Cara Krmpotich, Associate Professor and Director of the Museum Studies Program, Faculty of Information | Museum Studies Program
The Role of Catalogues in Knowledge Production and Decolonizing and Indigenizing Cultural Heritage Practices
“Catalogs can…create connections and create relations across time. They make new connections or new searches for likenesses possible. They bring things into relation”
As the catalogues of museums and other collections shift from internal systems to public tools, the stewards of these collections and designers must consider the logics and ethics being expressed through the design of the catalogues. Using the Great Lakes Research Alliance (GRASAC) Knowledge Sharing System as a case study, this lecture describes the structural shift and design changes required to transform a research database of Indigenous heritage and language records into a public knowledge-sharing platform. The platform redesign focuses on the idea of kinship and the multigenerational need for cultural recovery and recuperation embodied by GRASAC’s work. On the platform, creating an effective connection between a user and an item is prioritised. Connections between different items and connections between items and communities are also highlighted. The underlying purpose of catalogues has and will continue to change. Shifting needs and understandings require the stewards of collections to be willing to address the underlying assumptions expressed in our infrastructures, policies, practices, knowledges, and languages, and to be certain that those are the values and ethics they want to continue to enact in the present and importantly into the future.
Related Research:
Bohaker, H., Krmpotich, C., Chrisanthidis, S., Laurin, R., Murugaiah, P., & Tarenco, V. (2022). Sustaining a Research Alliance Across Generations: The Great Lakes Research Alliance and its Knowledge Sharing Database. Paper presented by Cara Krmpotich and Heidi Bohaker at Open Digital Project Preservation in the Humanities, in conjunction with the Digital Humanities Summer Institute, Victoria, BC, June 7, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZRUTqbgiek
Krmpotich, C. (2014). The force of family: repatriation, kinship, and memory on Haida Gwaii. University of Toronto Press. https://books-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/en/read?id=/ebooks/ebooks3/utpress/2014-04-24/1/9781442666061
Krmpotich, C. (2016). Public Humanities as Third Space: Memory, Meaning-Making and Collections and the Enunciation of “We” in Research. University of Toronto Quarterly, 85(4), 82–92. https://doi.org/10.3138/utq.85.4.82
Other Links of Interest:
GRASAC: https://grasac.artsci.utoronto.ca/
Cataloguing Culture by Hannah Turner:
Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7weJI55HxE
Book: https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/lib/utoronto/reader.action?docID=6222395
Against a New Orthodoxy: Decolonised “Objectivity” in the Cataloguing and Description of Artworks by Anjailie Dalal-Clayton and Ananda Rutherford: https://photoarchive.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/groups/against-a-new-orthodoxy
Chapman, M. (2015). Managing Collections or Managing Content?: The Evolution of Museum Collections Management Systems. In S. Macdonald & H. Rees Leahy (Eds.), The International Handbooks of Museum Studies (1st ed., pp. 267–292). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118829059.wbihms212
Howarth, L. C., & Knight, E. (2015). To Every Artifact Its Voice: Creating Surrogates for Hand-Crafted Indigenous Objects. Cataloging & Classification Quarterly, 53(5–6), 580–595. https://doi.org/10.1080/01639374.2015.1008719
Odumosu, T. (2020). The Crying Child: On Colonial Archives, Digitization, and Ethics of Care in the Cultural Commons. Current Anthropology, 61(S22), S289–S302. https://doi.org/10.1086/710062
Mark Chignell, Professor, Industrial Engineering | Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
KMD Is like Art, I Know It When I See It
“Knowledge Media Design is a complex design discipline that is focused on tasks and content and one successful implementation of design solutions using human factors engineering and innovative interaction design.”
