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Building mental resilience against disinformation: an experiential futures case study
Get PDFDisinformation, its impacts and mitigation measures have been a focus of governments, communities and industry as globalized societies struggle to govern, co-operate and build policy under rapid digitalization. As regulating the spread of disinformation is difficult, this research project explores the emerging futures and interventions supporting resilience against disinformation and how the public receives and reacts to these futures. This project also explores the use of experiential futures as a tool in foresight and prototyping to sample public feedback. Literature and media reviews and expert interviews were used to generate experiential futures depicting extreme polarities of interventions to build resilience against disinformation: high government regulation of the use of tech, commercial protection for individuals against disinformation and more community and education-focused efforts. The futures were physical installations created using a combination of physical items and audio- visual elements using the POEMS framework. Members of the public were invited to navigate these futures and provide their responses, reactions and perspectives using a feedback questionnaire. Results indicate that individuals are most fearful of government and commercial/industry interventions and prefer community-based approaches. This is aligned with preferences and legal limitations on how disinformation generation and spread is regulated. Through the use of experiential futures, participants were able to identify the differences in the futures and shared their different reactions and responses to each future. It is proposed that with technological advances helping make new immersive and creative experiences more affordable and scalable (e.g. VR, AR, 3D printing), there is opportunity to understand whether investing time and resources in making experiential futures more immersive will generate different or more insightful responses and feedback from participants
Rematerializing Memory: Co-Constructing the Multisensory Memories of Asian Third Culture Kids (TCKs)
Get PDFRematerializing Memory is a research project that explores themes of memory, identity, loss and belonging within Third Culture Kids (TCKs) in Toronto's Asian Diaspora. Having been identified as global nomads or cultural chameleons, the lived experiences of these individuals are often characterised by their constant mobility and transiency. As an inevitable by-product of these experiences, feelings of unresolved grief and loss begin to arise as their insider-outsider relationship with culture continues to challenge their sense of belonging and connections to their cultural identity. Using miniature models to recreate the memories of its participants in conjunction with a multisensory approach, this immersive installation seeks to answer the project's research question on whether the co-construction of memories can be used to bring healing and reconciliation when addressing feelings of unresolved loss and grief towards the notions of fragmented self-identity. This project aims to demonstrate cultural preservation and reconnection through the creation of space for these voices and stories that are often unheard. Highlighting that these memories—however mundane—are valuable pieces of an individual’s culture and identity. Through this, the project invites others to share in these experiences, creating nodes of connection and empathy with those who share the land that we live on
A Speculative Exploration of Digital Upstandership:Proposing a new form of social mobilization through the digital manifestations of individual upstandership
Get PDFThe extensive integration of technology into everyday social media has brought many socio-political complications as well as improvements in the social welfare of historically marginalized minorities. On the one hand, easy access to Twitter has encouraged citizens to expose authority’s malpractices such as police brutality to hold them accountable openly, conveniently, and directly. On the other hand, default social media algorithms continue to abuse paid advertisements to overflow user content for profit. Regarding the latter, the technicality of technology, necessarily of its complexity, is subjected to the digital manipulation and exploitation of ordinary users. For instance, tech companies abuse user trust in their platforms’ default settings to implant machine learning algorithms that harvest user data as well as reinforce user addiction. From algorithm control to interface design, social media giants have mastered the art of user conditioning and attention manipulation to best serve their self-interest which, like any other corporate, prioritizes profit making over the social welfare of the common. Such conflict of interests inevitably limits the social agency of ordinary individuals on centralized social media platforms. Underlying concerns about contemporary social media practice fuel skepticism about social media’s adequacy of facilitating serious socio-political debates.
