'English, motherfucker, do you speak it?': Pulp Fiction and the future of film-philosophy

In recent years, film scholars have been increasingly preoccupied with questions as to how films can ‘be’ or ‘do’ or ‘be used for’ philosophy. From the ‘be used for’ position, films are seen as mere examples or jumping-off points to philosophy ‘proper’; from the ‘be’ position, films are seen as philosophy, as simply another form of philosophical argumentation; and from the ‘do’ position, films are seen as examples or illustrations of preexisting philosophical positions/protocols. In this essay, I will operate primarily from the ‘do’ position and explore how Quentin Tarantino ‘does’ ordinary language philosophy. Renowned for his innovative and influential dialogue, I intend to shine a light on a neglected aspect of Tarantino’s writing style and examine, with reference to the work of ordinary language philosophers such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, J.L. Austin, and Stanley Cavell, the argumentative protocols discernible in Pulp Fiction (1994). More specifically, I will analyze the famous ‘foot massage argument’, utilizing such concepts as ‘projective imagination’ and ‘explaining the syntactics’ versus ‘demonstrating the semantics’, in the hopes of indicating the fecundity of the continued study of Tarantino’s justly famous dialogue. I also intend to broaden my investigation to consider, in light of responses to this material during the IFVCR Network conference and in light of current discussions within film studies, the disciplinary implications vis-à-vis film-philosophy of conducting such ordinary language investigations of dialogue and communication in film

Methodology for testing and validating knowledge bases

A test and validation toolset developed for artificial intelligence programs is described. The basic premises of this method are: (1) knowledge bases have a strongly declarative character and represent mostly structural information about different domains, (2) the conditions for integrity, consistency, and correctness can be transformed into structural properties of knowledge bases, and (3) structural information and structural properties can be uniformly represented by graphs and checked by graph algorithms. The interactive test and validation environment have been implemented on a SUN workstation

Impact of violent video game realism on the self-concept of aggressiveness assessed with explicit and implicit measures

We compared the standard 2D representation of a recent violent computer game to its 3D representation realized by shutter-goggles in a lab experiment. Assuming that the higher degree of realism of media violence would impact stronger on players in a pretest–posttest design, we analyzed the influence of violent video game exposure on implicit and explicit measures of aggressiveness. According to an explicit questionnaire on aggressiveness, participants reported having becoming more peaceful, whereas an Implicit Association Test on aggressiveness (Agg-IAT) indicated that the association between self and aggressive behavior became stronger after violence exposure, confirming the unique utility of Agg-IATs in media research. The 3D visualization mode, however, did not further strengthen this association, and a mediation model of increases in aggressiveness by participants’ flow experiences was not supported. When inspecting flow experiences, an interaction effect between gender and visualization mode was evident: Male participants were more likely to have flow experiences in the high-realism (3D) format, whereas female participants were more likely to experience flow in the standard (2D) mode. We discuss the findings in the context of automatic information processing in aggression, and we contend possible changes in automatic behavioral precursors due to media influence

3D4DT: AN APPROACH TO EXPLORE DECISION TREES FOR THEMATIC MAP CREATION AS AN INTERACTIVE 3D SCENE

Several tools have been proposed to automatically create thematic maps. A common drawback of these tools is that they rarely provide means for users to explore their decision trees. Users may thus create maps or get some maps proposed, but not know why some suggestions of maps were made. To address this gap, this work introduces 3D4DT, an approach to explore decision trees as a three-dimensional interactive scene. The 3D4DT approach uses JSON as a machine-readable format to represent decision trees and maps JSON elements to user interface elements (e.g. radio buttons and cubes). A preliminary evaluation of 3D4DT has shown effectiveness gains in comparison to information displayed as text+picture, for a decision tree with a simple hierarchical structure. The contributions of this work are relevant to the design of more transparent software for automated thematic map creation

Panel Analysis: A Critical Method for Analyzing the Rhetoric of Comic Book Form.

