Digital aesthetics: the discrete and the continuous

Aesthetic investigations of computation are stuck in an impasse, caused by the difficulty of accounting for the ontological discrepancy between the continuity of sensation and the discreteness of digital technology. This article proposes a theoretical position intended to overcome that deadlock. It highlights how an ontological focus on continuity has entered media studies via readings of Deleuze, which attempt to build a ‘digital aisthesis’ (that is, a theory of digital sensation) by ascribing a ‘virtuality’ to computation. This underpins, in part, the affective turn in digital theory. In contrast to such positions, this article argues for a reconceptualization of formal abstraction in computation, in order to find, within the discreteness of computational formalisms (and not via the coupling of the latter with virtual sensation), an indeterminacy that would make computing aesthetic qua inherently generative. This indeterminacy, it is argued here, can be found by reconsidering, philosophically, Turing’s notion of ‘incomputability’

Using AR and VR characters for enhancing user experience in a museum

Museums and cultural heritage institutions have used technology to create interactive exhibits and pedagogical tools that help spark visitors’ interests. The rise of Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality Systems has further enabled the creation of a new generation of immersive experiences that can engage and educate visitors. These technologies can be used to develop digital characters that can serve as virtual tour guides and improve user engagement by answering questions and forming social bonds with the users. While such tour guides have been deployed as exhibits at many museums, the implementation is usually limited to a single exhibit or a section of the museum space. We believe that visitors will be better served if the virtual guide not only enriches the onsite experience but also provides a take-home experience for users to encourage future visits. This thesis explores the enhancement in user experience that such a system can bring by offering onsite and offsite AR and WebVR technologies to create a virtual tour guide that assists visitors at the Genesee Country Village & Museum through interactive dialog as they explore the historic village on the museum campus

Do digital hugs work? Re-embodying our social lives online with digital tact

The COVID-19 pandemic led to social restrictions that often prevented us from hugging the ones we love. This absence helped some realize just how important these interactions are to our sense of care and connection. Many turned to digitally mediated social interactions to address these absences, but often unsatisfactorily. Some theorists might blame this on the disembodied character of our digital spaces, e.g., that interpersonal touch is excluded from our lives online. However, others continued to find care and connection in their digitally mediated interactions despite not being able to touch. Inspired by such contrasting cases, we ask if ‘digital hugs’ can work? We use the Mixed Reality Interaction Matrix to examine hugging as a social practice. This leads us to several claims about the nature of our embodied social interactions and their digital mediation: (1) all social interaction is mediated; (2) all virtual experiences are embodied; (3) technology has become richer and more supportive of embodiment; and (4) expertise plays a role. These claims help make the case that quality social connections online are substantially dependent upon the dynamic skilful resourcing of multiple mediating components, what we term digital tact. By introducing and developing this concept, we hope to contribute to a better understanding of our digital embodied sociality and the possibilities for caring connections online.journal articl

Sensemaking in virtual settings: a practice-based approach

Since the mainstream uptake of computers and the internet, our world has become increasingly virtualised. Modern organisations are deeply reliant on virtual technologies to carry out their business across time and distance. Indeed, virtual technologies are now implicated in almost all organisational activities, from (virtual) meetings to (online) collaboration. Many scholars have been drawn to investigate the new organisational phenomena that have resulted from the virtualisation of our world, such a virtual learning, virtual leadership and virtual decision making. My research, however, tackles a more fundamental question about how organising more generally is accomplished in the virtual age. Namely, the research question is, “How does sensemaking, as the basis of organising, take place in virtual settings?” To explain, sensemaking – a foundational concept in Organisation Studies – underpins all organisational activities. Therefore understanding how sensemaking takes place in virtual settings will necessarily illuminate how organising more generally is accomplished virtually. To date, how sensemaking takes place in virtual settings has hardly been studied. Further, the studies that do exist impose Weick’s (1969, 1979, 1995) theory of sensemaking (which was developed at a time pre-dating virtual technologies) on to the new context. As a result, existing studies do not illuminate what is new, unique and interesting about how we make sense in virtual settings. In this thesis I develop an alternative, practice-based conception of sensemaking (which serves as the theoretical framework for the study) that sensitises me to previously overlooked but critical concepts, namely materiality, embodiment and ongoing accomplishment. First, materiality describes how things, which in virtual settings are often digital, are implicated in sensemaking. Second, embodiment describes how physical bodies, and their digital representations in virtual settings, are involved in accomplishment of activities. Finally, ongoing accomplishment describes how sensemaking takes place in the flow of activities as they are carried out in the physical world, the virtual world, or combination of both. This framework also enables me to position activities as the unit of analysis for sensemaking. Taken together, this is a novel approach that reveals new facets of the phenomenon of sensemaking in virtual settings. This theoretical framework is applied in three different fieldsites (of varying levels of virtuality) which are selected using a virtuality continuum developed within the thesis. These fieldsites are Yammer (a social media platform), telepresence (a video-based collaboration platform), and Second Life (a three-dimensional virtual world). The methodology is a hybrid traditional-virtual ethnography in which data is collected through participant observation, complemented by interviews. Empirical data are presented in the form of accounts that exemplify the key activities of practitioners in each fieldsite. The analysis reveals how sensemaking is enabled, constrained and altered owing to activities being carried out virtually (rather than in traditional settings). Further, various unique features of sensemaking as it takes place in each fieldsite are articulated, which become the subject of a cross-fieldsite comparison. By overlaying the results from each fieldsite on to the virtuality continuum, the question of how sensemaking takes place in virtual settings is answered in two ways. First, features of sensemaking that are common across all fieldsites, and therefore levels of virtuality, are identified. Second, I identify features of sensemaking that are specific to particular fieldsites and make inferences about how sensemaking features change depending on the level of virtuality of the setting. Some anomalies arising from this analysis are resolved by suggesting an alternative matrix model of virtuality which has potential to be included in future research. The findings culminate in articulation of a practice-based theoretical account of “virtual sensemaking”. This virtual sensemaking is then compared to traditional sensemaking, further illuminating the uniqueness of how sensemaking takes place in virtual settings. I then articulate contributions to the fields of sensemaking and organising as follows. This is the first study to articulate an account of sensemaking as it takes place specifically in virtual settings. Moreover, the account of virtual sensemaking broadens our understanding of sensemaking generally by opening up previously under-theorised aspects of how we accomplish (virtual) organisational activities. Contributions to broader organising include reconsideration of how we define quintessential organising activities, such as meetings. Practical implications pertain to creators, administrators and users of virtual technologies who may use this knowledge of virtual sensemaking to inform more effective and efficient design, implementation, management and application of virtual technologies in organisations. Finally, exciting avenues for future research are suggested, including opportunities to reconceptualise the theoretical, empirical and analytical landscape for investigating organising in the modern virtual age. Namely, we may let go of notions of organising that are rooted in traditional settings and embrace new conceptions of virtual organising. Organising is no longer place-specific or linear, nor does it require our physical presence or real-time participation. Instead, modern virtual organising is a complex, multi-dimensional blending of the physical and virtual. As technologies evolve and our activities become ever more integrated with them, understanding how we achieve this blending will be paramount to progressing the field of Organisation Studies generally

Voicing Kinship with Machines: Diffractive Empathetic Listening to Synthetic Voices in Performance.

This thesis contributes to the field of voice studies by analyzing the design and production of synthetic voices in performance. The work explores six case studies, consisting of different performative experiences of the last decade (2010- 2020) that featured synthetic voice design. It focusses on the political and social impact of synthetic voices, starting from yet challenging the concepts of voice in the machine and voice of the machine. The synthetic voices explored are often playing the role of simulated artificial intelligences, therefore this thesis expands its questions towards technology at large. The analysis of the case studies follows new materialist and posthumanist premises, yet it tries to confute the patriarchal and neoliberal approach towards technological development through feminist and de-colonial approaches, developing a taxonomy for synthetic voices in performance. Chapter 1 introduces terms and explains the taxonomy. Chapter 2 looks at familiar representations of fictional AI. Chapter 3 introduces headphone theatre exploring immersive practices. Chapters 4 and 5 engage with chatbots. Chapter 6 goes in depth exploring Human and Artificial Intelligence interaction, whereas chapter 7 moves slightly towards music production and live art. The body of the thesis includes the work of Pipeline Theatre, Rimini Protokoll, Annie Dorsen, Begüm Erciyas, and Holly Herndon. The analysis is informed by posthumanism, feminism, and performance studies, starting from my own practice as sound designer and singer, looking at aesthetics of reproduction, audience engagement, and voice composition. This thesis has been designed to inspire and provoke practitioners and scholars to explore synthetic voices further, question predominant biases of binarism and acknowledge their importance in redefining technology

