Architec Tradure

Category: psychology

  • 24JulFeedback for people with OCD

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    UBICOMP TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK FOR PEOPLE WITH OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER

    Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Patients are Impaired in Remembering Temporal Order and in Judging Their Own Performance, J. Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, vol. 24, no. 3, 2002, pp. 261–269.

    Today, Rob Van Kranenburg sent me an interesting article he wrote in 2003 on how ubicom applications could provide feedback for people with OCD. He is developing solutions in the framework of contemporary performance and theatrical practice.

    The paper can be found here.

    The paper mentions that in the US and Netherlands, one in 50 adults currently has OCD, and twice as many have had it at some point in their lives.

    How could ubicomp be instrumental here? Phase 1 is researching if ubicomp applications can assess if a person has a tendency for audio, visual, tactile, or other kinds of feedback that would signal the task scenario’s closure. In Phase 2, we would have to access, for example, if visual feedback on clothing or another appliance could break the chain of repetition for a person who functions on visual feedback but is dealing with an apparatus that does not provide such feedback. Working closely with psychiatrists and OCD patients, in Phase 3 we could test whether such ubiquitous computing applications could break the loop of repetition, assuming that it is the kind of feedback that is responsible for the taskloop’s nonclosure.

    Finally the paper concludes that ubicomp applications could focus on temporal markers and serendipitous feedback scripting into various scenarios to raise self-awareness.

    In pervasive computing


  • 24JulFeedback for people with OCD

    If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to receive the latest Architectradure’s articles in your reader or via email. Thanks for visiting!

    UBICOMP TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK FOR PEOPLE WITH OBSESSIVE-COMPULSIVE DISORDER

    Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): Patients are Impaired in Remembering Temporal Order and in Judging Their Own Performance, J. Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, vol. 24, no. 3, 2002, pp. 261–269.

    Today, Rob Van Kranenburg sent me an interesting article he wrote in 2003 on how ubicom applications could provide feedback for people with OCD. He is developing solutions in the framework of contemporary performance and theatrical practice.

    The paper can be found here.

    The paper mentions that in the US and Netherlands, one in 50 adults currently has OCD, and twice as many have had it at some point in their lives.

    How could ubicomp be instrumental here? Phase 1 is researching if ubicomp applications can assess if a person has a tendency for audio, visual, tactile, or other kinds of feedback that would signal the task scenario’s closure. In Phase 2, we would have to access, for example, if visual feedback on clothing or another appliance could break the chain of repetition for a person who functions on visual feedback but is dealing with an apparatus that does not provide such feedback. Working closely with psychiatrists and OCD patients, in Phase 3 we could test whether such ubiquitous computing applications could break the loop of repetition, assuming that it is the kind of feedback that is responsible for the taskloop’s nonclosure.

    Finally the paper concludes that ubicomp applications could focus on temporal markers and serendipitous feedback scripting into various scenarios to raise self-awareness.

    In pervasive computing


  • 08NovCore sample

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    Material: wax and plaster

    I took the perspective of a child trying to understand the meaning of the term Core Sample, an intuitive translation from the French analogy. Core sample then means ‘le corps sampl’, i.e. dismembered body.
    An immediate reference to the dismembered body is a serial killer, the one that would be prompt to body sampling. Starting with an obsession for the neck, to a more tool-istic approach to body members: arms, legs, feet. I made a rock that symbolizes le plan de travail.

    I chose to dismember a Barbie doll that I created out of wax. The Barbie being for a while a representation of the woman for a child. I chose the white wax, the wax being a way a woman suffers regularly by trying to reach an ideal. The white is the symbole of purity thus the contrast between the canvas fabric & the plaster sculpted with chisel, and the angelic face of the doll made of white wax.

    This sculpture is a tool-kit box for understanding serial killing for children. The tools are also made of wax and represent legs, arms, hands, feet. A tool is normally very hard, here it is very fragile as a mean to represent the complete chimre, i.e. pipe dream, the serial killer is immersed in.

    More pictures on Flickr

    I made this sculpture for the sculpture class taught by Helen Mirra at Harvard University, VES.

    In doll and sculpture

  • 01DecEffects of a Snoezelen on self-injury and aggression

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    Attribution: Photo of a snoezelroom at Het Balanske, Halensebaan 2, 3390 Tielt-Winge, Belgium by Michaël RY Laurent, Belgium.

    Snoezelen or controlled multisensory stimulation is used for people with (severe) mental disabilities, and involves exposing them to a soothing and stimulating environment, the “snoezelen room”. These rooms are specially designed to deliver stimuli to various senses, using lighting effects, color, sounds, music, scents, etc. The combination of different materials on a wall may be explored using tactile senses, and the floor may be adjusted to stimulate the sense of balance.

    Originally developed in the Netherlands in the 1970s, snoezelen rooms have been established in institutions all over the world (like in Germany, where more than 1200 exist).

