oscarrq - Tumblr blog

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008

Reading

‘Anyone can edit’, not everyone does: Wikipedia’s infrastructure and the gender gap by Ford and Wajcman explores the gender gap and general problem across Wikipedia. With 365 million people reading Wikipedia around the world and the platform being available in 275 languages, Wikipedia has become one of the most powerful sources of information in our generation (Ford and Wajcman, 2017, p.3). However, a media which takes pride in being an open and collective source of information for all, struggles to stay true to their words. There are far fewer female pages in contrast to the male, where when females are there, more Wikipedia editors added to information about porn stars than poets (Ford and Wajcman, 2017, p.4). Wikipedia being one of the most powerful media in the world degrades females where there is a lack of females within the STEMs field and instead degrading fields.

The infrastructure of Wikipedia is fascinating in that it is created by the people for the people, therefor when Wikipedia was published a large majority of information was influenced by the current power relations and the general status quo (Ford and Wajcman, 2017, p.4). Wikipedia has failed to change or at least adjust to change where extended sources are needed just for a page just to be published. One of the points in this reading discusses how Wikipedia is far too complex to edit for non-coders, as someone that is familiar with code I understood what had to be done in order to make an edit, however, if I were to tell a friend of mine to edit a page, they would not know where to start (Ford and Wajcman, 2017, p.4). Overall, as Wikipedia has been growing the power relations within this media have not changed, where people have struggled to document females within STEMs due to the structure of the platform. I feel a restructure of the platform is needed to address these needs and to help develop the platform as a whole.

Projects

For the project I looked at Stranger Visions (Heather Dewey-Hagborg), when reading through the page I was surprised that a project such as this could exist. The project collects items from the streets, public bathrooms and waiting rooms in New York City, the items collected for example involve chewing gum and cigarette butts. With these items, the related DNA is then analysed which then prints out a 3d portrait of what the individual may look like. This is called phenotyping which is also used in forensics, however both the creator of this project and scientists do not feel is accurate enough to be used in criminal investigations as of yet. 

Looking at this project, reminded me of the fiction technology in the Mission Impossible series where realistic latex masks are printed to differentiate one’s identity. I feel what we are seeing is this technology in the early stages, where in the future once we have a greater understanding of this technology it will have a greater variety of uses instead of just an installation. A problem I see with this technology at the current stage is the concept of ‘sharing’, say for example if a man and a woman share a cigarette what data would it produce and what face would this render. Overall, this is a very fascinating project, however, I believe more work is needed to elevate this installation into something science can use for the greater good.

Stranger Visions - https://deweyhagborg.com/projects/stranger-visions

Practice

For this practice, we were challenged to find a gap within Wikipedia’s content and to conduct some research to fill this gap. When it came to finding a page, I wanted to find a page which had as little information as possible however still being a page of interest to me. For this I searched the most obscure mental illnesses on the internet where I came across ‘Stendhal syndrome’, this condition causes hallucinations and rapid heartbeat when an individual is exposed to beauty such as art. When I found this on Wikipedia, I was surprised how little was written about it, with there being no knowledge of this happening this century within the article and there only being 5 references. I found the gap of information by looking at the history sub-heading. A Google search later led me to an article from ‘The Guardian’ (a credible source), which discusses a man having a heart attack linked to Stendhal syndrome in Florence where he was admiring ‘The Birth of Venus’ painting. From this, I wrote the following,

‘A more recent account of the Stendhal syndrome was in 2018, where a visitor to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence suffered a heart attack while admiring Sandro Botticelli’s ‘The Birth of Venus’.’

Overall, this practice linked to part of the title from the reading in that ‘anyone can edit’, which allows Wikipedia to be a great open-source platform for users to add to each other’s educational research whether it’s from their research or one from an article. However, concerning the practice set, it shows that information is out there but people are not adding this to platforms such as Wikipedia.

As of December 1st 2019, my edit to Wikipedia page ‘Stendhal syndrome’ is still there.

