Both critical and applied? Action research and transformative change in the UK water sector

Social research on water is often critical or applied but rarely both. In this chapter, we share our experiences of negotiating tensions of critical and applied action research through the interdisciplinary and cross-sector UK water research project TWENTY65. By stressing a variety of perspectives, and highlighting the plurality of available options, we argue that action research on water can be constructive, collaborative and yet still critical. However, three key issues of performing action research seeking to support transformative change in technical fields are identified. These issues relate to translation and integrity, applicability, and influence. Despite this, we argue that action research is particularly suitable for working in technical fields because these areas significantly impact upon society and the environment and still are dominated by technocratic decision making with limited democratic or social justice input. Action research in technical areas provides an opportunity for social science to present its perspectives outside of ‘normal’ social science contexts, supporting greater attention to ethical, justice and environmental concerns. Applying critical action research to water management enables informed dialogue with technical decision makers, raising and pushing forward socially and environmentally progressive futures

What does not happen: quantifying embodied engagement using NIMI and self-adaptors

Previous research into the quantification of embodied intellectual and emotional engagement using non-verbal movement parameters has not yielded consistent results across different studies. Our research introduces NIMI (Non-Instrumental Movement Inhibition) as an alternative parameter. We propose that the absence of certain types of possible movements can be a more holistic proxy for cognitive engagement with media (in seated persons) than searching for the presence of other movements. Rather than analyzing total movement as an indicator of engagement, our research team distinguishes between instrumental movements (i.e. physical movement serving a direct purpose in the given situation) and non-instrumental movements, and investigates them in the context of the narrative rhythm of the stimulus. We demonstrate that NIMI occurs by showing viewers’ movement levels entrained (i.e. synchronised) to the repeating narrative rhythm of a timed computer-presented quiz. Finally, we discuss the role of objective metrics of engagement in future context-aware analysis of human behaviour in audience research, interactive media and responsive system and interface design

A time series feature of variability to detect two types of boredom from motion capture of the head and shoulders

Boredom and disengagement metrics are crucial to the correctly timed implementation of adaptive interventions in interactive systems. psychological research suggests that boredom (which other HCI teams have been able to partially quantify with pressure-sensing chair mats) is actually a composite: lethargy and restlessness. Here we present an innovative approach to the measurement and recognition of these two kinds of boredom, based on motion capture and video analysis of changes in head and shoulder positions. Discrete, three-minute, computer-presented stimuli (games, quizzes, films and music) covering a spectrum from engaging to boring/disengaging were used to elicit changes in cognitive/emotional states in seated, healthy volunteers. Interaction with the stimuli occurred with a handheld trackball instead of a mouse, so movements were assumed to be non-instrumental. Our results include a feature (standard deviation of windowed ranges) that may be more specific to boredom than mean speed of head movement, and that could be implemented in computer vision algorithms for disengagement detection

A manifesto for cognitive ergonomics: re-evaluating technology usability for the 21st century

Computer infiltration into the workplace and society has been extensive, yet the ideals of efficacy, efficiency and satisfaction have not been wholly met. We propose an ambitious framework to take forward Cognitive Ergonomics. We define Cognitive Ergonomics as an interdisciplinary field of research and practice dedicated towards: • Improving human wellbeing, mankind and our environment • By understanding and supporting human cognition • When at work or performing goal-directed tasks • With computers and other engineered artefacts. This revitalizing framework will be based on: • Interdisciplinary Research • Research-based Policy • Education The proposed interdisciplinary framework will refocus on the classical facets of usability and include work-relevant emotions as well as understanding the minimal requirements for successful interactions (including understanding agency). The research-based policy will focus on efficacy in terms of human cognitive ergonomics in a holistic perspective (i.e. producing the effects we want without adverse effects). This will include complex questions about interface design in the context of the organisational and business models that influence its development (e.g. monetization). The educational concerns will focus on efficiency and include minimal programmes for all computer scientists and all end-users, as well as the consequences of digital mediation in learning generally. This framework will differentiate cognitive ergonomics from its cognate fields of Human-Computer Interaction and Psychology, and address a gap between the social sciences and engineering that has become more urgent in the past 5-10 years. It is ideally suited to be carried forward by the European Association of Cognitive Ergonomics, as this framework is specifically a collaborative effort grounded in European intellectual and scientific tradition; a perspective that offers a much-needed contrast and complement to Anglosphere research and development agendas in interactive technologies

