Making Up Instruments: Design Fiction for Value Discovery in Communities of Musical Practice

The design of a new technology entails the materialisation of values emerging from the specific community, culture and context in which that technology is created. Within the domain of musical interaction, HCI research often examines new digital tools and technologies which can carry unstated cultural assumptions. This paper takes a step back to present a value discovery exercise exploring the breadth of perspectives different communities might have in relation to the values inscribed in fictional technologies for musical interaction. We conducted a hands-on activity in which musicians active in different contexts were invited to envision not-yet-existent musical instruments. The activity revealed several sources of influence on participants’ artefacts, including cultural background, instrumental training, and prior experience with music technology. Our discussion highlights the importance of cultural awareness and value rationality for the design of interactive systems within and beyond the musical domain

CAST The Chair

This paper argues that literary practice as well as literary theory can be drawn on in order to develop our understandings of user experience. Two examples of literary practice are presented: defamiliarisation and pastiche. It is argued that both of these styles of writing are useful in rethinking design and formulating requirements from fresh perspectives. The paper also draws on the literary theory of Roland Barthes. The paper is written as a dialogue taking place in a workshop and pastiches the work of Peter Cook, amongst others

Diffusion-tensor imaging of major white matter tracts and their role in language processing in aphasia

A growing literature is pointing towards the importance of white matter, tracts in understanding the neural mechanisms of language processing, and determining the nature of language deficits and recovery patterns in aphasia. Measurements extracted from diffusion-weighted (DW) images provide comprehensive in vivo measures of local micro structural properties of fiber pathways. In the current study, we compared microstructural properties of major white matter tracts implicated in language processing in each hemisphere (these included arcuate fasciculus (AF), superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF), inferior longitudinal fasciculus (ILF), inferior frontal-occipital fasciculus (IFOF), uncinate fasciculus (UF), and corpus callosum (CC), and corticospinal tract (CST) for control purposes) between individuals with aphasia and healthy controls and investigated the relationship between these neural indices and language deficits.Thirty-seven individuals with aphasia due to left hemisphere stroke and eleven age matched controls were scanned using DW imaging sequences. Fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), radial diffusivity (RD), axial diffusivity (AD) values for each major white matter tract were extracted from DW images using tract masks chosen from standardized atlases. Individuals with aphasia were also assessed with a standardized language test in Russian targeting comprehension and production at the word and sentence level.Individuals with aphasia had significantly lower FA values for left hemisphere tracts and significantly higher values of MD, RD and AD for both left and right hemisphere tracts compared to controls, all indicating profound impairment in tract integrity. Language comprehension was predominantly related to integrity of the left IFOF and left ILF, while language production was mainly related to integrity of the left AF. In addition, individual segments of these three tracts were differentially associated with language production and comprehension in aphasia. Our findings highlight the importance of fiber pathways in supporting different language functions and point to the importance of temporal tracts in language processing, in particular, comprehension. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Ohjaajan rooli lyhytelokuvatuotannossa

Opinnäytetyö käsittelee ohjaajan roolia ja työtehtäviä lyhytelokuvatuotannossa. Teoriaosuudessa käydään yleisesti läpi elokuvatuotannon kolme vaihetta, jotka ovat esituotanto, tuotanto ja jälkituotanto, sekä paneudutaan tarkemmin näihin vaiheisiin lyhytelokuvatuotannon kannalta. Opinnäytetyössä perehdytään ohjaajan rooliin ja työtehtäviin tuotannon aikana. Teoriaosuudessa käydään läpi myös teoria hyvästä yhteistyöstä ja vuorovaikutuksesta sekä käsitellään ohjaajan ja tuottajan yhteistyötä tuotannon aikana. Käytännön osuus muodostuu Wolverhamptonin yliopistossa, keväällä 2016 kuvatun lyhytelokuvan tuotannosta. Lyhytelokuva, Forgiveness, toimi lopputyönä elokuva- ja videotuotannon koulutukselle. Käytännön osiossa käydään läpi Forgiveness-lyhytelokuvan esituotanto, tuotanto ja jälkituotanto sekä perehdytään ohjaajan rooliin ja työtehtäviin näissä vaiheissa.This thesis addressed the role and tasks of a director in a short film production. The theory part of the thesis consisted of going through the three stages of film production which were pre-production, production and post production. The theory part dealt with these stages in a short film production. The thesis addressed the director’s role and tasks during the whole production. The theory part also introduced a theory of what is good cooperation and interaction in a workplace and what is the cooperation between a director and a producer in a film production like. The practical part of the thesis involved a short film production which took place at the university of Wolverhampton in the spring of 2016. The short film, Forgiveness, was a final work for the video and film production studies. The practical part consisted of going through the pre-production, production and post production of Forgiveness, the short film, and the role and tasks of the director in these stages