Bibliography

Ford, H and Wajcman, J (2017). ‘Anyone can edit’, not everyone does: Wikipedia’s infrastructure and the gender gap. Social Studies of Science, 47 (4). pp. 511-527.

Version: Accepted Version pp.1-21.

[oscarrq]

006 “Morning Routine”

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006

Reading

The chapter ‘Unlikely Publics – on the edge of appearance’ in the book ‘Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance’, explores how the use of sound can be used for shaping the social landscape of the world through politics and other sectors of society. LaBelle explores how the use of sound can be used as a “powerful yet immaterial” weapon within the world and specifically within the field of Politics where it can be deployed as a vibratory model. Reading further, LaBelle made it apparent that Politics is shaped through sound and is a large part of the political realm, helping to shape the public sphere within society. While reading this I questioned the common phrase ‘actions speak louder than words’, a phrase such as this stands out however makes you question would there be actions without words and a topic of conversation, to begin with. Furthermore, the ringing noise from light or the gentle breeze from the wind are all part of the sensory experience and shaping this, these are referred to as the roaring sounds of the world which help the shape space for the individual. Overall, this chapter makes it clear how important sound is when it comes to shaping and having an impact on the world, the chapter also explores how all sounds are part of the sensory experience and help elevate this experience.

Projects

The project ‘Mic Jammer’ by Allison Burtch, explores privacy and creating an anti-surveillance device with the so-called Mic Jammer. The mic jammer blocks microphones from hearing what the user is saying through the high-frequency sounds which are projected from the device. Throughout the site, it is made clear that the user feels like machines are listening to us and shaping our algorithms based on what we say. As someone that uses the internet a lot, I have experienced various examples of algorithmic content changing based on what I had said earlier on that day. Influencers such as Edward Snowden made the visible to the modern-day user, and how the Government are constantly watching and surveying us.

The mic jammer has been described as placing tape over your webcam which is something that many people do to prevent the Government from seeing them. Whether this is something that I would use, I am unsure, where it is clear that the high-frequency sounds are good for blocking out sounds on some devices they struggle on others such as the iPhone 6 which has double the number of microphones than the iPhone 4 and 5. However, with a simple redesign, the mic hammer will be able to function on a larger variety of modern tech. Currently, Allison Burtch is analysing 2 options, the first being partner with a hardware/product company and the second being is to rely on investors and function as a Kickstarter. Overall, this is a great project which can make a large impact on the world.

Mic Jammer - http://web.archive.org/web/20170828012550/http://www.allisonburtch.net/mic-jammer/

Practice

For my practice, I made recordings throughout my morning routine from my alarm waking me up, to me boiling the kettle. To record the sounds, I used the voice memo app on the iPhone, I used my iPhone 8 to complete the recordings. Throughout the compositing of the audio stage, there were some sounds which were easy to distinguish and others which were harder to distinguish. I have a dehumidifier in my room, this projects a white noise-esque sound, I don’t notice this sound a lot considering it is on all the time, however after completing the recordings this sound covered a majority of sound that was projected. Overall, this was a great experiment where I noticed more of the sounds I tend to ignore during my day-to-day. The audio recording of my morning can be found on the post “Morning Routine”.

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005

Reading

‘Algorithms as culture: Some tactics for the ethnography of algorithmic systems’ by Seaver, explores and questions algorithms whether it’s the various ways different sectors use them or how different sectors define them (2017). Firstly, this reading makes us aware of various steps and processes within algorithms such as bubble sorting, which is a sorting algorithm for ordering a list and making sure that the list is correct (Seaver, 2017, p.1). Secondly, Seaver explains the various platforms which use algorithms to entice the user to continue to use the platform, these included Google, Facebook and Netflix (2017, p.2), however Seaver makes it clear that algorithms and the user both shape each other with the quote “algorithms can affect culture and culture can affect algorithms because they are distinct” (2017, p.4).

