Human—Robot companionship: A mixed-methods investigation

In recent years, the arts have brought robots to life in spectacular fashion. In popular fiction we have been presented with machines that can run, leap, fight, and (perhaps most impressively of all) robots which can ascend stairs with absolutely no trouble at all. Amidst these chaotic and often dystopian scenes, we are exposed to moments of humour and lightness – robots can be seen engaging in conversation, cracking jokes, and comforting someone in their time of need. In these relatively mundane moments (as we smile, laugh, and cry) the impression emerges that the robot is something special to the person depicted. Rather than simply being a household appliance, it appears to be something more: a sort of… friend. Returning from the pages and screens of fiction to the real world, we find human society ever more fractured, and the loneliness epidemic at large. Unsurprisingly, given the engaging depictions in popular fiction, the idea of robots for companionship and social support is gaining traction and garnering increasing research attention. In care homes, robot animals can be found cooing and purring in the laps of individuals with dementia, while in schools, friendly humanoid robots may be seen teaching social skills to children with additional needs. What remains unknown, though, is the extent to which people will grow fond of such ‘social robots’ over time, and if so, whether their relationships with these machines might ever resemble (or indeed, replace) those with other humans. Is a ‘robot friend’ the stuff of science-fiction, or could it someday soon become sciencereality? In this thesis, this question is explored from a range of perspectives using a variety of methods spanning lab-based experiments, online surveys, and focus groups. This thesis begins with an introduction to social robots, and an exploration of the background regarding the nature and importance of human social relationships. After introducing relevant theories, I highlight gaps in our understanding of human—robot companionship that I seek to explore through this thesis (Chapter 1). In the subsequent chapters, I present four empirical pieces of work, each offering a unique perspective on the subject. Specifically, in Chapter 2, I report results from a lab-based experiment in which a robot’s lights (located within its shoulders) were programmed to illuminate in a synchronous or asynchronous manner relative to a participant’s heart rate. I aimed to determine whether such a synchrony manipulation might increase prosocial behaviours and improve attitudes towards a social robot - based on prior work showing that experimentally-induced movement synchrony can improve rapport between people, and increase their liking of social robots (Hove & Risen, 2009; Lehmann et al., 2015, Mogan, Fischer & Bulbulia, 2017). Despite demonstrating no positive effect of the light manipulation, this study raises important questions regarding the complexities of defining and measuring attachment to a robot. In Chapter 3, I delve deeper into the qualitative data collected in Chapter 2 to build a more complete appreciation of the value of open questions – particularly in terms of method validation and understanding participants’ internal experiences. After this chapter, I shift perspective from a focus on humanoid robots (and manipulations based on human social behaviours), to human relationships with non-human companion animals. This shift was motivated by my desire to explore how non-human agents form deep and enduring social bonds with humans – as opposed to basing the thesis on human interpersonal relationships alone. Due to the success of dogs as companions, I conducted a study in which dog owners were asked to identify behaviours that they perceived as important to the bond with their dog (Chapter 4). Seven key themes emerged from this research, indicating the importance of attunement, communication, consistency and predictability, physical affection, positivity and enthusiasm, proximity, and shared activities. In the following chapter, I implement a selection of ‘desirable’ dog behaviours within an animal-inspired robot (Chapter 5). By showing the behaviours to members of the general public, and conducting focus groups, I gained deeper insights into the polarising nature of robot animals – not only in terms of how their behaviours are perceived, but also in terms of the roles people think robots should (and should not) hold. In addition to these themes, this final empirical chapter discusses insights regarding the high expectations people place upon robots, as well as public concerns around overdependence on robots, and privacy. By releasing these chapters to the HRI community (through publications or preprints) we sparked conversations within the HRI community – not only about the ethics of robot abuse studies, but also the potential value of qualitative approaches within the field. Our team was commended for publishing qualitative research, in a field heavily dominated by quantitative methods, and we have since been working to continue the conversations around the value of qualitative approaches. Specifically, we hosted the “Enriching HRI Research with Qualitative Methods” workshop at the International Journal on Social Robotics (2020) and launched a “Qualitative Research in HRI/HCI Discussion Group” online - allowing HRI researchers to discuss their work, and share relevant resources (e.g., events and publications). This thesis concludes by detailing work to be done moving forwards, to enhance our understanding of human—robot social relationships, and a broader discussion of our possible future with social robots (Chapter 6). Pulling from various disciplines (including psychology, cognitive science, human—robot interaction (HRI) Studies, robot ethics, and philosophy), this section concludes with consideration of potential consequences of companion technologies – not only for the individual, but perhaps for society as a whole, as we continue to grapple with questions concerning how much of science fiction we wish to welcome into our daily lives