Intermediated reality

Real-time solutions to reducing the gap between virtual and physical worlds for photorealistic interactive Augmented Reality (AR) are presented. First, a method of texture deformation with image inpainting, provides a proof of concept to convincingly re-animate fixed physical objects through digital displays with seamless visual appearance. This, in combination with novel methods for image-based retargeting of real shadows to deformed virtual poses and environment illumination estimation using in conspicuous flat Fresnel lenses, brings real-world props to life in compelling, practical ways. Live AR animation capability provides the key basis for interactive facial performance capture driven deformation of real-world physical facial props. Therefore, Intermediated Reality (IR) is enabled; a tele-present AR framework that drives mediated communication and collaboration for multiple users through the remote possession of toys brought to life.This IR framework provides the foundation of prototype applications in physical avatar chat communication, stop-motion animation movie production, and immersive video games. Specifically, a new approach to reduce the number of physical configurations needed for a stop-motion animation movie by generating the in-between frames digitally in AR is demonstrated. AR-generated frames preserve its natural appearance and achieve smooth transitions between real-world keyframes and digitally generated in-betweens. Finally, the methods integrate across the entire Reality-Virtuality Continuum to target new game experiences called Multi-Reality games. This gaming experience makes an evolutionary step toward the convergence of real and virtual game characters for visceral digital experiences

Rethinking sociality and health through transfiguration

In this introductory article to the Special Section, we intend to literally bring sociality to (bodily) life and ask what medical anthropology might gain by using the lens of sociality for a better understanding of the phenomena it is concerned with. Conversely, we probe how the field of health and illness – including themes concerning embodiment, vulnerability, suffering, and death – might help to further spell out the notion of sociality both conceptually and methodologically. Drawing on the contributors’ ethnographic enquiries into contemporary health phenomena in East Africa, South America, and Western Europe, we do so by bringing sociality into conversation with transfiguration. By this we refer to: (1) the constantly unfolding processes of particular extended figurations encountering, affecting, and becoming enmeshed in each other; as well as (2) the (temporarily) stabilized figurational arrangements emerging from these enmeshments. It is our hope that this notion of transfiguration will help render visible the modalities through which human engagements with each other and the world form diverse arrangements. Moreover, we aim to better understand the processes by which these arrangements – which we term ‘extended figurations’ – interact with each other, change over time, and possibly vanish and make way for others. A detailed appreciation of the workings of these extended figurations, we believe, can significantly enhance our comprehension of the particular processes of change that stand at the center of our ethnographic interest. In this sense, the concept of transfiguration constitutes one possible way of structuring the messiness and complexity of sociality for analytical purposes

From corporeality to virtual reality: theorizing literacy, bodies, and technology in the emerging media of virtual, augmented, and mixed realities

This dissertation explores the relationships between literacy, technology, and bodies in the emerging media of Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR). In response to the recent, rapid emergence of new media forms, questions arise as to how and why we should prepare to compose in new digital media. To interrogate the newness accorded to new media composing, I historicize the literacy practices demanded by new media by examining digital texts, such as video games and software applications, alongside analogous “antiquated” media, such as dioramas and museum exhibits. Comparative textual analysis of analogous digital and non-digital VR, AR, and MR texts reveals new media and “antiquated” media utilize common characteristics of dimensionality, layering, and absence/presence, respectively. The establishment of shared traits demonstrates how media operate on a continuum of mutually held textual practices; despite their distinctive forms, new media texts do not represent either a hierarchical or linear progression of maturing development. Such an understanding aids composing in new VR, AR, and MR media by enabling composers to make fuller use of prior knowledge in a rapidly evolving new media environment, a finding significant both for educators and communicators. As these technologies mature, we will continue to compose both traditional and new forms of texts. As such, we need literacy theory that attends to both the traditional and the new and also is comprehensive enough to encompass future acts of composing in media yet to emerge