Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The variety of comments from the workshop interviews illustrate the variety of experiences in which students found meaningful to engage in SL’s social world, and emphasize certain activities including shopping, building or avatar customization. While some of the groups tried collecting and reassembling objects from within SL, others decided to generate the digital content from scratch by using prims. Therefore, some students found shopping for freebies and sold items affordable and fun, and others preferred to work with the building tools while transferring the resource-collection tasks to team-mates. Another common attitude can be summarized as the ‘we couldn’t find it so we made it ourselves’ approach, in which the students tried to find the resources they need but could not succeed to find satisfying ones so they changed their strategies during the process. As explained above, similar strategies were also developed by the co-designers of the Metrotopia and PAL projects, as they all include both collected and internally-generated design elements. During the workshop, most students felt more competent in designing and clothing their avatars then finding and using resources for building. For the students, transmedia resources were often helpful in collecting visual inspirations on their characters from various online resources, such as Google Image Search or Wikipedia. In the focus groups, use of inworld resources was a much discussed topic. Most students found the inworld archives (resource libraries, freebies collections and shops) not very user friendly, and/or too costly. Similar to content creation, finding resources becomes harder when students search for specific objects, whereas it is considered as relatively easier and more fun when students were free to explore and try out things. As most students did not prefer to use their credit cards and buy Linden currency to be able to make inworld exchange, they were encouraged to explore the free resources and learn about the cultural complexities of SL by traveling outside Metrotopia and socialize with others. Although each group was given a small amount of initiation money (in Linden currency) some student groups preferred to spend more on virtual goods and resources, while others chose not to spend any more and work with the internally available resources. One particular issue was particularly stressed out and recurrently mentioned by the students; that is the confusion caused by the improper storage and presentation of free resources (freebies). To sum up, use of semiotic and material resources in the three case studies reflect the multimodal logic, as well as the transmedia patterns that often cover a variety of media platforms. The co-designers use SL’s internal resources in addition to several other types of online resource collections, including texture archives, image-banks, and social media platforms. Resources also vary in terms of type and content: as some resources can only provide inspiration, others can be used as design elements (i.e. textures, scripts) or they can be appropriated into the overall project as fully-functional artifacts (i.e. freebies, pose-balls, furniture). In general, resources are 167
appropriated (and often modified 16 ) to fit the requirements of the design task, whereas the codesigners also often choose to create objects from scratch with default resources (i.e. prims), which provide a wider semiotic solution space to generate complex forms from primitive structures. Prims impeccably illustrate the socio-semiotic thesis: meaning potentials of these primitive semiotic resources are conditioned by their contexts of use, through which the co-designers produce new places and artifacts as multimodal sign-systems. Official and third party viewers As mentioned above, usability of the SL viewer and the affordances of the GUI are rather controversial topics. Most experienced builders, especially the PAL team, have been using third party viewer software for their particular affordances, in addition to the official viewer. For instance, Xavier’s viewer preferences clearly represent his context-specific needs and expectations from the user interface. For Xavier, viewers are interchangeable due to the differences in their affordances and constraints for the specified type of interaction: he uses one viewer to reduce lag in crowded places, and another one when he is building. Among the most popular of third party software, Emerald was specifically targeting builders with a set affordances, such as the group labels on object, auto-return, double-click teleport. During the time that I have been conducting the interviews, Emerald was