Meaning and emotion in Squaresoft\u27s Final Fantasy X: Re-theorising realism and identification in video games

This thesis takes the position that traditional theories of realism and identification misrepresent the relationships between players and videogames, and that a cross·disciplinary approach is needed. It uses Ed Tan\u27s (1997) and Torben Grodal\u27s (1997) analyses of narrative, cognition, and emotion in film as a basis for interrogating existing research on, and providing a working model of, video gameplay. It develops this model through an extended account of Squaresoft\u27s adventure role-playing game Final Fantasy X (FFX) (2001), whose hybrid narrative and game macrostructures foreground many of the problems associated with video games. The chapters respectively address; existing research on video games; how perceptual qualities of the interface determine the reality status of gameplay; how narrative and game codes regulate or retard interest; FFX\u27s henneneutic coding of reality; the dual narrative and game coding of video game characters; the uses and limits of the psychoanalytic concept of identification when analysing video games; how gameplay promotes empathetic emotions towards characters; how players develop empathetic emotions towards themselves; and how the disjunctive quality of play may have un existential quality

Spaces of Appearance: Writings on Contemporary Theatre and Performance

This thesis, a collection of previously published materials, reflects a plural and evolving engagement with theatre and performance over the past fifteen years or so: as researcher, writer, editor, teacher, practitioner, spectator. These have rarely been discreet categories for me, but rather different modalities of exploration and enquiry, interrelated spaces encouraging dynamic connectivities, flows and further questions. Section 1 offers critical accounts of the practices of four contemporary theatre directors: Jerzy Grotowski, Robert Wilson, Peter Brook and Ariane Mnouchkine. Section 2 draws on elements of contemporary philosophy and critical thinking to explore the mutable parameters of performance. lt proposes performative mappings of certain unpredictable, energetic events 'in proximity of performance', to borrow Matthew Goulish's phrase: contact, fire, animals, alterity, place. Section 3 contains examples of documentation of performance practices, including a thick description of a mise en scene of a major international theatre production, reflections on process, training and dramaturgy, a performance text with a framing dramaturgical statement, and personal perspectives on particular collaborations. The external Appendix comprises a recently published collection of edited and translated materials concerning five core collaborative projects realised by Ariane Mnouchkine and the Theatre du Soleil at their base in the Cartoucherie de Vincennes, Paris. The core concerns of this thesis include attempts to think through: • the working regimes, poetics and pedagogies of certain directors, usually in collaborative devising contexts within which the creative agency of performers is privileged; • the processes and micro-politics of collaboration, devising, and dramaturgical composition; the dramaturgical implications of trainings, narrative structures, spaces, mise en scene, and of images as multi-layered, dynamic 'fields'; • the predicament and agency of spectators in diverse performance contexts, and the ways in which spectatorial roles are posited or constructed by dramaturgies; • the imbrication of embodiment, movement and perception in performance, and the plurality of modes of perception; • the critical and political functions of theatre and theatre criticism as cultural/social practice and 'art of memory' (de Certeau), of dramaturgies as critical historiographies, and of theatre cultures (and identities) as plural, dynamic, and contested; • performance as concentrated space for inter-subjectivity and the flaring into appearance of the 'face-to-face' (Levinas); the possibility of ethical, 'response-able' encounter and exchange with another; identity as relational and in-process, alterity as productive event, the inter-personal as political; • the poetics and politics of what seems an unthinkable surplus (and constitutive 'outside') to the cognitive reach of many conventional frames and maps in theatre criticism and historiography; an exploration of acts of writing as performative propositions and provocations ('critical fictions') to think the event of meanings at/of the limits of knowledge and subjectivity. This partial listing of recurrent and evolving concerns within the thesis traces a trajectory in my evolution as a writer and thinker, a gradual displacement from the relatively 'solid ground' of theatre studies and theatre history towards more fluid and tentative articulations of the shifting 'lie of the land' in contemporary performance and philosophy. This trajectory reflects a growing fascination with present process, conditions, practices, perceptions 'in the middle', and ways of writing (about) performance as interactive and ephemeral event

The Human Faculty for Music: What's special about it?

