Toronto Metropolitan University Open Journals
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Caring for Communities through AI Language : Using AI-MC to Challenge the Social Construction of Gender
No full textAI-mediated communication (AI-MC) assists and creates dialogue between people to suggest responses during digital conversations. Users see this when automated suggestions appear in text and email communications. This technology has the potential to be used on a mass scale and to eventually lead to complete conversation formation, possibly without any knowledge of one knowing they are engaging in dialogue with AI. Knowing that users adopt digital behaviors that contribute to efficiency, research must look at the influence of this tool in shaping social constructs. Understanding that gender bias exists in both the English language and in the development of AI leads to my inquiry in analyzing the role that AI-MC plays in constructing social norms with language usage. I argue that the use of gender biased language in AI predictive-text suggestions contributes to the social construction of gender in the creation, execution, and use of AI-MC. My research included searching for articles related to AI-MC, human computer relationships, and historical bias concerns with AI and language. Using the keywords gender, language, artificial intelligence, and AI-MC, I compiled research articles from the fields of human computer learning, critical media studies, and psychology to conduct a discourse analysis. Informed by feminist STS scholarship on marginalization, gender and language, and the theoretical framework of social construction theory, I performed an ideological critique of the scholarship to articulate how language constructs reality, specifically gender, and the underlying consequences and assumptions. Care is given to recognizing other underrepresented communities and cultural rhetoric in digital communication tools to add a layer of nuance in highlighting the impact this approach can have toward uncovering social constructs and contributing to solutions that embrace diversity. My argument also considers the impact this intervention could have during the formative years of youth given the influence of language and symbols in forming identities and social practices. I discuss solutions of using gender fair language and neutralized language, while encouraging caution around solutions that still lean toward the masculine. AI-MC needs to be created without gendered terminology as much as possible and with the automatic inclusion of gender-neutral terms when gendered terms are suggested (e.g., suggesting he, she, and they). Additionally, I recognize the tendency for society to construct norms around “acceptable” language, for example with methods such as tone policing. I call for advancements that consider the impact of these actions on marginalized groups by developing technologies that respect diverse rhetoric. Embracing various forms of expression leads to a more authentic representation of communities and thus society at large. Therefore, efforts to create AI-MC experiences that do not reinforce binary gender, nor only one model of acceptable discourse, are essential in future developments of this tool to embrace a more inclusive digital environment. Understanding the prominence of algorithms in our communicative experiences emphasizes the need for AI language design that embraces inclusivity to encourage positive relationship formation that is representative of all people regardless of gender identification, sexual orientation, dis/ability, race, or other identities.
The Radical Restorative Justice of The People\u27s CDC
No full textFour days before the 2022 State of the Union address, the CDC made a change to the risk-prevention pandemic map of the United States that changed the color of the map from red to green. Before the change, the CDC worked with guidelines that identified a substantially high risk as 50 cases per 100,000 people. After the change, the low risk category became 200 cases per 100,000 - a significant diminution of the calculation. As the People’s CDC notes, “The resulting shift from a red map to a green one reflected no real reduction in transmission risk. It was a resort to rhetoric: an effort to craft a success story that would explain away hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths and the continued threat the virus poses.”
The People’s CDC, a collaborative of volunteer health experts who offer policy recommendations and guidance around COVID-19 issues, reframes the official US responses to the global health crisis by disseminating critical information via social media. On their website People’s CDC identify their collaborative project: “working alongside community organizations, we are building collective power and centering equity as we work together to end the pandemic.”
In this presentation, I situate the equity-focused work of the People’s CDC within restorative justice and world building movements. Using their “layered, collective, and equitable” social media publications as a guide, I employ recent research on collective action to analyze the ways that the People’s CDC resists the hegemonic inequities embedded in state run public health systems and corporate mass media by redeploying and rewriting the rhetorical strategies of those systems. I argue that the People’s CDC’s ethos of care and collaboration is employing restorative world building practices as a response to global crisis. As they say, “We must urgently create a new normal in which commitment to community care drives policy and behavior. This charge requires sustained and collective action.”
Making a Riot in the Gaming Space: Complicating the Successes of Riot Games Through Complaints
No full textAs the gaming industry and culture continue to shift and mold toward consumers, developers and companies are in a constant race to learn to adapt and remain relevant. With masterful crafting of marketing strategies, increasing capital investment in game development, and even closer attention towards consumer relationships, Riot Games, a prominent company within the gaming industry, boasts to be a strong case study of the complex intersectional, material, and cultural dynamics of play as situated practices. Boasting a robust gaming culture with almost unrivaled business success, Riot is quickly becoming a multibillion-dollar business (Jarrett 2021). With its perceived success within the gaming community, it is important unpack the logic of success that construe Riot as a model to learn from despite the world of compliant raised against it. In doing so, we can use these logics of success and the world of complaint to complicate the façade of success that is fabricated through uneven relations of power establishing the hegemony of play.
