Wikia: Between Documentary Simulacra and Documented Fictions

International audienceWikis are digital community spaces that have attracted high traffic but virtually no study as socio-communicational platforms. These platforms offer individuals the possibility of engaging in unique writing activities by defining a distinct material configuration and imposing a protocol of enunciation. Wikis are platforms developed through the contributions of anyone, and constitute collaborative encyclopedias dedicated to a cultural topic. This article more specifically examines the Harry Potter Wiki, which is devoted to the literary universe of J.K. Rowling. Our semio-communicational analysis concerns the structure, the authors and the contents of the French and Anglo-Saxon versions of this wiki. First we explore the writing space in which get involved cultural objects that compose the world of Harry Potter. The semiotic content of this apparently unlimited space reveals an unpublished scriptural universe that articulates fictional regime and documentary regime. This tension brings us secondly to detail the space of normalization that configure these wikis. This principle of standardization is updated, both through the writing standards they define and by the pyramidal structure of intellectual authority that manage them.Our study seeks to qualify the "invisible borders" set up by the media device wiki in order to define these singular writing objects between documentary simulacra and documented fictions

Documentary Borders: Reality or Illusion

The concept of border of document allows us to deploy the significant content of a document in several regimes of meaning. A document can be studied as a semiotic mediation according its communicational intention (intention to inform, intention to signify, intention to inform oneself, intention to interpretate). After studying those values of the document, the question is about whether a documentary border persists unchanged when regimes of meaning are updated. The slipping of documentary borders is examined through the content of the diverse works of Jocelyn Bonnerave. His doctoral thesis in anthropology documenting practices in performing arts influenced his theatrical work and his literary research. Bonnerave uses his notebooks of field observations in both his scientific papers and his artistic productions at the same time. Thus, the ambiguous status of the notebook is studied to analyze the metamorphosis of the documentary subject. The oscillation between informational content and aesthetic aspect allows attention to document aesthetics and constitutes a new perspective in the study of the document

On the Borders of the Document: Trip to Turakia

Analysis of documentary boundaries through the study of a set of documents related to the French Theater Company Turak. We describe as artistic documents the different documents that circulate during the creation of a play. There is an initial documentary collection comprised of the documentation for the performance on which the company relies to stage the play itself. At different stages of artistic creation, the company designs documents that are useful for the pursuit of creative reflection. The theater company also develops documents aimed at promoting the play for professionals and the public. Finally, the spectators also produce many documents of the performance. How could we define the status of so different documents? Between fiction and documentary, all these artistic documents lead us to the frontiers of the documentary and imaginary regimes. The theater company also plays with the documentary codes by organizing exhibitions which combine fictional and documented narratives. It thus seems that the artistic perspective can reveal a hybrid or rather multiple document that contains a fictional dimension a fictional document, which sets in motion an imaginary of the real. Through a mirror effect, reality arouses imagination and the imaginary brings out the real by bringing artistic lighting to the world

A comparison of text difficulty in systemic assessment using Lexile theory

Abstract: In South Africa, the use of systemic assessments is controversial, raising issues of fairness. However, an argument can be made that they yield valuable insights into the current levels of literacy and education in the country. National systemic assessments are used to gauge scholastic progress across schools and provinces, while international tests provide some measure of comparability across countries. This article investigates the Lexile framework as an educational tool for gauging the reading difficulty of texts used in national and international assessments conducted in South Africa. The results of the Lexile analyses showed that the reading difficulty of the Annual National Assessments (ANA), conducted in 2014, varied between grades and did not match the same grade level in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS). We argue that by using the Lexile framework during the designing phase of assessment, and selecting texts that are level appropriate for the learners, the assessment process may be enhanced

Toward Augmented Document: Expressive Function of Catalog

A library catalog constitutes a communicational tool which allows access to a collection of documents. It contributes to the circulation of knowledge by signaling and locating informational objects. This referencing consists in deconstructing/reconstructing documents according to principles of standardization: the actualized document is then decomposed into diverse characteristics. With the development of online public access catalog (OPAC), catalogs diffuse their own content beyond the documentary space that they are supposed to represent. Thus the communicational models specific to the bibliographic catalog must be deepened. If a catalog could appear as a documentary showcase, the possibility to comment on documents extends the first goal of the system and also expands the primary document all at once. As a consequence, the catalog has to combine a model of authority with a participative one

Canton de Cornus

Date de l'opération : 1991 (PC) Inventeur(s) : Roux Caroline Une recherche basée sur l'étude des sources écrites a été à l'origine d'un travail portant sur la formation de l'habitat entre le XIIe s. et le XVe s. sur neuf communes du sud de l'Aveyron, couvrant un espace de 33 000 ha : Le Clapier, Cornus, Lapanousse-de-Cernon, Marnhagues-et-Latour, Montpaon, Saint-Beaulize, Saint-Jean-et-Saint-Paul, Sainte-Eulalie-de-Cernon et Viala-du-Pas-de-Jaux. Ce travail essentiellement bibliographique, co..

Design and evaluation of a smart home voice interface for the elderly ― Acceptability and objection aspects

Impact-F=1.13 estim. in 2012International audienceSmart homes equipped with ambient intelligence technology constitute a promising direction to enable the growing number of elderly to continue to live in their own home as long as possible. However, this calls for technological solutions that suit their specific needs and capabilities. The SWEET-HOME project aims at developing a new user friendly technology for home automation based on voice command. This paper reports a user evaluation assessing the acceptance and fear of this new technology. Eight healthy persons between 71 and 88 years old, 7 relatives (child, grandchild or friend) and 3 professional carers participated in a user evaluation. During about 45 min, the persons were questioned in co-discovery in the DOMUS smart home alternating between interview and wizard of Oz periods followed by a debriefing. The experience aimed at testing four important aspects of the project: voice command, communication with the outside world, domotics system interrupting a person's activity, and electronic agenda. Voice interface appeared to have a great potential to ease daily living for elderly and frail persons and would be better accepted than more intrusive solutions. By considering still healthy and independent elderly people in the user evaluation, an interesting finding that came up is their overall acceptance provided the system does not drive them to a lazy lifestyle by taking control of everything. This particular fear must be addressed for the development of smart homes that support daily living by giving them more ability to control rather than putting them away from the daily routine

Experimental Measurement of Human Oocyte Mechanical Properties on a Micro and Nanoforce Sensing Platform Based on Magnetic Springs.

International audienceThis article presents a new micro and nanoforce sensor used to perform a mechanical characterisation of human oocytes. This device is based on the use of low-sti_ness magnetic springs. The oocytes to be characterised are placed on a force-sensitive platform. A manipulator equipped with a standard micropipette is used to mechanically compress the oocyte. Some complete \force-compression length" curves associated with mechanical load-unload cycles are given. These curves show the linear, the non-linear and also the plastic mechanical behaviour of the oocytes. These characterisations must be considered as a preliminary result which illustrates that the mechanical variability and the mechanical evolution of human oocytes during their maturation process can be observed with a force sensor based on magnetic springs