NOV 19 - SERIOUS GAMES

Gee, Paul James. 2008. “Video Games and Embodiment”, in Games and Culture, vol 3, number 2-3, pp. 253-263. 

http://www.bendevane.com/VTA2012/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Gee-Videogames-and-Embodiment.pdf

Key Words

Embodiment: (258)

- Virtual characters, virtual bodies

- Players inhibit this virtual body in a virtual world

Simulation:

• "Both writing and computers allow us to externalize some of the functions of the mind." (254)
• Simulation from the mind using our experiences (255)
• Example: "Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. The player must place ramps, trees, grass, poles, and other things in space in such a way that he or she or other players can manipulate their virtual characters to skateboard the park in a fun and challenging way. So imagine the mind works in a similar way." (255)
• "What we do, rather, is build different simulations on the spot for different specific contexts we are in and purposes we have" (256)

Projective Stance: 258

• Pretty much embodiment

Key Concepts
“way in which modern video games can illuminate the nature of human thinking and problem solving as situated and embodied” (Gee Abstract)
a) why, over the last several years, many people have become interested in video games as a site  to study human thinking, problem solving, and learning
b) “projective stance,” a type of embodied thinking characteristic of many (but not all) video games, as well as a form of thinking that is also, but more subtly, pervasive in everyday life and social interaction as well

Key Ideas
on why simulation is valuable:

“we can, of course, run simulations that reflect perspectives and values we ourselves do not believe in or even value by running a simulation from the perspective of someone else.  This is how to understand people and text we do not like.” (Gee 257)

“the world offers us raw materials for our simulations, and our simulations cause us to act in the real world in ways that change it to better resemble or model simulations.” (Gee, bottom of 257)

how projective stance influences the player:

“So, in playing a game, we players are both imposed on by the character we play (ie, we must take on the character’s roles) and impose ourselves on that character (ie, we make the character take on our goals).” (Gee 260)

Projective Stance relating to a video game: example of projective stance of “Thief Deadly Shadows” (Gee 258)

Definition of the projective stance in application to the real world: (Gee, bottom of page 261)

2) Moodle PowerPoint from Nov 19^th: Serious Games

Slide 3: Definitions

Game: "a physical or mental contest, played according to specific rules, with the goal of amusing or rewarding the participant."

Video Game: "a mental contest, played with a computer according to certain rules for amusement, recreation, or winning a stake."

Serious Game: "a mental contest, played with a computer in accordance with specific rules that uses entertainment to further government or corporate training, education, health, public policy, and strategic communication objectives."

Mike Zyda  "From Visual Simulation to Virtual Reality to Games". 2005

Slide 4: uses of serious games

•e-Learning

•Training

•Simulation

•Teambuilding

•Collaboration

•Social Networking

•Advertising

•Investigating

•Business Modeling

Slide 5: who uses serious games

•Military Defense

•Education

•Business

•Scientific Exploration

•Healthcare

•Emergency Management

•City Planning

•Engineering

•Religion

•Politics

•Tourism and Cultural Heritage

•Virtual Conferencing

Class Activity References

a) Second Life

b) In-class educational games

Extra Sources

Youtube clip of James Paul Gee on Situated and Embodied Learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNfPdaKYOPI#t=26

NOV 12 - INTERACTIVE SCIENCE MUSEUMS (SECOND LIFE)

Barry, Andrew, "On Interactivity"

https://moodle.yorku.ca/moodle/pluginfile.php/1166966/mod_resource/content/1/On%20Interactivity%20A.%20BARRY.pdf

Chapter develops three themes in forms of interactivity

1)   contemporary political resonances in interaction

-       Concerns public participation, empowerment and accountability pg98

2)   issue of interactivity as a theoretical concept

-       With the contemporary museum, the technology of interactivity can be intended, if not necessarily to obliterate, at least to reconfigure the distinction between the human visitor and the non-human exhibit pg 99

3)   The political anatomy of the museum visitor – interactivity of the body

Today the visitors of the museum or the science center is often encouraged to interact or to play with the exhibit, the subject is valued. pg100

The modern science museum originally developed in the nineteenth century as a place where the successes of the Imperial state could be displayed and where “European productive prowess was typically explained as a justification for empire” people where given resources and contexts to self educate and regulate pg100

Define interactivity and outlines two functions pg 101

1. Range of technical functions - cost control, visitor research, quality assurance, marketing and customer relation (see handout to see how interactive can lure in sponsors)
2. Functions in broader thinking of Left or Right - imposes sovereignty