The making of postdigital experiential space: Punchdrunk Company 2011-2014

This thesis presents my original contribution to knowledge, a combination of critical media and performance theories to analyse the production and augmentation of postdigital experiential spaces in Punchdrunk Theatre Company. Distributed agency is key to Punchdrunk’s work, with makers within the company and audiences both being active participants in meaning-making, across complex and detailed interfaces. In order to investigate the making cultures on ‘both sides’ of the interface, I undertook a two-year participant study as a researching designer within the company during the build of the productions The House Where Winter Lives and The Drowned Man in 2011-2014, gathering field data in the form of extensive interviews with members of the company and audience participants, supported by diary notations and photographs. I studied the processes and methods that extend, distribute and regulate agency to both audiences and makers within the company, and identified devices and features of the interaction design of the company that produce the immanent subject-event relationships that support immersion in their work. A core aspect of this research concerns the relationship between immersion and the sublime, and how subject-event relationships (immanent vs. transcendent) contribute to engendering sublime interactive experiences. I have analysed the consequences of this for the modelling of participation in interaction design, and how it influences conditions of possibility within interactive systems across physical, digital and blended media. The conclusion of this research includes the definition of a postdigital sublime, and proposes a delinquent system aesthetic that integrates proxies for gravity through articulation of the ‘shadow side’ of interaction design

Inverting the 'black box' of technology: The Digital Ghost Hunt

The Digital Ghost Hunt was a 2017-2019 collaboration between The University of Sussex, King’s Digital Lab and KIT Theatre. The project was funded by AHRC in the Immersive Experience funding stream and was awarded a full grant for the pilot and an extension to build and widen audiences in the second phase. We were primarily interested in how immersive experience can be designed so as to emphasise and deepen sociality and engagement with the physical world, in contrast with the idea of ‘black box’ applications. We also wanted to explore the interactions between design and technology as means to bring people of different ages and attitudes to technology together through shared learning and problem-solving, with a nod to the popularity of escape rooms. Designing technology-led experience to enhance engagement with external worlds rather than enclosing the attention and focus of the ‘user’ or audience within display-dependent experiences raises many challenges. First and perhaps foremost the degree to which control can be exercised over the environment and the interactions of the audience, but also what type of environments and stories will lend themselves to storytelling that appeals to a range of audiences; different technological abilities, different experience of participatory experience, and different ages. We decided to focus on heritage venues, as they offer rich histories and collections but also ‘worlds’ that are, at least to some degree, contained. Our stated aims and objectives included not only the design of a replicable live immersive augmented reality experience for young audiences, but the production and publication of scripts and open-source code libraries for other producers (primarily in the third sector) to use and adapt for other heritage venues and audience cohorts

Reimagining heritage buildings as technological spaces

In the course of two immersive projects, Digital Ghost Hunt (UKRI/AHRC) and XR3 (UKRI/AHRC; in process), we have developed a framework for temporarily reconfiguring heritage buildings as technological performance spaces for roaming audiences, without the need for making any permanent changes to the fabric of the buildings. The performances produced within this framework are designed as participatory, ‘storified’ encounters with heritage buildings and their history, utilising a range of simple hand-held sensor devices (SEEK detectors, designed and built for the project), the heritage building itself, and a custom ‘ghost story’ that allows participants to uncover the history of the building. At the immediate level, our framework builds new young and young adult audiences to engage with heritage and enter the technological design process as collaborative makers and performers. Beyond this immediate level, our approach superimposes a technological space onto an architectural heritage space, emphasising its potential as an ‘experience machine’ that is animated by our movements, perceptions and actions. Reconfiguring and combining technological spaces and heritage spaces, or aim is to create a subject position that is located where they intersect, inviting participation as agents that connect and ‘caretake’

Experience design: video without faces increases engagement but not empathy

Counter to prior claims that empathy is required for higher levels of engagement in human-computer interaction, our team has previously found that, in an analysis of 844 stimulus presentations, empathy is sufficient for high engagement, but is not necessary. Here, we ran a carefully controlled study of human-computer interactions with musical stimuli --- with and without visuals, and with and without recognizable people -- to directly test whether we could design an engaging stimulus that did not elicit empathy, by avoiding human faces or personal interaction. We measured subjective responses by visual analogue scale and found that the faceless stimulus was as engaging as the face-containing stimulus, but much less empathy-provoking. Therefore, we propose that empathy and engagement be considered independently during interaction design, because they are not monotonically related

Stepping Up The Pressure: Arousal Can Be Associated With A Reduction In Male Aggression

The attentional myopia model of behavioral control [Mann and Ward, 2007] was tested in an experiment investigating the relationship between physiological arousal and aggression. Drawing on previous work linking arousal and narrowed attentional focus, the model predicts that arousal will lead to behavior that is relatively disinhibited in situations in which promoting pressures to aggress are highly salient. In situations in which inhibitory pressures are more salient, the model predicts behavior that is relatively restrained. In the experiment, 81 male undergraduates delivered noise-blasts against a provoking confederate while experiencing either high or low levels of physiological arousal and, at the same time, being exposed to cues that served either to promote or inhibit aggression. In addition to supporting the predictions of the model, this experiment provided some of the first evidence for enhanced control of aggression under conditions of heightened physiological arousal. Implications for interventions designed to reduce aggression are discussed. Aggr. Behav. 34:584–592, 2008. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc