Responsive environments: Participants and protagonists

This PhD research project builds on thirteen years of enquiries as an academic practitioner, developing/critiquing interactive audio-visuals. This approach interweaves theory and practice so that both build on each other. It responds to the need for principles that inter-relate people, digital technologies and environments. The concept of “responsive environments” (RE) is offered as a starting point for the development of principles focusing on people within these environments. A responsive environment is “responsive” in the sense that some form of computer technologies are present and sensing/recording/reacting to people, and an “environment” in the sense that these activities are located in a place and that that place matters in terms of setting the scene, housing the technology and providing a context for the users/visitors. Common themes were extracted from the literature review to draw together previous and, for the most part, separate attempts at theory/practice relating to RE. These themes were complemented by research into contemporaneous activities in the areas of Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality and Locative Media to provided enhancements to the development of three practice projects. These enhancements together with the incorporation of Moore and Anderson’s concepts of “patient”, “actor”, “reciprocator” and “referee” as roles available to those encountering REs led to specific research questions regarding roles, positions, opportunities for repurposing content, learning experiences, the use of sound, visuals and presence, and the assessment of values represented in and through a responsive environment. In each case these questions shift the emphasis of the research towards the experiencing of REs and what they enable rather than the technologies used only. The use of Schwartz and Halegoua’s concept of the “spatial self” further focuses attention of the value in connecting digital expression with real spaces through an RE. This has led to a proposed conceptual framework and principles of practice that can be applied in the area of study of RE to nurture opportunities for participants and protagonists. The latter term is proposed as a means of acknowledging opportunities to make content/concepts in an RE as well as obtain and use them by participation. These opportunities are supported by both synchronous and asynchronous interactions through digital layers using online social media platforms. These platforms enable the archiving of content in a digital layer and/or possibilities for continued social interaction through a digital social layer in relation to the responsive environment. The incorporation of synchronous and asynchronous interactions through digital layers is a major contribution to the concept of REs. A further contribution is the use of the pioneering work of Gordon Pask in both the practice and theory of cybernetics as informing the concept of REs. Pask provided a formulation that expressed how content/concepts could be produced through relationships between people, computers and environments. This approach has been mirrored in other disciplines thus giving additional credence to its value. This discovery provides the impetus for further research, by academic practitioners and others, in this developing area of study

(Teaching) Regional Geography

The proceedings are the output of the 27th edition of the Central European Conference with subtitle (Teaching) of regional geography. The proceedings contain 19 contributions. Contributions indicate the current state of professional interest of conference participants. The contributions present current trends in geographical research by experts from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland

Real-and-Imagined Spaces: Productive Play in a Multimodal Youth Writing Program

This ethnographic study is driven by the aim of understanding how an out-of-school learning program supports the development of youth artists and writers, particularly when it operates outside of institutional strictures such as mandatory grading, curricular guidelines, and tracking based on age and perceived abilities. The research is guided by the following overarching questions: 1) In what ways do Black, Latinx, and queer students demonstrate investment in critical multimodal literacies? 2) How do world-building projects reveal the possibilities and limits of the imagination? 3) What conditions can inspire youth to articulate their identities as evolving writers and leaders? This work argues that playing with multimodal projects and imaginative world-building opportunities provided generative conditions for young adults’ development as writers, creators, and mentors. By engaging in transdisciplinary projects that invited crafting, coding, urban planning, architectural modeling, and creative writing, youth participants contributed to a participatory learning environment that celebrated their inherent capacities as critical thinkers and actors. My research ultimately highlights the ways that critical multimodal literacies can promote powerful self-expressions, complex articulations of the future, and projections of self confidence through productive play and public engagement with wider audiences

Overlapping dialogues: the role of interpretation design in communicating Australia’s natural and cultural heritage