    Snoezelen might be beneficial to people with autism and other developmental disabilities, dementia, and brain injury. However, research on these matters is scarce, with variable study designs.[1] [2]

    References

    [1]Chung JCC, Lai CKY. Snoezelen for dementia. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2002, Issue 4. Art.

    [2]Lancioni GE, Cuvo AJ, O’Reilly MF. Snoezelen: an overview of research with people with developmental disabilities and dementia. Disabil Rehabil. 2002; 24: 175-84.

    by Wikipedia

    Effects of Snoezelen room, Activities of Daily Living skills training, and Vocational skills training on aggression and self-injury by adults with mental retardation and mental illness. Res Dev Disabil. 2004 May-Jun;25(3):285-93. By Singh NN,

    Lancioni GE, Winton AS, Molina EJ, Sage M, Brown S, Groeneweg J.

    Abstract Multi-sensory stimulation provided in a Snoezelen room is being used increasingly for individuals with mental retardation and mental illness to facilitate relaxation, provide enjoyment, and inhibit behavioral challenges. We observed aggressive and self-injurious behavior in three groups of 15 individuals with severe or profound mental retardation and mental illness before, during, and after being in a Snoezelen room. All participants were receiving psychotropic medication for their mental illness and function-derived behavioral interventions for aggression, self-injury, or both. Using a repeated measures counterbalanced design, each group of participants was rotated through three experimental conditions: Activities of Daily Living (ADL) skills training, Snoezelen, and Vocational skills training. All other treatment and training activities specified in each individual’s person-centered plan were continued during the 10-week observational period. Both aggression and self-injury were lowest when the individuals were in a Snoezelen room, followed by Vocational skills training and ADL skills training. The levels in the Snoezelen room were significantly lower than in both the other conditions for aggression but only in ADL skills training for self-injury. The difference in levels before and after Snoezelen were statistically significant with self-injury but not with aggression. The order of conditions showed no significant effect on either behavior. Snoezelen may provide an effective context for reducing the occurrence of self-injury and aggression.

    PMID: 15134793 [PubMed – indexed for MEDLINE]


  • 09MayA living sculpture

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    Aimée Mullins

    Today at the fantastic H2.0 event hosted by John Hockenberry and organized by the MIT Media Laboratory, key speakers presented new research initiatives for augmenting mental and physical capability and this to vastly improve the quality of human life.


    Pictures from Aimee Mullins’s talk

    I discovered the inspiring work of Aimée Mullins, that not only is functional but also beautiful. She raises questions on identity and the body, on what it means to loose her lower self. She worked with various artists, designers and modeled for Alexander Mc Queen.


    Aimée Mullins, Dazed & Confused, September 1998 by photographer Nick Knight

    In Cremaster 3, actress Aimée Mullins wears blades on the soles of her shoes or a white dress and transparent crystal legs.


    Cremaster 3

    At the end of the H2.0 event Aimée Mullins declared: “people say i have no legs, but I have ten pairs of them and my interaction with them allow me to be a living sculpture”


    Aimée’ Sculptural legs, photographer: Webb Chappell


    Model: Aimée Mullins, photographer: Chris Winget

    video

  • 10MayInspiring book : the Prosthetic Impulse

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    The Prosthetic Impulse: From a Posthuman Present to a Biocultural Future, by Marquard Smith and Joanne Morra, eds. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2006.

    The prosthesis is not a mere extension of the human body; it is the constitution of this body qua “human.”
    —Bernard Steigler,Technics and Time

    With every tool man is perfecting his own organs, whether motor or sensory, or is removing the limits to their functioning. . . . Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God.When he puts on all his auxiliary organs, he is truly magnificent; but these organs have not grown on to him, and they still give him trouble at times. . . . Future ages will bring with them new and probably unimaginable great advances in this field of civilization and will increase man’s likeness to God still more. But in the interests of our investigations, we will not forget that present-day man does not feel happy in his Godlike character.
    —Sigmund Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents

    The first chapter can be downloaded here

  • 16MayMachine Therapy

    I mentioned the work of Kelly Dobson about a year ago. Today, I attended her VERY inspiring thesis defense at the Media Lab, researching on Machine Therapy. I love her personal relationship to machines. I cannot wait to read her thesis!

    Abstract

    In this thesis I describe a new body of work called Machine Therapy, a methodology for revealing the vital relevance of subconscious elements of human-machine interactions that works within art, design, psychodynamics, and engineering. This practice highlights what machines actually do and mean, in contrast to what their designers consciously intended. Machine Therapy is a cyclical process that alternates between discussion of and sessions for empathic relationships with domestic appliances, personal extension and connection via wearable and prosthetic apparatuses, and the design of evocative visceral robots that interact with people’s understandings of themselves and each other. Combining research and practice in digital signal processing and machine learning, mechanical engineering, and textile sensor design, I have been able to create new objects and relationships that are unique in some aspects while maintaining quotidian familiarity in other aspects. This is illustrated through the documented construction of several projects including re-appropriated domestic devices, wearable apparatuses, and machines that act in relation with users’ autonomic signals. These Machine Therapy devices are evaluated in studies of participants’ interactive engagements with the machines as well as participants’ affective responses to the machines. The Machine Therapy projects facilitate unusual explorations of the parapraxis of machine design and use: these usually unconscious elements of our interactions with machines critically affect our sense of self, agency in the social and political world, and shared emotional, cultural, and perceptual development.

