Participatory Actions in Virtual Spaces. The Role of Images in the Construction of Shared Spaces

Participatory actions in public spaces are practices of encounter with the potential to reinforce social ties and foster a renewed sense of belonging to places. They are well-established and widely practiced – both at the national level [1] and internationally [2, 3] – as modes of exploration [4] and participation that are located at the intersection between different disciplinary domains. The particular form of participatory action discussed here ideally takes place on the street, in squares, and on public ground, via interventions that are often temporary in nature and involve the transformation, but even more fundamentally the re-appropriation, of collective space. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, among its numerous repercussions, has also made it difficult if not impossible to carry out such forms of participation in person and on public ground. It has thus become necessary to modify and reformulate the ways in which participatory action is implemented, so as to continue harnessing its communicative power, and to identify new ways of fostering participation, at a time when it is needed more urgently than ever to counteract the risk of isolation. In this paper, we present and discuss forms of participatory action that have recently been transposed into virtual public space and are primarily based on the sharing of images. We investigate the possibilities and valences of such an approach, both in general and at this specific historical moment. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Resilience of virtual and real shops under the impact of Covid19 epidemic: an empirical study on the distribution of breakfast service in Beijing

The breakfast service is an important part of local vitality which are traditionally provided by restaurants and street vendors in real space. The booming virtual economy and delivery service provide alternative type. With the outbreak of COVID-19, both the temporary lock-down of many streets and the reduction of travelling have great impact on breakfast service at the beginning of 2020. During this epidemic period, what kind of breakfast service suffers more, if the location matters, these became interesting questions. This paper presents a comparative study on the central city area (160km2) of Beijing before and after the impact of Covid19. Based on two site surveys in 2019 July and 2020 September, over 3000 breakfast service are mapped in 6 categories (Chain restaurant, subcontracted breakfast service, fixed vendor stance, mobile vendor stance, supermarket and bakery) in real space. Cell phone data of 2018 and 2020 are also used to provide other factors such as employment/residential densities and distances of commuting. Additionally, social media data of breakfast distribution from Dazhongdianping.com are collected to study how service in real and virtual space overlap. In general, it can be found that the space with dominant accessibility has stronger resilience. Breakfast services in an advantageous position are more likely to expand new opportunities through the network platform in virtual space. © 2022 Proceedings 13th International Space Syntax Symposium, SSS 2022. All rights reserved.

Extended SESIM: A Tool to Support the Generation of Synthetic Datasets for Human Activity Recognition

The accessibility of datasets that capture the performance of Activities of Daily Living is limited by the difficulties in setting up test beds. The Covid-19 pandemic recently compounded such challenges. Smart Environments employed as test-beds consist of sensors and applications formulated to develop a comfortable and safe environment for their inhabitants. Despite the increase in quantities of Smart Environments, accessibility of these spaces for researchers has become even more challenging amidst a pandemic. Computing power has enabled researchers to generate virtual Smart Environments with fewer overheads and less complexity. This article proposes an Extended Smart Environment Simulator (ESESIM), with multiple inhabitants possibly utilised for dataset generation. The proposed simulation tool has a virtual space with multiple script-regulated inhabitants. While the various inhabitants probe the Smart Environment, sensor readings are recorded and stored in a dataset. The virtual space developed in this study generated synthetic datasets that can be employed for Human Activity recognition in machine learning. This study also evaluated two deep machine learning models and performance mechanisms in recognising four activities of daily living, namely personal hygiene, dressing, cooking and sleeping, on the SESIM dataset. Findings from this study indicate that simulation can be used as a tool for generating human activity datasets. © 2022, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.

Beyond the Official City Planning. Tirana Next Pilot for Healthier and Safer Urban Open Spaces in the Post-2020

Urban open spaces are all the spaces of common use, fully accessible and enjoyable by all, at no cost and without a profit motive. They are present in our contemporary cities in various forms, including parks, boulevards, sidewalks, pathways, play areas, and also as spaces between buildings or roadsides, all of them are significant spaces for a renewed idea of commons. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, in this post-2020, we experienced the real need to get open spaces next to our houses, often by spontaneously recovering (or re-inventing) several minor (and in many cases marginal and neglected) small and micro places. Also, the conventional uses of those spaces have been re-interpreted by giving them new values and meanings in terms of functions and features. The aim of the Tirana Next Pilot Project (TNPP) is to imagine a new-normal city where public space goes beyond the traditional concepts of a park, a square or a street, leading to a new vision in thinking about new city-forming scenarios which can promote social exchange even within the eventual need of social distancing (spatial dimension) and shortening paths (time dimension) for any daily needs. TNPProject contains a diagnosis of the Capital City, and the greatest city of Albania, Tirana, in the past and actual conditions and through the in-force Master Plan “Tirana 030” vision. Across diverse pilot proposals, within the neighbourhoods of Tirana (Super-Blocks), the researchers want to explore the embodied experience of open spaces and the changing relations between them and the surrounding humanity and spatiality.The pilot cases are researched and analyzed by considering the physical space (hard-scape), the social life on the streets (soft-scape), the human interaction (human-scape), the virtualization process in addition to the conventional physical one (digital-scape), and the processes framework (network-scape). By investigating and analyzing the links between these elements it is expected that this research work might provide a set of practical recommendations and suggestions, pilot-cases based, for a more suitable systemic-punctual urban regeneration in the favor of Tirana neighbourhoods’ quality of life, even “beyond” the in-force city planning formal process. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Engaging, Large-Scale Functional Programming Education in Physical and Virtual Space

