Experiential Media Systems

This paper presents a personalized narrative on the early discussions within the Multimedia community and the subsequent research on experiential media systems. I discuss two di↵erent research initiatives-design of real-time, immersive multimedia feedback environments for stroke rehabilitation; exploratory environments for events that exploited the user's ability to make connections. I discuss the issue of foundations: the question of multi-sensory integration and superadditivity; the need for identification of "first-class" Multimedia problems; expanding the scope of Multimedia research

Exploring AI-assisted Ideation and Prototyping for Choreography

Choreography creation is a multimodal endeavor, demanding cognitive abilities to develop creative ideas and technical expertise to convert choreographic ideas into physical dance movements. Previous endeavors have sought to reduce the complexities in the choreography creation process in both dimensions. Among them, non-AI-based systems have focused on reinforcing cognitive activities by helping analyze and understand dance movements and augmenting physical capabilities by enhancing body expressivity. On the other hand, AI-based methods have helped the creation of novel choreographic materials with generative AI algorithms. The choreography creation process is constrained by time and requires a rich set of resources to stimulate novel ideas, but the need for iterative prototyping and reduced physical dependence have not been adequately addressed by prior research. Recognizing these challenges and the research gap, we present an innovative AI-based choreography-support system. Our goal is to facilitate rapid ideation by utilizing a generative AI model that can produce diverse and novel dance sequences. The system is designed to support iterative digital dance prototyping through an interactive web-based user interface that enables the editing and modification of generated motion. We evaluated our system by inviting six choreographers to analyze its limitations and benefits and present the evaluation results along with potential directions for future work

Does embodied training improve the recognition of mid-level expressive movement qualities sonification?

This research is a part of a broader project exploring how movement qualities can be recognized by means of the auditory channel: can we perceive an expressive full-body movement quality by means of its interactive sonification? The paper presents a sonification framework and an experiment to evaluate if embodied sonic training (i.e., experiencing interactive sonification of your own body movements) increases the recognition of such qualities through the auditory channel only, compared to a non-embodied sonic training condition. We focus on the sonification of two mid-level movement qualities: fragility and lightness. We base our sonification models, described in the first part, on the assumption that specific compounds of spectral features of a sound can contribute to the cross-modal perception of a specific movement quality. The experiment, described in the second part, involved 40 participants divided into two groups (embodied sonic training vs. no training). Participants were asked to report the level of lightness and fragility they perceived in 20 audio stimuli generated using the proposed sonification models. Results show that (1) both expressive qualities were correctly recognized from the audio stimuli, (2) a positive effect of embodied sonic training was observed for fragility but not for lightness. The paper is concluded by the description of the artistic performance that took place in 2017 in Genoa (Italy), in which the outcomes of the presented experiment were exploited

Using music as a signal for biofeedback

Studies on the potential benefits of conveying biofeedback stimulus using a musical signal have appeared in recent years with the intent of harnessing the strong effects that music listening may have on subjects. While results are encouraging, the fundamental question has yet to be addressed, of how combined music and biofeedback compares to the already established use of either of these elements separately. This experiment, involving young adults (N = 24), compared the effectiveness at modulating participants' states of physiological arousal of each of the following conditions: A) listening to pre-recorded music, B) sonification biofeedback of the heart rate, and C) an algorithmically modulated musical feedback signal conveying the subject's heart rate. Our hypothesis was that each of the conditions (A), (B) and (C) would differ from the other two in the extent to which it enables participants to increase and decrease their state of physiological arousal, with (C) being more effective than (B), and both more than (A). Several physiological measures and qualitative responses were recorded and analyzed. Results show that using musical biofeedback allowed participants to modulate their state of physiological arousal at least equally well as sonification biofeedback, and much better than just listening to music, as reflected in their heart rate measurements, controlling for respiration-rate. Our findings indicate that the known effects of music in modulating arousal can therefore be beneficially harnessed when designing a biofeedback protocol

ACUTA Journal of Telecommunications in Higher Education

In This Issue Strategic Planning in the College and University Ecosystem Outlook 2012: Chickens or Eggs? lT Trends on Campus: 2012 Best Practices in Deploying a Successful University SAN Beyond Convergence: How Advanced Networking Will Erase Campus Boundaries Distributed Computing: The Path to the Power? Cell Phones on the University Campus: Adversary or Ally? lnstitutional Excellence Award Honorable Mention: Wake Forest University Interview President\u27s Message From the Executive Director Here\u27s My Advic

Interactive Tango Milonga: An Interactive Dance System for Argentine Tango Social Dance

abstract: When dancers are granted agency over music, as in interactive dance systems, the actors are most often concerned with the problem of creating a staged performance for an audience. However, as is reflected by the above quote, the practice of Argentine tango social dance is most concerned with participants internal experience and their relationship to the broader tango community. In this dissertation I explore creative approaches to enrich the sense of connection, that is, the experience of oneness with a partner and complete immersion in music and dance for Argentine tango dancers by providing agency over musical activities through the use of interactive technology. Specifically, I create an interactive dance system that allows tango dancers to affect and create music via their movements in the context of social dance. The motivations for this work are multifold: 1) to intensify embodied experience of the interplay between dance and music, individual and partner, couple and community, 2) to create shared experience of the conventions of tango dance, and 3) to innovate Argentine tango social dance practice for the purposes of education and increasing musicality in dancers.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Music 201

Les transformations du système radiophonique haïtien de 1957 à 2020 : changement et continuité