“We recognize it when we see it.” This lecture seeks to define Knowledge Media Design (KMD) more precisely by identifying and relating common aspects of different projects. The case studies discuss “exergaming” for older people, game-based cognitive assessment, cybersecurity, and improving wellness through virtual reality. From these projects, there are five key components that make them KMD projects: task, context, computation/content, interaction, and implementation. KMD focuses on solving specific tasks using design tools and methods that may vary depending on the context. These designs go beyond just prototypes to develop functioning devices or applications, mixing the technology being used with the delivery of the project’s content. KMD projects also include interactions between a user and the technology, whether than be controlling a video game with a button box or understanding information through data visualization. Finally, a good KMD solution should be implemented in a way that makes the insights and benefits of the project sustainable in practice. Ultimately, KMD is more than just web design; it requires a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates perspectives from psychology, computer science, and engineering.
Related Research:
Chignell, M. H., Chung, M.-H., Yang, Y., Cento, G., & Raman, A. (2021). Human Factors in Interactive Machine Learning: A Cybersecurity Case Study. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 65(1), 1495–1499. https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181321651206
Chignell, M., Matulis, H., & Nejati, B. (2020). Motivating Physical Exercise in the Elderly with Mixed Reality Experiences. In N. Streitz & S. Konomi (Eds.), Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions (Vol. 12203, pp. 505–519). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50344-4_36
Chung, M.-H., Chignell, M., Wang, L., Jovicic, A., & Raman, A. (2020). Interactive Machine Learning for Data Exfiltration Detection: Active Learning with Human Expertise. 2020 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics (SMC), 280–287. https://doi.org/10.1109/SMC42975.2020.9282831
Jbilou, J., El Bouazaoui, A., Zhang, B., Henry, J. L., McDonald, L., Hall, T., Chang, R., Barton, D., & Chignell, M. H. (2021). Evaluating and Motivating Activation in Long Term Care: Lessons From a Pilot Study. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care, 10(1), 42–46. https://doi.org/10.1177/2327857921101016
Moller, H. J., Waterworth, J. A., & Chignell, M. (2020). Returning to Nature: VR Mediated States of Enhanced Wellness. In N. Streitz & S. Konomi (Eds.), Distributed, Ambient and Pervasive Interactions (Vol. 12203, pp. 593–609). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50344-4_43
Tong, T., Chignell, M., Tierney, M. C., & Lee, J. (2016). A Serious Game for Clinical Assessment of Cognitive Status: Validation Study. JMIR Serious Games, 4(1), e7. https://doi.org/10.2196/games.5006
Tong, T., Urakami, J., Chignell, M., Tierney, M. C., & Lee, J. S. (2020). Tracking Cognitive Decline with a Serious Game: Benchmarking Against the Mini-Mental State Examination. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting, 64(1), 6–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/1071181320641002
Wilkinson, A., Tong, T., Zare, A., Kanik, M., & Chignell, M. (2018). Monitoring Health Status in Long Term Care Through the Use of Ambient Technologies and Serious Games. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 22(6), 1807–1813. https://doi.org/10.1109/JBHI.2018.2864686
Other Links of Interest:
Experiential Centivizer/Physical Centivizer/2RaceWithMe: https://www.centivizer.com/
Centivizer promo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCnYXpd_p84
Mary Elizabeth Luka
, Assistant Professor | Arts, Media & Culture Management, Department of Arts, Culture, Media (UTSC)
Knowledge Media Design Research
“When we think about all of the elements that need to be in place for a public art walk to take place, this is a classic example of how knowledge media design works. That is to say, there is a whole series of research initiatives that inform the expression of issues and questions that might be important to ask within communities.”
This lecture discusses six different projects, ranging from collaborative storytelling to the development of a video textbook, which all are a part of and contribute to the field of Knowledge Media Design. The Narratives in Space + Time Society project brought together hundreds of collaborators and participants to collaboratively create a choreographed assembly focused on the Halifax Explosion, involving sensorial storytelling and the sharing histories from underrepresented groups in Halifax. The Just Powers project focused on understanding how and why organizing around energy transition should be done and relating these ideas to treaty relations in Canada through the recording of interviews and podcasts. The Creative Hubs and Networks Mapping project facilitating the exchange and dissemination of information about creative hubs in Canada and around the world. Similarly, the Artifex project, in collaboration with the organization Mass Culture, seeks to develop and disseminate professional research that is relevant to the Canadian arts community and Mass Culture’s growing network of researchers. The Massive Micro Sensemaking project used autoethnography to investigate how people around the world made sense of the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on individual and global scales. The On Method: A Video Textbook project developed a nine-episode video series which examines and explains the key concepts and approaches of qualitative methods.