Throughout this reading, Seaver offers many definitions of algorithms, one example that stood out to me was “algorithms are not technical rocks in a cultural stream, but are rather just more water” (2017, p.5), I believe this quote looks into algorithms ‘as’ culture, by how algorithms are not redirecting/shaping the flow of the water through position of rocks, rather that algorithms are part of the water and flow with the culture, this can be viewed using terminology as culture and algorithms co-determining one another. Overall this reading, offers a really great explanation and debate into algorithms and how these can be used and defined within culture. As someone who is highly intrigued about how technology and ourselves co-determine one another, this was a fascinating read.

Projects

The project ‘Me and My Shadow’, looks into data and allows the user to view how they are being traced, tracked and educates them about the data industry as a whole. The project has a page on the website titled ‘Trace My Shadow’, which allows the user to fill out a form to see a glimpse into the various traces they are leaving, there are four drop down menus for this, including computers, internet access, mobile devices and online services. I completed the form and this told me that I had 82 total traces across all the platforms I use. Following this, the project offers tips to help you keep your data safe and secure on the internet.

What the project is trying to do, is make users aware that the internet is not as secure as they believe it to be, where it reveals data policies from sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google allowing the user to educate themselves on how exactly these sites are using their data. Recent examples of our data being used is from companies such as Cambridge Analytica. I feel that this website has made me aware of what’s out there, and has educated me on how these various platforms use my data which makes me feel more cautious about the internet. Overall, this project is great in that it makes users aware on an issue which can affect anyone.

Me and My Shadow - https://myshadow.org

Practice

For my practice I studied and tracked algorithmically generated content that happens on a day-to-day basis, at first, I was going to track my YouTube recommendations however when scrolling through Spotify playlists I noticed ‘Daily Mix 1’, this is a playlist curated by Spotify algorithms for the user, with the intention of expanding the user’s music knowledge and taste. I completed this study over the course of 4 days, this allowed me to get 4 potentially varied playlists.

Day 1

Looking at my playlist the first day, I saw many familiar names from artists that I listen to regularly such as MF DOOM, Kanye West and Frank Ocean. When looking at this I was surprised as all 3 of these artists all vary from each other and I would argue are all in their own genre, however this made a great mix of music, along with the mix suggesting some great recommendations.

Day 2

Second day, I noticed a change in that most artists included in the playlist were affiliated to Kanye West, such as Pusha T and Kid Cudi. At first, I questioned this, however it came to my attention that this was likely due to me listening to Kanye West’s newly released album ‘JESUS IS KING’, the day before.

Day 3

As soon as it came to my attention that me listening to a specific type of genre / artist would affect what my playlist would be the next day I was invested into furthering my exploration. Because of this I tested this further and listened to ‘Blonde’ by Frank Ocean, to no surprise the playlist the next day had songs with Frank Ocean and affiliated artists such as Tyler, the Creator and Earl Sweatshirt.

Day 4

Prior to the last day, I decided to listen to music which had no relation to me previously and would be totally new to my Spotify listening history, for this I listened to the album ‘Babel’ by Mumford & Sons. The following day I was surprised in that my playlist had returned back to the original playlist on day 1 which included MF DOOM, Kanye West and Frank Ocean. Overall this test and study has made me question, how well does Spotify know me, in that it will recognise unusual listening content and ignore this.

Bibliography

Seaver, N. 2017. Algorithms as culture: Some tactics for the ethnography of algorithmic systems. Big Data & Society. pp1-12.

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004

Reading

‘Web Content Analysis: Expanding the Paradigm’ (2008) by Herring explores whether or not the current methods of ‘content analysis’ are sufficient enough when it comes to collecting web content and whether new methods should be applied. The research Herring is conducting I view as vital with web 2.0 offering a lot more information, allowing users to share content and upload various media which can be collected as data. Firstly, Herring outlines how there are two types of content analysis methods when it comes to web content, these are either traditional or non-traditional methods. Traditional methods of collection tend to follow a set of procedures, which can cause problems such as the narrowness of the data collection which is not allowing the researcher to collect a wide range of data but instead similar data (Herring, 2008, pp.3-4). Other problems discussed are that these procedures are rarely followed so should they even be in place (McMillan, 2000(Herring, 2008, p.4)).

