Search Results (58)

This paper explores the evolving relationship between Digital Twins (DT) and the Metaverse, two foundational yet often conflated digital paradigms in digital architecture. While DTs function as mirrored models of real-world systems—integrating IoT, BIM, and real-time analytics to support decision-making—Metaverses are typically fictional, immersive, multi-user environments shaped by social, cultural, and speculative narratives. Through several research projects, the team investigate the divergence between DTs and Metaverses through the lens of their purpose, data structure, immersion, and interactivity, while highlighting areas of convergence driven by emerging technologies in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Extended Reality (XR).This study aims to investigate the convergence of DTs and the Metaverse in digital architecture, examining how emerging technologies—such as AI, XR, and Large Language Models (LLMs)—are blurring their traditional boundaries. By analyzing their divergent purposes, data structures, and interactivity modes, as well as hybrid applications (e.g., data-integrated virtual environments and AI-driven collaboration), this study seeks to define the opportunities and challenges of this integration for architectural design, decision-making, and immersive user experiences. Our research spans multiple projects utilizing XR and AI to develop DT and the Metaverse. The team assess the capabilities of AI in DT environments, such as reality capture and smart building management. Concurrently, the team evaluates metaverse platforms for online collaboration and architectural education, focusing on features facilitating multi-user engagement. The paper presents evaluations of various virtual environment development pipelines, comparing traditional BIM+IoT workflows with novel approaches such as Gaussian Splatting and generative AI for content creation. The team further explores the integration of Large Language Models (LLMs) in both domains, such as virtual agents or LLM-powered Non-Player-Controlled Characters (NPC), enabling autonomous interaction and enhancing user engagement within spatial environments. Finally, the paper argues that DTs and Metaverse’s once-distinct boundaries are becoming increasingly porous. Hybrid digital spaces—such as virtual buildings with data-integrated twins and immersive, social metaverses—demonstrate this convergence. As digital environments mature, architects are uniquely positioned to shape these dual-purpose ecosystems, leveraging AI, XR, and spatial computing to fuse data-driven models with immersive and user-centered experiences. Full article

Industrial heritage has historical and cultural value and reuse potential. Urban industrialization has a significant social influence on place identity and emotional identity. Shougang Science Fiction Industrial Park (hereinafter referred to as “Shougang Park”) serves as one of the first pilot projects for the transformation of old industrial areas in China. This study examines Shougang Park through a spatial narrative lens, analyzing its industrial heritage via the “author-text-reader” framework. Research reveals the specific implications of the three dimensions and the connections behind them. The findings offer practical strategies for experiential tourism design and adaptive reuse planning, while establishing theoretical models applicable to global post-industrial heritage revitalization. Full article

Virtual Reality (VR) has emerged as a promising tool for history education, offering immersive and interactive learning experiences. However, its implementation in educational settings presents several challenges that remain under-explored. This systematic review, conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) methodology, aims to identify the main technical, usability, economic, psychological, social, and ethical challenges associated with the use of VR in history teaching. A literature search was performed in the Scopus (Elsevier) database, retrieving 2794 studies, from which a final selection of 14 papers was made based on predefined eligibility criteria. The findings indicate that interoperability issues, high hardware and software requirements, and navigation difficulties hinder VR integration. Moreover, usability concerns, including complex interfaces and cognitive overload, affect both students and educators, emphasizing the need for specialized teacher training. Economic barriers, such as the high cost of VR equipment and software, limit accessibility in resource-constrained institutions. Additionally, psychological and social challenges, including user discomfort, confusion between reality and fiction, and ethical concerns, were identified. These findings highlight the necessity of addressing these limitations to optimize VR’s pedagogical potential in history education. Future research should focus on developing cost-effective solutions, enhancing usability, and designing comprehensive training programs to facilitate the effective adoption of VR in educational contexts. Full article

