Toronto Metropolitan University Open Journals
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Listening to older adults’ perspectives on climate change: Focus group study: RESEARCH PAPER
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This study explores climate change knowledge, attitudes, and experiences of community-dwelling older adults in Edmonton, Alberta. A qualitative descriptive methodology was used where thirty-nine older adults participated in one of six focus groups. A thematic data analysis helped identify three key themes synthesized from participants’ narratives: (a) Making sense of climate change, (b) lack of leadership in managing climate change; and (c) actions to address climate change that include an emphasis on individual responsibility and valuing the contributions of older adults. Older adults vary in their climate change literacy and levels of concern about climate change but share a commitment to environmental stewardship and community wellbeing. Expanding opportunities for older Canadians to learn about climate change and engage in climate initiatives will bring multiple benefits to this population and to the climate change movement
As We Have Watched: What Now Arises from a Reconsideration of the Concept of Interactive Digital Narrative
No full textIf we consider the publication of Bandersnatch (Slade) by Netflix as a watershed moment for interactive digital narrative (IDN), are we to believe that we have now moved into a golden age or do we remain in an age of discovery? Tom Abba, in the Journal of Media Practice, situates the moment of publication of his article as a turning point for IDN, though Abba concludes that the degree to which experiments in IDN have been enabled has, up to 2008, been extremely limited. Now, some twelve years later and three years’ post-Bandersnatch, the opportunity to experiment has finally been granted. A group of second year media production students at a UK university did so in collaboration with Stornway.io (an online IDN story map editor). This paper revisits Abba’s 2008 article to reflect on issues that emerge from the experience of introducing IDN to undergraduate students on a program of study. Initial findings offer insights into the sequencing of the development process alongside an emerging framework for the generation of an aesthetic of dramatic agency. Re-evaluating the differences between IDN and other forms of interactive experiences establish a means for thinking about IDN as a distinct, unique practice. In conclusion, this paper poses a final question by asking if we can reconsider IDN in terms of what we have watched rather than, as Abba terms it, what we might watch
Towards an Alternative Notion of the Interface
No full textThe aim of this paper is to propose an alternative notion of the interface. While the existing notions of the interface suffice, there is a need for understanding the interface as an ecology, rather than as an object or technology. Scholars such as Branden Hookway, Alex Galloway, Nanna Verhoeff, and Heidi Rae Cooley understand the interface as "a relationship," "processes," "doing," and "habits," respectively. However, in consideration of the new and emerging social processes and transformations engendered by interfaces as platforms by which we understand and relate with the world in more specific ways, I argue that a notion of the interface as an ecology would enrich the discussion and provide an ecological boundary ‘object’ for thinking across disciplines. I examined the interface through etymological, epistemological, psychoanalytic, and artistic standpoints, as well as exploring the term\u27s affective, material, and infrastructural dimensions. I conclude that an ecological notion of the interface would produce a more nuanced and performative understanding of the term and shift our focus away from the material form of interfaces, to the actions, intensities, and aesthetics of the interface. Ecology is critical to how we understand interfaces as it concerns the relationships between organisms and their environments, including the relationships between artists and their expressive media and installations, and the relationships between users and their interface platforms. The ecological notion of the interface refers to how we live in the networked, hypermediated space, relate with our technologies, and engage in artistic practices in all forms of interfaces
Paintings Alive: An Interactive Film for Young Museum Visitors
No full textTo reach younger audiences, museums worldwide have incorporated interactive and hands-on activities, while some venues specialise in children as their main audience. Videos, in particular, can be easily integrated into the museum space and provide a variety of application possibilities. Their use creates a hybrid experience for the visitor in which the interaction between physical and digital elements transforms and enriches their experience of the exhibits. Furthermore, interactive technologies have been proven to increase visitor numbers and interactions on- and off-site. In this context, our practice-based research focuses on the use of interactive video technologies and factors that can lead to the design of engaging and user-friendly museum experiences for children to investigate their application through the production of a new interactive film for young museum visitors. A museum was chosen as a case study, and a survey was conducted to achieve this. The results indicated that creating an interactive video could benefit the areas that were visited less; the preferable length is relatively short, while hands-on and video installations promote and prolong the engagement of young visitors and are favoured by both younger and older children.