discontinued and it is no longer available. Ironically, before it was termination, AmyLee explained how useful these are for content-generators, and added: “I just hope there will still be alternative viewers like Emerald still on!” For Curiza, however, using third party viewers bears certain risks, the most important of which is the (potential) breach of privacy. He also adds how experience and social capital is an important factor in trust and privacy issues; he has been in the world long enough to developers of some third party viewers (Phoenix and Emerald), thus trust is not an issue in these cases. Another reason why Curiza prefers not to use the third party versions of the viewer software and sticks with the official releases is to have the ability to communicate and interact with newcomers, people who do not use the alternative viewers. A similar problem has also occurred during the transformation of the default viewer from version 1 to 2, which has certain capabilities (such as HTML embedding on prims) that could be viewed only if the user is accessing the world via the new (official) viewer. His choice of the viewer also reflects the interpersonal aspects of his interaction with SL. In Curiza’ view the “spirit” that was carried on from the early days of SL was to “help each other”, and that he wouldn’t be able to help new people learn if he does not see what they see. Curiza’ comment is important in this respect, because it provides clues about how the use of technology is not only predicated upon the 16 The permission system in SL allows the first creator of virtual objects to control the modification, copy and transfer options of the object. 168
Page 2 and 3:
Prologue ‘So it isn’t the origi
Page 4 and 5:
Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborat
Page 6 and 7:
CHAPTER 3. Social semiotics, multim
Page 8 and 9:
Official and third party viewers
Page 10 and 11:
List of Figures Figure 4.1 Domains
Page 12 and 13:
List of Tables Table 2. 1 Theories
Page 14 and 15:
1. Introduction Virtual places and
Page 16 and 17:
technologies introduce new social w
Page 18 and 19:
innovation studies researchers have
Page 20 and 21:
contextual factors of collaborative
Page 22 and 23:
creative collaboration, and creativ
Page 24 and 25:
In a multimodal and multi-method ap
Page 26 and 27:
three case studies. This chapter al
Page 28 and 29:
2. Perspectives in virtual worlds r
Page 30 and 31:
making. In fact, it is possible to
Page 32 and 33:
virtual world technologies, it sign
Page 34 and 35:
collaborative actions that span qui
Page 36 and 37:
mediated social interaction with ot
Page 38 and 39:
their perceived effects on networke
Page 40 and 41:
ackdrop for the understanding of us
Page 42 and 43:
multidisciplinary working (Gu et al
Page 44 and 45:
Socio-cultural perspectives on co-d
Page 46 and 47:
innovation differs from Bonsu and D
Page 48 and 49:
In a place-centric socio-semiotic v
Page 50 and 51:
Theoretical Categories Concepts and
Page 52 and 53:
3. Social semiotics, multimodality
Page 54 and 55:
3.1. The social semiotic approach t
Page 56 and 57:
structures and analyzing the contex
Page 58 and 59:
designers’ purposeful orchestrati
Page 60 and 61:
communication as an essential semio
Page 62 and 63:
aspects of multimodal entities for
Page 64 and 65:
and-paste logic of online media, th
Page 66 and 67:
from the meaning-making practices,
Page 68 and 69:
and Turner 2004). Social Informatic
Page 70 and 71:
From this perspective, to build (an
Page 72 and 73:
human action unfolds in ‘three-di
Page 74 and 75:
genius loci idea to virtual places,
Page 76 and 77:
Michael de Certeau’s (1984) analy
Page 78 and 79:
semiotic practices, in all kinds of
Page 80 and 81:
follow similar considerations of ex
Page 82 and 83:
comparatively analyzing the multimo
Page 84 and 85:
Here, the relevant question for pos
Page 86 and 87:
3.6. Conclusion: social semiotics a
Page 88 and 89:
Theoretical Categories Concepts and
Page 90 and 91:
4. Theory and practice in design re
Page 92 and 93:
elations. One example of the formal
Page 94 and 95:
traditional distinctions between de
Page 96 and 97:
Research for design aims to provide
Page 98 and 99:
potentially offers to our senses. D
Page 100 and 101:
In sum, I consider affordances and
Page 102 and 103:
It is certainly important that desi
Page 104 and 105:
A solely production-based account o
Page 106 and 107:
design problems, while its variatio
Page 108 and 109:
user-driven innovations. Von Hippel
Page 110 and 111:
institutional contexts (Grossen 200
Page 112 and 113:
Meaning-oriented design theories
Page 114 and 115:
As explained in the Introduction ch
Page 116 and 117:
The multimodal social semiotic appr
Page 118 and 119:
them, and (b) experiential and inte
