Discovering New Media

WORKING PAPERS
University of Art and Design Helsinki
26

Discovering New Media

Andrea Botero & Heli Rantavuo
(eds.)

Jazmín Aviléz Collao
Lily Díaz-Kommonen
Mauri Kaipainen
Wille Mäkelä
Janne Pietarila
Mariana Saldago
Heidi Tikka

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DISCOVERING NEW MEDIA

WORKING PAPERS

PU B L I C A T I O N SE RI ES, F 26
University of A rt and design helsinki
Helsinki 2003

T OIMITUSNEUVOSTO
Y rjänä Levanto (editor-in-chief), Pia Sivenius, Susann V ihma

GRAPH IC DESIGN
Jarkko H yppönen

LAY -OUT
Pia Sivenius

FURT H ER IN FO RM ATION
University of A rt and Design Helsinki
Hämeentie135 C
00560 Helsinki
Tel.+358-9-75631, fax +358-9-756 30433
Publications/ A nnu A honen, tel. +358-09-756 30213, e-mail: annu.ahonen@uiah.fi
Research Institute/ Pia Sivenius, tel. +358-09-756 30528, e-mail: pia.sivenius@uiah.fi

ISBN 951-558-145-1 Painettu julkaisu: ISBN 951-558-098-6
ISSN 1455-8955

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Contents

A NDREA BOTERO AND HELI RANTAVUO : DISCOVERING ( OR C ONSTRUCTING ) N EW M EDIA ............... ..3

H EIDI T IKKA : C ONFIGURING THE A FFECTIVE U SER ? ................ ................ ................ ............... ....... 4

L ILY D ÍAZ -K OMMONEN AND M ARIANA S ALDAGO :
I NTERFACE DESIGN AND U SABILITY IN THE D IGITAL F ACSIMILE OF M AP OF M EXICO 1550.......................16

J AZMÍN A VILÉS C OLLAO , L ILY D ÍAZ -K OMMONEN , M AURI K AIPAINEN AND J ANNE P IETARILA :
S OFT O NTOLOGIES AND S IMILARITY C LUSTER TOOLS TO F ACILITATE
E XPLORATION AND D ISCOVERY OF C ULTURAL H ERITAGE R ESOURCES ....................................................22

L ILY D ÍAZ -K OMMONEN : L OHIKÄÄRMEISTÄ JA LUOKITTELUISTA ............................................................27

W ILLE M ÄKELÄ : O NKO ILMAAN PIIRTÄMINEN TÄHDELLISTÄ .................................................................38

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Andrea Botero
Heli Rantavuo

Discovering (or Constructing?) New Media

This working papers edition is dedicated to
research carried out in the Media Lab UIAH We hope that the projects and concepts
(http://mlab.uiah.fi), now ten years old. As we presented in this issue will illustrate to our readers
work in a young, multidisciplinary field, our some of the variety of approaches and concerns of
area of inquiry is extense and the boundaries new media; and how in addition to technical
are not well defined, we are constructing our experimentations, design issues, and artistic
field at the same time that we discover it. concerns, our work at the Media Lab also
However and as stated in our mision, “the aim concerns social and cultural practices related to
of the Media Lab UIAH is to explore, and the use of and representations in new media
comprehend the new digital technology and its
impact in society; to find and exploit the
possibilities it opens to communication,
interaction and expression and to evaluate,
understand and deal with the challenges it
poses to design and creative production”.
With this issue we wish to introduce to our
readers what this means in practice by
presenting ongoing research at the Media Lab.

In this edition, you will find articles on
affectivity in user interfases, on usability, on
visualization of digital information, and on digital
art practices. Heidi Tikka discusses critical design
practice through conceptualizations of users as
affective subjects in interface design. Jazmin
Avilez et al. present and explain the potentials of
Self Organizing Maps (SOM) as a method for
flexible categorizations and visualizations in the
field of cultural heritage. Mariana Salgado et al.
introduce the design and evaluation process of the
Digital Facsimile of the Map of Mexico. Lily
Díaz takes up the problem of classification, and
the implications of this activity for interactive
media design. Last, Wille Mäkelä presents his
doctoral research topic, exploring possibilities for
freehand drawing with digital technology.