Acknowledging the above concerns in its digital context, this thesis presents a series of speculative designs combined with this written argument to critique the issues from passive bystandership as it advocates for active forms of digital upstandership. Upstandership, described by Marshall, is “the practice of standing up to social injustice, cradled in trust of society and oneself” (2022). Building on this definition, this thesis explores the potential of social empowerment for online communities through digitalized upstandership. Since cyberculture derives from the real-world discourse, an improvement of the social space online in itself is an improvement of that of the offline world as well
An Inclusive Approach To How Financial Institutions Might Design Financial Information For Neurodiversity Accessibility
Get PDFMany Canadians are seeking tools and advice to help them feel more hopeful about their financial future. The one size fits all tools that financial institutions are producing fall short of meeting the needs of economically stressed Canadians. This is particularly try for the increasingly large and often overlooked group of neurodivergent customers who feel that financial tools are not designed to meet their needs. In fact, they describe financial information as being typically taught and presented in ways which are overwhelming and confusing given the way they process information. While financial institutions have begun to understand the value of neurodivergence, or thinking differently, in the workplace, they are slow to understand the unmet needs of their neurodivergent customers. Our research focuses on increasing awareness about how neurodivergent individuals learn and like to receive information, and how banks can design financial information for neurodiversity accessibility. Doing so will make money management easier for everyone. This presents an important design opportunity for bank that will not only help their customers but can improve greater economic wellness in the community. We used a human-centred design approach to gain a deeper understanding of the accessibility requirements, barriers to money management, and the lived experiences trying to use banking tools or services of persons who self-identified as being neurodivergent. Financial wellness is possible by designing financial tools that minimize cognitive fatigue and overwhelm, accommodate visual learning, and help to minimize fear and anxiety. Designing tools that are accessible and useful for the neurodiverse community makes money management easier for everyone
MRCIAC: A Mixed Reality Conversational Intelligent Agent Companion in Cars for Supporting Travel Experience
Get PDFThis thesis investigates how a Mixed Reality Conversational Intelligent Agent Companion in Cars (MRCIAC) can enhance the travel experience of individuals in unfamiliar cities by addressing four main problems: difficulty finding popular locations, lack of a travel buddy, complex in-car human-machine interaction, and neglecting passenger experience. The research approach includes three methodologies: Research Through Design (RTD), Prototype Iteration, and Descriptive Design Evaluation. The study creates and evaluates three types of prototypes, including mobile applications, Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR), to demonstrate the potential of mixed reality intelligent agents to revolutionize human-computer interaction in transportation and improve the travel experience. The outcomes of this research demonstrate the potential of MRCIAC to provide a companion for the owner and passengers on a trip. It is hoped that further research in this area will lead to exciting new developments and improvements in transportation
Making Art Accessible to All: Co-Creating Multi-sensory Art with Visually Impaired People
Get PDFBlind and visually impaired people experience many limitations when encountering artworks, and most of the general public lack attention and understanding of the visually impaired community. Despite previous research efforts to make visual art more accessible to blind and visually impaired people through audio descriptions, tactile graphics, or digital media technologies, they still face challenges in experiencing art independently and feeling an emotional connection with artworks. This study explores how to create multi-sensory art for blind and visually impaired people to awaken a new form of experience. The study conducted semi-structured interviews to understand the experiences and perspectives of curators and blind artists on multi-sensory art. At the same time, by analyzing two case studies on co-creation with the visually impaired community, this study explores practices of involving the visually impaired community in the creative process. In addition, this study aims to investigate the potential of multi-sensory experiences to enhance the enjoyment and accessibility of art and culture for the visually impaired community. This study will broaden the knowledge about vulnerable communities by exploring the possibility of the visually impaired community as co-designers in multi-sensory art. This knowledge will benefit galleries, museums, and disabled communities and may lead to a positive reconsideration of the importance of an expanded sensory culture in our society
Conspiracy: Misconceptions and Empathy
Get PDFMy master’s research focuses on contemporary conspiracy culture and how artists interpret conspiratorial narratives. As outlined in the MET’s 2018 exhibition Everything is Connected: Art and Conspiracy, there are “two interwoven camps.” The first are artists who use the imagery of the “disaffected” to highlight the danger of this manner of thinking, and expose “uncomfortable truths.” The second group are those who take a pseudo-journalistic approach to their art. These artists use public and leaked records to form larger narratives of high-power deception. Another sizable group of these journalistic artists are those who use their work to present proof of their conspiratorial narratives. Additionally, my research has led me to exploring how to engage in empathetic conversations with those convinced of conspiracy. The final result of my research was a workshop at which I discussed my research and led those in the room through guided discussions
Futures Thinking, Housing Affordability and the Town of Stouffville: A Case Study
Get PDFThis article considers how futures thinking might be applied to the problem of housing affordability. The problem and possible paths to solutions are explored, with a particular focus on the area of policy. Sohail Inayatullah’s Six Pillars of Futures Thinking is used as a methodological and analytical framework focusing on the Town of Whitchurch-Stouffville as a case study. The article concludes with a discussion highlighting areas for consideration and possible action, specific to Whitchurch-Stouffville
Coming to my senses / Following the shore
Get PDFComing to my senses / Following the shore is a practice-led inquiry into the anima of place, specifically the littoral (shoreline) wetlands of Bone Island, Georgian Bay. Georgian Bay is the eastern arm of Lake Huron in Ontario, Canada. Using evocative autoethnography as a methodology, the thesis and accompanying exhibition examine my life-long associations with the Cognashene area, and chart my deepening understanding of its complicated history and its native flora and fauna. First-hand experiences of nature, engaging with the physical energies of the forces which shape a place, are essential to my research. A braided theoretical framework of biophilia, phenomenology, biopoesie, art therapy, ecotherapy, Deep Listening, mindfulness, and Indigenous knowledge informs my work. By exploring the natural world’s restorative effects, I chart how my art process has been my medicine and hope in the face of life-threatening illness, COVID, and personal loss and grief. This journey might demonstrate an alternate path for others experiencing similar challenges. My research findings are presented in the form of a mixed media exhibition of paintings, photographs, poetry, audio, and video recordings, as well as an installation of material gathered from nature