Related Research
Luka, M. E. (2018). Assembling Collaboration in the Debris Field: From Psychogeography to Choreographies of Assembly. Canadian Theatre Review, 176, 41–47. https://doi.org/10.3138/ctr.176.007
Luka, M. E. (2021). Resilience in Pandemic Sensemaking: Thinking Through a Community of Practice. Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies/Revue d’études Interculturelle de l’image, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.7
Luka, M. E., & Lilley, B. (2018). THE NiS+TS PSYCHOGEOGRAPHER’S TABLE: Countering the Official Halifax Explosion Archive. Public, 29(57), 236–249. https://doi.org/10.1386/public.29.57.236_1
Luka, M. E., Markham, A. N., & Harris, D. (2021). Massive/Micro Sensemaking: Towards Post-Pandemic Futures. Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies/Revue d’études Interculturelle de l’image, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.17742/IMAGE.MM.12.2.1
Luka, M. E., Markham, A., Rettmer, L., & Merkx, A. (2022). Creating On Method: Translating Scholarly Research on Methods. Scholarly and Research Communication, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.22230/src.2022v13n2a431
Markham, A. N., Harris, A., & Luka, M. E. (2021). Massive and Microscopic Sensemaking During COVID-19 Times. Qualitative Inquiry, 27(7), 759–766. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800420962477
Mary Elizabeth Luka. (2021). 15. The “New Main Street”: Reshaping the Canadian creative ecosystem In D. Beauregard & J. Paquette (Eds.), Canadian cultural policy in transition. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Qualitative Inquiry, Volume 27 Issue 7, September 2021
Special Issue: Massive and Microscopic Sensemaking during COVID-19
https://journals-sagepub-com.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/toc/qix/27/7
Imaginations: Journal of Cross-Cultural Image Studies
Vol. 12 No. 2 (2021): Massive/Micro Sensemaking: Towards Post-pandemic Futures
https://imaginationsjournal.ca/index.php/imaginations/issue/view/1952
Other Resources
Narratives in Space + Time Society: http://www.narrativesinspaceandtime.ca/
Just Powers: https://www.justpowers.ca/
iDoc: https://www.justpowers.ca/projects/idoc/
Podcast: https://www.justpowers.ca/projects/just-powers-podcast/
Creative Hubs and Networks Mapping: https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/creative-hubs-and-networks-database/
Impact Assessment: https://criticaldigitalmethods.ca/research-and-creations/academic-bibliography-collection/impact-assessment/
Mass Culture: https://massculture.ca/research-in-residence-arts-civic-impact/
Massive Micro Sensemaking: https://markdegarmodance.org/virtual-international-arts-festival-via/
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Assistant Professor| Computer Science, Department of Computer Science
Computing and Global Development: A Critical Perspective
“In order to have the voices of marginalized groups in our computing systems, we need to make sure that they have easy and equal access to computing, they have the necessary autonomy and freedom to express their rightful concern and their voice is not supressed by imposing a foreign standard of ethics”
Local ethics, beliefs, and practices are rarely considered in the design of new technologies, even when these technologies are created for local communities. This lack of consideration results in the restriction or silencing of individuals whose beliefs do not match those of the technology. For the voices of marginalized groups to exist in computing systems, they need to have equal access to computing, autonomy to express themselves, and freedom from the imposition of foreign ethics. Using case studies on a variety of topics, from witchcraft to traditional textile practices, this lecture explores the frictions between technologies based on western ethics and notions of intelligence with the beliefs, customs, and practices of people in rural Bangladeshi communities. Such frictions are created by the lack of consideration for ecology, identity, and hope in the design of computing systems. Traditional Bangladeshi communities often search for holistic or communal approaches to solving individual problems and seek to integrate these ideas with Western rationality. Additionally, traditional data visualization practices focus on identity and personal connections to the data rather than attempt to abstract the information. Finally, these communities avoid models which claim to prediction the future using information from the past, preferring to place greater emphasis on hope and the ethical considerations of a given situation. Ignoring these specificities of local communities in the design of computing systems reinforces colonial practices and silences voices that would otherwise benefit from such systems.