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Heidi Tikka (htikka@uiah.fi)

Configuring the affective user?

Recently, interaction design and research have subject only. Rather, they engage the user into an
become increasingly interested in the affective interactive process that can best be described as
aspect of user experience. In my paper, I will affective. This means that the user in these
argue that affectivity should not be treated in environments emerges as a corporeal, emotional and
isolation from socio-technical and cultural social entity, the complexity of which is crafted in
production. Three research, design and art the socio-technical networks of production and the
projects that approach affectivity in varying ways intersecting cultural networks of meaning
will be looked at in order to investigate how the production.
user becomes conceptualized in each project as In the following, I will approach the new affective
an affective subject. I will pay specific attention environments in the context of these networks, for it
to how these projects address sexual difference. is my understanding that affectivity should not be
Following Donna Haraway and Lucy Suchman, I treated in isolation from the socio-technical and
will argue for the importance of considering cultural production. Instead, affectivity should be
user's embodiment and social place as well as inquired as one of those mechanisms, through which
the socio-technical contexts of design. But I will users are being engaged into the global networks of
also propose that critical design practice should power and economy. From this point of view,
be aware of the operation of the unconscious in affectivity in user interface design is not only a
the design process. Looking closely at the matter of designing subjective experiences, but has
presented three works, I will trace possible political implications as well. Often these
"repressed thoughts" in their discourses. implications concern that which has remained
The first, and considerably longer, draft for this unthought in the design process.
paper was published in the Cultural Usability
project web site: Three cases
http://mlab.uiah.fi/culturalusability.
Cultural Usability was a preliminary research It is then my intention to engage in a dialogue with
project carried out at the Media Lab and three projects that in different ways approach
coordinated by professor Minna Tarkka. questions related to affective environment design.
“Cultural Usability” was used as a working These projects share the idea that the affective
hypothesis for a design practice that reaches dimension in interactive experience can be
beyond the functional interests of contemporary developed using interface solutions that take certain
usability research and interface development by corporeal processes as components of interaction.
situating design in its wider socio-cultural The projects include the Affective Computing
contexts. research, directed by Rosalind W. Picard at the
MIT, the virtual reality environment of Osmose by
AFFECTIVE USER IN RESEARCH AND IN DESIGN artist Char Davies and the prototype of inter_skin by
artist and designer Stahl Stenslie. All three projects
During the last few years, interaction design has are quite different both in terms of their approach
become increasingly interested in the complexity of and their scope.
user experience. Contemporary interactive Affective Computing [1] is an entire research area
environments do not address user as a cognitive at MIT consisting of thirty research and