    Dissertation Committee

    Christopher Csikszentmihályi

    Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences

    Muriel Cooper Professor of Media Arts and Sciences

    Program in Media Arts and Sciences

    MIT Media Laboratory

    Rosalind W. Picard

    Professor of Media Arts and Sciences

    Program in Media Arts and Sciences

    MIT Media Laboratory

    Edith Ackermann, PhD

    Honorary Professor of Developmental Psychology

    University of Aix-Marseille I, France

    Visiting Scientist, MIT School of Architecture

    Kelly’s Web site

    Computing Culture research group


  • 28MarErnesto Neto : huggable sculptures

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    I love Ernesto Neto’s soft “huggable” sculptures.

    Exhibited in Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, USA in March 2002. Neto’s sculptures and installations are indeed singular in contemporary art,” says curator Viso. “His works, which he describes as a ‘kind of body/space/landscape,’ not only arrest us visually but also make us keenly aware of the spaces inside, around and between our bodies. We become voyagers in sensorial odysseys

    Ernesto Neto (Brazilian, born 1966), “The Ovaloids Meeting” (1998). Courtesy of the artist and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery, New York.


  • 13JanPlaces and tools for multi generations

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    Here it is, the reference paper about intergenerational places and tools written by Edith Ackermann and her peers.

    Authors: Decortis F. , Ackermann E. , Barajas M., Magli R., Owen M., Toccafondi G .

    Title/reference: From ‘La Piazza’ to ‘Puente’: How place, people and technology make intergenerational learning. In International Journal of Technology Enhanced Learning, Vol.1, No.1/2, 2008, p. 144-155

    How places and tools can be used to help mediate mindful – and joyful – encounters between people from different generations, as well as between newcomers and old-timers to a culture.

    Researching with Olivier Vaubourg on designing technological playful interfaces for grand parents and their grand kids, this paper is a milestone to start digging into this divide among generations and solutions from tools to places.

    Abstract: The divide between generations and the need to integrate aging populations through life wide learning strategies have been evidenced by researches and policy documents. Yet, the lack of mutually beneficial learning practices calls for innovative solutions to prevent societal fragmentation. In ‘La Piazza’ the purpose was to identify good practices through the use of case studies and interaction design techniques and gauge the potential of digital technologies as enablers of intergenerational learning. In ‘Puente’, the goal is to further explore the transformative power of existing good practices and to provide guidelines for the design of environments in which young and old can grow in connection.

    Keywords: intergenerational learning; generation divide; digital technologies; case studies; good practices; interaction design; aging populations; e-learning; online learning; technology enhanced learning.

    Edith made the paper available online, so enjoy!


  • 17JulThis silent language …

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    In his book The Silent Language, anthropologist Eward T. Hall analyzes the many aspects of non-verbal communication. He analyzes the way people “talk” to one another without the use of words. He proposes that the concepts of space and time are tools with which all human beings may transmit messages.

    hall

    As I focused on the chapter “how space communicates”, I find intriguing the way Hall compares cultures and their reading of non verbal communication cues. He particularly states that the distance between individuals differs and can drastically affect the dynamics of space interaction. For instance, an American needs to take between 20 inches to 36 inches in a neutral conversation for a personal subject matter. Apparently in Latin America the interaction distance is much less. This claim was also proposed in his other book, The Hidden Dimension. This seems like a pretty large distance to me!

    I was wandering, as we are becoming nomads, or neo-nomads –term created and analyzed by Dr. Yasmine Abbas, now that we travel constantly, I wander how these distances of interaction and non verbal communication cues have evolved. Is it possible that we absorb most of these social interactions in our everyday routines, and that after each travel, each interaction, we come back “socially transformed”? Would these non verbal communication cues become more obvious to us?

    dance.png

    In one of his other book, The Dance of Life: The Other Dimension of Time, Hall explores the way humans are intrinsically linked to the rhythm of life, how being unsynchronized can disturb them and even bring them into depression! He explains, based on observations, how people are tied together and yet isolated by hidden threads of rhythm and walls of time. Time is treated as a language, organizer, and message system revealing people’s feelings about each other and reflecting differences between cultures. He claims that repetition is not appreciated or that Americans are not trained to appreciate repetition. Through repetition comes learning, comes depth of understanding, comes rhythm. He proposes that the invisible rhythm is not widely recognized, that rhythms are only presented on stage by talented performers! Hall assumes there is a relationship between rhythm and love. Basically it affects our entire being. Synchrony in life seems strangely related to rhythm in music. The pattern of our movements can translate into a beat. Without this rhythm, we are not synchronized and we loose our contact with life …

    Posted by Cati Vaucelle @ Architectradure

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