Since the advent of video games, scholars have long studied the hegemony of play, diving deep into the exploration of the social impact of technology, positioning of video games in society, and the power structures that video game industries uphold (Fron et al. 2007; Gray 2020). The tendrils of hegemony of play extend far and wide, finding its traces in racial capitalism, alienating minority groups, exploitative game production, and so much more. By delving deeper into the logic of success in conjunction with the hegemony of play, one can acquire the tools to critically analyze and critique the criteria by which Riot’s success is measured among different communities. The two main criteria of interest explored in this piece include financial success and success in crafting reputation. Juxtaposed against these two criteria of success, this paper will then dive deep into the world of complaint expressed against Riot. Building on Sara Ahmed’s theorization of complaint that explores how complaints are often made behind closed doors and how people who raise complaints frequently have their doors shut on them (Ahmed 2021), this paper proceeds to offer a systematic analysis on the power structures embedded in the logic of success that perpetuate the hegemony of play.
One may ask, why is it important to raise questions and critique the logic of success holding up Riot Games’ status? We must pull away focus on surface-level success and attend to complaint to understand how this hegemony of play is upheld—if one wants to disrupt the hegemony, we must care for complaints. Engaging in a series of textual analysis, this paper will draw from trade journals, news articles, and discussion forums in the contexts of not only financial and reputational success, but also the world of complaint as Riot is no stranger to controversy, being subject to gender-based discrimination lawsuits and culture of sexism (Liao 2022)
Lockdown Silver Linings: When Digital Participatory Filmmaking and Virtual Reality Came Together to Tell the Story of The Irish Border
No full textThe 11-minute VR film Border Sounds takes the viewer on a journey across an invisible line that separates Northern Ireland from the Republic of Ireland through haikus and sounds by people who live near this line. These stories were captured during a collaborative outreach program by the official archive for Northern Ireland, PRONI (Public Record Office of Northern Ireland), and the creative media hub Nerve Centre in 2021.
This reflective practice-led research examines the filmmaking process, particularly how digital technology was used to engage with people remotely and make a film in a participatory way: to what extent can digital technology, such as Zoom, make filmmaking more accessible to rural people? What role can participatory filmmaking play in post-conflict storytelling? I also discuss the strengths and limitations of virtual reality as a storytelling format – does it really offer a more immersive experience? Are there any access barriers? Is it the most adequate medium to tell stories about the border, particularly in sensitive contexts such as Northern Ireland?
I argue here that while virtual reality technology enabled Border Sounds to offer a unique on-screen experience of the Irish Border, it also has limitations in terms of audience reach, long-term preservation and access
Editorial: Interactive Epistemology, Listening, and Ecomedia II
No full textThe Interactive Film and Media Journal advances scholarly and creative discourse on the intersection of interactivity and various media forms. This issue features contributions from the IV International Interactive Film and Media Conference (2022), coordinated by a diverse group of academics. The conference theme, Interactive Epistemology, Listening, and Ecomedia, facilitated an exploration of knowledge-building, listening, and ecological consciousness within interactivity. Emphasizing the importance of listening as a mode of knowledge production, the issue promotes a holistic understanding of interactivity across different research areas.
The contributions address the role of interactivity in media, such as books, films, games, and real-time streaming, along with virtual and augmented reality. They provoke thought on interactivity\u27s embodied and affective aspects and explore interactive technologies\u27 influence on power relations and ecological concerns. The papers in this issue converge on themes like empathy and responsibility, illuminating the power of interactive digital media to reshape the understanding of social issues. For instance, interactive narratives, VR and games employ participatory elements to bring nuanced portrayals of migration experiences to the forefront. This approach encourages critical reflection and social responsibility.
This issue also explores the transformative potential of interactive documentaries in varied contexts, highlighting their effectiveness in altering perceptions of history, socio-political phenomena, and power dynamics. These documentaries foster inclusivity and dialectical reflection, urging viewers to engage in complex narratives embedded in various landscapes. Some papers explore the impact of digital and artistic mediums on shaping space, narrative, and community engagement. The issue showcases how machine learning and public art can address mimetic trauma and discrimination and how digital comics and web-based artworks can redefine concepts of spatial interactions and narrative structures. A particular emphasis is placed on immersive technologies like VR and immersive journalism in civic engagement, underlining the power of these mediums in addressing social and environmental concerns. Exploring art and interactive documentary, specifically in the context of historical violence and colonial legacies, adds a significant dimension to the issue.