Because of ‘said’ problems researchers have started to use non-traditional methods of content analysis which includes methods such as ‘Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis’, which is described as being a ‘language-focused content analysis’ (Herring, 2008, p.5), which allows the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data. Other methods include social network analysis which particularly relates to the growth of web 2.0, where analysis is being held on sites which hold multimodality posts meaning there are multiples types of media held on one site (Herring, 2008, p.5). However, Herring outlines the various problems of content analysis on social media sites such as you cannot collect all data as users have private pages and not everyone speaks the same language making it harder for qualitative data (2008, p.10). Overall, this reading has a great in-depth look at the various types of content analysis through traditional and non-traditional methods, evaluating the challenges and methods of each.

Projects

After reading the ‘Disobedient Electronics’ magazine I found interest in a range of projects discussed such as the abortion drone and gun control projects, however the project which caught my interest was ‘Backlash’. Backlash is a project by Olivera and Chen, the project aims to improve privacy, securityand data through projects such as ‘Wearable: Panic Button’, ‘Jammer: Reclaim Privacy’, ‘Router: Offline Network’ and ‘Drive: Personal Blackbox’. The sub-project which caught my attention the most was the panic button where users with the wearable device can notify other users if an area is under conflict or unsafe, essentially releasing a conflict signal. A key selling point I found is that the wearable works independently to a smartphone, meaning that a piece of technology such as this is ideal to third world countries where the number of smartphones are relatively low. This product in particular I feel is a right step in a non-smartphone direction as most technology now days relies on a smartphone and this helps to create a new experience and protection for the user. Overall this project and product offer a great way of looking into a safer more secure world.

Disobedient Electronics - http://www.disobedientelectronics.com/

Practice

The speculative projective I have chosen to devise is to ‘design a zine that presents how people with mental health are represented in the media’, the media I have chosen to analyse for this is a film. For this I chose 1 film from each year from the past decade which involved a character with a mental illness as part of the narrative, these were as follows:

Joker – Arthur Fleck / Joker

A Star is Born – Jackson Maine

Manchester by the Sea – Lee Chandler

Finding Dory – Dory

Inside Out – Riley

Gone Girl – Amy Dunne

Don Jon – Jon Martello Jr.

Silver Linings Playbook – Patrizio and Tiffany

Winnie the Pooh – Pooh

Shutter Island – Teddy Daniels

Once I had collected these I began data collection through simple web searches and from my knowledge of the film, such as Joker which was a film I saw recently. The representation of characters in the film especially with mental health should be constructed carefully as these characters will either be positive or negative representations of the condition.

DATA - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dftqGJ5ApytIIV0FH72Y_NQFIItPu2aBJRzXmMALKOQ/edit?usp=sharing

From my content analysis, it is visible that mental health is visible in all films from Pixar, comic book and indie films. The mental illnesses range from common issues such as depression to more rare conditions such as Pseudobulbar affect visible in Joker which is when an individual cannot prevent from laughing. Concerning my speculative project, I found that there are many representations and types of mental illnesses across a film which can be viewed as positive, mixed or negative representations of mental illnesses.

Bibliography

Herring S.C. 2009. 'Web ContentAnalysis: Expanding the Paradigm.' In: Hunsinger J., Klastrup L., Allen M. (eds) International Handbook of Internet Research. Springer, Verlag. pp.1-18.

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003

Reading

‘The Work that Visualisation Conventions do’ (Kennedy et al, 2016) explores a variety of conventions and examples of visual analysis and examines the different ways in which data is represented. One of the first topics of interest I found was the link between development in technology and the effect that this has on the visual analysis (Kennedy et al, 2016, p.718) where programs such as Excel have further modernised the way data is displayed. Furthermore, the section ‘doing good with data’ represents how visual analysis is being used to promote particular views on important topics, an example of this being done is from visualisation agency ‘Periscopic’ which produces data to promote awareness on socio-political issues ((Periscopic, 2014) Kennedy et al, 2016, p.720), visualisations of data such as really help make the viewer understand the depth of the issue. The use of geometric shapes and clean layouts, in general, are to help present the data visually cleanly and simply for the viewer (Kennedy et al, 2016, p.729).

