Bioaffect:Current events
IAT881: BioAffective Computing & Interactive Media
Spring 2011
Dr. Diane Gromala
Structure of class meetings
In each class meeting, unless otherwise noted, we will have:
topics for discussion & readings, assignments, reports, examples (artifacts) and discussion of methods.
Topics
Topics for discussion will be informed by the assigned readings.
I will assume that everyone has a thorough understanding of the readings (or quizzes may result).
We will discuss each topic by traditional means: discussion and textual responses.
For each reading, one of you will be assigned to address the topic by non-traditional, non-textual means.
This may be a video, performance, prank, interactive artwork, computer application, game, sound,
or any other legal means you come up with.
Assignments
Some assignments will simply be turned in, but most will be addressed in class.
Reports
Reports are presentations of issues assigned to you. Examples are a sensory mode,
a technology, an example (artifact, such as an application or interactive artwork)
and ideas for your project. Most should be no longer than 5 to 7 minutes, with 10-15 minutes of discussion or demos.
Basic suggestions for these reports will be provided, but you are encouraged to be creative and experimental.
For instance, perhaps the person who is assigned to report on the sense of hearing may bring in
things to listen to, things that might modify the way we hear, or design a sonic demo.
Similarly, whomever is assigned, say, the biofeedback technology of GSR might set
up a scenario using the technology, and show videoclips from the Millgram experiment.
Week One January 12: Introductions to affective computing, course requirements and each other.
Readings for next week:
The Emotional Self, Deborah Lupton: Introduction, Chapter 1 & Chapter 3 Media:LuptonReading1.pdf
Affective Computing, Rosalind Picard, Introduction & Chapter 1 Media:LuptonChapter1.pdf
Assignments:
1. Add information about yourself and your interests + ideas you’d like to explore to this wiki, in the Community Portal section.
2. Reports regarding “the senses” assigned.
Reporting requirements: Each of you has chosen a sensory mode. For our next class meeting,
bring a 7 page PowerPoint or KeyNote slide set. Be concise -- the words we see should only
be touchstones that help you recall your recently acquired knowledge.
Slide 1: (large) the name of the sensory mode (small) your name, IAT881: Bioaffective Computing, Spring 2011.
Slide 2: An articulation of how the sensory mode works in physiological terms.
Think about how the sensory mode you are covering might relate to other sensory modes. For instance,
touch requires proximity and presence, but vision does not.
Go beyond general assumptions.
For example, many may assume that vision just requires a set of eyes, but the brain is also crucial.
Viscera is very complex, so whomever has this one should probably focus on the enteric system, or refer to Wilson's reading, below.
We will know if whomever covers taste has done their homework if they tell us that we have taste buds
that recognize 4 (not 5) basic kinds of taste. Images, sound, animations, diagrams and videoclips are
okay, but be sure you include proper citations/attributions in small text.
Slide 3: Historical considerations. For vision, for example, some ancient Greeks believed that our eyes
emitted rays. (Note: this slide may likely have some overlap with the subsequent slide.)
Slide 4: Cultural considerations. How was or is your sensory mode considered in diverse cultures
(evil eye, eyes are the windows to our souls)? What role does your sensory mode have in one or
more cultures? (It is argued that some centuries in Western cultures were dominated by
visual or so-called scopic regimes -- what does that mean?)
Slide 5: Find an exemplary artifact regarding your sensory mode. This might be a painting,
videogame, machine, interactive artwork, musical composition, foley effect, CGI,
piece of grafitti, or so on. Choose your artifact to make a point that interests you.
Slide 6: What existing technologies relate to, simulate or address your sensory mode? Tell us
about them generally and specifically. Are there any sci-fi technologies that are interesting? If so, why?
Slide 7: Brainstorm about one project you'd love to create that directly relates to your sensory mode.
Think outside of the box. Don't be shy.
Suggestions:
a) Conduct Ypres-like research about that sensory mode. For exteroceptive senses, a good place to start is to
refer to Diane Ackerman's book A Natural History of the Senses. For interoceptive senses, a good place to
start is to refer to Drew Leder's The Absent Body. You will be confronted with a seemingly insurmountable
task -- to find and plow through an immense amount of information, and to make sense of it in a concise
but not dumbed-down manner. My advice is to maintain a hard-core, laser-like focus. Find the information
you need in the burning building, grab it, and get the heck out. One aspect of this assignment is for you to
figure out ways to quickly locate the best, most up-to-date knowledge from diverse domains, to determine
who the major players (theorists, scientists) are, what the main issues are, where exemplary works of
art, design, media or computing are, how to digest it all, and how to brainstorm ideas about that sense modality.
