Anchoring digital maps as rough guides : a practice-orientated digital sociology of map use

This thesis provides a theoretical contribution towards understanding how, and to what extent, people’s engagements with digital maps feature in the constitution of their social practices. Existing theory tends not to focus on people as active interpreters that engage with digital maps across a variety of contexts, or on the influence of their map use on wider sets of social practices. Addressing this, the thesis draws on practice theory, media studies, and internet studies to develop a conceptual framework, applying it to empirical findings to address three research questions: (1) How do people engage with digital maps; (2) How do people engage with the web-based affordances of digital maps, such as those for collaboration, sharing, and end-user amendment/generation of content; and (3) What influence does people’s engagement with digital maps have on the way they perform wider sets of social practices? The research provides insights from three contexts, each operating at a different temporal scale: home choice covers longer-term processes of selecting and viewing properties before buying or renting; countryside leisure-walking covers mid-term processes of route-planning and assessment; University orientation covers shorter-term processes of navigation and gaining orientation around campus. Those insights are gathered through: a scoping survey (N=260) to identify relevant contexts; 32 semi-structured interviews to initiate data analysis; and 3 focus groups to gather participant feedback (member validation) on the emerging analysis. The approach to data analysis borrows heavily from constructivist grounded theory (albeit sensitised by practice theory ontology) to generate seven concepts. Together, the concepts constitute a practicetheory oriented digital sociology of map use. Overall, this thesis argues that digital maps are engaged with as mundane technologies that partially anchor people’s senses of place and security (physical and ontological), their performance of practices and social positions, and more broadly, the movement and distribution of bodies in space

A Critical Inquiry: Paintbrush to Pixels; Developing Paradigms In the production and consumption of New Media Art.

Art represents our culture, and our current culture is largely dependent on technology. However, artworks created and exhibited with digital technologies have not been as perceptible so far within contemporary arts institutions as traditional analogue art forms. This thesis instigates a critical investigation into the development and values of technology-based art works utilizing qualitative interpretations of the data. Whilst this rapidly changing field is problematic in terms of a conventional conclusion, the principle aim is to explore whether an improved understanding and awareness of new media art is required as a result of the paradigm shift caused via the permeation of digital technologies across art practices. The resulting new methods of production, distribution, and consumption within art require updated models of critical engagement. An appropriate paradigm shift in respect of institutions, curators, and artists will aid the integration and awareness of new media art into the broader art world. Whilst my hypothesis implies an argument for a greater presence of new media art in arts institutions, I conclude however that it is better suited to alternative modes of exhibition, such as festivals, craft labs, and workshops, as a shift from traditional art paradigms means they no longer require traditional structures of display. New media based art would truly benefit from greater awareness through a developed lexicon, education, and reportage. The balance between the institution, and growing trends such as festivals and commercial applications has been identified as key. If art forms utilising new technology do not also utilise the new expressive language it affords, then they will merely be seen as replicating old forms, rather than developing new and revolutionary ones. New media’s role within art is through a progressive discourse, which is still to fully reveal its place and relationship with mainstream contemporary arts. Based on an extensive critical survey and a probing investigation into the current parameters of new media arts this thesis seeks to contribute to that discourse

Data and the city – accessibility and openness. a cybersalon paper on open data

This paper showcases examples of bottom–up open data and smart city applications and identifies lessons for future such efforts. Examples include Changify, a neighbourhood-based platform for residents, businesses, and companies; Open Sensors, which provides APIs to help businesses, startups, and individuals develop applications for the Internet of Things; and Cybersalon’s Hackney Treasures. a location-based mobile app that uses Wikipedia entries geolocated in Hackney borough to map notable local residents. Other experiments with sensors and open data by Cybersalon members include Ilze Black and Nanda Khaorapapong's The Breather, a "breathing" balloon that uses high-end, sophisticated sensors to make air quality visible; and James Moulding's AirPublic, which measures pollution levels. Based on Cybersalon's experience to date, getting data to the people is difficult, circuitous, and slow, requiring an intricate process of leadership, public relations, and perseverance. Although there are myriad tools and initiatives, there is no one solution for the actual transfer of that data

ICS Materials. Towards a re-Interpretation of material qualities through interactive, connected, and smart materials.