Article ‘What is Visualisation?’ by Manovich (2011), explores the various types of visual analysis and provides a background to aspects of the visual data. Manovich discusses how computers were a big help to the development of visualisation techniques with introductions to new types of visual data however the basics have always existed and remained untouched (Manovich, 2011, p.38). Furthermore, Manovich looks into the various conventions within visual analysis such as in a heat map the colour blue will signify a cold temperature or the size of a piece of data will be a reference to the data’s size (Manovich, 2011, pp.40-41). Unique approaches are put forward as examples for InfoVis mapping such as ‘Mapping Time’ by Douglas and Manovich which shows every single Time magazine cover, which signifies the colour trends and visual trends through the decades (Manovich, 2011, pp.46-47).

Projects

Threads/ is an online database which has collected 60 different stories of women and their relationship with technology. The site uses the top 60 images found on Google images when searched ‘women + technology’, it is clear that there is a trend in these images with them being far from real depictions of technology and only the few actually being realistic representations of women. The website uses a variety of data such as the images from Google and the recorded stories about women and their relationship with technology. This website I find is a form of narratological storytelling with the use of photographs and sound as the stories are told in a way which affects our perception of representation of women on the internet. In terms of the aim of the project, other than applying positive narratives and messages to these images I find it unclear, where a project such as ‘World White Web’ aims at making change to the algorithms, this website from what I can see does not help create change of offer a solution.

Threads/ ::: - http://threads.ideacritik.com/

Practice

The data I chose to visually represent was the reviews for the movie ‘Joker’, the data scraped can be found through the link below. For the representation of my data I used Tableau Public which overall, I found a great tool for InfoVis mapping and a program I will certainly use again in the future. For the first piece of visual representation I used scatter plots which scattered the data across the screen allowing the user to see a more numerical approach to the data with the y-axis being numerical, however if the user were to hover over a scatter point a white box appear with the reviewer’s summary of the film.

The next representation of data I used a tree graph and ranked data based on their ranking of the film, where data with a higher score would have a larger size and be coloured green, whereas data with a lower score would be smaller and have a red colour. If one were to hover over a box they will see the reviewers score and a summary of their review in a white box, presenting data like this is much more sufficient as it is a lot cleaner for the user and easier to navigate. Completing this allowed me to see what I thought of previously as mostly qualitative data in a more quantitative sense where the use of colours, size and positioning of data represented what type of data this was.

Scraped Data – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Xq6DQKyy6ffOBuy75YEhNbBODZ5iRpe6KHkBznt5emY/edit?usp=sharing

Joker Reviews Circles – https://public.tableau.com/profile/oscar.randall.quintana#!/vizhome/JokerReviewsCircles/Sheet2?publish=yes

Joker Reviews Tree – https://public.tableau.com/profile/oscar.randall.quintana#!/vizhome/JokerReviewsTree/Sheet1?publish=yes

Bibliography

Kennedy, H, Hill, R.L., Aiello, G and Allen, W. 2016. The Work that Visualisation Conventions do. Information, Communication & Society. 19(6), pp.715-735.

Manovich, L. 2011. What is Visualisation. Visual Studies. 26(1), pp.36-49.

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002

Reading

The webpage ‘Denotation, Connotation and Myth’ by Chandler explores a range of terminology within semiotics. The first term ‘denotation’ tends to mean the literal meaning in contrast to ‘connotation’ which is where meaning is created through associations to the sign, this can be linked to the following, class, age and gender (Chandler, 2019). Chandler referred to the myth as what generates the signs and codes and with these being viewed as extended metaphors. Barthes on the other hand described a myth as pointing out and notifying us, making us understand something then imposing it on us ((Barthes, 1987) Chandler, 2019).