Additionally, fictional or dramatised stories are attractive to children compared to documentaries; accessing the interactive content on their mobile devices would be preferable. These have led to the production of Paintings Alive, an interactive film for children, featuring and reenacting the paintings in the museum’s art gallery and accessible on the visitors’ mobile devices. Our article also discusses the project\u27s findings, alongside the challenges and limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and offers recommendations for future work
Immersive Multi-Screen Journalistic Narratives: A Study on 360-Degree Language in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic
No full textTo build representations and meanings, telejournalism in the context of transmediation has relied on the interrelation of different languages, adapting itself according to the emergence of resources and interfaces. In this context, one can cite the exploration of 360-degree audiovisual narratives, an emerging image modality used by the press as a mechanism to bring spectators closer to events.
In Brazil, 360-degree journalistic productions made by communication companies, in general, go beyond the television space and are also explored in virtual social networks and websites to instigate the participation of the enunciatee through access to interactivity resources. The present investigation focuses on this articulation process between TV and the Internet, intending to point out reflections on the language of 360-degree audiovisual content in journalism, proposing to analyze discursive strategies and technical specificities of productions disseminated through television support and the online environment. To this end, the series of 360-degree reports “O Vírus na Favela” was examined, launched in 2020 by the program Balanço Geral RJ (Record TV Rio - Brazil) and which sought to portray challenges faced by residents of communities in Rio de Janeiro during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This exploratory study is guided by a methodological path formed by a bibliographic survey, based on discussions such as telejournalism, interactivity and 360-degree narratives, and on the analysis of the corpus based on three principles of French semiotics presented by Barros (2005, 85): “narrative syntax,” “discursive syntax” and “discursive semantics.” In addition, the semiotic analysis method for 360-degree films developed by Moreira (2020) was applied.
In conclusion, it can be recognized that the analyzed series evidences the enunciators\u27 search to follow the contemporary trend of telling stories in more than one media support, as well as creating interactivity with the viewer. Also, it was observed that TV productions have a hybrid proposal based on several languages, such as graphic elements, conventional videos and 360-degree videos. On the other hand, web content, in part, is configured as interactive versions of 360-degree videos shown on TV. Such evidence may signify that television content producers see this image as an accessory innovation in the composition of traditional reports
LGBTQ Experiences in Dietetics Survey
No full textThis survey accompanies the research article by DeBiasse, Branham, and McFarland
(Im)mobilities and life satisfaction in times of COVID-19: The case of older persons in Switzerland
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic led to changes in mobilities worldwide. Physical movement and social contact are shown to be correlated to life satisfaction. In this paper we are interested in how during the pandemic other types of mobilities relate to life satisfaction. The paper draws on a survey (N=643) among persons aged 65+ in Switzerland. Results show that engagement in communicative mobilities are related to higher life satisfaction, imaginative mobilities only partially relate to life satisfaction, and virtual mobilities have no correlation
Planetary health action framework: A case study: GRASSROOTS
No full textPlanetary Health (PH) action is urgent to avoid the collapse of Earth\u27s systems that sustain human health. PH care has been proposed as an approach to improve health equity and reduce healthcare´s ecological footprint. This paper presents the conceptual framework of patient-centered PH care as essential for PH action at the community level. We examine and reflect on one primary care clinical case through 8 lenses: 1) Actor-Network Theory, 2) Evidence-based medicine, 3) Patient-Centered Clinical Method; 4) Principles of Primary Care, 5) Proposed new primary care derivate principle of PH care, 6) the WONCA´s (World Organization of Family Doctors) core competencies tree, 7) WONCA´\u27s curriculum, and 8) Sustainable Development Goal 3. This case offers insights into functions of primary care that mitigate, adapt and build resilience to the challenges of climate emergency and Anthropocene. It “connects-the-dots” to propose a new identity of primary care, elaborate a blueprint for patient-centered PH care and a roadmap for PH action at the community level
\u27Images of Ecology\u27 and \u27Ecologies of Images\u27: Multimodal Eco Literacy and Other Tentative Approaches to Embrace Complex Entanglements and Co-Creative Engagement
No full textBuilding on Guattari’s three ecologies – the mental, natural and social –, and recently emerging discourses in documentary theory on interactive media making, co-creation and polyphony, this presentation discusses both notions of ‘images of ecology’ and ‘ecologies of images’ to fathom the potential of mobile, networked documentary media assemblages to encourage multilogue, to affectively and cognitively embrace complexity and to instigate transformation. Taking a project which is currently work in progress – the transdisciplinary polyphonic artistic research Mind the Gap! –, tentative answers are suggested to the question of how to face a situation of intermingled crises: the crisis of representation in the representation of crisis.