Cette étude analyse les changements et les continuités dans le système radiophonique haïtien au cours des 60 dernières années sous l'influence de trois séries de facteurs : linguistique, démocratique et technologique. Elle détermine dans quelle mesure les relations entre les acteurs du système ont changé et dans quelle mesure ce dernier est reconfiguré ou non sous l'influence des changements observés. Cette démonstration résulte d'une analyse qualitative des données d'observation, d'entretien et secondaires. Notre cadre théorique est fondé sur des approches diverses, mais complémentaires. Il s'agit notamment de la théorie des systèmes appliquée aux médias, du transnationalisme, de l'espace public et de la métaphore de contrat de communication publique. Cette étude révèle des changements significatifs dans les relations entre les acteurs du système radiophonique haïtien au cours des soixante dernières années sans pour autant aboutir à une reconfiguration du système. Ce dernier est imprégné d'une certaine forme d'immobilisme ou d'une forte inertie qui le maintient comme tel. Il y a des ajustements qui sont opérés dans le système, mais les dynamiques de fond qui le structurent et le définissent restent stables. Du point de vue linguistique, l'introduction du créole à la radio comme langue de communication publique à partir des années 70 a notamment permis de mettre fin à la domination du français comme langue exclusive de communication à la radio. Ceci a eu pour effet immédiat de donner un accès direct à la grande majorité de la population créolophone à l'espace radiophonique. Si le français était considéré comme une langue de domination, la langue créole est plutôt vue comme étant celle de la libération. Du point de vue démocratique, si le créole a joué un rôle dans la chute du régime duvaliériste, nous en déduisons que la libération de la parole a débuté, dans une certaine mesure, avant la chute du régime. Mais évidemment, le passage à la démocratie créait un contexte de liberté dans lequel la parole contestataire n'était plus réprimée. Depuis la chute de la dictature le 7 février 1986, nous avons assisté à une multiplication du nombre de radios et la création d'une multitude d'organisations populaires et de partis politiques qui favorisent des changements dans la dynamique du débat public. Du point de vue technologique, l'utilisation des outils numériques par les acteurs constitue un facteur capital de transformation du système radiophonique haïtien. Certains changements opérés dans le système sont des effets directs de l'usage des outils numériques, en ce qui concerne particulièrement la place et le rôle traditionnel des acteurs dans le système. Les relations entre les journalistes et l'auditoire, la nature et la dynamique des débats radiophoniques, les pratiques de collecte, de traitement et de diffusion des informations changent. Les relations entre les journalistes et les relationnistes deviennent moins formelles. Les changements liés au numérique s'inscrivent dans le prolongement de ceux apportés par le créole et la transition démocratique. Les technologies numériques accélèrent un processus de transformation qui était déjà en cours et permet de franchir certaines limites techniques liées notamment à la participation du public dans les débats. Cependant, les différents dispositifs techniques mis en place à partir des années 2000 par les propriétaires des radios ne changent pas grand-chose dans la nature et les modalités de participation des personnalités publiques ou des élites aux émissions radiophoniques de débats. Cette étude montre aussi une forte politisation du système radiophonique haïtien. De 1957 à 1986, les radios étaient sous le joug de la dictature des Duvalier par des mécanismes de contrôle très stricts. Cette politisation de la radio n'a pas changé avec la montée du créole ni avec la chute de la dictature encore moins avec le développement des outils numériques. La radio a été et demeure un outil très puissant aux mains des forces politiques et économiques.This study analyzes changes and continuity in the relationships between the main players in the Haitian radio system over the past 60 years under the influence of three sets of factors: Linguistic, democratic, and technological. It determines to what extent the system is reconfigured or not under the influence of the observed changes. This demonstration results from a qualitative analysis of observation, interview, and documentary data. Our theoretical framework is based on complementary approaches: systems theory applied to the media, transnationalism, public space, and the metaphor of public communication contracts. The results of this study point to significant changes between the players in the Haitian radio system over the past 60 years without, however, leading to a reconfiguration of the system. It is imbued with a certain form of immobility, a strong inertia which maintains it as such. There are adjustments that are made in the system, but the underlying dynamics that structure and define it remain immutable. From a linguistic point of view, the introduction of Creole on the radio as a language of public communication from the 1970s notably made it possible to put an end to the domination of French as the exclusive language of communication on the radio. This had the immediate effect of giving direct access to most of the Creole-speaking population to the radio space. If French was considered as a language of domination, Creole is rather seen as that of liberation. From a democratic point of view, if the Creole favored the fall of the regime, we could deduce that the liberation of speech began, to a certain extent, before the fall of the regime. But obviously, the transition to democracy created a context of freedom in which the protest word was no longer suppressed. Since the fall of the dictatorship on February 7, 1986, we have witnessed an increase in the number of radio stations and the creation of a multitude of popular organizations and political parties which favor changes in the dynamics of public debate. From a technological point of view, the use of digital tools by the actors constitutes a major explanatory factor for the transformation of the Haitian radio system. Some changes in the system are direct effects of the use of digital tools, particularly regarding the place and traditional role of actors in the system. The relationships between journalists and the audience, the nature and dynamics of radio debates, the practices of collecting, processing, and disseminating information are changing. Relations between journalists and public relations are becoming less formal. The digital changes are a continuation of those brought by Creole and the democratic transition. Digital technologies are accelerating a transformation process that was already underway and allows certain technical limits to be crossed, notably linked to public participation in the debates. However, the various technical devices put in place in the 2000 do not change much in the nature and the methods of participation of public figures or elites in radio broadcasts of debates. Digital tools are much more favorable to ordinary people who were less likely to participate in the debates. The results of this study also show a strong politicization of the Haitian radio system. From 1957 to 1986, the radios were under the yoke of the Duvalier dictatorship by very strict control mechanisms. This politicization of radio has not changed with the rise of Creole or with the fall of the dictatorship, much less with the development of digital tools. Radio remains and remains a very powerful tool in the hands of political and economic forces