Author / mc

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Anotações Sonoras: Espaço, Pausa, Repetição

Anotações Sonoras: Espaço, Pausa, Repetição on Vimeo.

“Anotações Sonoras: Espaço, Pausa, Repetição” was commissioned by oMuseu and Exhibitions – Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Porto, where it was shown from March 24 to June 30 2018. The installation included sound objects by: Alex FX, Alexander Rishaug, André Gonçalves, Andreas Trobollowitsch, Artificial Memory Trace, Arturas Bumšteinas, Attilio Novellino, Carlos Santos, Carlos Zíngaro, Cem Güney, Dan Powell, David Lee Myers, Diana Combo, Durán Vázquez, Emídio Buchinho, Emmanuel Mieville, Enrico Ascoli, Enrico Coniglio, Astrid & Ephraim Wegner, Haarvöl, Freiband, Gintas K, Graeme Truslove, Hugo Paquete, Ifs, James Eck Rippie, Janek Schaefer, Jazznoize, Jim Haynes, Jonathan Uliel Saldanha, Jörg Piringer, Jos Smolders, Lawrence English, Luca Forcucci, Maile Colbert, Marc Behrens, Martijn Tellinga, Mikel R. Nieto, Mise_en_Scene, Monty Adkins, Morten Riis, paL, Ran Slavin, Richard Eigner, Saverio Rosi, Simon Whetham, Sound Meccano, Stephen Vitiello, Sturqen, Tamtam, Tuulikki Bartosik, Ulrich Mitzlaff, Vitor Joaquim, Yiorgis Sakellariou. The wonderful video was shot and directed by Patrícia Viana Almeida.

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On Serendipity in the Digital Medium: Towards a Framework for Valuable Unpredictability in Interaction Design

Ricardo Melo’s PhD thesis, On Serendipity in the Digital Medium: Towards a Framework for Valuable Unpredictability in Interaction Design, which I had the pleasure of supervising, is now available online at the repository of the University of Porto.

This research proposes the creation of a methodological framework for the design of interactive systems that allow and encourage valuable and unpredictable—viz serendipitous—encounters in the digital medium, expanding on its ability for the discovery of novel information, for enabling unfamiliar experiences, and supporting creative practices.

The current trajectory of the design of interactive systems aims for increased optimisation and personalisation of digital experiences which, while situationally apropos, when universally adopted hamper the scope and potential of the digital medium, limiting its reach to the systems’ constructed persona of the interactor. Considering the role digital media plays in contemporary life, we believe that by designing towards serendipity, we permit not just optimum interactions in the digital medium but also the wide breadth of human experience. To that end we establish a theoretically-grounded understanding of serendipity, identifying its fundamental concepts and domains. Grounding serendipity in both information discovery and interaction design, we propose a pattern for the serendipitous experience consisting of four stages: Prepared Mind, Trigger, Epiphany, and Value. Furthermore, observing the feasibility of designing for serendipity through an analysis of its accidental nature, we propose a distinction between serendipity that occurs naturally and that which may be designed. Following an exploration of the serendipitous approach of existing interactive systems, we proceed to the proposal of a framework composed by three identified vectors: Human Factors, Human Activities, and Heuristics which, through their articulation and interplay, define both a model for the development of serendipitous systems, as well as the analysis of existing ones.

Through the established understanding of serendipity and the developed framework, we not only aim for enabling the design of serendipitous systems, but also to alert for the necessity and significance of serendipity itself, to both designers and interactors of the digital medium.

Keywords: Serendipity, Digital Medium, Interaction Design, Serendipitous Pattern, Human Factors, Human Activities, Heuristics.

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O Som do Vazio: Anotações Sonoras reviewed by Arte Capital

Luís Ribeiro visited Anotações Sonoras: Espaço, Pausa, Repetição and wrote about it for Arte Capital.

(…) A sala de exposições é um corpo que pode ser habitado mas é, na mesma medida, um corpo vivido pela obra de arte e pelo público que a visita, transformando o vazio num corpo habitado e cheio de vida. Neste sentido, o corpo assume-se como potência que incorpora a obra de arte, passando a existir apenas no íntimo de cada ser que a visita.

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Empathy in the Ergodic Experience of Computational Aesthetics

A paper with Pedro Cardoso at ISEA 2018.

Computational artworks develop very particular relationships with their readers. Being able to encode and enact complex and contingent behaviours, a computational artwork exists in a dual state between two layers that are inextricably connected, a computational subface that is often a black box which can only be peeked at through an analogue surface, that mediates but also isolates it. But the procedural layer of the subface can be unearthed through a process of virtuosic interpretation, through which readers are able to develop some empathy with the system and arrive at a theory of the system that ultimately allows the transferring of some of the artwork’s processes to human minds. This paper focuses on how this process is developed and how it is the basis for a unique type of aesthetic experience that leads computational media and art to involve readers in anamorphosis and in a dialectics of aporia and epiphany, that mirrors the superimposition of subface and surface, and from where narrative experiences emerge.