Worldwide, computer science departments have experienced a dramatic increase in the number of student enrolments. Moreover, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic requires institutions to radically replace the traditional way of on-site teaching, moving interaction from physical to virtual space. We report on our strategies and experience tackling these issues as part of a Haskell-based functional programming and verification course, accommodating over 2000 students in the course of two semesters. Among other things, we fostered engagement with weekly programming competitions and creative homework projects, workshops with industry partners, and collaborative pair-programming tutorials. To offer such an extensive programme to hundreds of students, we automated feedback for programming as well as inductive proof exercises. We explain and share our tools and exercises so that they can be reused by other educators. © K. Kappelmann, J. Rädle & L. Stevens.

A gendered therapeutic learning landscape: Responding creatively to a pandemic

Crafting has occupied the hands and minds of women over many centuries providing vital connections with cultural skills and with community. While the COVID-19 pandemic has isolated women in their homes, it has also provided opportunities for women to reconnect to crafting through virtual spaces. This paper draws on a thematic analysis of a focus group interview examining the experiences of regional women participating in a crafting group and identifies the ways in which they used craft to support their wellbeing. Drawing on the concept of therapeutic landscapes, the paper highlights that connection in a virtual craft group supports lifelong learning and wellbeing, brings women together in support through a community of women's practice and facilitates opportunities for producing meaningful and commemorative quilting projects This finding has implications for a society experiencing unprecedented levels of stress, mental illness and anxiety about the future.

A Descriptive Analysis of Cohesion within Virtual and Physical Small Groups of Mothers in Bandwidth-Constrained Communities in Cape Town

Isolation contributes to deteriorating health outcomes during the first 1000 days of a child's life (the period from conception to two years). Mothers and their growing babies are at risk of pregnancy-related complications and malnutrition during this sensitive period due to inadequate information. This study describes how a faith-based organization (FBO) in Cape Town leverages available resources in both physical and virtual spaces to support mothers through antenatal classes. We observed seven small groups in their physical spaces, interviewed seven mothers and analyzed fifteen WhatsApp chat groups to understand the group structure, dynamics, and interactions. When the model was introduced to the mothers in the physical and virtual spaces simultaneously, cohesion was achieved and sustained. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, where strong indications of stress and isolation were evident, a strange paradox was noted: all groups showed weak ties (with minimal communication among members). It was hard to explain the non-commitment despite efforts from the moderators to encourage sharing among mothers. We identified two underlying causes: a minimal sense of belonging to the group and bandwidth constraints. Further analysis showed that bandwidth constraints digitally excluded some mothers from active participation. These findings indicated the need for HCI and technology designers to design less bandwidth-intensive interactive platforms for inclusivity. © 2022 ACM.

Affective Evaluation of Virtual Kawaii Robotic Gadgets Using Biological Signals in a Remote Collaboration of American and Japanese Students

This paper describes our remote collaboration project related to the design and implementation of virtual kawaii robots by Japanese and American university students, and affective evaluation of the robots. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we had to change our planned 7-week collaboration from in-person to virtual with a resultant change in the target product of our collaboration from real robots to virtual robots. Based on our new plan for 2021, students designed robots in virtual spaces aiming that each robot elicited a different Electroencephalogram (EEG) and/or Heart Rate (HR) reaction from humans. Based on the persona and scenario for the companion robot authored by each student team, each student designed four robots with the goal that one robot would be most kawaii, a Japanese adjective representing cute and adorable, and others would be less kawaii due to variations in shapes and colors. The affective evaluation of robots was performed both by biological signals (EEG and HR) and by kawaii rating. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Envisioning New Virtual Spaces for Performance and Theatre artists

Since 2020 working from home has, for many, become the norm since the outbreak of the COVID-19. Furthermore, with large public gatherings either prohibited, limited, or subject to social distancing measures live theatre performed in front of a live audience have been deeply affected. This project experiments with executing performances from home to enable theatre actors to continue to practice and connect with audiences. A series of experiments were conducted to test the possibility of having performers or actors conducting performance from their personal spaces and integrating their work using virtual reality in a combined space for an audience to engage with. This research aims to examine Virtual Reality as an assistive technology in contexts such as theatre performance and use of digital environmental design for actors and performers. The nature of this research project was to determine various scenarios in which a virtual 3D environment can enable, assist and/or enhance a theatre performance for both audience and the actors. For this project a 3D virtual theatre setup was designed, experienced and evaluated by participants drawn from theatre practitioners in the context of focus groups. This article reports on the design and practitioners’ responses and how it resulted in an informed VR solution for theatre performance. © 2022 IMCIC 2022 - 13th International Multi-Conference on Complexity, Informatics and Cybernetics, Proceedings. All rights reserved.

Global Readiness for Immersive Virtual Space Adoption: The Case of Ohyay

As the world is wholly dependent on information technology, especially in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is expected that hybrid format will become the new norm. This experience indicates that novel ways of combining face-to-face with online activities, including teaching, conferencing, concert, art exhibition, and collaborations, should be explored. Consequently, a new immersive virtual space known as Ohyay was launched in the summer of 2020. Ohyay is a powerful design platform that lets anyone create immersive virtual spaces unlike other video conferencing platforms (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft teams) with a well-defined and prescribed workflow. Even though the platform has been utilized for series of events and activities, empirical studies to ascertain its adoption rate are lacking. Therefore, this study employed the UTAUT2 model infused with self-efficacy and readiness construct to investigate the factors that influence users' intention of Ohyay adoption. One hundred and forty-two participants across countries completed an online questionnaire. It was found that Performance Expectancy, Facilitating Conditions, Effort Expectancy, Self-Efficacy, Readiness, and Hedonic Motivation predicts the behavioral intention of Ohyay directly, while Self-Efficacy and Hedonic Motivation indirectly predicts behavioral intention through Effort Expectancy and Readiness. The findings of this study contribute to the research applying the UTAUT2 approach with the self-efficacy and readiness construct for the exploration of behavioral intention to utilize an emerging technology such as Ohyay in educational and non-educational activities. As a result of the findings, managerial implications were highlighted, followed by study limitations and proposals for future studies. © 2021 IEEE.

Educational Leadership and Children’s Resilience: German and Polish Schools during COVID-19

As a result of the pandemic, education has moved into virtual space on an unprecedented scale. The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on education and to compare the problems and ways of coping with them between Polish and German schools. The study used a qualitative measure, which was realized through telephone interviews with school principals. The received responses have been transcribed and categorized. The final stage was a comparative analysis of the data obtained. The results of the study revealed that the most common problems concerned: the possession and functionality of teaching resources for remote learning (computer equipment, network connection), ensuring the needs of face-to-face relationships (lack of peer meetings and no direct contact with the teacher), mental problems caused by changes in education (depression, anxiety, feelings of stress) in teachers and students. Among the ways schools deal with these problems are leadership role of school leaders (support, staff training, mental support of students and teachers (meetings with pedagogue, school psychologist, conducting remote social meetings with students). © 2021 29th International Conference on Computers in Education Conference, ICCE 2021 - Proceedings. All rights reserved

Evaluating Students' Perceptions of Online Learning with 2-D Virtual Spaces

The COVID-19 pandemic led the majority of educational institutions to rapidly shift to primarily conducting courses through online, remote delivery. Across different institutions, the tools used for synchronous online course delivery varied. They included traditional video conferencing tools like Zoom, Google Meet, and WebEx as well as non-traditional tools like Gather.Town, Gatherly, and YoTribe. The main distinguishing characteristic of these nontraditional tools is their utilization of 2-D maps to create virtual meeting spaces that mimic real-world spaces. In this work, we aim to explore how such tools are perceived by students in the context of learning. Our intuition is that utilizing a tool that features a 2-D virtual space that resembles a real world classroom has underlying benefits compared to the more traditional video conferencing tools. The results of our study indicate that students' perception of using a 2-D virtual classroom improved their interaction, collaboration and overall satisfaction with an online learning experience. © 2022 ACM.

Crafting a Virtual Studio: Some Models and Implementations

Studio is an active form of pedagogy that can help train collaborative, reflective engineers. However, traditional studio pedagogy is predicated on a shared physical space-it is not clear how to translate the benefits of the studio to a virtual environment. In this work we contrast and compare four studio classes at Olin College-transitioned to virtual studios in response to the COVID-19 pandemic-in terms of their design, implementation, and student responses. Through a mixed-methods approach we uncover trends in student agency and motivation, technology choices and their ramifications on collaboration, and social aspects of the virtual space. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Welcoming and Building Community for Graduate Students through Remote Tech Environments

Creating community among new graduate students in a COVID world prompted the development of a two-week virtual orientation program for engineering and applied sciences graduate students at a research university. Despite the complexity of multiple time zones, technology challenges, and the virtual space, the program sought to accomplish three goals: (1) community building among students;(2) intellectual engagement with faculty in the home departments;and (3) career development as a foundation for their overall graduate school experience. Participants (N=350 MS or PhD students) were introduced to support services (e.g., health and counseling, ombuds) and student organizations, attended workshops on digital literacy and technology tools, gained perspective from alumni and industry panels, and began their personal career development plan. Evaluations were highly positive, with means of 3.5 - 4.4 on a 5.0 scale, with 5 being very satisfied. Additionally, 98 first-year PhD students were also enrolled in a rigorous and comprehensive online asynchronous TA training, with high satisfaction scores from those who completed the training. While virtual delivery may have limitations, this program has clearly demonstrated that a pre-arrival program can add value to the graduate student on-boarding process and improve the welcome culture at educational institutions. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021