Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

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esource for inspiration. Such interpretations of the nature of the virtual evidently affects the ways in which the co-designers make their semiotic choices and arrange the multimodal sign systems within their collaborative designs. The semiotic translations between the grounded and virtual realities take place on two levels: either through the re-semiotization of codes of realism into the virtual environment or by emphasizing virtuality and freedom from the constraints of RL. In either case, the selection of what will be used as a code and how the semiotic resources will be assembled into sign systems to signify messages is up to the co-designers’ individual and collective conceptualizations of what reality and virtuality means within the context of SL. 7.3. The collaborative design processes Following the analysis of the social actors and mediational means, this section presents findings on the mediated practices of the co-designers within the collaborative design processes. In this section, I investigate how the social interactions in collaborative design practices are performed, and how the processes of collaborative idea and content production are organized in different social contexts in SL. The purpose of analyzing the social orders of collaborative design projects results from the nexus analysis perspective that aims to consider social conditions in which social actions take place. Drawing on the methodological principles of mediated discourse analysis (MDA) (i.e. Scollon and Scollon 2003, 2004, Norris and Jones 2005), I consider collaborative design in SL as ‘nexus of practice’, at which “historical trajectories of people, places, discourses, ideas, and objects come together to enable some action which in itself alters those historical trajectories in some way as those trajectories emanate from this moment of social action” (Scollon and Scollon 2004: viii). Following this logic, in this chapter I focus on these various social trajectories by framing SL as a network of virtual places, and by consulting the co-designers’ reflections on their experiences with SL’s affordances and constraints as semiotic and material resources. The first part of this section illustrates how collaborative projects are organized in virtual places by the use of SL’s affordances for interacting with others and co-producing new content, mainly the role of avatars as personal spatial mediators. Then, I continue the discussion of findings with the notion of interconnectedness of the virtual places on a visual grid, and expand the focus from place-making to world-making as co-production of networked instances (Bartle 2008). The discussions in this part also refer to the earlier theoretical arguments about the similarities and differences between three-dimensional VWs and the graphical spaces of the Internet. Finally, the analysis in this chapter ends with the discussions on the organization of collaborative practices in time and space, by which I emphasize the notions of ‘chronotope’ and ‘heterochrony’ as 173
constituents of the nexus analysis. Here I analyze the ways in which the co-designers in different cases execute different stages of the overall co-design project, organize their actions in real and virtual spaces either synchronously or asynchronously. The conclusion to this section also serves the function as an analytical bridge to the following chapter, where I will discuss findings of the multimodal analysis of virtual places and artifacts that are co-designed and co-produced as a result of these collaborative practices. Second Life as place, and avatars as spatial mediators Two significant visual semiotic functions of avatar-mediated presence in virtual were observed within collaborative design: (1) providing users with a visual representation of their interests in participating in the world (interpersonal function), and (2) providing visual information about the sizes, scales, positions and actions of the actors in relation to each other and the virtual space (experiential function). The experiential function of avatars is related to their role in occupying a definite volume of the representational space and being able to change positions/locations with relation to other objects and the space itself. This way, SL affords a particular type of visual reference, in which visual characteristics of participants matter because of their respective positions in 3D virtual space and their interactions with objects and/or avatars that occupy the space. Importance of the interpersonal functions of avatars in shaping the user experience was mostly a topic of discussion with inexperienced users, whereas experienced designers mention generally on the experiential functions of avatars during the content generation process. Figure 7.9. (left) Metrotopia design team and other members in an inworld meeting Figure 7.10. (right) A group of workshop students using Metrotopia Sandbox for building In a typical inworld meeting during the Metrotopia project, as illustrated in Figure 9, participants meet in virtual places for collaborative working and use their avatars to travel (walk and/or fly) around the objects of design. They discuss the ideas and comments on each other’s’ work by using several channels of communication, including text and voice. The snapshot above is taken from an 174
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Prologue ‘So it isn’t the origi
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Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborat
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CHAPTER 3. Social semiotics, multim
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Official and third party viewers
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List of Figures Figure 4.1 Domains
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List of Tables Table 2. 1 Theories
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1. Introduction Virtual places and
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technologies introduce new social w
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innovation studies researchers have
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contextual factors of collaborative
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creative collaboration, and creativ
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In a multimodal and multi-method ap
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three case studies. This chapter al
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2. Perspectives in virtual worlds r
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making. In fact, it is possible to
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virtual world technologies, it sign
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collaborative actions that span qui
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mediated social interaction with ot
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their perceived effects on networke
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ackdrop for the understanding of us
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multidisciplinary working (Gu et al
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Socio-cultural perspectives on co-d
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innovation differs from Bonsu and D
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In a place-centric socio-semiotic v
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Theoretical Categories Concepts and
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3. Social semiotics, multimodality
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3.1. The social semiotic approach t
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structures and analyzing the contex
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designers’ purposeful orchestrati
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communication as an essential semio
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aspects of multimodal entities for
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and-paste logic of online media, th
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from the meaning-making practices,
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and Turner 2004). Social Informatic
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From this perspective, to build (an
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human action unfolds in ‘three-di
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genius loci idea to virtual places,
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Michael de Certeau’s (1984) analy
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semiotic practices, in all kinds of
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follow similar considerations of ex
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comparatively analyzing the multimo
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Here, the relevant question for pos
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3.6. Conclusion: social semiotics a
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Theoretical Categories Concepts and
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4. Theory and practice in design re
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elations. One example of the formal
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traditional distinctions between de
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Research for design aims to provide
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potentially offers to our senses. D
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In sum, I consider affordances and
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It is certainly important that desi
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A solely production-based account o
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design problems, while its variatio
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user-driven innovations. Von Hippel
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institutional contexts (Grossen 200
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Meaning-oriented design theories
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As explained in the Introduction ch
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The multimodal social semiotic appr
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them, and (b) experiential and inte
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From multimodal analysis, I draw ce
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phenomenology of time and space (an
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My analytical framework includes a
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characteristics of design in virtua
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6. Methodology Introduction This ch
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multimodal analysis in virtual worl
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sensibilities, and methods of analy
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are contextualized by the socio-tec
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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
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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
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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
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Page 176 and 177: Shaggy, who recommends designers to
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Page 180 and 181: The variety of comments from the wo
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Page 184 and 185: the four Moons group, a few members
Page 188 and 189: inworld discussion about the costum
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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
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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
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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
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Synthesis of the findings on interp
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Figure 8.26. (left) The draw-bridge
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Use of prims as semiotic units is m
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Modes and multimodal design element
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Xavier: It was very, EXTREMELY colo
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Texts and images are often used tog
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placement of various interactive lo
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9. Conclusions and discussions 9.1.
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and the lack of prior experience, p
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in flux in inworld collaborative de
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potentials, and aim to reinforce th
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Although not all of the co-designer
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As mentioned in the literature surv
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Drawing on this point, I also consi
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(Kress, 2010). The analysis of the
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although he also acknowledges the r
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creative activities and reduce the
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Further directions for research The
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Bakhtin, M.M. (1986). Speech, genre
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Charmaz, K., (2002). Qualitative in
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Fischer, G. and Giaccardi, E., (200
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Halliday, M.A.K. (2007). Language a
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Jones, J.C., (2009). What is design
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Lemke, J.L. (2005). Place, pace and
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Norman, D.A. (2008). The way I see
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Reinhard, C. D., & Dervin, B. (2010
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Thackara, J. (2005). In the bubble:
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Summary in English Computer-generat
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Dansk resumé af afhandlingen Compu
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Interview Guide (Metrotopia and PAL
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Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

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