These are incredibly important skills.
b) Assume that you will have 30-45 seconds per slide, on average. Your report (slide presentation) will be
followed by a discussion, so use your reporting time in a concise manner. The rest of us will likely
expand upon what you have presented.
c) You can't possibly cover everything, so don't try. You DO want to make an incredibly well-informed
presentation, and you DO want to communicate the most important information. But at many points in
this process, you will have to make important decisions about WHAT is important and WHY it is important.
That's part of the assignment.
d) Often, it is easier to gain an understanding of how something works by looking at examples
of dysfunction, or so-called outliers. An example of this is the work of someone like Oliver Sacks.
e) You are strongly encouraged to enhance our understanding by helping us get our hands dirty as it were.
That means you are encouraged to bring stuff in, have us do things, or otherwise find ways to make
your information come out of the textual box. Remember that you don't have a lot of time, however.
One idea is to augment just ONE slide with something in the material world. For touch, for example,
you might consider bring in things to touch, or a technology that affects the way we experience touch.
f) Have fun. This stuff is really interesting. Seriously.
g) Remember, strategic risk-taking will be rewarded, in heaven, on earth and in class.
Week Two January 19: The Substrate of Sensory Experience: Intero- and Exteroception
Topics for discussion:
• Affective Computing, according to Picard
• Exteroception (Seeing, Tasting, Touching, Hearing, Smelling) and
Interoception (Proprioception, Temperature, Pain, Orientation, Kinesthetic Sense, Visceral Sense)
• Technologies related to affective computing: biofeedback, (and possibly: GPS, accelerometers)
Readings for next week:
(re-read Lupton)
CHI Paper: Humanities: Feminist HCI: Taking Stock and Outlining an Agenda for Design; doi: 10.1145/1753326.1753521
CHI Paper: Scientific: Predicting tie strength with social media; doi: 10.1145/1518701.1518736
Assignment:
Conduct an “autopsy” of one Art or Humanities paper and one scientific paper.
For this first assignment, we will examine 2 papers that received best paper awards. In the next assignment,
papers will come from more obviously different knowledge bases and fields.
Bring the results of your autopsy in a form that can be easily shared with the rest of your colleagues in class.
The term autopsy: "to see for oneself" (Ancient Greek)
Goal: to uncover reasons why each paper was recognized by CHI decision-makers, given the fact that
few of you are privvy to the internal politics or extenuating circumstances for best paper decision making.)
Directions for conducting an autopsy:
1. Overall context: you know that each paper received the best paper distinction from the CHI conference.
Each of you have varying degrees of knowledge about that conference. Articulate what you know and
what you have discovered. Make an initial assessment about factors which may have been in play regarding
the decision to recognize each paper as "best paper."
2.
Week Three January 26x: The Substrates of Perceptual Illusions and Neuroplasticity
Guest lecturer: Dr. Steven Barnes, neuroscientist & artist, UBC/SFU
Discussions:
Lupton: Discussion leaders: Veronica & Jay
(NOTE: slide presentations from Daniel & Andrea will be forthcoming.)
Please send your assignments to me via email. Don't forget to title the email, beginning with BIOAFFECT.
Required Readings for the course
Affective Computing, Rosalind Picard http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b1876254 (Full text available online)
The Emotional self : a sociocultural exploration, Deborah Lupton http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b1904667
Parables for the Virtual: Movement, Affect, Sensation, Brian Massumi http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b2483710 (Full text available online)
Suggested Readings for the course: Intero- and Exteroception
The Absent Body, Drew Leder http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b1465856
A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b2461966
Psychosomatic: Feminism and the Neurological Body, Elizabeth A. Wilson Chapter 2: The Brain in the Gut http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b3617961 (Full text available online)
Suggested Readings for the course: technologies
Physical Computing: Sensing and Controlling . . . , Tom Igoe and Dan O'Sullivan http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b3872653 (Full text available online)
The Affect Theory Reader, Melissa Gregg & Gregory J. Seigworth, eds. http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b5532632
The Taboo of Subjectivity: Toward . . . B. ALan Wallace http://troy.lib.sfu.ca/record=b2137665 (Full text available online)
Interesting Readings?
10 Most Bizarre Scientific Papers