‘Beyond the self: Intersubjectivity and the social semiotic interpretation of the selfie’ analyses a range of interesting topics about the ‘selfie’ and the range of semiotics we can draw from selfies. Zhao and Zappavigna refer to the selfie as the self-portrait of our time, elaborating that the self-portrait has always moved along with culture development (2017, p.1738). Furthermore, Zhao and Zappavigna analyse the selfie as a social semiotic with audiences sharing different understandings of the messages addressed in the selfie, they also added that there are 3 kinds of meaning, ideational, interpersonal and texture (2017, p.1740). Lastly, the article explores the different variety of selfies (presented, mirrored, inferred and implied), these are largely influenced by the surrounding and composition of the image (Zhao, S and Zappavigna, M, 2017, pp.1744-48). Overall, as someone that takes selfies, this was a great insight into how we as individuals function when it comes to taking these images.

Projects

The ‘Accessible Icon Project’ tackles the outdated accessibility icon by creating a more realistic in-motion icon. This so-called movement is referred to as ‘design activism’ where the aim is to spark a conversation and create a political debate on the issue from a piece of design. In my view, I feel that the icon has not undergone expected change with society, where the ‘norm’ icon feels outdated and degrading to the disabled community. The conversation can be sparked that this is just an icon, however, this is an icon that represents over 11 million people here in the UK and should be brought to Political attention. This is not an issue with ‘Accessible Icon Project’ however the accessibility logo which tends to cover all disabilities fails to represent those with ‘invisible disabilities’, with research I found the ‘Visability93’ campaign which has created a range of icons for all kinds of disabilities, lead designer McCann referred to this as “an evolution, not a revolution”. Overall, this is a great insight into a project, however I believe there is a greater issue in terms of the disabilities that this icon is representing.

Accessible Icon Project – http://accessibleicon.org

Visability93 – https://www.visability93.com

Practice

For this practice I conducted various scraping using applications such as ‘Web Scraper’ and ‘OutWit’, completing this experiment allowed me to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. For my collection, I decided to collect data surrounding the Joker movie which included reviews and Twitter discussions surrounding the recent uproar in the media about the movie glorifying violence. Using Outwit I scraped the film review site ‘Metacritic’ which allowed me to gather the reviewers name, score and a brief review of the film, analysing this data it is clear that the reviews are very positive however the group that do not like this film gave it very negative reviews.

The next scraping, I conducted was using Web Scraper on Twitter, I scraped what users were discussing within the search ‘#JokerMovie glorify violence’. Using this search, I collected 22 responses where I found that a majority of user’s responses were against the claim in the media that this film glorified violence and that this was just fear created by the media. Overall, I found that OutWit was much easier to use with it allowing me to target specific areas using various opening and ending tags to gather information inside of it in contrast to Web Scraper which gave me all the information within the URL I had provided.

The scraping collected can be viewed via these Google Sheet links:

OutWit (Metacritic Reviews) – https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OSGmjEpuehBqU5R_B9jGOlwzP1A6Cb4hIA6QgGSWhao/edit?usp=sharing

Web Scraper (#JokerMovie glorify violence) –https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OSGmjEpuehBqU5R_B9jGOlwzP1A6Cb4hIA6QgGSWhao/edit?usp=sharing

Bibliography

Chandler, D. 2019. Denotation, Connotation and Myth. [Online]. [Accessed 14thOctober]. Available from: http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/S4B/

Zhao, S and Zappavigna, M. 2017. Beyond the self: Intersubjectivity and the social semiotic interpretation of the selfie. New Media & Society. 20(5), pp.1735-1754.