This study devises a method of rhetorical criticism, panel analysis, for the comic book medium. Panel analysis focuses on how the unique form of the comic book medium communicates content. Panel analysis consists of three components: historical context, micro analysis, and macro analysis. The historical component makes use of a humanistic historical approach to place a comic book or a body of comic book work in the contexts of the creator\u27s personal history and the evolution of the comic book medium. These contexts provide understanding of the origins of the various formal aspects of the work(s) being studied. The micro component uses psychoanalytical, psychological, and semiological approaches to examine how meaning is produced in the individual panels of a comic book. The psychoanalytical approach analyses how recurring symbols and myths incorporated in the images and text of comic book panels might communicate meaning to the subconscious of the reader. The psychological forces (intellectual meanings and emotional reactions) created by shape, pattern, color, and the operation of gestalt principles. The semiological approach uses the linguistic concepts of semantics and syntactics analyses the individual visual signs in a panel. Syntactics analyses the encapsulation, framing, and composition of panels. The macro component examines how montage, the combination of comic book panels, creates meaning and manipulates time. Creation of meaning is analyzed in the montage methods of simultaneity, contrast, parallelism, symbolism, and liet-motif. The use of montage to expand and compress time, and control tempo is also examined. Panel Analysis utilizes scholarship in history, psychology, semiotics, and film criticism to construct a rhetorical approach to the most significant aspects of the comic book medium--the panel and the blend of words and pictures. Panel analysis is a broad and flexible critical approach that can be tailored to the characteristics of a particular work, or the goals of the critic

Editorial: Dialogue and communication in film

This editorial for a special themed issue of JOMEC Journal gives an overview of the issue contents and introduces the articles, written by Kyle Barrowman, Paul Bowman, Paolo Braga, Evelina Kazakeviciute, Naz Önen and David Sorfa. The issue presents new research and developments relating to the relatively underrepresented areas of dialogue and communication in film. Half of the texts discussed here are language-centred readings of films focused on dialogue; the other half pay particular attention to the representation of different levels of communication, such as speech and writing or intra-communication on screen. It also touches upon broader topics, such as film as a means of communication between the director and the audience. The authors approach their objects of analysis from a variety of perspectives – from ordinary language philosophy to deconstruction. The findings of their studies have both theoretical and practical value: among other discoveries, the authors came up with new critical tools for the analysis of dialogue and communication in film and valuable ideas on how film dialogue can contribute to the movie dramaturgically. Therefore, the research published in this issue might be relevant and of use to dialogue and communication scholars, screenwriters, and filmmakers

On column heterogeneity

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

EEG theta and N400 responses to congruent versus incongruent brand logos

Neuroimaging and behavioral studies have shown that brands convey meaning to consumers. To investigate the immediate reactions of the brain to brand logos, followed either by congruent or incongruent pictorial brand-related cues, can deepen understanding of the semantic processing of brands, and perhaps how consolidated the logo is in consumers’ minds. Participants were exposed to different brand-related image sets, that were either congruent (a match between brand-related images and brand logo) or incongruent (a mismatch between brand-related images and brand logo) while having their brain signals recorded. Event-related potential and EEG time–frequency domain features were extracted from the signals of the target image (brand logo). The results showed significantly larger N400 peak and relative theta power increase for incongruent compared to congruent logos, which could be attributed to an error-monitoring process. Thus, we argue that brands are encoded deeply in consumers’ minds, and cognitive processing of mismatched (vs matched) brand logos is more difficult, leading to greater error monitoring. The results were mostly consistent with previous studies investigating semantic incongruences in the linguistic field. Therefore, the error-monitoring process could be extended beyond linguistic forms, for example to images and brands

The Reasonableness Machine

Automation might someday allow for the inexpensive creation of highly contextualized and effective laws. If that ever comes to pass, however, it will not be on a blank slate. Proponents will face the question of how to computerize bedrock aspects of our existing law, some of which are legal standards—norms that use evaluative, even moral, criteria. Conventional wisdom says that standards are difficult to translate into computer code because they do not present clear operational mechanisms to follow. If that wisdom holds, one could reasonably doubt that legal automation will ever get off the ground. Conventional wisdom, however, fails to account for the interpretive freedom that standards provide. Their murkiness makes them a fertile ground for the growth of competing explanations of their legal meaning. Some of those readings might be more rule-like than others. Proponents of automation will likely be drawn to those rule-like interpretations, so long as they are compatible enough with existing law. This complex dynamic between computer-friendliness and legal interpretation makes it troublesome for legislators to identify the variable and fixed costs of automation. This Article aims to shed light on this relationship by focusing our attention on a quintessential legal standard at the center of our legal system—the Reasonably Prudent Person Test. Here, I explain how automation proponents might be tempted by fringe, formulaic interpretations of the test, such as Averageness, because they bring comparatively low innovation costs. With time, however, technological advancement will likely drive down innovation costs, and mainstream interpretations, like Conventionalism, could find favor again. Regardless of the interpretation that proponents favor, though, an unavoidable fixed cost looms: by replacing the jurors who apply the test with a machine, they will eliminate a long-valued avenue for participatory and deliberative democracy

