framework can be adopted in future research intended to create the conditions for more meaningful art-interactions. This Analytical Framework will assist artists, designers and researchers in their pre-planning and follow up evaluations of the degree of engagement generated by computer-based interactive artworks displayed in transport hubs. The interest that the outcomes of this research has attracted in the field suggests that the framework could be extended to the examination of various computer-based interactive artworks in similar public contexts. In this context, the framework would play a valuable role in uncovering a more dynamic paradigm used to illustrate how meaningful experiences can evolve in similar public spaces

Design And Evaluation of A Conversational Agent for Mental Health Support: Forming Human-Agent Sociotechnical And Therapeutic Relationships

Many people with mental health disorders face significant challenges getting the help they need, including the costs of obtaining psychological counseling or psychiatry services, as well as fear of being stigmatized. As a way of addressing these barriers, text-based conversational agents (chatbots) have gained traction as a new form of e-therapy. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing techniques, this technology offers more natural interactions and a “judgment-free zone” for clients concerned about stigma. However, literature on psychotherapeutic chatbots is sparse in both the psychology and human computer interaction (HCI) fields. While recent studies indicate that chatbots provide an affordable and effective therapy delivery method, this research has not thoroughly explained the underlying mechanisms for increasing acceptance of chatbots and making them more engaging. Don Norman (1994) has argued the main difficulties of utilizing intelligent agents are social—not technical—and particularly center around people’s perceptions of agents. In exploring the use of chatbots in psychotherapy, we must investigate how this technology is conceptually understood, and the thoughts and feelings they evoke when people interact with them. This dissertation focuses on two types of relationships critical to the success of utilizing chatbots for mental health interventions: sociotechnical relationships and therapeutic relationships. A sociotechnical relationship concerns technology adoption, usability, and the compatibility between humans and chatbots. A therapeutic relationship encompasses people’s feelings and attitudes toward a chatbot therapist. Therefore, this dissertation asks: What are the optimal design principles for a conversational agent that facilitates the development of both sociotechnical and therapeutic relationships to help people manage their mental health? To investigate this question, I designed an original conversational system with eight gendered and racially heterogeneous personas, and one neutral robot-like persona. Using a mixed-method approach (online experiment and interviews), I evaluated factors related to the adoption and use of conversational agents for psychotherapeutic purposes. I also unpacked the human-agent relational dynamics and evaluated how anthropomorphism and perceived racial similarity impact people’s perceptions of and interactions with the chatbot. These findings contributed to the wider understanding of conversational AI application in mental health support and provided actionable design recommendations

The Trinity Reporter, Spring 2011

https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/reporter/2098/thumbnail.jp

Classroom Simulation for Trainee Teachers Using 3D Virtual Environments and Simulated Smartbot Student Behaviours

his thesis consists of an analysis of a classroom simulation using a Second Life (SL) experiment that aims to investigate the teaching impact on smartbots (virtual students) from trainee teacher avatars with respect to interaction, simulated behaviour, and observed teaching roles. The classroom-based SL experiments’ motivation is to enable the trainee teacher to acquire the necessary skills and experience to manage a real classroom environment through simulations of a real classroom. This type of training, which is almost a replica of the real-world experience, gives the trainee teacher enough confidence to become an expert teacher. In this classroom simulation, six trainee teachers evaluated the SL teaching experience by survey using qualitative and quantitative methods that measured interaction, simulated behaviour, and safety. Additionally, six observers evaluated trainee teachers’ performance according to a set of teaching roles and roleplay approaches. The experiment scenario was set up between smartbots, trainee teacher avatars, and observer avatars in the virtual classroom, where smartbots are intelligent agents managing SL bots, and where groups are similar to one another but are under programming control.Saudi Embassy in Londo

Will Work For Free: Examining the Biopolitics of Unwaged Immaterial Labour

According to Maurizio Lazzarato, Michael Hardt, and Antonio Negri, immaterial labour is biopolitical in that it purchases, commands, and comes to progressively control the communicative and affective capacities of immaterial workers. Drawing inspiration from Michel Foucault, the above authors argue that waged immaterial labour reshapes the subjectivities of workers by reorienting their communicative and affective capacities towards the prerogatives and desires of those persons who purchased the right to control them. In this way, it is biopolitical. Extending the concept of immaterial labour into the Web 2.0 era, Tiziana Terranova and Christian Fuchs, for instance, argue that all of the time and effort devoted to generating digital content on the Internet should also be considered a form of immaterial work. Taking into account the valuations of ‘free’ social networks, these authors emphasize the exploitative dimensions of unwaged immaterial work and, by doing so, broaden the concept of immaterial labour to include both its waged and unwaged variants. Neither, however, has attempted to understand the biopolitical dimensions of unwaged immaterial labour with any specificity. Thus, while Hardt and Negri examine the biopolitics of waged immaterial labour and Terranova and Fuchs examine the exploitative dimensions of unwaged immaterial labour, this thesis makes an original contribution to this body of theory by extending both lines of thinking and bridging the chasm between them. Taking Flickr as its primary exemplar, this thesis provides an empirical examination of the ways in which its members regard all of the time and effort they devote to their ‘labours of love.’ Flickr is a massively popular Web 2.0 photo-sharing social network that depends on the unwaged immaterial labour of its ‘users’ to generate all of the content that populates the network. Via reference to open-ended and semi-structured interviews conducted with members of Flickr, the biopolitics that guide and regulate the exploited work of this unwaged labour force are disclosed. The primary research question this thesis provides an answer to, then, is: if waged immaterial labour is biopolitical as numerous scholars have argued, then what are the biopolitics of the unwaged immaterial labour characteristic of Flickr and what kinds of subjectivities are being produced by them

