This investigation explores relations between 1) a theory of human cognition, called Embodied Cognition, 2) the design of interactive systems and 3) the practice of ‘creative group meetings’ (of which the so-called ‘brainstorm’ is perhaps the best-known example). The investigation is one of Research-through-Design (Overbeeke et al., 2006). This means that, together with students and external stakeholders, I designed two interactive prototypes. Both systems contain a ‘mix’ of both physical and digital forms. Both are designed to be tools in creative meeting sessions, or brainstorms. The tools are meant to form a natural, element in the physical meeting space. The function of these devices is to support the formation of shared insight: that is, the tools should support the process by which participants together, during the activity, get a better grip on the design challenge that they are faced with. Over a series of iterations I reflected on the design process and outcome, and investigated how users interacted with the prototypes.
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In part one of this chapter, I commence by positioning my artistic PhD project in its field of practice (performance, scenography, fine arts), before describing and presenting the variety of methods that I deploy to research, develop and document the questions that I am concerned with. In part two, I zoom in on the case study, Thresholds of Touch, a performative experiment based on an inter-disciplinary collaboration between a composer/researcher, a sociologist and an artist/researcher (myself). I share how we set up a collaborative methodology between social science and artistic research, and what it contributed to researching touch from my perspective on practice-based research. The power relations between disciplines, methods and forms of expression/ knowledge will be traced and discussed. Finally, in the conclusion I reflect on the research outcomes and speculate on how different documentation strategies would have foregrounded other experiences, insights and/or knowledge.
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Fingermarks are highly relevant in criminal investigations for individualization purposes. In some cases, the question in court changes from ‘Who is the source of the fingermarks?’ to ‘How did the fingermark end up on the surface?’. In this paper, we explore evaluation of fingermarks given activity level propositions by using Bayesian networks. The variables that provide information on activity level questions for fingermarks are identified and their current state of knowledge with regards to fingermarks is discussed. We identified the variables transfer, persistency, recovery, background fingermarks, location of the fingermarks, direction of the fingermarks, the area of friction ridge skin that left the mark and pressure distortions as variables that may provide information on how a fingermark ended up on a surface. Using three case examples, we show how Bayesian networks can be used for the evaluation of fingermarks given activity level propositions.
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In this paper, we describe a promising method to evaluate the location of fingermarks on two-dimensional objects, which provides valuable information for the evaluation of fingermarks at activity level. For this purpose, an experiment with pillowcases was conducted at the Dutch music festival Lowlands, to test whether the activity ‘smothering’ can be distinguished from an alternative activity like ‘changing a pillowcase’ based on the touch traces on pillowcases left by the activities. Participants performed two activities with paint on their hands: smothering a victim with the use of a pillow and changing a pillowcase of a pillow. The pillowcases were photographed and translated into grid representations. A binary classification model was used to classify the pillowcases into one of the two classes of smothering and changing, based on the distance between the grid representations. After applying the fitted model to a test set, we obtained an accuracy of 98.8%. The model showed that the pillowcases could be well separated into the two classes of smothering and changing, based on the location of the fingermarks. The proposed method can be applied to fingermark traces on all two-dimensional items for which we expect that different activities will lead to different fingermark locations.
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To effectively grasp and address sustainability challenges, this chapter argues that we need to expand our predominantly logocentric and linear ways of knowing with more presentational, embodied and sensory means. The chapter traces an exploration of this position through a dialogue between four academic, artistic practitioners. It proposes the integration of art in (learning) processes for sustainability as a means to hold ambiguity, embrace the unknown and move ahead despite uncertainty. Art is introduced as a process that inherently and purposefully accepts and deploys (rather than minimizes) the latter elements. The authors subsequently touch upon a range of features of artistic processes that foster the emergence of these elements: i.e. imagination, connection, embodiment and estrangement. Some of which might inspire educators, academics, decision-makers and activist to adopt a more aesthetic, connective mode of experiencing, thinking and doing. Thereby holding a space and generating the conditions for active, connective and imaginative making rather than routinely adopting the ready-made.
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Residential burglaries often go unsolved, as collected DNA traces and fingermarks frequently originate from residents rather than the offender. It is therefore important to know how to target sampling locations that specifically relate to the burglary event. However, data that aid in assessing the likelihood of a burglar touching certain surfaces, and, consequently leaving trace evidence, is unavailable. Instead, forensic examiners rely primarily on their personal experience and expertise to determine where burglary-related traces are most likely to be found.The current study aims to identify specific areas that are contacted during different types of interactions with points of entry. An experiment was conducted at a Dutch music festival, where participants simulated both a legitimate and burglary scenario. Using paint, the points of contact between the participants’ hands and the experimental set-up were recorded. The contact locations of all participants were combined using heatmaps to reveal the patterns of contact. We found that different burglary methods lead to distinct contact patterns, indicating specific areas where traces are most likely to be deposited. Our findings can support forensic examiners in making evidence-based decisions during search strategies in burglary investigations.
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Background: Research on maternity care often focuses on factors that prevent good communication and collaboration and rarely includes important stakeholders – parents – as co-researchers. To understand how professionals and parents in Dutch maternity care accomplish constructive communication and collaboration, we examined their interactions in the clinic, looking for “good practice”. Methods: We used the video-reflexive ethnographic method in 9 midwifery practices and 2 obstetric units. Findings: We conducted 16 meetings where participants reflected on video recordings of their clinical interactions. We found that informal strategies facilitate communication and collaboration: “talk work” – small talk and humour – and “work beyond words” – familiarity, use of sight, touch, sound, and non-verbal gestures. When using these strategies, participants noted that it is important to be sensitive to context, to the values and feelings of others, and to the timing of care. Our analysis of their ways of being sensitive shows that good communication and collaboration involves “paradoxical care”, e.g., concurrent acts of “regulated spontaneity” and “informal formalities”. Discussion: Acknowledging and reinforcing paradoxical care skills will help caregivers develop the competencies needed to address the changing demands of health care. The video-reflexive ethnographic method offers an innovative approach to studying everyday work, focusing on informal and implicit aspects of practice and providing a bottom up approach, integrating researchers, professionals and parents. Conclusion: Good communication and collaboration in maternity care involves “paradoxical care” requiring social sensitivity and self-reflection, skills that should be included as part of professional training.
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In this paper the Feltscaping-method is described, its characteristics and requirements, and some examples of how it was used and further developed. In doing so this paper aims at embedding feltscaping into the existing discourse of arts-based research. Furthermore, it will reflect on possibilities for further development of the Feltscaping method.The development of the method started seven years ago, as Cora Jongsma as a way of delving into the different layers of the landscape connected with the landscape. The product of this process is a feltscape, a representation of the landscape made up of several layers of wool that tells a story about a specific area. The layering in the feltscape, in the beginning, was purely the result of interaction between the creative process, conversations with land users, landscape research and visual experience, drawing a parallel to the formation process of the landscape. Starting as a personal search of the artist on how to connect the feltscapes to the landscape, after a few years, developed into an instrument to stimulate good conversation with people that in one way or another are connected to the landscape. In this way, feltscapes enable the researcher to test and exchange own sensory perceptions and to extent existing knowledge or questions about the landscape by eliciting social interactions.
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