The domain of materials for design is changing under the influence of an increased technological advancement, miniaturization and democratization. Materials are becoming connected, augmented, computational, interactive, active, responsive, and dynamic. These are ICS Materials, an acronym that stands for Interactive, Connected and Smart. While labs around the world are experimenting with these new materials, there is the need to reflect on their potentials and impact on design. This paper is a first step in this direction: to interpret and describe the qualities of ICS materials, considering their experiential pattern, their expressive sensorial dimension, and their aesthetic of interaction. Through case studies, we analyse and classify these emerging ICS Materials and identified common characteristics, and challenges, e.g. the ability to change over time or their programmability by the designers and users. On that basis, we argue there is the need to reframe and redesign existing models to describe ICS materials, making their qualities emerge

Incorporating Technology: A Phenomenological Approach to the Study of Artefacts and the Popular Resistance to E-reading

This thesis considers the phenomenological experience of e-reading (reading on an electronic screen) as a way-in to discussing wider issues of technology and our encounter with objects in our environments. By considering the resistance shown toward reading on iPads and Kindles in popular and academic discourse as a source of valuable “folk phenomenological” report, this thesis hopes to shed light on both the particular engagement of portable e-reading and the general experience of embodied encounters with artefacts. The first chapter will consider the shortcomings of contemporary definitions of technology and aims to provide its own definition commensurate to the task of describing the intimate and very human encounter with equipment, an encounter which will be described as “technological.” In the second chapter an ontology (begun in the background of the first) will be developed which primarily considers our encounter with things that are as embodied as ourselves. This ontology sees evolution as an epistemological concern, with every evolutionary act occurring as a response to environmental pressures and producing a knowledge of that environment. This knowledge, it will be argued, in light of conclusions drawn from an engagement with Object Oriented Ontology, can be tested only via repeatable successful action with that which might be known. Such evolutionary concerns, it will be further argued, are equally applicable to our artefacts. The third chapter will focus on metaphor and critical theory to consider how e-reading in particular might function as a material metaphor, enabling productive thought. It will conclude with readings of three texts which put the language of all three chapters to work. This thesis draws on several fields, including Critical Theory, Cognitive Neuroscience, Evolutionary Epistemology, and Philosophy, the bringing together of which is intended to be of use to the still emerging Digital Humanities and the work's home discipline of English Studies as it gets used to the substantial alterations in the substrate of its object of study

Exploring illusion in the work of Robin Rhode and Lauren Moffatt through the investigation of truth, reality, and perception

Dissertation (MA (Visual Arts))--University of Pretoria, 2022.The research aims to prove that illusion is more than just a trick of the eye, but rather a multifaceted tool that can impact meaning and conceptual thought and practice. In this research illusion is understood and defined as the way artifacts, through the use of line, form and colour, seek to depict the appearance of the ‘real’. This is done through the combination of elements which constitute the quality of presence which in turn allows for immersive effect. The research will specifically explore how art is a form of communication and illusion is possible through the manipulation of truth, reality, and perspective. The research will be qualitative and will incorporate cultural research to highlight the interplay between lived experience, texts, art, and culture. The artworks withing this study will be analysed to highlight different patterns and trends within art and art practice. This research will make use of different publications, such as books, articles, and catalogues, so as to gain the necessary insight needed for the research in the topics of illusion, reality, truth and perspective. The study will be broken up into six sections, Chapter one will introduce the research and the research questions that inform the study. Chapter two will focus on perception and the underling cognitive processes within perception. It will highlight the fictions of memory and knowledge within perception and how this effects the reading of art. Chapter three will define and explain reality and truth, focusing on the concept’s complexities and fluidity. Chapter four will define illusion and how illusion is used within perception, reality, and truth. Chapter five will focus on the art of Lauren Moffatt and Robin Rhode and their use of illusion within their work. Finally, chapter six will conclude the research, highlighting the successes and short comings. It will also provide recommendations for further research.Visual ArtsMA (Visual Arts)Unrestricte