The radical message of the Explanitorium was one of democratic empowerment. Pg 102

• In practical terms, the exploritarium “let the visitor be the laboratory subjects of their own perceptual experiments, the are trying to encourage the visitor to experience the process of discovery and thus to become an experimenter, shift to interactivity pg 103

Problems, some exhibits, it was said can be interpreted in ways which lead the museum visitors to false conclusions pg 105

Example of experimental gallery Pg106- 107 

Spatial affordance of the interactive affordance – last paragraph pg 106

2 levels of criticism that can be made of the development of interactivity in the contemporary science museum pg11

1. a series of questions have been asked about the use and effectiveness of interactive, not least by museum professionals and interactive designers themes. Interactivities are sometimes simply amusements or distractions or experimental games for the well educated  pg111
2. it is important to interrogate the forms of political reasoning which have justified this remarkable level of investment in interactivity. Pg 112.

NOV 5 - DIGITIZING THE MUSEUM

Benjamin, Walter. 1936. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Key phrase:

The desire of contemporary masses to bring things “closer” spiritually and humanly, which is just as ardent as their bent toward overcoming the uniqueness of every reality by accepting its reproduction. (Paragraph 2)

Authenticity - Paragraph 2

- "The presence of the original"

- Technical: "process reproduction is more independent of the original than manual reproduction"

- Reproducibility: "Technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself"

- 

Aura - Paragraph 4

- Aura of the work of art

- "The technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition"

- Most powerful agent is film

Henning, Michelle. 2006. “Chapter 3: Media,” in Museums, Media and Cultural Theory. Open University Press, pp. 70-98.

http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/lib/oculyork/detail.action?docID=10409199

Media's effect on the aura (page 71)

"Modern media are characterized by their ability to detach objects, scenes and people, from their fixed place in time and space, and to allow them – or their forensic traces – to circulate as multiples and reproductions. Museums traditionally prioritize objects, and tend toward permanence, toward the monumental and the unique rather than ephemeral reproductions."

"The medium is the message" - Marshall McLuhan (page 72)

- Material bias

- "The significance of any new medium was not the uses to which it was put or the content but the ‘change of scale or pace or pattern that it introduces into human affairs’"

- 'Content' of medium

OCT 22 - PUBLIC SCREENS (GUEST SPEAKER)

Dave Colangelo – Powerpoint Slides – Key Concepts

Interfacing, Accessing, and Performing the Archive in Public 

Interface: (re)spatializing the archive (OTOPOD – one place, one time, one device), reintroducing scarcity/sanctity, it is boundary between yourself and a machine, new modes of “recentering audiences” (Colangelo, York University, 17)

Access: Making the archives accessible

(Colangelo, York University, 18)

Performance: The performance of information, it is the event of producing both a history and future archive.

 (Colangelo, York University 19)

Site-Specific Screening and the Projection of Archives:
Robert Lepage's Le Moulin aimages
Bruno Lessard

Bruno Lessard’s Moulin Reading Key Concepts:

I. Introduction

Key Concepts:

Paul Ricoeur’s Definition of the archive (Lessard 73)

-    "The moment of the archive is the moment of the entry into writing of the historiographical operation. Testimony is by origin oral. It is listened to, heard. The archive is written. It is read, consulted. In archives, the professional historian is a reader."

Foucault (Lessard 73-74)

-        According to Foucault, You must memorize the monuments of the past, transform them into documents and lend speech to those traces which in themselves are often nonverbal, history is what transforms documents into monuments

LeGoff (Lessard 73-74)

-        According to Le Goff we need to dismantle, to destroy this montage, to de-structure this construction and analyze the conditions in which were produced these documents-monuments

II. '''le me souviens': La Querelle des Modernes et des Postmodernes"
(Problems with the history)

1. Theoretical perspective: claims to be neutral, but actually erases ideological orientation & de-problematizes events in history (Lessard 75)

- No content; “not a word of explanation”

- De-problematized in the minds of those who create and in those who watch

2. Collective appropriation of images by the public (Lessard 75)

Where are the images from? How were they created? Who decided to use these images?

