Superheros as Social Practice

In this thesis, I investigate two representative examples of the superhero as teaching machine of nationalism and consumerism, Superman and Iron Man. In the Superman chapter, I trace the corporate use of superheroes through Superman’s history of appropriation by corporations to sell both abstract ideals and material products. I also consider the rise of the role of media technology and media corporations, beginning with the radio show in 1941 and ending with the first “serious” superhero film in 1978, to show how the viewing audience internalizes messages of nationalism and consumerism. In the Iron Man chapter, I focus on the superhero industry’s shift to focusing on a post-9/11 American hero, discussing the changes to the nationalistic messages resulting from the Iron Man franchise that created a market desire for expensive, innovative technology. I end with a brief look at the future of the superhero film industry and what consequences it may have for the individual

A Phenomenological approach to media art environments: The Immersive art experience and the Finnish art scene

This research focuses on immersive art, defined as a multimedia experience where visitors interact with artwork whilst immersed in a range of sensory experiences. In this dissertation, I investigate the immersive art experience from the perspective of art history, social theory, and media studies situated within a phenomenological theoretical framework. I present a comparative analysis of forms of immersive spatiality, including projected moving-image art, spatial environments, participatory installations, video art installations and interactive environments in the international art scene. One of my objectives is to emphasise the role of video art in the development of interactive and immersive art environments. The growing importance of spectators for giving meaning to the artwork allows immersivity to be analysed in relation to the notions of spectacle and spectatorship. I connect disciplines, practices and concepts by adopting principles from Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological writings. Spatiality and motility are pivotal points in immersive experiences. Immersive art, as an embodied mutual experience, materialises the phenomenological concepts of spectatorship, corporeality, motility, porosity, chiasm, and encounter. I have selected a group of relevant Finnish artists from different generations to characterise the development of media art and, particularly, immersive media art in an international context. The group includes Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Lauri Astala, Laura Beloff, Hanna Haaslahti, Tuomas A. Laitinen, Erkka Nissinen, and Marjatta Oja. I examine the historical dissemination of phenomenology in Finland and a renewed interest in the 1990s which coincided with the spatialisation of video art and the emergence of immersivity. I also investigate the opening of Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art and its impact on Finnish culture, and the recent Amos Rex Museum, specifically built for immersive exhibitions. Regarding the unstable nature of media art, I analyse the changes in displaying art collections and exhibitions, the new commitments of art museums and the innovative directions taken by media conservators. My examination of immersive art, with its performativity and transience, reveals environmentally friendly and sustainable aspects.Fenomenologinen tulokulma mediataideympäristöihin. Immersiivinen taidekokemus ja Suomen taidekenttä Tämä tutkimus käsittelee immersiivistä taidetta multimediaalisena kokemuksena. Immersiossa kävijät ovat erilaisten aistimellisten kokemusten ympäröiminä vuorovaikutuksessa taiteen kanssa. Tutkin väitöskirjassani immersiivistä taidekokemusta fenomenologisessa teoriakehyksessä taidehistorian, yhteiskuntateorian ja mediatutkimuksen näkökulmasta. Esitän vertailevan analyysin immersiivisistä tilallisuuden muodoista, joihin sisällytän liikkuvan kuvan projisoinnit, tilateokset, osallistavat installaatiot, videoinstallaatiot ja interaktiiviset ympäristöt kansainvälisen taidekentän ilmiöinä. Yhtenä pyrkimyksenäni on painottaa videotaiteen merkitystä interaktiivisen ja immersiivisen taiteen kehityksessä. Katsojien kasvava rooli taideteoksen merkityksen muodostuksessa tarjoaa perustan immersion analyysille nimenomaan spektaakkelin ja katsojuuden viitekehyksessä. Yhdistän eri tieteenaloja, käytäntöjä ja käsitteitä toisiinsa Maurice Merleau-Pontyn fenomenologisten kirjoitusten avulla. Tilallisuus ja liike ovat immersiivisten kokemusten ytimessä. Jaettuna ruumiillisena kokemuksena immersiivinen taide ilmentää materiaalisesti fenomenologisia katsojuuden, ruumiillisuuden, liikkeessä olemisen, huokoisuuden, kiasman ja kohtaamisen käsitteitä. Olen valinnut joukon eri sukupolvia edustavia suomalaistaiteilijoita hahmot-taakseni mediataiteen ja erityisesti immersiivisen mediataiteen kansainvälisiä kehityskulkuja. Heihin lukeutuvat Eija-Liisa Ahtila, Lauri Astala, Laura Beloff, Hanna Haaslahti, Tuomas A. Laitinen, Erkka Nissinen ja Marjatta Oja. Käsittelen fenomenologian saapumista Suomeen sekä siihen 1990-luvulla videotaiteen tilallistumisen ja immersion esiin nousun yhteydessä uudelleen virinnyttä mielenkiintoa. Tarkastelen myös Nykytaiteen museo Kiasman perustamista ja sen vaikutusta suomalaiseen kulttuuriin, samoin kuin vastikään avattua Amos Rex -taidemuseota, joka on rakennettu erityisesti immersiivisiä näyttelyitä silmällä pitäen. Analysoin muutoksia taidekokoelmien ja näyttelyiden esillepanossa, taidemuseoiden uudenlaisia sitoumuksia ja mediataiteen kuratoinnin uutta luovia suuntia suhteessa mediataiteen nopeasti muuttuvaan luonteeseen. Painottamalla performatiivisuutta ja hetkellisyyttä nostan immersiivisen taiteen analyysissani näkyville sen ympäristöystävällisiä ja kestäviä ulottuvuuksia