Seeking Brand Recognition Through Fragments Of Product

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) -- İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Bilimleri Enstitüsü, 2011Thesis (M.Sc.) -- İstanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, 2011Ürün özellikleri marka kimliğini yansıtma ve sürdürme konusundaki belirgin unsurlardır. İnsanlar belirli bir markayı, o markanın ürünlerinin belirli parçaları üzerinde yapılmış atıfları yoluyla tanıyabilmektedir. Günümüz toplumlarında ürünlerin çeşidi ve miktarı katlanarak artarken, firmalar için ayırt edici olmak giderek zor hale gelmektedir. Bu bağlamda, bu çalışma ürün bölümlendirmesi yoluyla marka tanınırlığını ortaya çıkarmayı amaçlamaktadır. Literatür taraması ve deneysel çalışma üzerine kurulu olan bu çalışmada, marka kimliği ve tasarım özellikleri arasındaki ilişki ortaya çıkarılmaya çalışılmaktadır. İlgili temel terimler, tanımlar ve metotlar bilişsel bilimdeki nesne tanıma ekseninde araştırılmıştır. Pazarlama ve tasarım araştırmalarına ilişkin olarak, ilgili tartışmalar ve teoriler ortaya çıkarılmıştır. Bu incelemeye dayanarak, deneysel bir çalışma uygulanmıştır. Çalışma, uyarıcı olarak en yaygın üç cep telefonu modeli üzerinden yürütülmüştür. Deneysel çalışmada, aktif cep telefonu kullanıcılarından 30 katılımcıya tanıma testi uygulanmış ve 6 katılımcıyla yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme yapılmıştır. Tanınırlık derecelerini belirlemek için 3x8, 2x5, 1x3, 1x2 ve 1x1 bölünme türlerinde hazırlanan tanıma testinde kullanılan parçalar katılımcılara sorulmuştur. Tanınan, yanlış tanınan ve tanınmayan bölümlere göre yanıtların dağılım haritaları oluşturulmuştur. Ayrıca, nicel veriye karşılaştırma sağlamak amacıyla yarı yapılandırılmış görüşme yapılmıştır. Sonuçlar ve analizler, ilerideki çalışmalara yön veren yeterli ve verimli geri dönüş sunmaktadır.Product features are prominent elements in reflecting and maintaining brand identity. People are able to recognize a certain brand through its attributions on specific parts of products. While in modern societies variety and quantity of products are increasing incrementally, it is becoming difficult to be distinctive for companies. In this context, this study aims to reveal brand recognition through fragments of product. Founded on literature review and empirical study, it is endeavored to elicit the relationship between brand identity and design features. Related basic terms, definitions and methods were explored in the extent of object recognition in cognitive sciences. Regarding marketing research and design research, the related discussions and theories were also revealed. Depending on this review, an empirical study was carried out. It was examined over three most common models of mobile phones as stimuli. In the empirical study, a recognition test was conducted to 30 participants and a semi-structured interview was carried out to 6 participants who were actively mobile phone’s users. Fragments of mobile phones in recognition test, which were prepared as 3x8, 2x5, 1x3, 1x2 and 1x1 division types, were asked to participants in order to identify the degree of recognizability. It was generated distribution maps of responses according to recognized, misrecognized and unrecognized fragments in those division types. Furthermore, a semi-structured interview was carried out aiming at providing crosscheck for quantitative data. The results and analysis offer an adequate and efficient feedback leading to further studies.Yüksek LisansM.Sc