3. Historical reconstruction (Lessard 76)

- Problem in retelling history from a “neutral” perspective; trying to avoid the cliches

- “New visual texts”: available for everyone to write their own historical narrative

> Spectators: Depends on the number of images they can actually identify

> Observers: Open-ended historical representation

4. Historical content vs. spectacle (Lessard 76)

- Spectacle: The display lacks soul - only remembers powerful images but forgets the rest afterwards

- Historical content: whitewashed to prevent controversy

III. (Re)Animating History: Site Specificity and Relationality

Key concepts:

• Meyer’s Two types of sites (Lessard 78-79)

-        Literal site: “an actual location, a singular place”

-        Functional site” “may or may not incorporate a physical place”

-        Moulin is between functional and literal, it is informational, a subcategory of the functional site, since it combines both a visual artistic representation of something with an actual physical place

• Vaugeois vs Dube (Lessard 78)

-        Vaugeois has a bias toward the written document; Dube has a strong focus on open-endedness

OCT 15 - DATABASE & NARRATIVE

Manovich, Lev. 2009. Cultural Analytics: Visualizing Cultural Patterns in the Era of “More Media” 

http://manovich.net/content/04-projects/061-cultural-analytics-visualizing-cultural-patterns/60_article_2009.pdf

 Cultural analytics is a new way to study, teach and publicly present cultural artifacts, dynamics and flows

 User-Generated Content – Internet content generated by a non-professional user

 Real-Time Cultural Flow is a new direction of study thatexplores the development of visual systems that would allow us to follow global cultures in real-time (ie. Real-time traffic displays – not cars on a highway but real-time cultural flows around the world)

 A situational awareness for cultural analysts is a wall-sized display divided into multiple windows, each showing different real-time and historical data about cultural, social, and economic news and trends

 Simulation is a wall-sized display playing an animation of what looks like an earthquake produced on a super-computer of important cultural events over time and space

 A long tail is a wall-sized computer graphic showing cultural production that allows you to zoom to see each individual product together with rich data about it

SEE GROUP'S NOTES:

https://moodle.yorku.ca/moodle/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=299352

OCT 8 - FOUR AFFORDANCES

Janet Murray's 4 Affordances

20:39 - 29:40

1. Spatial: mapping information, space/design, move through the space
2. Encyclopedic: Mount of information/data, capacity
3. Procedural: rules coded in computer, what can be done
4. Participatory: people participate to engage with data

Immersion: ability to move through the information, encyclopedic + spatial

• The more immersed you are, the more you want to do
• They create stuff that respond to user’s usability

Agency: Procedural + participatory

Interactivity: doesn’t mean anything anymore

• Making user feel that what they want need to do is doable

VINCENT VAN GOGH ARCHIVE (EXAMPLE)

Spatial: mapping information, move through the space

a.     Categorizing Van Gogh’s works by categories

b.     Chronologically ordered

c.      Search bar – we can move through his works by typing in specific keywords

d.     Tabs – translation, notes, JPEG of letters, artworks

e.     Constricting

Encyclopedic: Mount of information/data

a.     Compiling his works into one space

Procedural: rules coded in computer, what can be done

a.     Categories

b.     Provides specific pages for context & references

c.      Panels: Original text, translation, notes, artworks

Participatory: people participate to engage with data

a.     Hyperlinks & search bars enforce engagement with the database to search for what they needed

NOTES

- Paradigm of knowledge that you can look through

- Graphic designers taught around usability

- How people use it is as important as the database itself

- One thing has different aspects to it – avoid oversimplifying

#2

Manovich, Lev. “Database as a Symbolic Form” in Convergence June 1999 vol. 5 no.2 pp. 80-99

http://www.gravitytrap.com/classes/readings/manovich-lev_rev2.pdf

Narrative = p. 80, definition p.90 example:

• Temporal, linear sequence
• Cause and effect
• Dominant effect

Database = p.80, definition, p.81 definition, top of p.82, example p.87 explanation

• Mental in narrative
• Database is the computer and you're engaging/doing

Algorithm = p.83 paragraph 3 definition + example, p.85 example

• Computer games (example)
• Experienced as narrative
• Uses simple algorithm: each level's goal is to collect treasure til the end

The Man With The Camera (example)

• Linear print out of diaries
• Shots with special effects
• Seduce viewers into his way of thinking
• Constructivism, open narrative
• Interactive

Syntagmatic and paradigmatic = p.89, explanation, example

• Syntag: combination of signs, sentiments - runs through time
• Paradigm: Categories, culturally definied, structuring culture, "common sense"
• Semiotics: the study of signs

