Design and semantics of form and movement : DeSForM 2007

A strong theme that has emerged in our previous two conferences in the importance of narrative to the process of generating, developing and communicating new modalities of interaction between people, things and environments. Our researches have identified aspects of importance in the design and have begun to establish orders of, priority of approach and representation for these aspects as components of interaction. We have begun to grapple with the growth in the complexity of the interaction design process for truly ‘animated’ functionality in products, especially where this manifests itself as apparent behavioural characteristics resident in or portrayed by products. The findings and experience of researchers is that this increase in complexity is likely to be exponential compared to the rigours relating to the resolution of static physical product configuration or even system operated product with screen based interfaces. The emerging sense is that narrative in the process is essential to bring meaning and to ‘touch’ our humanity or connect with human experience. ‘The science of the artificial in conversation with the poetics of human experience’! Through this conference we will once again engage in presentations, debate and demonstrations on these issues. In this respect we, the conference co-chairs, have sought to bring together researchers from academia, industry and professional design practice and related disciplines connected with interactive product service and system development to share our latest thinking in the field, to asses its outcomes and to identify further research questions, opportunities and territories for future investigation and exploration

Design and semantics of form and movement : DeSForM 2007

A strong theme that has emerged in our previous two conferences in the importance of narrative to the process of generating, developing and communicating new modalities of interaction between people, things and environments. Our researches have identified aspects of importance in the design and have begun to establish orders of, priority of approach and representation for these aspects as components of interaction. We have begun to grapple with the growth in the complexity of the interaction design process for truly ‘animated’ functionality in products, especially where this manifests itself as apparent behavioural characteristics resident in or portrayed by products. The findings and experience of researchers is that this increase in complexity is likely to be exponential compared to the rigours relating to the resolution of static physical product configuration or even system operated product with screen based interfaces. The emerging sense is that narrative in the process is essential to bring meaning and to ‘touch’ our humanity or connect with human experience. ‘The science of the artificial in conversation with the poetics of human experience’! Through this conference we will once again engage in presentations, debate and demonstrations on these issues. In this respect we, the conference co-chairs, have sought to bring together researchers from academia, industry and professional design practice and related disciplines connected with interactive product service and system development to share our latest thinking in the field, to asses its outcomes and to identify further research questions, opportunities and territories for future investigation and exploration

Virtual Reality Games for Motor Rehabilitation

This paper presents a fuzzy logic based method to track user satisfaction without the need for devices to monitor users physiological conditions. User satisfaction is the key to any product’s acceptance; computer applications and video games provide a unique opportunity to provide a tailored environment for each user to better suit their needs. We have implemented a non-adaptive fuzzy logic model of emotion, based on the emotional component of the Fuzzy Logic Adaptive Model of Emotion (FLAME) proposed by El-Nasr, to estimate player emotion in UnrealTournament 2004. In this paper we describe the implementation of this system and present the results of one of several play tests. Our research contradicts the current literature that suggests physiological measurements are needed. We show that it is possible to use a software only method to estimate user emotion

Haptic Media Scenes

The aim of this thesis is to apply new media phenomenological and enactive embodied cognition approaches to explain the role of haptic sensitivity and communication in personal computer environments for productivity. Prior theory has given little attention to the role of haptic senses in influencing cognitive processes, and do not frame the richness of haptic communication in interaction design—as haptic interactivity in HCI has historically tended to be designed and analyzed from a perspective on communication as transmissions, sending and receiving haptic signals. The haptic sense may not only mediate contact confirmation and affirmation, but also rich semiotic and affective messages—yet this is a strong contrast between this inherent ability of haptic perception, and current day support for such haptic communication interfaces. I therefore ask: How do the haptic senses (touch and proprioception) impact our cognitive faculty when mediated through digital and sensor technologies? How may these insights be employed in interface design to facilitate rich haptic communication? To answer these questions, I use theoretical close readings that embrace two research fields, new media phenomenology and enactive embodied cognition. The theoretical discussion is supported by neuroscientific evidence, and tested empirically through case studies centered on digital art. I use these insights to develop the concept of the haptic figura, an analytical tool to frame the communicative qualities of haptic media. The concept gauges rich machine- mediated haptic interactivity and communication in systems with a material solution supporting active haptic perception, and the mediation of semiotic and affective messages that are understood and felt. As such the concept may function as a design tool for developers, but also for media critics evaluating haptic media. The tool is used to frame a discussion on opportunities and shortcomings of haptic interfaces for productivity, differentiating between media systems for the hand and the full body. The significance of this investigation is demonstrating that haptic communication is an underutilized element in personal computer environments for productivity and providing an analytical framework for a more nuanced understanding of haptic communication as enabling the mediation of a range of semiotic and affective messages, beyond notification and confirmation interactivity

Sibelius and the World of Art : Experience and Expression through Music and Imagery in Arts Educational Studies

Peer reviewe

IMAG - The Magazine of Education Through Art No. 3 Vol I : Finnish Art Education on the Move

