Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

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collaborative actions that span quite different environments with quite different types of agency, possible acts, and consequences” (Keating and Sunakawa 2010: 331). Their findings show that participation cues in online games requires new habits of spatial reasoning, which are often fairly influenced by the cultural and social contexts in which participants collaborate. Being able to manipulate and interpret continually shifting participant roles and spatial configurations and being adaptable in the use of the modality of space is a significant part of interacting across real space and technologically mediated space, with new shared elements of social life (Keating and Sunakawa 2010: 353). In terms of the social VWs such as SL, transfer of spatial codes from the so-called real-world has a central importance in the analysis of designer practices. As Betsy Book (2004) claims, usergenerated social worlds tend to be ‘more directly influenced and inspired by cultures of everyday offline life’ as residents constantly draw from existing resources and conventions of entertainment media and pop culture. User-driven co-production activities in Second Life are often initiated by similar creative explorations of users with different motivations and individually meaningful contexts (Dennhardt and Kohler 2010, Kohler et. al. 2009, Ondrejka 2005). Therefore, the following section will continue to discuss issues such as co-presence, collaboration and co-design in SL. Before discussing these issues, I will briefly summarize the first part of the review and draw the main analytical points from the VW literature thus far. Synthesis: Virtual place-making, architecture and design In summary, various perspectives on virtual worlds focus on the spatial characteristics of avatar interaction in VWs, and emphasize the social dimension of place-making in terms of construction of the meaningful user experience. These perspectives contribute to the formulation of my research question, as my multimodal social semiotic framing of communication considers design as not only the construction of visual characteristics of places and artifacts, but also their social functions as meaningful sign systems, and their practical functions as mediational means. The question is how virtual places and artifacts in SL are co-designed and co-produced for multimodal interaction; therefore I often employ spatial categories of place-making in my analysis of virtual places that are comparable to these approaches. In the following section, my review continues with research studies on the social dimensions of being together and co-producing virtual objects in a VW. 2.2. Research on co-presence, co-production and co-design in virtual worlds Although the development and study of virtual worlds are (relatively) recent phenomena, which originates from the early/mid-1990s and are mainly driven by the socio-technical developments of the era, researchers have been extensively investigating various aspects of online communication, 21
collaboration and co-production in CVEs (i.e. Steuer 1992, Schroeder 1995, Bridges and Charitos 1997, Damer 1998, Dev and Walker 1999). SL represents a specific socio-technical stream within this paradigm in which users still interact via mediation of digital technologies and graphical user interfaces, but they do so by navigating in, exploring and interacting with 3D representations in virtual places. The platform allows user-driven co-production of digital content. Furthermore, users are allowed to co-create the places and artifacts in SL, and share/distribute them among residents or open them for public/private use. However, virtual objects are usually created with support of external - online and/or offline - software, and SL definitely is not the only collaborative platform for user-generated content online. In SL, user-driven innovation proliferates through user-to-user interaction, knowledge and resource exchange in socio-cultural contexts (Ondrejka 2005). Similarly, in Axel Bruns’ (2008) produsage theory, SL represents a multifaceted and multilayered (hybrid) environment in which economies are built on emerging locally-specific collaborations. This is my starting point in the study of these co-production activities as part of a wider social media landscape, focusing on pro-am (Leadbeater and Miller 2004) media users, their practices, and traversals among various online platforms. Therefore, I consider collaborative design of virtual places and artifacts in SL an illustration of a larger socio-technical context, condensed within a particular technology which attracts a particular user group on the Internet. While CVEs and immersive media spaces are getting more accessible, efficient and affordable, research findings on design and use contexts of these third places (Moore et al. 2009) continue to be ambiguous and dispersed among disciplinary borders. In his latest book, media and communication studies professor Ralph Schroeder (2011) presents a central research framework about collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) by focusing on the issues of co-presence and connected presence. Schroeder’s (2011: 3) theoretical framework combines “research in HCI and social psychology of computer-mediated communication” with “the sociology of new technologies and their use as tools to carry out social research”. By examining research uses of CVEs, Schroeder sets his aim to bring computer science and social sciences together, and reaching a multidisciplinary understanding of how people interact in VWs. He also emphasizes the potential of CVEs as laboratories for social research, where observations can be done in natural settings and by studying existing natural performances. Co-presence: Being “there” together, in a virtual world Schroeder’s (1995, 2006, 2011) framework of “being there together” includes not only use of verbal and non-verbal communicative tools and their affordances but also ways of collaborative problemsolving and meaning-making in small and large groups. Here, the emphasis is not on the technology itself, but on how people interact by using these technologies and participate in 22
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 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
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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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perspectives as the primary source
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‣ Communication and Design in Vir
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perspectives and methods. The evolu
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designers are not necessarily geogr
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material resources either by visiti
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and selection of participants in co
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also the reason why this case study
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within each consequent case study,
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created/constituted in the situated
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than make overall statements and ge
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in-depth qualitative understanding
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7.1. The social actors and configur
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The core design team consists of Ca
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Curiza as the owner of the sim and
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and appreciation. He says “if you
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For Curiza, the hardest part of bei
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context 5 . On the other hand, this
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interviews, combined with findings
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Comparisons with game experiences a
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modification, combination and appro
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Shaggy, who recommends designers to
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he often used the Internet for “f
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The variety of comments from the wo
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technological developments but also
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the four Moons group, a few members
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esource for inspiration. Such inter
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inworld discussion about the costum
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“reminds the sounding of the word
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Although Shaggy’s perspective abo
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For Caitlyn, the major advantage of
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PAL’s design. According to AmyLee
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shared or collaborative edited by m
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collaborative practices in order to
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8. Analyzing multimodal discourse i
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these places, their elevations and
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(Rank-scale/ EXPERIENTIAL / INTERPE
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Superheroes. Caitlyn, whose needs a
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Figure 8.1. View from Metrotopia: T
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Although Metrotopia was specificall
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The Fight Club Dojo is designed to
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Caitlyn: [W]e wanted to advertise,
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of expression and reception of digi
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In Curiza’s comment the introduct
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textual functions of the content (m
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their interest in such metaphors fo
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Synthesis of the findings on experi
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Caitlyn: [L]ooking at what makes up
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Curiza: I told Xavier “Xavier I w
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0 Figure 8.22. (left) Metrotopia Pa
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and posters with positive political
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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
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
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Multimodal Semiotics and Collaborative Design

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