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development projects, the main focus of which is to figurations, multiple, perhaps irreconcilable
create personal computational systems that can literacies are needed.
sense, recognize and understand human emotions In order to inquire into the construction of the
and respond to these emotions in an intelligent and "affective", I will approach it questioning the effects
sensitive way. The virtual reality environment of the affective for user construction. I will ask, who
Osmose [2] first premiered in the Museum of is the affective user subject in each of the three
Contemporary Art Montreal in 1995. Equipped with projects. As all of them, through their corporeal
a head-mounted display and a vest sensing breathing interfaces, address the user as an embodied subject,
and balance, the user - or the immersant, as Davies I am curious as to what kind of a body is imagined
calls the user - can explore the three-dimensional, for the user. How does design take into account the
audiovisual world of Osmose. It has since been fact that these users may have different bodies? I
exhibited worldwide and more than 10 000 people will particularly focus on inquiring how sexual
have already immersed into the worlds of Osmose difference is addressed both explicitly and implicitly
and Éphémère, Davies' following work. The in the interface design of these projects. There is a
inter_skin [3] project remains in the stage of wide agreement that certain paradigm shifts can be
prototyping. Stenslie's idea was to develop a body detected in how users have been conceptualized in
suit that would transmit touch, accompanied with human-computer interaction discourse (HCI). These
sound and thus engage on the very practical level in shifts can be conceptualized as a series of concentric
the cyber sex discourse. circles stretching outbound, starting from machine
In this stage of my work, I will mainly focus on considerations and gradually extending towards
how these projects present themselves, how do they human users and the situated contexts of use. As
conceptualize and contextualize their work. I am Kari Kuutti has remarked, contemporary HCI
also interested in looking at the actual design research can be seen in search of approaches for
applications, but so far, only as design concepts. dealing with the complexity of interactive processes.
The main source for looking at these projects (Kuutti, 1997, 20-24)
consists of their web pages. In the context of
Affective Computing, I have looked at the most Situated user, situated design
general level in which the various research areas
(such as Affective Pattern Recognition and It seems then, that the idea of the situatedness of
Modeling) and individual projects are being user experience has provided one such approach. In
presented. In the following I will refer to this level "Plans and Situated Actions", Lucy Suchman
as the Affective Computing overview. In relation to pointed out the importance of seeing the particular
Osmose, I will draw on the introductory pages of social and physical circumstances in which actions
Immersence Inc. the company of Davies, some of are taking place and which the goal oriented
her own publications as well as some commentaries cognitivist approach tends to overlook. In the
and the audio-visual recordings of an immersive context of feminist epistemology and the "Situated
journey in Osmose. The source material for Knowledges", Donna Haraway has elaborated on a
inter_skin consists of the web pages, designed and knowledge practice that would take partial
produced by Stenslie himself. perspectives as the basis of its production. She
argues for the located knowledges and for the
The effects of the “affective” for user construction network of connections that would be capable of
translating knowledges - while accepting the
I am interested in looking at how "affective" partiality of both knowledges and their translation -
becomes constructed within the networks of both between different, and differently empowered
technological and semiotic production. This means communities. This embodied objectivity would
that I will approach the affective drawing on Donna replace the "view from nowhere" of the traditional
Haraway's discussion of the figurations and their epistemology with the perspectives of the embodied
productivity. Figurations, as Haraway sees them, are and locatable visions. (Haraway, 1991, 187-189)
both literal and material. That is, they produce The interest in regarding the user subject as an
meanings, but also have very real effects on socio- affective and embodied subject, could, certainly, be
technical arrangements, such as technological seen against this background of situatedness.
implementations. (Haraway, 1997, 11) For reading However, as Alison Adam has suggested, there is an

