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Containing the edited research papers resulting from an ambitious, cross-disciplinary research project, this volume examines the spatiality of virtual inhabited 3D worlds - virtual reality and cyberspace. (Three other volumes look at Interaction, Staging and Methodology.) It is about the communication spaces emerging at the Internet and supported by special 3D interfaces. It is also about the virtual spaces created by virtual reality hardware (CAVEs, panoramic screens, head mounted display systems etc.) and software. Virtual Space: Spatiality in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds is interdisciplinary. It deals with philosophical, psychological, communicational, technological and aesthetic aspects of space. While philosophy raises the question concerning the ontology of space - what is space - psychology deals with our perception of space. Communication theory looks at the way in which space supports communication (i.e. that space is a medium for communication), and finally aesthetic analyses exemplify the use of virtual space in virtual cities, in museums and in art.
The assumption underlying this book is that we are facing a societal transformation, a “silent revolution” in fact, with consequences at least as far reaching as those of the Industrial Revolution. The author of this book wants to intervene in the current discussion about this revolution, a discussion which is normally colored by a resigned determinism maintaining that the transformation will come about all by itself as an automatic consequence of the development of technology. As opposed to this, the author wants to politicize the debate by insisting on the fact that this silent revolution is not inextricably tied to the automatically whirring computer discs of technological development, but is dependent on a number of political choices.
Many industrial training applications, educational applications, and of course information applications such as databases and hypermedia are all attempts to communicate, and yet we really don't know much about the computer as a communicative medium. Bringing together a collection of essays presenting such diverse theoretical approaches as general semiotics, linguistics, communication theory, literary and art criticism, sociology, and history, the editors set out to establish and elaborate the role of computer systems as a sign technology. The volume is divided into three main parts, each focused on a different field of semiotic inquiry. "Computer-Based Signs" discusses the special nature of ...
A Selection of Papers from the EEC Conference on Social Experiments with Information Technology in Odense, Denmark, January 13-15, 1986
Should today's society be termed an information or a network society? This book provides an alternative choice--the hypercomplex society, which is a critical, complex-theoretical understanding of society whose growing level of social complexity represents the basic challenge of our current society. This original understanding of society is presented through a historical analysis of the emergence of the current state of hypercomplexity and polycentrism. The functioning of communication, mass media, and the public sphere in the hypercomplex society is also analyzed and the Internet is characterized as a communication infrastructure particularly shaped by the hypercomplex society. The book concludes with a cultural self-observation of the hypercomplex society.
Exploring different, interrelated roles for the architect and researcher The practice of architecture manifests in myriad forms and engagements. Overcoming false divides, this volume frames the fertile relationship between the cultural and scholarly production of academia and the process of designing and building in the material world. It proposes the concept of the hybrid practitioner, who bridges the gap between academia and practice by considering how different aspects of architectural practice, theory, and history intersect, opening up a fascinating array of possibilities for an active engagement with the present. The book explores different, interrelated roles for practicing architects ...
This book presents critical perspectives on teacher professional learning and professional development as interpreted in 14 countries across Europe. Bringing together experts from across Europe, the book fulfils a need for a better understanding of the changing nature of teacher professional learning in national policy contexts and of the cultural differences existing between various systems. It discusses the new thinking that has emerged in the field of teacher education alongside new models that reflect the changing patterns and policies relating to the ways educational professionals maintain and enhance professional practice. The book highlights that new models of teacher leadership and p...
This book offers a geographically unique cultural comparative lens to examine the issue of transnational curriculum knowledge (re)production. Prompted by the ongoing competency-based curriculum reforms on a global scale, this book examines where global frameworks like the OECD’s core competency definitions are rooted and how they are borrowed, resisted, and/or re-contextualized in various European states with a Christian, foremost Protestant educational–cultural heritage and Asian countries with a Confucian educational–cultural heritage. It highlights the roles that various factors, such as history, culture, religious attitudes, ideology, and state governance play in nation-states’ r...
This book launches a strategy for sustainable development, starting from a socio-ecological position and developing a model for a socially and culturally supportive community, or 'Life Region'. Special emphasis is placed on the situation of the provincial and peripheral regions of Europe and the world, and the introduction of self-reliant civic strategies in national and international politics.
There is now a serious discussion taking place about the moment at which human beings will be surpassed and replaced by the machine. On the one hand we are designing machines which embed more and more human intelligence, but at the same time we are in danger of becoming more and more like machines. In these circumstances, we all need to consider: • What can we do? • What should we do? • What are the alternatives of doing it? This book is about the human-centred alternative of designing systems and technologies. This alternative is rooted in the European tradition of human-centredness which emphasises the symbiosis of human capabilities and machine capacity. The human-centred tra dition...