Abstract (short version) This thesis presents a model of a narrow faculty for music - qualities that are at once universally present and operational in music across cultures whilst also being specific to our species and to the domain of music. The comparative approach taken focuses on core psychological and physiological capabilities that root and enable appropriate engagement with music rather than on their observable physical correlates. Configurations of musical pulse; musical tone; and musical motivation are described as providing a sustained attentional structure for managing personal experience and interpersonal interaction and as offering a continually renewing phenomenological link between the immediate past, the perceptual present and future expectation. Constituent parts of the narrow faculty for music are considered most fundamentally as a potentiating, quasi-architectural framework in which our most central affective and socio-intentional drives are afforded extended time, stability, and a degree of abstraction, intensity, focus and meaning. The author contends, therefore, that music's defining characteristics, specific functionalities and/or situated efficacies are not demarcated in broadly termed “musical” qualities such as melodic contour or rhythm or in those surprisingly elusive “objective facts” of musical structure. Rather they are solely the attentional/motivational frameworks which root our faculty to make and make sense of music. Our generic capacities for culture and the manifold uses of action, gesture, and sound to express and induce emotion; to regulate affective states; to create or reflect meaning; to signify; to ritualize; coordinate; communicate; interrelate; embody; entrain; and/or intentionalize, none of these is assessed as being intrinsically unique to music performance. Music is, instead, viewed as an ordered expression of human experience, behaviour, interaction, and vitality, all shaped, shared, given significance, and/or transformed in time. The relevance of this model to topical debates on music and evolution is discussed and the author contends that the perspective offered affords significant implications for our understanding of why music is evidently and remarkably effective in certain settings and in the pursuit of certain social, individual, and therapeutic goals.Cambridge University Millennium Fun

Orchestral conducting since 1950: a comparative analysis of conducting manuals, practitoners' testimonies and two orchestral performances

This dissertation studies the phenomenon of orchestral conducting as it unfolds since 1950 in what may be seen as the international arena of this profession, and does so by comparing three types of texts: respected conducting manuals, leading conductors' testimonies and expert orchestra players' accounts. Two models, empirically inferred from these texts — the Visible Action Continuum and the Thematic String Matrix — are instrumental in subdividing the phenomenon into categories in order to discuss the practitioners' opinions. Scholarly studies then contextualise these discussions. A Video analysis Of Bernstein and Boulez conducting Mahler's Second Symphony complements this text-based approach, aiming to find points of contact between what the practitioners say about orchestral conducting and what the conductors actually do. This video analysis applies the Continuum and the Matrix as well as theories of movement analysis and nonverbal communication. By cross-examining the above- mentioned sources, this study aims to thoroughly discuss the phenomenon Of orchestral conducting. It does not intend to provide direct guidance, theoretical or practical, on how to conduct an orchestra, nor does it propose a standalone score analysis of Mahler's Second Symphony. This study draws the following conclusions: 1. A significant part of the phenomenon of orchestral conducting is not apparent to the observer and exceeds musical boundaries. However both aspects may be accessed through the practitioners' testimonies. 2. The alleged invisibility of some aspects of the phenomenon is better addressed in terms of the observer's unconscious perception. 3. Differences of opinion between practitioners often stem from situational factors: pedagogues, conductors and players see conducting differently. Sometimes sources conflict, but more often they complement each other. 4. The common vocabulary seems unsatisfactory to adequately describe musical praxis and may breed misunderstandings, as much regarding alleged agreements as alleged disagreements between practitioners. 5. As a possible consequence of this insufficiency, only few elements discussed in text-based part of this study are traceable in the conductors' actual performance, and vice versa

The Shape of Life: Reading Space in Sai Paranjpye's Cinema (1980-2009)