This second set of papers from the 2022 Interactive Film and Media Conference highlights the transformative power of interactivity in reshaping narratives, promoting critical reflection, and fostering social responsibility. It emphasizes the crucial role of interactive media in fostering a more inclusive, empathetic, and informed society
Investigation of Air Temperature and Velocity Distribution in a Room According to Different Air Vent Types and Locations by Computational Fluid Dynamics Analysis
No full textAir handling unit systems are quite large and complex systems that start from air handling units and extend to air vent. Since the system selection and calculations will affect the thermal comfort and indoor air quality, it should be done very carefully. Calculations, the air handling unit and its equipment’s selection may have been correctly and ventilation ducts placement may have been appropriate. However, if the placement of the air vents and the air speed are not selected correctly, there will not be a homogeneous air distribution and the indoor air quality will be negatively affected. In this study, analyzes were run with a computational fluid dynamics program (ANSYS Fluent) at different sizes, different layouts and blowing speeds placed on the ceiling in a space
Combined surface coating for heat transfer enhancement in falling films of R114/R21 mixture
No full textThe report presents the experimental results of the study of heat transfer enhancement on combined surface coating, consisting of a base microstructure with the half-closed pores and an upper micromesh covering. The good wetting, low viscosity liquid – binary mixture of R114 and R21 refrigerants was used as a working liquid. The liquid film flowed down the outer surface of a vertical copper cylinder, when the film Reynolds number changed from 400 to 1300. It is shown that microstructured surface, created by method of deformational cutting (MDC), demonstrates significant heat transfer enhancement – up to four times as compared to a smooth surface. Adding of the upper stainless steel mesh covering with chosen parameters however reduces the enhancement about twice as compared to the basic MDC-surface. The mesh covering of a smooth heater surface also did not provide the intensification of heat transfer as compared to the smooth surface. Heat transfer coefficients obtained for the best performant MDC-surface were compared with the correlations for predicting pool boiling heat transfer on microfinned surfaces
Numerical Investigation of the Blood Flow in an Idealized Stenosed Left Coronary Artery: Effect of the Bifurcation Angle
No full textIn this study, the effects of bifurcation angle on blood hemodynamics in an idealized left coronary artery with 50% stenoses (50%) in each branch are investigated numerically in the transient regime. The study is carried out with 30º, 75º and 120º of bifurcation angle, and the research focuses on the impacts of bifurcation angle on wall shear stress (WSS) and velocity distribution. Blood is presumed to be non-Newtonian, and the Carreau viscosity model is utilized. As a consequence of the study, it is revealed that the maximum value of WSS increases, and flow disturbances and separations become more pronounced as the bifurcation angle becomes sharper
Driving Towards a Greener Future: Low Carbon Vehicles in Saudi Arabia\u27s Hot Climate
No full textThe transportation sector is a major contributor to global carbon emissions, and Saudi Arabia is no exception. This paper explores the challenges and obstacles to implementing clean transportation in Saudi Arabia, with a particular focus on the use of low carbon emission vehicles in hot regions. Hot weather poses unique challenges for the use of low carbon vehicles, as air conditioning systems can significantly reduce their efficiency. This paper proposes a model for choosing the most appropriate low carbon vehicles for hot regions, taking into account factors such as mileage and overall environmental impact. The study examines the current state of transportation in Saudi Arabia and identifies key barriers to the adoption of low carbon vehicles, including a lack of infrastructure, limited consumer awareness, and the dominance of the oil industry. The paper also explores potential solutions to these obstacles, such as government incentives and investment in charging infrastructure. Ultimately, this paper aims to provide insights into the challenges and opportunities surrounding the adoption of low carbon transportation in Saudi Arabia, highlighting the need for a collaborative effort between government, industry, and consumers to drive sustainable change
Dynamic Mesh Model Application of a 2D Design Using Computational Fluid Dynamics Used in Wind Farm Modeling
No full textThe participation of renewable energy systems in electricity generation, especially wind energy, has increased in recent years. Grid codes have been developed to ensure voltage and frequency stability of the electrical grid. Modeling and simulation of wind power plants (RES) play a very important role in the planning phase in terms of meeting grid connection criteria. In our study, a model study related to the application of dynamic mesh in modeling the behavior of air movements in 2D blade geometry using computational fluid dynamics is presented