Page 120 and 121:
From multimodal analysis, I draw ce
Page 122 and 123:
phenomenology of time and space (an
Page 124 and 125:
My analytical framework includes a
Page 126 and 127:
characteristics of design in virtua
Page 128 and 129:
6. Methodology Introduction This ch
Page 130 and 131: multimodal analysis in virtual worl
Page 132 and 133: sensibilities, and methods of analy
Page 134 and 135: are contextualized by the socio-tec
Page 136 and 137: perspectives as the primary source
Page 138 and 139: ‣ Communication and Design in Vir
Page 140 and 141: perspectives and methods. The evolu
Page 142 and 143: designers are not necessarily geogr
Page 144 and 145: material resources either by visiti
Page 146 and 147: and selection of participants in co
Page 148 and 149: also the reason why this case study
Page 150 and 151: within each consequent case study,
Page 152 and 153: created/constituted in the situated
Page 154 and 155: than make overall statements and ge
Page 156 and 157: in-depth qualitative understanding
Page 158 and 159: 7.1. The social actors and configur
Page 160 and 161: The core design team consists of Ca
Page 162 and 163: Curiza as the owner of the sim and
Page 164 and 165: and appreciation. He says “if you
Page 166 and 167: For Curiza, the hardest part of bei
Page 168 and 169: context 5 . On the other hand, this
Page 170 and 171: interviews, combined with findings
Page 172 and 173: Comparisons with game experiences a
Page 174 and 175: modification, combination and appro
Page 176 and 177: Shaggy, who recommends designers to
Page 178 and 179: he often used the Internet for “f
Page 182 and 183: technological developments but also
Page 184 and 185: the four Moons group, a few members
Page 186 and 187: esource for inspiration. Such inter
Page 188 and 189: inworld discussion about the costum
Page 190 and 191: “reminds the sounding of the word
Page 192 and 193: Although Shaggy’s perspective abo
Page 194 and 195: For Caitlyn, the major advantage of
Page 196 and 197: PAL’s design. According to AmyLee
Page 198 and 199: shared or collaborative edited by m
Page 200 and 201: collaborative practices in order to
Page 202 and 203: 8. Analyzing multimodal discourse i
Page 204 and 205: these places, their elevations and
Page 206 and 207: (Rank-scale/ EXPERIENTIAL / INTERPE
Page 208 and 209: Superheroes. Caitlyn, whose needs a
Page 210 and 211: Figure 8.1. View from Metrotopia: T
Page 212 and 213: Although Metrotopia was specificall
Page 214 and 215: The Fight Club Dojo is designed to
Page 216 and 217: Caitlyn: [W]e wanted to advertise,
Page 218 and 219: of expression and reception of digi
Page 220 and 221: In Curiza’s comment the introduct
Page 222 and 223: textual functions of the content (m
Page 224 and 225: their interest in such metaphors fo
Page 226 and 227: Synthesis of the findings on experi
Page 228 and 229: Caitlyn: [L]ooking at what makes up
Page 230 and 231:
Curiza: I told Xavier “Xavier I w
Page 232 and 233:
0 Figure 8.22. (left) Metrotopia Pa
Page 234 and 235:
and posters with positive political
Page 236 and 237:
Synthesis of the findings on interp
Page 238 and 239:
Figure 8.26. (left) The draw-bridge
Page 240 and 241:
Use of prims as semiotic units is m
Page 242 and 243:
Modes and multimodal design element
Page 244 and 245:
Xavier: It was very, EXTREMELY colo
Page 246 and 247:
Texts and images are often used tog
Page 248 and 249:
placement of various interactive lo
Page 250 and 251:
9. Conclusions and discussions 9.1.
Page 252 and 253:
and the lack of prior experience, p
Page 254 and 255:
in flux in inworld collaborative de
Page 256 and 257:
potentials, and aim to reinforce th
Page 258 and 259:
Although not all of the co-designer
Page 260 and 261:
As mentioned in the literature surv
Page 262 and 263:
Drawing on this point, I also consi
Page 264 and 265:
(Kress, 2010). The analysis of the
Page 266 and 267:
although he also acknowledges the r
Page 268 and 269:
creative activities and reduce the
Page 270 and 271:
Further directions for research The
Page 272 and 273:
Bakhtin, M.M. (1986). Speech, genre
Page 274 and 275:
Charmaz, K., (2002). Qualitative in
Page 276 and 277:
Fischer, G. and Giaccardi, E., (200
Page 278 and 279:
Halliday, M.A.K. (2007). Language a
Page 280 and 281:
Jones, J.C., (2009). What is design
Page 282 and 283:
Lemke, J.L. (2005). Place, pace and
Page 284 and 285:
Norman, D.A. (2008). The way I see
Page 286 and 287:
Reinhard, C. D., & Dervin, B. (2010
Page 288 and 289:
Thackara, J. (2005). In the bubble:
Page 290 and 291:
Summary in English Computer-generat
Page 292 and 293:
Dansk resumé af afhandlingen Compu
Page 294 and 295:
Interview Guide (Metrotopia and PAL
show all

Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?