Arts and Design

This paper presents, describes and analyses two photobooks: Palast der Republik and Domesticidades. We claim that, because of their highly iconic features, they can be regarded as epistemic artifacts (models) since they reveal information about their objects, as well as about their own morphological properties. The analysis focuses on the (i) kind of relations the photobooks establish with their respective objects (we claim that it is a mainly-iconic relation) and (ii) on the semiotic couplings that can be found in them – a type of interaction between semiotic resources (such as photographs, maps, written texts, illustrations, among others). We contextualize this analysis in relation to both a semiotic and an intermedial background. Further, we claim that the epistemic role of such artworks is directly related to their material and structural features that constrain the possibilities of manipulation and reasoning upon them. We conclude by presenting some of the information that was revealed by the manipulation of these photobooks, claiming that the semiotic-artefactual approach to models can be an epistemically interesting conceptual frame to think about artistic artefacts.

Palast der Republik, by the photographer Christoph Rokitta, is an independent photobook published in 2013 in Berlin. In Palast der Republik different semiotic resources interact with one another, in order to reveal a new experience about the demolition process of the homonymous building. In opposition to the trivial notion of icon as sign that stands for its object in a relation of similarity, we are going to analyze the book as an icon whose main feature is the possibility of discovering new information about its object through its manipulation. This specific feature is called operation criteria of iconicity. Our aim is to describe and analyze the relations between semiotic resources in this photobook, by exploring not only the operational criterion of iconicity, but also the roles of diagrams in reasoning, and how models function models as epistemic artifacts. Therefore, it will be presented here how semiotic resources with different morphological features in the photobook interact in order to create a diagrammatic epistemic artifact of its object: the demolition of the Palast der Republik.

Creative translation as a method for investigation was an idea systematically explored by the Brazilian poet and translator Haroldo de Campos. According to Campos' approach, creative translation corresponds to the transcreation of a multi-level system of constraints, "selected" and revealed by the target system. We intend to describe this process as diagrammatic (sensu Peirce), in which the physicality of its source and target systems have the ontology of a relation. Hence our approach is a tentative association of Jakobson's concept of intersemiotic translation, with De Campos' notion of transcreation based on Peirce's notion of diagrams. We intend to describe it by taking the following arguments into consideration: I. Intersemiotic translation can be described as fundamentally triadic phenomenon, that involves the selection and interpretation of properties and methods from one semiotic system to be translated into another semiotic system, bearing the production of an interpretative effect in the latter, that is analogous to the interpretative effect produced by the former. II. Intersemiotic translation is a method of investigation. As a mainly iconic process, it produces a sign that signifies by means of its own qualities and structures: this is a well-known property of iconic signs, namely operational criterion of icons.

Palast der Republik, by the photographer Christoph Rokitta, is an independent photobook published in 2013 in Berlin. In the photobook different semiotic resources are coupled in order to iconically model the demolition of the homonymous building in Berlin. In opposition to the trivial notion of icon as sign that stands for its object in a relation of similarity, we analyze the photobook as an icon whose main feature is the possibility of discovering information about its object through its manipulation. This specific feature is called operational criterion for iconicity, and it stresses the inherent quality of icons of revealing information available through their manipulation and observation.
Our aim is to describe and analyze the relations between semiotic
resources in this photobook by exploring the operational criterion of iconicity, and models as epistemic artifacts. We are interested in how couplings between semiotic resources in the photobook can iconically model a spatio-temporal process.

In opposition to the trivial notion of icon as a sign that stands for its object in a relation of similarity, we are going to describe and analyze several examples of intermedial visual artworks as iconic models whose main feature is the possibility of discovering new information about its object - this specific feature is called operational criterion for iconicity. We describe how the relations between semiotic resources perform an iconic epistemic role, dependent on the situated manipulation of the artwork’s material and structural constraints.

Photobooks are a specific kind of artistic artifacts that possess particular features that distinguishes them from photographic prints, as well as from simple catalogues of artistic images. The most important of these distinctive features are the relations between photographs, written texts and other visual resources that can be found in several publications of this kind. These relations are the main responsible factor for allowing artistic artifacts to also function as epistemic artifacts. According to Knuutilla & Voutilainen (2003), epistemic artifacts are physical entities that provide us with new information and properties about the object they are referring to. But this new information remains only as a potentiality unless they are manipulated by a cognitive agent. Therefore, manipulation is understood not only as a reasoning process but also as the performance of an action. For the manipulation of epistemic artifacts to present such satisfactory results it must follow a number of specific laws and regulations that are related to how the resources interact with one another: how the pages are ordered in the book; how the resources are distributed in the pages; and how do we get in contact with them. These constraints of main importance in this approach, since they regulate the manipulation possibilities and the consequent discovery of information.

Creative translation as a method for investigation was an idea systematically explored by the Brazilian poet and translator Haroldo de Campos. According to Campos' approach, creative translation corresponds to the transcreation of a multi-level system of constraints, "selected" and revealed by the target system. We intend to describe this process as diagrammatic (sensu Peirce), in which the physicality of its source and target systems have the ontology of a relation. Hence our approach is a tentative association of Jakobson's concept of intersemiotic translation, with De Campos' notion of transcreation based on Peirce's notion of diagrams. We intend to describe it by taking the following arguments into consideration: I. Intersemiotic translation can be described as fundamentally triadic phenomenon, that involves the selection and interpretation of properties and methods from one semiotic system to be translated into another semiotic system, bearing the production of an interpretative effect in the latter, that is analogous to the interpretative effect produced by the former. II. Intersemiotic translation is a method of investigation. As a mainly iconic process, it produces a sign that signifies by means of its own qualities and structures: this is a well-known property of iconic signs, namely operational criterion of icons.

The philosophical branches of aesthetics and epistemology, although sharing several problems in common, do not seem to have been in active dialogue, particularly in what regards the systematic investigation of the mechanisms through which artifacts usually regarded as sources of aesthetic experience (such as artworks) might be able to derive knowledge. In this paper, it is going to be presented one possible way to start approaching such investigation: I believe it is possible to study the epistemic potential of artworks by approaching artworks as diagrams in the Peircean sense. It is going to be explored here how (i) diagrams cannot have the experiences they produce reduced to a fixed and final response, how (ii) diagrams are constantly shaped by experimental interactions with an agent and its environment, how (iii) diagrams and the experiences they produce are part of the same process, and how (iv) diagrams are in a continuum of science and everyday life, by means of modifying and sharpening perception on general. In order to investigate and illustrate each of these features of diagrams, the artwork “Brillo Boxes” of Andy Warhol is going to be analyzed regarding its diagrammatic properties. It will be concluded that, by explicitly assuming this diagrammatic role of artworks we can proceed to investigate how art can be used to derive knowledge. Only by doing such, we can then advance to develop a more refined and detailed account of the diagrammatic reasoning process that allows an agent to process the possible knowledge that might be derived of an artwork as diagram.

Pesquisadores da cibercultura defendem que o entretenimento estimula competências cognitivas em seus usuários. No entanto, há uma lacuna de pesquisas empíricas sobre o tema. Com o objetivo de investigar se há mudanças nas competências requeridas para a prática de games, realizou-se uma análise comparativa das características de games de 1990 (antes da “explosão” da internet e ciberespaço) e 2000 (em plena cibercultura). Os games investigados são SimEarth (1990); SimAnt (1991); SimLife (1992) e Spore (2008). O artigo apresenta os resultados preliminares dessa pesquisa.

Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) have revolutionized contemporary media and entertainment systems. This change enhances socio-cultural practices – participation, socialization and language learning – that require users to
refne their cognitive abilities. This paper aims to show how cyberculture, while highlighting the cognitive activities that exist in the practices of communications and contemporary entertainment, gives rise to a dual repositioning: the concepts
of games/entertainment and technology/media are both associated with cognition. We will base our assumptions on the change in the concept of cognition that took place during the twentieth century to rethink the links between technology,
the ludic and cognition in cyberculture. Among the preliminary results, we observe that entertainment has ceased to be childish, unpretentious and escapist, and is approaching the ludic category, while technology has ceased to be a mere tool, instead becoming an agent in cognitive processes.

Os estudos sobre a Cibercultura frequentemente utilizam a metáfora do mapeamento para explicar os fenômenos sócio-econômicos-culturais que existem na esfera das Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação. Neste contexto, nosso presente trabalho pretende ser um estudo sobre o emprego desta metodologia, procurando responder as questões: como se dá o emprego das metáforas espaciais, e por que elas são tão importantes para a compreensão das práticas e ferramentas ciberculturais? Para tanto, exploramos alguns conceitos que podem fazer estas definições, fazendo ligações com as bases epistemológicas das TICs, e também com o seu caráter eminentemente espacial.

Resultados de pesquisa sobre possíveis relações entre a utilização de suportes hipermídia, como instrumentos de estímulo à ações políticas diretas de âmbito global, e a formação de hábitos de conduta ligados à democracia participativa e a um internacionalismo renovado. Análise do site EuroMayday 2004, com ênfase nos nas novas possibilidades de utilização da linguagem hipermídia. Articulação do ativismo global com os processos semióticos multicódigos, com
propostas de ação com base na Semiótica de Peirce.

As interfaces encontram-se cada vez mais presentes em nosso cotidiano, sendo instrumentos de mediação entre os usuários e a tecnologia digital. Neste contexto, o presente artigo pretende ser um estudo sobre as interfaces gráfcas do usuário (GUI) e os processos de imediação que são buscados por teóricos e programadores na constituição destes ambientes digitais. Para tanto, exploramos os conceitos que defnem as GUIs, além de uma tentativa de análise do conceito de imediação através da teoria das Materialidades da Comunicação.

This work intends to articulate definitions on gameplay and playability, as there is no consensus in the academic field about these terms, which may be mistaken for one another or described as being just one. Through the description of several different proposals by game scholars, this article tries to articulate the main similarities and differences between some of the notions of gameplay and playability in order to delineate characteristics that might give us accounts to understand the meaning of analyzed terms. At last, the authors conclude that definitions and the scope of concepts of gameplay and playability rely on the starting point of the study as well as the goals of the researcher when carrying out researches in game design, game software or even about players’ actions and their psychological matters.

Este artigo pretende discutir a relação do corpo humano com a experiência de fruição da interatividade proporcionada pelos consoles de videogame, a partir de uma análise específica do Wii, da empresa japonesa Nintendo Company. A partir de uma
ótica de recuperação da história dos games e das tendências na interação humano-computador, trabalha-se com a hipótese de que a suposta revolução interativa trazida pelo Wii, é, na verdade, apenas a retomada de uma linha de interação usuário-máquina já existente, que se apresenta como uma tendência contemporânea concernente às interfaces e tecnologias digitais em geral – artifícios que vêm valorizando cada vez mais a participação corporal do usuário, direta ou indiretamente.

This work intends to articulate definitions on gameplay and playability, as there is no consensus in the academic field about these terms, which may be mistaken for one another or described as being just one. Through the description of several different proposals by game scholars, this article tries to articulate the main similarities and differences between some of the notions of gameplay and playability in order to delineate characteristics that might give us accounts to understand the meaning of analyzed terms. At last, the authors conclude that definitions and the scope of concepts of gameplay and playability rely on the starting point of the study as well as the goals of the researcher when carrying out researches in game design, game software or even about players’ actions and their psychological matters.