Related Research
Ahmed, S. I., Jackson, S. J., Ahmed, N., Ferdous, H. S., Rifat, Md. R., Rizvi, A. S. M., Ahmed, S., & Mansur, R. S. (2014). Protibadi: A platform for fighting sexual harassment in urban Bangladesh. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2695–2704. https://doi.org/10.1145/2556288.2557376
Richardson, D., Cumbo, B. J., Bartindale, T., Varghese, D., Saha, M., Saha, P., Ahmed, S. I., Oliver, G. C., & Olivier, P. (2022). Critically Engaging with Embedded Values through Constrained Technology Design. Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 643–653. https://doi.org/10.1145/3532106.3533570
Sultana, S., & Ahmed, S. I. (2019). Witchcraft and HCI: Morality, Modernity, and Postcolonial Computing in Rural Bangladesh. Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300586
Sultana, S., Ahmed, S. I., & Rzeszotarski, J. M. (2021). Seeing in Context: Traditional Visual Communication Practices in Rural Bangladesh. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 4(CSCW3), 1–31. https://doi.org/10.1145/3432913
Sultana, S., Mozumder, Md. M. H., & Ahmed, S. I. (2021). Chasing Luck: Data-driven Prediction, Faith, Hunch, and Cultural Norms in Rural Betting Practices. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445047
Patrick Keilty, Associate Professor| Information, Faculty of Information and Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies
Imagined Perfect Image
“The graphical interface of online pornography must be thought beyond representation and towards something like an ecology, zone between cultural systems and human subjects, the interspace between information, space and tasks supporting environments.”
Pornographic streaming sites are often used as examples of poor design because of their chaotic nature. However, these designs are highly strategic and can inform prevailing understandings of design and immersion in knowledge media design. The content of this lecture is part of a study which seeks to investigate how the pornography industry designs for desire and how this may differ from similar practices in other industries. Specifically, this lecture examines the strategic interface designs of online pornography websites that pull viewers into a trance like flow that requires no complex cognition. Viewers constantly shift to new images, creating a process of browsing in which pleasure derives from the habitual and repetitious delay and deferral of satisfaction. Within this flow, viewers are absorbed in the process of browsing online, blurring the distinction between human and machine. However, in contrast to mechanistic understandings of design which focus on feedback loops and minimize frustration and maximize satisfaction and efficiency, the design of pornographic video streaming sites is often labyrinthine, rambling, and chaotic, creating an environment for wandering, browsing, and meandering. Such an approach to design recognizes a probabilistic interaction with interface and reveals interface as a cultural value system that finds expression in the graphical organization of information.
Related Research:
Keilty, P. (2012). Embodiment and desire in browsing online pornography. Proceedings of the 2012 IConference on – IConference ’12, 41–47. https://doi.org/10.1145/2132176.2132182
Keilty, P. (2016). Embodied engagements with online pornography. The Information Society, 32(1), 64–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/01972243.2015.1107162
Keilty, P. (2018). Duration and Desire. Library Trends, 66(4), 487–510. https://doi.org/10.1353/lib.2018.0014
Keilty, P. (2018). Desire by design: Pornography as technology industry. Porn Studies, 5(3), 338–342. https://doi.org/10.1080/23268743.2018.1483208
Other Links of Interest:
Flow, the secret to happiness: https://www.ted.com/talks/mihaly_csikszentmihalyi_flow_the_secret_to_happiness?language=en
Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas: https://books-scholarsportal-info.myaccess.library.utoronto.ca/en/read?id=/ebooks/ebooks6/degruyter6/2021-09-03/23/9781400834655
Antje Budde, Associate Professor| Centre for Drama, Theatre, & Performance Studies
“A /I, artistic intelligence, is something that speaks to creative and political agency in the age of AI, which completely works on mimetic impulses because it really wants to imitate the human mind. We haven’t come very far with it, and certainly machines do not understand humour or jokes yet.”