Peer reviewe

Possessed: New Horror Films in the Era of Neoliberalism

Since its inception, the horror genre has been reflective of cultural fears. In neoliberal society, horror cinema has experienced a cultural revival that has challenged the conventional boundaries of the genre and expanded our current understandings through a convergence of neoliberalism and gothic horror with unprecedented popularity in the cultural imaginary. The conjuring universe, one of the highest grossing and most popular horror universes to date, presents a key space for cultural criminologists, like horror and film fans, to engage with the terror of the neoliberal world through mediated new gothic images, resulting in a gothic criminology. Through an ethnographic content analysis of the conjuring cinematic universe, this dissertation addresses three primary questions: 1) What emerging cultural anxieties can we discern from new patterns in horror related to demonic possession as it relates to the neoliberal era? 2) How can existing understandings of horror be elaborated in ways that extend gothic criminology? 3) What do demonic horror films teach us about criminological understandings of neoliberalism? I use the conjuring universe as a case study to analyze how neoliberal social formations have changed the face of American horror with a focus on the revival of possession. The cultural revival of gothic metonym and tropes, coupled with an explicit link to true crime genres, culminates in a neoliberal gothic criminology centered upon the tension of declining social institutions in relation to personal responsibility as a key response to neoliberal logics

Media interventions in public space: A place-based approach for the assessment of human experience in digitally augmented urban environments

Considering the amount of time people spend occupying public spaces during their lives in the city, the quality of the urban environment is crucial as it is found to have significant effects on their behaviour, performance, social development as well as their wellbeing (Adams, 2014; Thwaites et al., 2017; Anderson et al., 2017). The last decade, urban public spaces have changed considerably through the gradual integration of digital technology into them. Furthermore, urban architecture and public art have manifested possibilities they never had before. The result is that contemporary public spaces are now highly digitized. This combination of physical and digital elements in space, also known as media architecture and urban media art, is frequently thought as a tool to stimulate and amplify casual urban experiences. While most research studies on urban situated digital technologies focus either on their functional- technical dimension or on their social effects, little is known on the overall impact of these media stimuli on the versatile aspects of human experience. In this context, the study by adopting a place-based approach, aims to interpret how the multiple interrelated elements of human experience can be affected by the implementation of digital installations and, ultimately, explore the potential of digital augmented public spaces to act as mediators for more responsive and citizen-centred urban environments. The theoretical framework of the study is based on fundamental Place theories which have been assessed and synthesized in order to develop a new comprehensive basis for the concept of place experience. The research project employed a pragmatic methodology to human- environment interaction which links the academic fields of urban and landscape design, phenomenology, psychology, environmental psychology and neuroscience using an embedded case study approach. It triangulated several techniques which include field observations, on-site discussions, semi-structured and in-depth phenomenological interviews, a field-based psychophysiological experiment as well as digital ethnography. The research found critical transformations in place experience during the digital augmentation of the four examined public spaces which involved changes in space’s activity, vibrancy, social interaction and level of contact with strangers, inclusion, human proxemics as well as emergence of playful behaviour, phenomena of place personalization and creative bodily expression. The main contribution of the study is threefold; a. it provides theoretical input through the examination of the affordances of urban media interventions in place experience and of their value as placemaking tools; b. it delivers methodological input through the development of a multidisciplinary pragmatic framework for the assessment and evaluation of complex phenomena associated with human experience in public space; c. it offers empirical input through the suggestion of a number of design and planning considerations for the development of active, pleasant and human-friendly urban media environments

Contemporary Surface Architecture : The correspondence between surface and space

This thesis aims to investigate aspects of contemporary architecture that concentrate on the role of surface, in sense of demateriality. The word 'demateriality' denotes the spatiality rather than a physical substance; it does not refer to the actual absence of matter or the abolishment of the solid materials of construction. Rather it describes the phenomenal perception of a particular spatialisation that the surface creates through either the way it is formed or through the optical quality of its materials. The terms surface and surface architecture discussed in this thesis thus have specific meanings beyond the generally received understanding of 'architectural surface', 'material surface' and so on. What is focused on is the particular role of surface architecture as a spatial boundary, especially between inside and outside spaces. In this context, the research aims to explore the correspondence between the surface and space, between the forms of the surface and the experience that they induce. As a programme of PhD with design, this research includes both theoretical and practical approaches, including a design research project supported by an extensive literature review and theoretical argument. The thesis mainly consists of five parts. It begins from an Introduction including subject and questions, context, definition and methodology of the research. Chapter One is about a critical review of history of surface-space architecture, both in theory and design will be considered first. This will mainly focus on the architecture of 20th century modernism. Chapter Two focus on contemporary theories and practices of surface architecture, as well as the conception of surface in other intellectual areas such as philosophy and cultural theory. Based on a rigorous theoretical framework built by the historical and contemporary research, a series of design works will be developed in Chapter Three, and attempt to offer a further understanding and rethinking of the knowledge gained from the first phase. Finally, at the end of the thesis, there is a brief Conclusion