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undefined

001 “AR MAPPING OF A ROOM”

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001

Reading

In ‘Thinking Multisensory Culture’ Marks argues the significance of smell as a sense, Marks describes how smell is the most useful for perceiving ‘trouble’ by the use of bad odours, an example of this in place is the smell of gone off milk (2008, p.131). Marks also argues that all senses are capable of being able to open in two directions both inward and outwards allowing one to sense a previous emotional experience (2008, p.124). Lastly, Marks furthers his argument between the link of smell and emotional experience referring to this as the psychoanalytic argument (2008, p.126), where a certain odour can take you back to an emotional place with a similar odour creating a scent reference, this allows us to identify smells, based on the previous knowledge of the smell.

In ‘On Haptic Media and the Possibilities of a More Inclusive Interactivity’, Paterson argument revolves around haptic media and the sense of touch within new media and how these offer a more inclusive digital interaction (2017). Ways in which Paterson supports his argument is through VR which essentially creates a ‘man-machine interface’ which immerses the user in a haptic environment (2017, p.1551). As someone that has tried various VR devices in the past, VR very much allows the user to be more connected to the media/game through the 360 degree environment. Another way Paterson supports this is through vibrotactile, which provides feedback to the user, this is used in controllers and 3D touch (2017, p.1549). Vibrotactile is a feature common in most smartphones, where with the iPhone 8 for example (my current phone), the home button does not physically push down however the use of vibrations (which can be adjusted by the user) create a sense of feedback. Following this, recent game ‘Death Stranding’ by Hideo Kojima uses the built-in speaker of the remote to output in-game noise such as the sounds of a baby crying (part of the story), which further help when it comes to immersing the user to the experience.

Project

A Blind Legend Demo V0.2, places the user in an immersive environment from the perspective of the blind protagonist. The use of 3D audio known as binaural sound allows the user to be immersed in this environment where the user (playing hide and seek) searches for his daughter. The game is intended for those who are visually impaired however studio DOWiNO have made it clear that this is a sensory-based game/experience for everyone to play. In terms of who this game is for I believe anyone, this simple use of technology allows the user to play a game from a whole other perspective which is definitely worth the try.

When playing the game at first, I found myself lost and confused repeating my steps to find the daughter, however closing my eyes (as they recommend) allowed me to focus on the sound and not my surroundings in the real world which helped by allowing my hearing senses to be heightened. As someone that plays their fair share of games, I have to say that I was impressed at the environment and surrounding the game created, creating truly an immersive experience similar to that of VR. An experience I have had similar to this is from a performance by Simon McBurney titled ‘The Encounter’, which has been referred to as ‘one of the most fully immersive theatre pieces ever created’, the experience followed a similar procedure in that you were encouraged to close your eyes while the 360 audio being performed live on stage immersed the audience member. Overall, I am fairly impressed with this game however the game would need to be more advanced and complex for this to be something I play regularly, however with this just being a demo it is pretty impressive.

The Encounter (Simon McBurney) - https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2018/event/complicitesimon-mcburney-the-encounter

Practice

Our group decided to map a space using AR app ‘echoAR’ (ELIX Inc, 2018), the app is intended to be a support tool for blind people where it detects the floor and various obstacles in the user’s environment, this is then outputted at various pitches to warn the user when they are near an obstacle. With AR being a technology constantly in development it is clear that there are some faults with the application, with it being unreliable at times, for example it detected various parts of the room that were no there. The technology used is similar to new AR games such as MinecraftEarth which immerse the user into an experience.

Our process involved doing a full walk around the room, this allowed us to map the room using pitch and AR mapping. Overall as a group, we were surprised at the results, in spite of the faults the app, this proved to be a useful piece of technology for those who are visually impaired to use in the future.

https://oscarrq.tumblr.com/post/188213554177/001-ar-mapping-of-a-room

The AR mapping of a room can be found on the post “AR MAPPING OF A ROOM”.

Bibliography

ELIX Inc. 2018. echoAR(Version 1.02). [Mobile App]. [Accessed 5thOctober 2019].

Marks, L. 2008. Thinking Multisensory Culture. Paragraph, 31(2), pp.123-137.

Paterson, R. 2017. On Haptic Media and the Possibilities of a More Inclusive Interactivity. New Media & Society. 19(10), pp.1541-1562.