In this interview style lecture, Professor Budde discusses the trajectory of her work and the modes of how she operates as a researcher and as a creative. Examples of Professor Budde’s performance work are shown and used as starting points to discuss a variety of topics including collaboration and shared creation, technology visibility and performance, and artistic intelligence. Concepts and principles related to digital dramaturgy are also discussed and explained. Performance changes in response to COVID-19 public health restrictions are also mentioned throughout the lecture.
Related Research:
Candy Otsíkh:èta Blair and Antje Budde “Accountability. Intervention. Community. On the making of a 2S music video for Toronto Pride Summer 2021” Special Issue “Ethics & Socially Engaged Theatre” Canadian Theatre Review Issue #192. 2022
Budde, Antje and Gustavo Sol. “PLAYStrong–Engineering POETICstates:On Facilitating Mental Health through Bio-Signal Interfaces and Brechtian Learning Strategies” Critical Stages/Scènes critiques The IATC journal/Revue de l’AICT – June/Juin 2022: Issue No 25. Web.
Budde, Antje and Sebastian Samur. “Making Knowledge/Playing Culture: Theatre Festivals As Sites of Experiential Learning”. Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales Au Canada, vol. 40, no. 1 &2, Jan. 2020, 83-101 https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/TRIC/article/view/30508.
Budde, Antje with Art Babayants “Homo Ludens – Common. Play. Grounds. A praxis report on workshop-making by the Digital Dramaturgy Labsquared (DDL2) at Coburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany 2019” In: Elfenbeinturm oder Kultur für Alle? Kulturpolitische Perspektiven und künstlerische Formate zwischen Kulturinstitutionen und Kultureller Bildung. Edited by Julius Heinicke and Katrin Lohbeck. KoPaed Publishing. Munich 2020. 111-143
Kleber, Pia and Tamara Trojanowska with Antje Budde and David Rokeby. “Performing the Digital and AI: In Conversation with Antje Budde David Rokeby.” TDR/The Drama Review. Special Issue: “Algorithms and Performance” Edited by Elise Morrison, Tavia Nyong’o, and Joseph Roach. 2019 63:4 (T244), 99-112.
Budde, Antje “Affecting the Apparatus: Queer feminist re/de-codings in the works of the Digital Dramaturgy Lab (DDL), Toronto” in: Performance, Feminism and Affect in Neoliberal Times. (Contemporary Performance Interactions Series) Edited by Elin Diamond, Denise Varney and Candice Amich. Palgrave 2017. 189-200
Other Links of Interest:
Kaleidoscopic Imaginations: https://vimeo.com/472674562
DDL2 Chaosmosis 190928 | DDLsquared: https://www.ddlsquared.rocks/ddl2-chaosmosis-190928
20201025_Performing a Plate Camera: https://vimeo.com/545160001
Rattling the Curve – kaleidoscopic trailer: https://vimeo.com/462592295
Cutting Edge(s) – Struggling matter(s) Sept.5, 2021: https://vimeo.com/598237282
Streaming Life: Story-ing the 94: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxEpi0noKLU
20210918_Minding Niimi — DDLsquared: https://www.ddlsquared.rocks/20210918-minding-niimi
Niimi Imaging Imagination: https://vimeo.com/showcase/7850479
Accountability (June 2021): https://vimeo.com/563897830