This thesis is an interdisciplinary spatial exploration of the films of Indian director Sai Paranjpye. The thesis examines the aesthetic and narrative strategies of spatial representation in seven of Paranjpye’s films – Sparsh (1980), Chashme Baddor (1981), Katha (1982), Disha (1990), Papeeha (1993), Choodiyan (1993) and Suee (2009). Employing a mixed methodology drawn from the disciplines of human geography, urban studies, sociology, feminist theory and gender studies in reading spaces, I suggest that Paranjpye depicts fragmented Indian life at the intersection of the spatial and the social in this body of films. This encounter of spatial and social is crucial in structuring the ideas of identity, inter-personal relationships and the experience of modernity. Through a textual analysis of each film, the thesis argues that it is essentially the lived space and architectural form that structures life and manifests lived experience in this selected body of films. The thesis identifies five major themes – border crossing, perceptions of home, marginality, private/public divisions and the potential of Mazaa (fun) – that bind together these lived filmic geographies and determine the texture of life. The thesis contextualises Paranjpye’s body of work in relation to the medial environment of the 1970s-80s. It also traces the influence of the cinematic forms of middle cinema and India’s new wave film movement on Paranjpye’s cinema to discover continuities, discontinuities and the subversive potential of these films. In this regard, I argue that Paranjpye’s cinema disrupts the genre orthodoxies that regard middle cinema as middle ‘class’ cinema. This exploration reveals that these films are in constant dialogue with various visual forms that evolved during the 1970s-80s and that they revel in aesthetic fluidity, challenging the strict generic borders

So far away from home : engaging the silenced colonial : the Netherlands-Indies diaspora in North America

In order to enhance our understanding of the making of colonial identities, the bond to natal land fundamental to the formation of __self,__ its impact on immigration/repatriation, and the hegemonic application of the paradigm of Colonialism to highly diverse colonial encounters, this research engages the voice of North American peoples from Indonesia that were resident in the Dutch East Indies at the end of the colonial era. Participants in a __political order that inscribes in the social world a new conception of space, new forms of personhood, and a new means of manufacturing the experience of the real,__ they encountered the Japanese invasion and Occupation from unique perspectives. In all cases, narrators are peripheral to the ongoing dialogues in the Netherlands and Indonesia that constrain or mobilize what ex-colonial subjects in those countries share. Hence, they utilize divergent schemata to frame __how,__ __what,__ and __why__ they remember. These North American life story narratives represent a critical addition to expatriate and academic accounts of colonial and occupied Indonesia, challenging, confronting, affirming, and elaborating other life histories and scholarly investigations. The textual differences expose variations in operative memory; North American life histories, contrasted with those collected from expatriates living in Holland and Belgium, or Indonesians residing in Indonesia, demonstrate the powerful impact a narrator__s current environment exerts on an individual__s perceptions of his/her personal past. That certain themes receive elaboration, and others marginalization, sheds light on how societies and bodies remember, but equally important, how they forget and go on to forge viable practical models to help them endure.__Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada Alberta Heritage Scholarship Trust Fund Ralph Steinhauer Award of DistinctionUBL - phd migration 201

Transmission: Premium Television Characters Outside of the Gender Binary

Five fictional characters have emerged on the U.S. premium-pay-cable channels that blur the traditional male-or-female gender divide. The basics of queer theory (sex, gender, orientation, and transgender) and critical/cultural studies (encoding, decoding, and reading a text) are explained as a basis for the analysis of the characters, which seeks to answer the research question: does the premium-pay-cable television format offer truly empathetic non-binary transgender characters that challenge the dominant American ideologies about gender identity and expression? If so, how? If not, why not? Shane McCutcheon from Showtime’s lesbian melodrama The L Word (2004- 2010), Lafayette Reynolds from HBO’s supernatural drama-comedy True Blood (2008- 2014), Roscoe Kaan from Showtime’s corporate drama-comedy House of Lies (2012-), Brienne of Tarth from HBO’s political-fantasy-epic Game of Thrones (2010-) and Job from Cinemax’s pulpy action-thriller Banshee (2013-) are rigorously scrutinized, revealing their surprisingly complex, confident, and transgressive queer power

The student-produced electronic portfolio in craft education

The authors studied primary school students’ experiences of using an electronic portfolio in their craft education over four years. A stimulated recall interview was applied to collect user experiences and qualitative content analysis to analyse the collected data. The results indicate that the electronic portfolio was experienced as a multipurpose tool to support learning. It makes the learning process visible and in that way helps focus on and improves the quality of learning. © ISLS.Peer reviewe