OCT 1 - CLOSE, HYPER, MACHINE READING

#1

Hayles, Katherine N. 2012. Chapter 3 in How We Think: Digital Media and Contemporary Technogenesis. University of Chicago Press, pp. 55 -79.

http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy.library.yorku.ca/lib/oculyork/reader.action?docID=10547388

Close Reading (page 58)

Close Reading: Involves detailed and precise attention to rhetoric, style, language choice though a word-by-word analysis of a text’s linguistic techniques

• It is a form of conscious reading, therefore, your brain has higher comprehension levels
• Necessary to decipher key meaning of a print text
• Close reading is widely applicable and really valuable to students, however, most students today find it to be a challenging form or reading and express that it is a not worthwhile

Zone of Proximal Development: if the distance is too big between what someone wants an individual to learn and where instruction begins, the teaching will not be effective

• Ex: trying to explain Hamlet to a child

Hyper Reading (page 77)

Hyper Reading: Reader-directed, screen-based, computer-assisted reading

• Using Google searching, filtering words, skimming, hyperlinks, etc.
• Stimulates different brain functions than print reading
• Necessary in digital environments
• F Pattern Reading is how we read on websites

Juxtaposing: Several windows open allowing the reader to read across several texts and scanning

Advantages of Hyper Reading: See range of possibilities, move rapidly among and between different kinds of texts, see how relevant the text is for you, etc.

Challenges of Hyper Reading: Constant state of distraction, desire to skim everything, won’t pay close attention to anything for too long, etc.

Comprehension Levels: Reading on the Web vs. Reading Print (64)

Web Reading

• Small distractions on the web (like hypertext), increase the cognitive load on working memory
• Thereby, reduce the amount of new material it can hold

Print, Linear Reading:

• Cognitive load is at a minimum
• Eye movements are more routine (how to read and in what order)
• Transfer to long term memory happens more efficiently; especially when readers reread passages and pause to reflect on them as they go along

Machine Reading (page 78-79)

Machine Reading: Automatic, unsupervised understanding of text.

• This form has just recently become available to us given advancement in technology.
• Context poor in relation to the other two forms of reading.
• A form of “non-conscious” reading.
• Uses frequencies to identify patterns, but it is the person that needs to connect those patterns to the meaning.
• Wordle and Voyant are forms of machine reading.

Advantage: Allows you to see recurring words and frequency of words in order to get a gist of the author’s main points.

Challenge: Unable to view and comprehend full context of the words and meanings behind the authors view without reading where in the passage the words are being used.

#2

Landow, Georg. (1991) "Hypertext and Critical Theory" in Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 2-12

https://moodle.yorku.ca/moodle/pluginfile.php/1152793/mod_resource/content/1/Hypertext%20and%20Critical%20Theory.pdf

• Hyper textual Derrida, definition, Page 98: Digitalized text
• Hypertext and Critical Theory (parallel and explanations), Page 99 2^nd Paragraph:
• Text composed of blocks of words (or images) linked electronically by multiple paths, chains, or trails in an open-ended, perpetually unfinished textuality
• Link, node, network, web, path
• Hypertext, definition, Page 100 (Theodor H. Nelson), 2^nd Paragraph:
• Form of electronic text, a radically new information technology, mode of publication
• Nonsequential writing; allows reader to choose
• Hypermedia, explanation, Page 100:
• extends notion of text in hypertext to include visual information, sound, animation, and other forms of data
• 101: blurs boundary between text and reader
• Hypertext, explanation, page 104, 4^th paragraph, Derrida
• "Metatext", "docuverse", collage or montage
• Hypertext, explantation, page 104, 3^rd paragraph, Joyce’s Ulyses example
• Full hypertext system, explanation, Page 102
• Hypertext systems, explanation, page 106
• Extant hypertext systems, explanation, page 103
• Intertextuality, definition, (Thais Morgan), page 104-105:
• "Structural analysis of texts in relation to the larger system of signifying practices or uses of signs in culture"
• Multivocality , explanation, page 105:
• "Constructed not as the whole of a single consciousness, absorbing other consciousness as objects into itself, but as a whole formed by the interaction of several consciousnesses, none of which entirely becomes an object for the other" Bakhtin
• Polyphonic literacy present in Dostoevskian novel, hypertextual fiction
• De-centering, explanation, 105-106:
• Linked texts have no primary axis of organization (105)
• Up to the reader (105)
• Biblical typology, explanation, page 106
• Example
• Networked reality came before computing technology
• 17th & 19th centuries; types and shadows of Christ and his dispensation