Guiding questions are: How can one raise alert to immanent ecological risks and at the same time co-creatively awaken a desire for a more sustainable world? How can one promote awareness of ecological topics when risk is immanent but often invisible and when fundamental transformations are vital, but when, at the same time, the complexity of matters thwarts responsible action-taking?
The hypothesis underlying the approach of this paper is that interactive documentary media configuration bear the potential to face both crises, especially those configurations which are based on principles of co-creation, polyphony and multi-perspectivity. This openness, I will claim, does not only do justice to the entanglement of issues at stake, but it also teaches us to listen to and to consider various viewpoints as openers to possibility spaces for negotiation and solution finding rather than fixed resolutions.
Still, meaningful engagement requires multimodal competences and literacies, involving system thinking, socio-emotional aptitudes, and a cognizance of the interwovenness of the symbolic, material, phenomenological and political dimensions of ‘images of ecology’ and ‘ecologies of images’ (cf. López 2020).
Hence, Mind the Gap! combines mindfulness and self-reflection with competences of mobile media making and artistic self-expression as well as socio-emotional skills to encourage experiential and experimental learning. Participants are invited to use their smartphones to create visual haikus while mindfully being in Nature. Analogousue to the literary haiku, they take three images or short videos which are shared and negotiated on a co-creative website. This growing collection serves several functions: 1) it documents the title-giving ‘gap’ that we risk due to a loss of biodiversity; 2) it presents a creative strategy to cope with a situation which either usually remains abstract and far away, or which is overwhelming and often causes resignation; 3) it is meant as a point of departure to stimulate exchange and to form a community of concern for further action taking; and 4) from a methodological perspective, strategies are deduced for multimodal eco-media literacies, responsive listening and understanding.
Discourses from various traditions are brought into dialogue: theories of interactive media are reconsidered through the lens of ecocriticism and environmental humanities; concepts of mobile media making and “emplaced interaction“ (Aston 2017) meet reflections on the epistemic dimension of documentary; and principles of co-creation are related to theories of self-reflexive mindfulness and nature observation, creative expressivity and agency
Diverse Perspective of the Shared History: Transnational Historical Images in the Interactive Documentary
No full textThis paper discusses how the interactive documentary A Global Guide to the First World War (Francesca Panetta, 2014) effectively integrates interactive technology with historical narratives of the war through a three-way collaboration between news organizations, historians and digital materials from the Imperial War Museum from the perspective of transnational shared history. The paper argues that the different images, videos, news reports and audio clips reflect diverse aspects of common historical themes in the documentary. First, in its seven video chapters, the museum\u27s audiovisual archive covers many countries, and audiences can watch videos related to the WWI alongside historians\u27 commentaries that explain how different nations fought in the war; second, the interactive part is based on an elaborate digital world map, and users can view audio clips, photocopied newspapers and other materials of the war under various web interaction options, and all of the above can be accessed in multiple languages. The natural and direct feeling brought to audiences is the understanding of the WWI experienced by different peoples and countries with a global perspective, instead of the traditional single narrative perspective. Thus, the documentary is a testimony to the shared history of the war. I suggest that the shared historical events and interactive technology make it easier for viewers from different cultural backgrounds to understand this work, and trigger a wide range of historical resonance. Visual media has always led people to leave events in their memories that they did not experience. Although most viewers did not personally experience WWI, historians\u27 commentaries, museums\u27 audiovisual histories and the Guardian\u27s authentic old stories give us credible evidence of the past. The traumatic memories that the images bring to the audiences create an effect of sympathy for the pain of war and the responsibility to fight against it, which transcends racial and national identification. However, this transnational empathy is quite limited. The reason is that the documentary employs an official authoritative narrative strategy rather than the perspective of the individual. It somehow creates a sense of alienation for the viewers, who realize that these are collages of archival records rather than a kind of historical memory closely related to themselves