Engineers' Self-Perceptions And A Strategy For Fostering Authentic Images of Engineers And Scientists Among Elementary School Students

Over a decade since Finson’s 2002 review article, “Drawing a Scientist: What We Do and Do Not Know After Fifty Years of Drawings”, images of scientists, sometimes stereotypes, continue to be created and promoted in popular media. The scholarly literature amply documents how education stakeholders ranging from elementary school age children to in-service teachers throughout the world perceive scientists. The impact of these images on students’ coursework and career choices is likewise well established. Strikingly, there are few studies where scientists reveal their self-perceptions. The most recent of these were published in 1975. The less well developed literature on engineer images reflects how they are stereotyped as “geeks” and “nerds”. No prior work on engineers’ self-perceptions has been identified. The engineering profession has explicitly recognized the importance of improving the image of engineering (Engineers Dedicated to a Better Tomorrow, 2006). Two research projects were initiated, a first to learn about the lived experiences of scientists, defined as faculty members in a natural science discipline at a research university holding a PhD and a second to learn about the lived experiences of engineers, defined as faculty members in a college of engineering at a research university, likewise holding a Ph.D. A naturalistic or constructivist research paradigm provided the theory base that guided the phenomenology research approach. No scientists agreed to join the scientist study. Engineer participants were asked to share their lived experiences as engineers in semi-structured in-person interviews. The interview data were analyzed according to a phenomenological reduction methodology (Moustakas, 1994). All identified protecting and serving society as an essential element of their experiences as engineers. Other themes that played significant roles in their experiences included their perceptions of the public; the public’s perception of engineers; stereotypes; gender; solitary work and team work; hard work/rigor; designing and building; solving problems; and creativity. While the engineers shared themes, they were not a monolithic group. Each had a unique underlying philosophy that governed how these themes were manifested. The engineers’ self-perceptions are valuable for designing interventions to foster accurate images of engineers for K-12 students. Curricula can be prepared that allow students to experience these essential aspects of being an engineer. The engineers’ Draw-An-Engineer Test (DAET) drawings can be used as benchmarks against which students’ drawings can be compared to assess the extent to which students’ perceptions of engineers and their work is aligned with that of these engineers’ self-perceptions. The themes described above guided the development of a curriculum for a STEM Club. The STEM Club was for identified gifted fifth grade girls. A female scientist/engineer led the club. The girls’ perceptions were accessed using the Draw-A-Scientist-Checklist (DAST-C) (Finson, et al., 1995); Enhanced-Draw-A-Scientist-Test (E-DAST) (Farland-Smith & McComas, 2009); and Draw-An-Engineer-Test (DAET) (Thompson et al., 2008; Knight & Cunningham, 2004) instruments administered before and after participation in STEM Club. The girls held well-developed, stable perceptions of scientists and drew traditional, predominantly male scientist images. After participation in STEM Club, they drew traditional images of scientists; however, female images increased by 30%. By contrast, the girls’ perceptions of engineers were far more plastic than their perceptions of scientists. By the last STEM Club meeting, they drew realistic images of engineers involved in design, laboratory investigation and testing activities. Female engineer images increased by 42%. These results suggest that a female scientist/engineer mentor in an informal club setting can have a significant impact on gifted fifth grade girls’ perceptions of scientist and engineer gender. STEM Club participation developed realistic perceptions of engineers among this group of fifth grade girls

Maine Alumni Magazine, Volume 86, Number 2, Spring 2005

Contents: Around the Campus: News from the University of Maine --- Hitting the Ground Running: UMaine\u27s new president, Robert Kennedy, won\u27t have to spend any time learning about the campus or the state --- Build It, and They Will Come: As it gets ready to celebrate five years of operation, the success of the Hutchinson Center in Belfast has exceeded everyone\u27s expectations --- Rising Star of Style: After earning acclaim for his work with fashion icon Carolina Herrera, Bill Hamilton now has his own line of clothing --- Fine Wine Without Grapes: A little winery in Winterport may change your perspective on fruit wineshttps://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/alumni_magazines_2000s/1001/thumbnail.jp

Grendel Grendel Grendel

This open access study of the film Grendel Grendel Grendel, directed by Alexander Stitt, presents it as a masterpiece of animation and design which has attained a national and international cult status since its release in 1981. The film, based on the novel, Grendel, by John Gardner, is a loose adaptation of the Beowulf legend, but told from the point of view of the monster, Grendel. Grendel Grendel Grendel is a mature, intelligent, irreverent and quite unique animated film - it is a movie, both in terms of content and of an aesthetic that was well ahead of its time. Along with a brief overview of Australian animation and a contextualization of where this animated feature fits within the broader continuum of Australian (and global) film history, Dan Torre and Lienors Torre provide an intriguing analysis of this significant Australian animated feature. The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com