Design Ltd.: Renovated Myths for the Development of Socially Embedded Technologies

This paper argues that traditional and mainstream mythologies, which have been continually told within the Information Technology domain among designers and advocators of conceptual modelling since the 1960s in different fields of computing sciences, could now be renovated or substituted in the mould of more recent discourses about performativity, complexity and end-user creativity that have been constructed across different fields in the meanwhile. In the paper, it is submitted that these discourses could motivate IT professionals in undertaking alternative approaches toward the co-construction of socio-technical systems, i.e., social settings where humans cooperate to reach common goals by means of mediating computational tools. The authors advocate further discussion about and consolidation of some concepts in design research, design practice and more generally Information Technology (IT) development, like those of: task-artifact entanglement, universatility (sic) of End-User Development (EUD) environments, bricolant/bricoleur end-user, logic of bricolage, maieuta-designers (sic), and laissez-faire method to socio-technical construction. Points backing these and similar concepts are made to promote further discussion on the need to rethink the main assumptions underlying IT design and development some fifty years later the coming of age of software and modern IT in the organizational domain.Comment: This is the peer-unreviewed of a manuscript that is to appear in D. Randall, K. Schmidt, & V. Wulf (Eds.), Designing Socially Embedded Technologies: A European Challenge (2013, forthcoming) with the title "Building Socially Embedded Technologies: Implications on Design" within an EUSSET editorial initiative (www.eusset.eu/

Entrepreneurship in the Raw Materials Sector

The Entrepreneurship in the Raw Materials Sector proceeding is a collection of papers focusing on the macroeconomic aspects of green growth, the business opportunities in the raw materials sector, and the challenges in entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship training. These papers were presented during the closing conference of LIMBRA (‘Decreasing the negative outcomes of brain drain in the raw materials sector‘), a project funded by EIT Raw Materials in the period of 2019-2021. LIMBRA primarily aims at generating new entrepreneurial ideas in the raw materials sector, and to encourage engineering students graduating in raw materials-related programmes to start their own businesses. This proceeding offers a good summary of our approach, and our results: identify the critical trends in the macroeconomic environment; learn about the specifics of the raw materials markets; develop new business ideas, and rely on your local ecosystem for extra knowledge, mentoring; and finally, help students to "Become stay-at-home entrepreneurs"

Coded Territories

This collection of essays provides a historical and contemporary context for Indigenous new media arts practice in Canada. The writers are established artists, scholars, and curators who cover thematic concepts and underlying approaches to new media from a distinctly Indigenous perspective. Through discourse and narrative analysis, the writers discuss a number of topics ranging from how Indigenous worldviews inform unique approaches to new media arts practice to their own work and specific contemporary works. Contributors include: Archer Pechawis, Jackson 2Bears, Jason Edward Lewis, Steven Foster, Candice Hopkins, and Cheryl L'Hirondelle

DRAMATIC ARCHITECTURES. THEATRE AND PERFORMING ARTS IN MOTION

This work was funded by national funds through FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, I.P., within the project UIDB/04041/2020 (Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio