The visibility of sustainable energy measures is a channel of social influence, a means of conspicuous consumption, and affects the aesthetics of an environment. This study investigates how the visibility of sustainable household energy measures (i.e., installation of renewable energy and energy efficient devices) affects people's choices of those products in the Netherlands. In addition, the moderating effects of product attributes, including price, aesthetic appeal, environmental impact, and popularity, are assessed. A choice experiment was conducted in which participants chose between options of heat pumps and solar panels. The results indicate that visibility decreases the probability that a person chooses a heat pump, whereas visibility does not affect the choice of solar panels. For heat pumps, a higher aesthetic appeal mitigates the negative effect of visibility. Interestingly, a more positive environmental impact worsens the negative effect of visibility on the choice of heat pumps. The study suggests that visibility is not influential for choices of sustainable energy measures that have been part of the street scenery for a while, such as solar panels. For devices of which presence is unfamiliar, visibility is perceived as negative and considered a reason to choose another model. For a decision about whether to visibly install unfamiliar sustainable energy measures, expression of aesthetic style is a positive and influential factor, whereas increased environmentalism negatively affects choice.
MULTIFILE
Online social networks produce a visuality that reflects the attention economy governing this space. What is seen becomes elevated into prominence by networked publics that ‘perform’ affective expressions within platform affordances. We mapped Twitter images of refugees in two language spaces - English and Arabic. Using automated analysis and qualitative visual analysis, we found similar images circulating both spaces. However, photographs generating higher retweet counts were distinct. This highlights the impact of affective affordances of Twitter — in this case retweeting — on regimes of visibility in disparate spheres. Representations of refugees in the English language space were characterized by personalized, positive imagery, emphasizing solidarity for refugees contributing to their host country or stipulating innocence. Resonating images in the Arabic space were less personalized and depicted a more localized visuality of life in refugee camps, with an emphasis on living conditions in refugee camps and the efforts of aid organizations.
DOCUMENT
As interactive systems become increasingly complex and entwined with the environment, technology is becoming more and more invisible. This means that much of the technology that people come across every day goes unnoticed and that the (potential) workings of ambient systems are not always clearly communicated to the user. The projects discussed in this paper are aimed at increasing public understanding of the existence, workings and potential of screens and ambient technology by visualizing its potential. To address issues and implications of visibility and system transparency, this paper presents work in progress as example cases for engaging people in ambient monitoring and public screening. This includes exploring desired scenarios for ambient monitoring with users as diverse as elderly people or tourists and an interactive tool for mapping public screens.
DOCUMENT
Through artistic interventions into the computational backbone of maternity services, the artists behind the Body Recovery Unit explore data production and its usages in healthcare governance. Taking their artwork The National Catalogue Of Savings Opportunities. Maternity, Volume 1: London (2017) as a case study, they explore how artists working with ‘live’ computational culture might draw from critical theory, Science and Technology Studies as well as feminist strategies within arts-led enquiry. This paper examines the mechanisms through which maternal bodies are rendered visible or invisible to managerial scrutiny, by exploring the interlocking elements of commissioning structures, nationwide information standards and databases in tandem with everyday maternity healthcare practices on the wards in the UK. The work provides a new context to understand how re-prioritisation of ‘natural’ and ‘normal’ births, breastfeeding, skin-to-skin contact, age of conception and other factors are gaining momentum in sync with cost-reduction initiatives, funding cuts and privatisation of healthcare services.
MULTIFILE
Working as speech acts that delineate online communities, claims to victimhood tend to evoke contestation. Their inherent political nature spurs user engagement in the shape of clicks, shares, emojis, and so on. TikTok’s multimodality has given rise to new practices of engagement that significantly shape how victimhood is communicated and negotiated. This study draws attention to the platform vernacular practice of the ‘stitch.’ Allowing users to respond to someone else by ‘remixing’ social media content of others, the stitch is a platform practice designed for commentary. We zoom in on stitched videos networked by hashtags, published in relation to the Israel-Hamas war. TikTok’s multimodality expands user pathways that connect claimants and those who contest them. Moving beyond hashtag hijacking the stitch elevates a practice of commentary that turns victimhood politics into a spectacle that politicizes formerly less political realms, and that further blurs the boundaries between on- and offline spaces. The analysis shows how stitched videos are especially used for antagonist encounters where they crowd out the ‘original’ post to which they respond. In this way, stitches can be seen as tools that aid platformed ‘regimes’ of visibility that prioritize the antagonist encounter in order to commodify them.
MULTIFILE
Er is in Nederland nog weinig wetenschappelijke aandacht voor het werk van penitentiair inrichtingswerkers (PIW’ers). Onderzoek is tot nu toe vooral gericht op werkdruk en uitval of onderlinge agressie,een enkele uitzondering daargelaten. Het Nederlandse ‘Prison Project’ is vooral gericht op de effecten van detentie op gedetineerden en hun familie en nauwelijks op ervaringen van degenen die met de gedetineerden werken. Een uitgebreid onderzoek naar het functioneren van PIW’ers dateert al van begin jaren negentig. Er is dan ook betrekkelijk weinig bekend over de beleving en de inhoud van het werk van PIW’ers. In Nederland welteverstaan, want daarbuiten zijn mooie studies verricht, bijvoorbeeld door Liebling en collega’s in Groot-Brittannië en recent door Tournel in België. Niet voor niets wordt het werk van PIW’ers getypeerd als ‘low visibility work’. Er is nog weinig bekend over hun werk en de wijze waarop zij dat werk beleven.
DOCUMENT
In April 2020, I was in my second month of lockdown. The particular state of isolation I was in made my digital life more tangible, and my ‘real life’ intensively more digital. Around that time, TikTok started to gain more popularity and to become a social networking phenomenon which I didn’t delve into until I found out about ‘lesbians on TikTok’ through a discussion on my Twitter feed. TikTok lesbians were talked about as a particular category of both platform users, and lesbians in general, which some perceived as either fun, cringe, attractive, educational and/or just purely fascinating. Driven by that conversation and curiosity it sparked in me, I joined the app and without giving its recommendation algorithm a chance to ‘clock’ me on its own, I started typing #lesbian in the search bar.
LINK
Companies rely on robustness and resilience to cope with disruptions. Through the lens of Organization Information Processing Theory, the study examines how employee empowerment, technology and trust can be organized, to improve supply chain robustness and resilience, through data analytical capability, data driven culture, and supply chain visibility. The study findings showed that empowering employees with technological tools had a positive effect on data driven culture through data analytic capability, and on supply chain visibility. Technology contributed to supply chain visibility. Trust in suppliers had a marginally significant direct effect on robustness and a significant direct effect on resilience.
DOCUMENT