The architectural design studio, with its dynamic and expanding scope, challenges traditional academic boundaries and bridges academia and practice by providing an integrated structure. A pedagogy based on experimentation transforms the studio into a laboratory where research and design merge, exploiting the unpredictable benefits of hands-on experience. Accordingly, this study explores experimental pedagogical fictions and tools aimed at integrating material experimentation into studio education, expanding its scope to encompass various craft mediums. It adopts a descriptive and exploratory qualitative methodology, combining theoretical and practice-based methods. It takes atelierz, a vertical architectural design studio, as a case study. Firstly, drawing on Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of creative experimentation, a philosophical interpretation of the pedagogical fiction of the studio is made on contexts, tools, and actors. Secondly, focusing on the experimental possibilities offered by tools of installations and prototypes, and analyzing their pedagogical use in the architectural studio, the thematic frames of materials, methods and tools, interdisciplinary connections, engagement modalities, and field of discovery are used to evaluate material experimentation. Based on two semesters of atelierz’s visual and physical outputs and process documentation, the findings demonstrate the impact of installations and prototypes on understanding, designing, and applying materials, developing technical skills, transforming non-disciplinary knowledge, mediating exploration, and structuring specialized field of inquiry. This research highlights the pedagogical value of material experimentation and contributes to architectural education by providing knowledge and experience of the studio fictions developed, the pedagogical tools employed within these fictions, and their use for material experimentation. Full article

Religion is one of the most important factors in architectural shaping. The concepts or sub-concepts that make up religion have a different language that each designer wants to explain. This language is presented semantically and syntactically through the architect and the user interprets this fiction mostly with its syntactic dimension. The findings of this study provide valuable insights into modern mosque design by establishing a connection between belief systems and architectural expressions. Moreover, the study contributes to heritage preservation efforts by proposing a framework that links historical values to contemporary practices. In this study, it is aimed to analyze the effects of the belief concepts in the Islamic religion by analyzing the semantic and syntactic dimensions in rural wooden mosque architecture. Starting from the assumption that abstract values have a language in shaping, the principle of semiotics was utilized to reach concrete results. How the concepts and principles are determined in the semantic and syntactic dimensions of semiotics are explained. In the examination of the semantic dimension, 5 concepts from the concepts of belief in the Islamic religion, namely wahdaniyet, survival, knowledge, powerand hereafter, were discussed. The syntactic dimension was analyzed under basic design principles. The semantic and syntactic dimensions of the sample wooden mosques were analyzed, interpretedand analyzed through architectural drawings, interiorand exterior visuals. These analyses provide practical strategies for translating abstract religious principles into tangible design elements, enhancing their applicability in both educational and professional contexts. As a result, the concepts that emerged in the analyzed examples and the indicators of the sub-concepts belonging to these concepts were presented. It is suggested that the determined analysis model can contribute to design education in design departments and provide convenience to designers and researchers. The model also serves as a tool for creating mosque designs that respect cultural identity while addressing contemporary needs. This research is important in terms of being a reference for the concrete expression of the concepts that we cannot see in architectural formations but we can feel that they exist. Full article

Chris Bush’s Faustus: That Damned Woman (first performed in 2020) is a feminist and contemporary adaptation of Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. The magus is a woman who travels through time from the seventeenth century to the far distant future. In the process, Johanna Faustus becomes a brilliant scientist who attempts to create digital immortality by uploading the minds of billions of human beings to the Cloud. When a power failure destroys almost all of humanity, it is uncertain whether the universal outage is caused by Mephistopheles (in accordance with the expectations of Faustian fantasy) or is simply an unforeseen but predictable accident (in accordance with the expectations of technophobic versions of science fiction). I argue that Bush’s play traces the chronological and generic arc from magic/fantasy to science/science fiction, blending the two so that the age-old monster, the Devil, enabled by Faustian arrogance, is reimagined as an avatar for an unreliable technology that destroys what it is designed to preserve. Full article

This paper discusses the renewal of the conception of film sound and music following the technological advances of the late 1970s. It analyses the ways in which film sound and music freed themselves from traditional uses and became elements to be designed creatively. The soundtrack composed by Vangelis for Blade Runner (1982) is exceptional in this regard: produced in parallel to the editing of the film, it forged an intimate connection between sound and image. Through the method of reduced listening put forward by Michel Chion in Audio-Vision (2019), this paper scrutinizes the specific ways in which sound shapes the perception of the image and narrative in Blade Runner. The first part of this paper analyses how sounds come to replace music to characterize moods and atmospheres. Ambient sounds create a concrete, sonically dense diegetic world, while music is associated with an abstract, extra-diegetic world where spectators are designated judges. This contrast is thematically relevant and delineates the struggle between humans and replicants; sound and music are used for their metaphorical implications rather than in an effort for realism. The second part discusses the agency of characters through the sonorousness of their voices and bodies. Intonations, pronunciation, and acousmatic sounds anchor characters’ natures as humans or replicants to their bodies. Yet, these bodies are revealed to be mere vessels awaiting definition; in the third part, we explore how sound is used to craft synaesthetic depictions of characters, revealing their existence beyond the human/replicant divide. Full article

AGV-based intra-company transport systems are indispensable in the manufacturing industry of Industry 4.0. Designing the systems involves determining AGV movement paths that are predefined dynamically or adjusted based on real-time events. This study focuses on the simulation and optimization of an intelligent transport system. The aim is to create a system model with freely moving AGVs controlled based on the requirements of production facilities. The simulation model was designed in the Tecnomatix Plant Simulation environment. A fictional case study with a flexible manufacturing system was used. Specific methods have been developed for AGV operation, control, and dynamic product handling. The initial simulation model served as the basis for optimization. Model optimization, performed using a genetic algorithm, aimed to maximize production volume while minimizing the number of AGVs. Simulation results showed that AGV movements were dynamically adjusted based on real-time machine requests, and the optimal configuration of AGVs achieved a production volume that was significantly higher than the initial setup. This study demonstrates a new approach to modeling AGV traffic systems emphasizing real-time dynamic adjustments of AGV paths. The findings contribute to integrating intelligent transport systems into production processes, and this study provides valuable insights for future investigation in this area. Full article

The year 2024 marks one decade of scholarship in the new interdisciplinary field of Digital Death, concerning the study of death, dying and grief in the digital age. This paper addresses one key subfield of Digital Death Studies, here termed Digital Grief Studies, which centres on theory, research and design concerning grief in today’s digitally saturated contexts. It argues that a classic grand pattern in scholarly treatments of grief—Grief Universalism—with a long, problematic history in Grief and Bereavement Studies, is reappearing in Digital Grief Studies. The Continuing Bonds theory of grief and its application in theory, research and design in Digital Grief Studies is used to demonstrate Grief Universalism in action in our field via hypothetical and fictional examples. This builds toward this paper’s big aim: to illustrate what we as an emerging field stand to gain from positioning the established field of Grief and Bereavement Studies as a veritable goldmine of advances—as well as pitfalls, wrong turns, and recurrent problem patterns to be avoided—generated over a hundred years of scholarship concerning human grief. Harnessing this wealth of prior learning and leveraging it toward the furtherance of our field in the coming decade and beyond becomes more crucial as we repel the seemingly perennial magnetism of Grief Universalism, as we operate within an interdisciplinary field vulnerable to Universalism and as yet unaware of its perils, and amid contemporary digital cultures and environments that may preserve and reinforce universalist grief framings. Full article

My aim in this essay is to isolate and describe the eschatological technophobia that is expressed by many popular films in the genre of science fiction. What I have in mind by this designation is the (irrational) fear of advanced technologies with respect to the conjectured likelihood that autonomous systems and programs will inevitably deliver a negative judgment of humankind. In expressing and/or cultivating this fear, I offer, directors in the genre tend to help themselves to the language and imagery of the Biblical Day of Judgment, especially as it is prophesied and characterized in the Abrahamic religions of the global West. This fear, I maintain, is itself an expression of a deeper anxiety pertaining to the possibility (or likelihood) that the achievements of humankind matter very little, if at all, especially when evaluated on a cosmic scale. Following my critique of several films that rely, uncreatively, on the trope of eschatological technophobia, I turn to a consideration of two relatively recent films in the genre: Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014) and Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016). From these directors, I suggest, we receive subtler and more thoughtful treatments of the judgments of humankind that superior intelligences are likely to pronounce. What emerges in these two films is the exploratory expression of a religiosity or spirituality that I associate with an updated, epoch-appropriate version of humanism. Full article

Leading a socially engaged life is beneficial for the well-being of older adults. Immersive technologies, such as augmented reality (AR), have the potential to provide more engaging and vivid communication experiences compared to conventional digital tools. This qualitative study adopts a human-centered approach to discern the general attitudes and specific requirements of older adults regarding interpersonal communication facilitated by AR. We conducted semi-structured individual interviews with a sample of N = 30 older adults from Germany. During the interviews, participants evaluated storyboard illustrations depicting a fictional AR-enabled communication scenario centered around a grandparent and their adult grandchildren, which were represented as avatars within the AR environment. The study identified technological, emotional, social, and administrative requirements of older adults regarding the AR communication system. Based on these findings, we provide practical recommendations aimed at more inclusive technology design, emphasizing the significance of addressing the emotional needs of older adults, especially the perceived intimacy of AR-based interpersonal communication. Acknowledging and catering to these emotional needs is crucial, as it impacts the adoption of immersive technologies and the realization of their social benefits. This study contributes to the development of user-friendly AR systems that effectively promote and foster social engagement among older adults. Full article

Despite access to reliable information being essential for equal opportunities in our society, current school curricula only include some notions about media literacy in a limited context. Thus, it is necessary to create scenarios for reflection on and a well-founded analysis of misinformation. Video games may be an effective approach to foster these skills and can seamlessly integrate learning content into their design, enabling achieving multiple learning outcomes and building competencies that can transfer to real-life situations. We analyzed 24 video games about media literacy by studying their content, design, and characteristics that may affect their implementation in learning settings. Even though not all learning outcomes considered were equally addressed, the results show that media literacy video games currently on the market could be used as effective tools to achieve critical learning goals and may allow users to understand, practice, and implement skills to fight misinformation, regardless of their complexity in terms of game mechanics. However, we detected that certain characteristics of video games may affect their implementation in learning environments, such as their availability, estimated playing time, approach, or whether they include real or fictional worlds, variables that should be further considered by both developers and educators. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI), once a phenomenon primarily in the world of science fiction, has evolved rapidly in recent years, steadily infiltrating into our daily lives. ChatGPT, a freely accessible AI-powered large language model designed to generate human-like text responses to users, has been utilized in several areas, such as the healthcare industry, to facilitate interactive dissemination of information and decision-making. Academic advising has been essential in promoting success among university students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. Unfortunately, however, student advising has been marred with problems, with the availability and accessibility of adequate advising being among the hurdles. The current study explores how AI-powered tools like ChatGPT might serve to make academic advising more accessible, efficient, or effective. The authors compiled a list of questions frequently asked by current and prospective students in a teacher education bachelor’s degree program in the United States. Then, the questions were typed into the free version of ChatGPT, and the answers generated were explored and evaluated for their content and delivery. ChatGPT generated surprisingly high-quality answers, written in an authoritative yet supportive tone, and it was particularly adept at addressing general and open-ended career-related questions, such as career outlook, in a clear, comprehensive, and supportive manner using plain language. We argue that AI-powered tools, such as ChatGPT, may complement but not necessarily replace human academic advisers and that these tools may very well serve to promote educational equity by empowering individuals from a wide range of backgrounds with the means to initiate effective methods of seeking academic advice. Full article

Electronic sports show significant user churn caused by a toxic gaming atmosphere, and current GUI-based interventions are insufficient to address the issue. Based on the theoretical framework of Perceiving and Experiencing Fictional Characters, a new hybrid interaction interface and paradigm combined with tangibles is proposed to counter negative mood. To support the frustrated users of Massive Online Battle Arena (MOBA) games, we added AI teammates for better personal performance and social robots for the disclosure of negative mood. We hypothesized that AI teammates’ invisibility and anonymity would mitigate negative emotions; an effect amplified by the presence of social robots. A comparative experiment was conducted with 111 participants. Social robots for emotion-oriented coping improved user mood but AI teammates for problem-oriented coping did so better, although their higher levels of experienced anonymity may not have been preferred. Unexpectedly, conversing with a robot after playing with an AI teammate brought the mood back to that experienced when talking to a robot alone, while increasing the distancing tendencies. With this in mind, AI and social robots can counter the negative atmosphere in MOBA games, positively contributing to game design and empathic human–computer interaction. Full article

Providing dental care for certain patient groups is complicated due to difficulties with cooperation, communication, health conditions, and social context, amongst others. The majority of dentists in France work within a public fee-per-item system. A new measure has been introduced providing a financial supplement to dentists for each episode of care for a patient with a severe disability. This supplement is justified by completion of the French Case Mix tool (FCM), a new measure designed to retrospectively identify episodes of dental care that have required adaptation and additional time or expertise. The aim of this study was to investigate the validity and psychometric properties of the FCM. The content validity of the tool was improved at each round of pilot development, involving 392 patient encounters. Test–retest data at 2 weeks for 12 fictional patient treatment episodes were collected from 51 dentists. This phase confirmed inter- and intra-dentist reproducibility, criterion validity, and interpretability. Retrospective analysis of 4814 treatment episodes nationally demonstrated high reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity. Overall, the FCM showed high validity and good psychometric properties. However, the impact of providing a financial supplement on improving access to care for persons with special needs has yet to be evaluated. Full article