This research investigates the development of interpretation design in Australia during the period 1980 – 2006, and its role in presenting natural and cultural heritage to audiences in visitor settings. It establishes Australian interpretation design at the intersection of two professional fields, interpretation and design. Where heritage interpretation originates from a background of spoken language, through narrative and storytelling, graphic and communication design have origins in visual language, communicated through images and text. This research positions interpretation design as a new field within design and traces its emergence as a hybrid of spoken and visual traditions of communication.The study gives visibility to this previously undocumented and un-theorised hybrid field of design and creates a thematic conceptual framework within which to locate its historical, conceptual and practical origins. In substantiating interpretation design as a new field, three avenues of enquiry were considered; documentation and analysis of the visual artefacts of interpretation design, locating interpretation design in a wider conceptual and professional context through literature reviews, and consultation with designers in order to understand the challenges and problems in this new mode of design. Further, to facilitate designers to continue to work effectively in highly collaborative, complex and cross-disciplinary professional environments a conceptual collaborative tool was developed for use by interpretation design project teams. The conceptual tool integrates the theoretical and practical findings from this research and is based on a pattern language approach first developed by Christopher Alexander et al (1977).The research is conducted from a design perspective, and integrates theoretical and professional knowledge from related fields into interpretation design practice. Through a progressively widening interrogation of the literature, professional contexts, and designed artefacts of interpretation design, this new area of design is examined from a number of perspectives, building up a multi-faceted framework for understanding its historical, conceptual and practical dimensions. A Grounded Theory methodology was adapted to develop the theoretical framework of this study and to gather a wide range of relevant data. The practical outcome of the research was developed using a Pattern Language methodology originating from a problem-based design approach in architecture (Alexander et al 1977) and underpinned the interpretation of data.Conclusions of the research found that despite invisibility within the discourse of Australian design, designers working in this specialised field of practice have, since the early 1980s, contributed to projects which shape ideas, attitudes and visual representations of natural and cultural heritage in Australia’s most widely visited and valued sites. Designer’s practice is identified as part of an ongoing process of both contributing to Australian cultural narrative and being influenced by the legacy of culture. Contemporary interpretation design is highly cross-disciplinary and collaborative, characterised by a differentiated professional practice with dispersed networks of stakeholders. While interpretation design is located within a larger framework of the professional practice of interpretation, there exists many opportunities to enrich and better inform designers by integrating wider pools of knowledge that intersect the activities of interpretation, including education, tourism, visitor studies and psychology

Footsteps through sacred heart college: surfacing archival heritage through walking and mapping

Submitted in part fulfillment of the degree of Master of Arts by Coursework and Research Report University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg 2017MT 201

Enabling the Development and Implementation of Digital Twins : Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Construction Applications of Virtual Reality

Welcome to the 20th International Conference on Construction Applications of Virtual Reality (CONVR 2020). This year we are meeting on-line due to the current Coronavirus pandemic. The overarching theme for CONVR2020 is "Enabling the development and implementation of Digital Twins". CONVR is one of the world-leading conferences in the areas of virtual reality, augmented reality and building information modelling. Each year, more than 100 participants from all around the globe meet to discuss and exchange the latest developments and applications of virtual technologies in the architectural, engineering, construction and operation industry (AECO). The conference is also known for having a unique blend of participants from both academia and industry. This year, with all the difficulties of replicating a real face to face meetings, we are carefully planning the conference to ensure that all participants have a perfect experience. We have a group of leading keynote speakers from industry and academia who are covering up to date hot topics and are enthusiastic and keen to share their knowledge with you. CONVR participants are very loyal to the conference and have attended most of the editions over the last eighteen editions. This year we are welcoming numerous first timers and we aim to help them make the most of the conference by introducing them to other participants

An Exploration into the Potential of Irish Films (1896-1962) for Empathic Approaches to the History Classroom

This thesis applies historical empathy as a lens through which Ireland’s filmic heritage can be explored within the teaching of history. In its approach, the research asserts that critical perspective recognition and affective exploration can be achieved through a sustained model of historical narrative inquiry. Undertaking textual analysis of a series of pre-televisual films from the National Film Archive, it argues that there is value in these records for understanding the formulation and assessment of political and social representation in the nascent Republic. While remaining cognizant of the constraints placed on both the educational and archival professions in Ireland, the thesis determines that the unique characteristics of film make it an invaluable resource for history scholarship. It further emphasizes the manner in which working with the medium in an empathic mode exposes young people to a series of critical-theoretical subject positions that have wider benefits beyond the four walls of the Irish classroom. Despite the fact that Ireland’s engagement with cinema, and film education, is as old as the medium itself, this thesis operates against a contemporary backdrop that sees film and moving image media explicitly ignored in the educational landscape. It argues that a number of politically and religiously determined actions in the middle of the 20th century relegated the initial momentum the medium maintained into a state of virtual non-existence. While recent revisions to policy and intent have created spaces for critically engaging with film and moving image media at both subject-specific and cycle-wide levels, the nationally sanctioned plan of action through the year 2020 sees working with any kind of media as little more than the capability to send an email. Through analysis of the filmic record and its use within the classroom – and a championing Ireland’s film heritage as viable and necessary to a comprehensive history syllabus – this thesis intends to redress such thinking