Automated Game Design Learning

While general game playing is an active field of research, the learning of game design has tended to be either a secondary goal of such research or it has been solely the domain of humans. We propose a field of research, Automated Game Design Learning (AGDL), with the direct purpose of learning game designs directly through interaction with games in the mode that most people experience games: via play. We detail existing work that touches the edges of this field, describe current successful projects in AGDL and the theoretical foundations that enable them, point to promising applications enabled by AGDL, and discuss next steps for this exciting area of study. The key moves of AGDL are to use game programs as the ultimate source of truth about their own design, and to make these design properties available to other systems and avenues of inquiry.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for CIG 201

Affordances and Limitations of Cognitive Bias Reduction in Introductory Digital Design Pedagogy

As digital design rapidly expands the disciplinary knowledge-base of related media, methods, and modes in architecture, cognition-based pedagogical strategies hold unique promise in introductory digital design education to increase knowledge transfer efficiency (i.e. learning) by aligning the learner’s natural schema-developmental processes with the inherent affordances of digital tooling methods. Through the employment of cognitive-based instructional strategies that seek to refine the designer’s own judgement and decision making processes, can academicians exploit the affordances of digital design technologies to enhance the architectural learning process in ways not possible in an analog age? This paper frames and explores cognitive bias mitigation as a pedagogical strategy that may increase knowledge transfer efficiency in digital design pedagogy by helping novice learners to mitigate common cognitive biases in the iterative design process. The literature that explores decision-making processes in design will be presented first. This foundational introduction will then be followed by an overview of the implications of early-stage design decision making in architectural learning environments. Cognitive biases particularly applicable to architectural design will be introduced with a distinct emphasis placed upon those that may be augmented or compounded in digital design environments. Cognitive limitations to architectural decision-makers such as projection bias, affective forecasting, and the hot/cold model will be explored in detail. Cognition-based pedagogical strategies that seek to refine the designer’s own judgement hold promise in the emerging field of digital design as progressive technologies and processes are plagued by missed opportunities for the learner’s own decision-making intellectual advancement. Theory and concepts from the decision sciences and digital design in architecture are cross-pollinated in this study

Methodological bricolage: What does it tell us about design?

This paper explores an approach to design research that is becoming more prevalent in practice-based doctoral studies and examines what it tells us about the current state of design research. A previous examination of design PhD case studies has shown that the bricolage approach is evident in a majority of contemporary practice-based design PhDs [1]. The usual academic norm of using an established method or methodology is often discarded in favour of a ‘pick and mix’ approach to select and apply the most appropriate methods. Does it suggest a discipline in crisis, where existing methods are unfit for purpose? Or does this suggest that design as a discipline is maturing and developing a distinct research model? Is design undisciplined? The paper answers these questions by proposing that design researchers navigate a complex, indeterminate and temporal framework where the bricoleur is the best operative

The Beguiling: Glamour in/as Platformed Cultural Production

Arguing that questions of power expressed through aesthetic form are too often left out of current approaches to digital culture, this article revives the modernist aesthetic category of glamour in order to analyze contemporary forms of platformed cultural production. Through a case study of popular feminism, the article traces the ways in which glamour, defined as a beguiling affective force linked to promotional capitalist logics, suffuses digital content, metrics, and platforms. From the formal aesthetic codes of the ubiquitous beauty and lifestyle Instagram feeds that perpetuate the beguiling promise of popular feminism, to the enticing simplicity of online metrics and scores that promise transformative social connection and approbation, to the political economic drive for total information awareness and concomitant disciplining, predicting and optimizing of consumer-citizens, the article argues that the ambivalent aesthetic of glamour provides an apt descriptor and compelling heuristic for digital cultural production today

The sociotechnical walkthrough – a methodological approach for platform studies

The increasing use of platforms and the availability of data are driving the media and communication transformation in society. Platformization, namely “the penetration of infrastructures, economic processes, and governmental frameworks of platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of life” (Poell, Nieborg, & van Dijck, 2019, p. 5), poses enormous challenges for communication research which deals with data flows, data usage, and the media practices intertwined with platform use. Against the background of the change in digital communication brought about by datafication and platformization, we turn to previous research on platforms and studies applying walkthroughs. We discuss the application of the walkthrough approach at the intersection of science and technology studies (STS) and social semiotic technology research (SST), raising methodological questions for the future study of adaptive learning platforms for illustration. We illustrate the sociotechnical walkthrough as a methodological approach, using our analysis of an adaptive learning platform (Area9) and the associated usage practices. Our analysis features the application of different research personae in order to grasp algorithmic personalization. We conclude with a critical reflection on how the sociotechnical walkthrough approach could fit into a toolkit of traditional and digital methods for future interdisciplinary communications research

Coding Christianity: Negotiating Religious Dialogue in Online Participatory Spaces

This dissertation examines rhetorical conditions and internet-mediated communication strategies that open and close dialogue between individuals with diverse and conflicting worldviews. The author illustrates this tension through sacred-secular interactions in college composition classrooms and online environments, positing that navigating conflict between these discourses—namely those espoused by religiously committed students and public university instructors—often requires stepping outside of adversarial communication frameworks. This project makes a case for models of civic engagement that use more deliberative rhetorical approaches prioritizing empathy over defensiveness and understanding before persuasion. To develop these non-adversarial communication approaches for the composition classroom, the author looks to participatory media for insights and studies the negotiation strategies of Christian and atheist YouTube users who leverage the affordances of the video medium, internet logics, and invitational rhetorical strategies to engage ideological differences in their respective online communities. Through mixed methods research involving in-depth interviews with five YouTube vloggers, netnographic study of over 3,000 videos, and statistical analysis of 76,000+ user comments, Coding Christianity finds that perspective-taking in conflict-ridden environments can happen between netizens when content creators opt out of “flame wars” and, instead, explicitly model critical openness and charitable listening to perceived “others.” The author ultimately suggests that sacred-secular tension in both academic and digital environments be used, not diffused, to negotiate conflicting values and engage in rigorous, civil dialogues