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IAT881: BioAffective Computing & Interactive Media
Spring 2011
Dr. Diane Gromala
Information
Class Meets: Wednesdays, 5:30pm – 8:20pm SFU Surrey room #3040 and/or Black Box
Dr. Gromala’s Office hours: Wednesdays 3:00–4:00 & by appointment
Email: gromala@sfu.ca
Note: title all emails BIOAFFECT to ensure that they will not get lost.
Course Description
NOTE: For purposes of SIAT degree requirements, this is designated as a Methods Course.
In this course, we will examine the changes from epistemological concerns about media
to ontological questions of the role of interactive media in affect, experience and being.
The focus will be on what is termed “affective computing,” extending it into realms of interactive
art, design & media, and envisioning how an emphasis on the more biological aspects of
technology and our experience of it might change our understanding of affective computing.
Reports, Demos & Projects
You will be required to present at least two reports: 1 on a sensory mode and 1 on a technology.
You will be required to conduct at least one technological demonstration + creative use.
More importantly, you will also be required to create 2 projects for this class:
a) an experiment
You may determine that you require privacy for the monitoring experiments.
If this is the case, you have the option of presenting them only to Dr. Gromala.
b) a refined project or robust prototype
Examples of computational, art, design and media projects that others have created
will be discussed every week, along with how your project may relate in terms of scope.
Ideally, you should define your own project, but you will need to get it approved.
You will have a couple weeks to think about ideas and the chance to discuss them
in class or with Dr. Gromala privately.
Grading
Grading in a class of this kind necessarily has substantial subjective aspects,
but requirements and expectations will be discussed at length.
Your prior experience and background will be taken into account, along with
any other issues that are agreed upon by Dr. Gromala and you.
You may work in teams of no more than three people, but you must gain Dr. Gromala’s approval.
If you work in a team, 20% of your grade for that project will be determined by your teammates.
You will receive feedback on all work; if you require more in-depth feedback, please arrange to
see Dr. Gromala during office hours or by appointment.
Two projects: 50%
Class participation, reports & demos: 20%
Responses to weekly readings: 10%
Documentation: youtube & archival DVD, labelled: 20% (no label, no grade)
Extra credit will be given to strategic risk-taking.
NOTE: If you don't understand or mess up on an assignment, you have the opportunity
to redo ONE assignment if the original due date is before or on April 1.
You need to discuss parameters and timelines with Dr. Gromala as soon as you can.
Class wiki:
wiki.iat.sfu.ca/bioaffect/index.php/Main_Page
All class information, including responsive updates, will be posted on the class wiki.
Regularly reading and referring to the class wiki is required.
Affective Computing
Affective computing is generally defined as a branch of computer science and related
fields of psychology and cognitive science. The theory and construction of machines
which can detect, respond to, and simulate human emotional states are primary concerns.
Apparently, it is a rapidly developing field in industry and science.
Current goals are to make technologies such as robotic systems, avatars in human-computer
interaction (HCI), e-learning, game characters, mobile devices more usable by endowing the
so-called soulless machines and interactions with the ability to “recognize and adjust” to the
user’s feelings as well as to be able to communicate “appropriate emotional signals” [sic].
According to pioneer Rosalind Picard, the “basic tenet behind AC systems is that automatically
recognizing and responding to a user’s affective states during interactions with a computer
can enhance the quality of the interaction, thereby making the computer interface more usable,
enjoyable, and effective. For example, an affect-sensitive learning environment that detects
and responds to student frustration is expected to increase motivation, engagement, and
learning gains.”
+ Biology, Bodies
Since affect and emotion are not solely experienced in the mind or brain, it makes sense to explore
the workings of the body and bodily aspects of experience as they relate to affective computing.
Issues related to bio-technologies will be explored as well, ranging from historical technologies
to biofeedback, biopotentials, biometrics, medical technologies and the therapeutic uses of robots,
VR, visualization, nanotechnology and technologically-mediated performance.
Issues of how scholars and scientists understand technologically-mediated experience will also be explored,
such as multimodality and the “binding” of multiple sensory stimuli in consciousness, sensory substitution,
perceptual variability, mirror neurons and neuroplasticity.
Varying approaches to how we understand these issues will be compared, particularly those at the
confluence of science, medicine and culture.
Affect in the Arts, Media, Design, and Humanities
In the Arts and Humanities, it is often a common practice to critically examine assumptions
upon which culture, science and other fields and knowledge bases operate.
In addition, artists, designers and media producers are trained to be aware of “form” and aesthetics,
along with how and what they create — and how they disseminate their work — may influence
participants' affective experiences of that work. Indeed, exploring affective dimensions is
often a primary focus. Music, for example, is sometimes described as an “emotional art,” while
those who create movies pay close attention to the affective dimensions of storytelling.
Similarly, designers who are trained in art schools are concerned with the roles that aesthetics
and form factors play in their work and its reception and usability.
In the Humanities, writers are often very concerned with issues of language, from the use of
specific “styles” or “rhetoric” to grammatical structures, the sound of their words, and
how language itself structures how we come to know the world. In contemporary scholarship,
some Humanities scholars “read” media artifacts as they would have read a text in earlier times.
Concepts & Models
Affective Computing, like any field, is defined and practiced based upon specific assumptions
and disciplinary practices. We will identify, explore and critically examine these assumptions,
and will map them out. Why? Because it is important to understand the assumptions that undergird
any field, especially when ideas in that field are extended into other fields, such as interactive art,
interaction design and new media. Thus, we will examine, explore and critically examine the
assumptions of these fields as well, and will map them out. Thus, by reading, creating and producing,
and reflecting on the relationships among these practices, we may gain greater understandings of
affective computing, and potentially posit new ones.
We will begin this course by examining the different definitions of key terms such as “emotion” and “affect.”
For each reading, we will attempt parallel ways of understanding the ideas through discussion and textual responses,
as well as non-textual responses -- enacting, performing, or creating artifacts that demonstrate an
understanding of ideas through non-textual means. The way we assign value to these responses will be
discussed, and will directly relate to on-going discussions of methods.
Methods
This is an officially recongized methods course.
Readings will address different methodological approaches.
In each class meeting, we will address the question of methods through the direct examination of the readings and artifacts.
In your proposal for your final project, you will be required to identify and articulate
the method you are using, why you chose it and how it influenced your understanding of your project.
Authors, Artists, Scientists & Experts referenced:
Atom Egoyan, David Cronenberg, Alfred Hitchcock
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Francisco Varela, Andy Clark, Paul Dourish, Hubert Dreyfus, J.J. Gibson
Shaun Gallagher, Mark Johnson, Drew Leder, Alva Noe, Evan Thompson
Rosalind Picard, Karon MacLean, Masahiro Mori, Don Norman, Cynthia Breazeal
Brian Massumi, Steven Shaviro, Deleauze & Guatarri, Cary Wolfe
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Paul Bach-y-Rita
Scofidio+Diller, Dunne+Raby, Stefan Sagmeister, Karim Rashid
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Kristina Kublisch, German sound artist http://www.christinakubisch.de/index_en.htm
Conferences
International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII)
(24th International FLAIRS Conference, Affective Computing Special Track; May, Florida)
related:
SIGGRAPH, CHI, Computional Aesthetics (Vancouver this year)
SIGGRAPH, ISEA, Ars Electronica
ENACTIVE (and European-wide Network of Excellence)
ISWIC & Pervasive Computing, (June, San Francisco)
IASTED International Conference on Robotics and Applications (June, Vancouver)
Science & Non-Duality, (November, usually northern California)
Toward a Science of Consciousness, (May, Stockholm / Tucson every other year)
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