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interesting discrepancy in how situatedness has been technical networks of production.
approached within the techno scientific discourse. Suchman argues that there is a close link between
While the majority of social constructionist understanding technological design as the
technology studies has been predominantly production of commodities and what she calls the
interested in the social situatedness of the "design from nowhere". By separating the
technology and its users, such fields as artificial technological objects from the design process and
intelligence and situated robotics have looked at reinforcing the divide between designer-creator and
situatedness in the context of embodiment, ignoring user-consumer, such conceptualization forgets about
the social dimension of technology and its use. the socio-technical contexts of production and the
(Adam, 1998, 129) various mediations and translations through which
Both of these stances may then risk forgetting an technological design proceeds. (Suchman, 2000, 4)
important aspect in understanding how power is Consequently, for Suchman located accountability
simultaneously inscribed in socio-technical relations would mean situating oneself within the actual sites
and bodies inhabiting them. In the context of of technological production and use, including the
feminist theory, situatedness is understood as the more extended networks of global economy and the
embodiment of subjectivities, but also as the division of labor. (Suchman, 2000, 4-5) But the
practice of locating oneself within the socio- sensitization of the design practice for
technical networks of power. As such it is not accountability also means perceiving the work of
possible to think about situatedness without the translation in the technological design practice as
recognition of difference. Situated subjects are well as its partiality. (Suchman, 2000, 5-9)
subjects living and acting within particular bodies There is an important point that Jeanette Hofmann
and inhabiting particular and partial realities that makes in her study of the gendered user images in
have very real consequences on those subjects and word processing software that resonates with
their bodies. Consequently then, following the line Suchman's account. The socio-technical contexts of
of thought of Adam, the notion of situatedness, with use are constantly changing, as technical objects and
its ethical and political dimension, can turn out as an people are in the process of reciprocal exchange.
invaluable tool for the elaboration of difference (Hofmann, 1999, 239-241) In the context of the
within the context of feminist theory only if it situated and affective user subject, I want to
recognizes both aspects of situatedness. elaborate on the practice of translation and its
partiality, suggested by Suchman and Haraway and
User representations in technological design the procedural point of view, proposed by Hofmann.
practice In addition, I would like to propose a third one,
namely the work of the unconscious in the design
In order to inquire into how the user of a particular process that from my point of view participates in
technological design is being conceptualized, one all cultural production and the trajectories of which
has to proceed to interrogate the technical choices of can be detected in the finalized technological
the design. For, as Madeleine Akrich has pointed product. Consequently, the completed design will
out, user representations most often remain never be what the designers think it is, for there will
unarticulated only to become objectified in the always be something that slips through the material-
design process as those technical choices. (Akrich, semiotic process of design.
1995, 177, 182) Akrich argues for the recognition of
the complexity of the socio-technical contexts of use The skin as technological and semiotic figure
and the need to develop methods for making user
images more visible. (Akrich, 1995, 177, 182) Even As all three projects that I am going to discuss
though she explicitly addresses only technical and establish a link between corporeality and affectivity
marketing aspects of design and their reconciliation through their interface solutions that connect
into a successful product, it seems to me, that this directly to the body, I am interested in inquiring
recognition also concerns larger cultural what this "directly" means in every case. What are
constructions. This has also been argued by Lucy the technical solutions used for accessing body?
Suchman, who sees the unarticulated aspects of user What kinds of translations are needed? How is the
construction as symptomatic for technological partiality of translations dealt with? Is there
design forgetting its own situatedness in the socio- something that insists in the design as that which

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has escaped the work of translation? emotions, together with the skills to respond in an
In order to inquire into the work of translation, I intelligent, sensitive, and respectful manner toward
will then introduce another notion that for me is the user and his/her emotions."
suggestive of that work, namely skin. Skin is that Emotions, in the project, are understood as
which separates the inside and the outside of the "dynamic states that consist of both cognitive and
body, both in the material and the semiotic sense. In physical events". Consequently then, the modeling
each of the projects, skin figures, either through of emotions has to pass through translations
technical choices or metaphorically - or both. I will between these physical events, the cognitive
then question, what does skin stand for in each processes that are involved and that can be
project. I will ask how these projects ground symbolically communicated, the equipment and the
themselves conceptually and in terms of their design type of data used for modeling and the existing
in skin and how consistent are these groundings. In models of human cognition. In the Affective
other words, I will interrogate how skin is produced Computing research, skin plays a significant role in
in each of these projects both metaphorically and communicating the physical aspects of emotions.
practically. The Prototype Sensing System consists of the
It is here that Haraway's notion of figuration turns Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) Sensor measuring
out to be particularly helpful, for it seems to me that skin conductance, The Blood Volume Pulse (BVP)
the metaphoric and artefactual skins of these Sensor measuring blood pressure, the Respiration
projects are partially incommensurate, not only in Sensor measuring the depth of breath and the rate of
relation to each other but also in relation to the user's respiration, and The Electromyogram
themselves. I am therefore intent on applying the (EMG) Sensor measuring the electrical activity of
notion of skin also as a critical tool, informed by the the muscle when it is being contracted. [5]
psychoanalytic concept of repression. I am The complex system of modules processing data
interested in investigating whether there is from thereon can be roughly conceptualized in a
something that insists in these multiple articulations following way: The data will be processed first by
of skin in ways that are indicative of the work of the Affect Pattern Recognition Module, the purpose
repression. I will do this, bearing in mind that it of which is to determine and categorize relevant
insists not only there, but also here in my encounter affective signal features and then by the Affective
with these works of art, design and research and is Understanding module, which will receive, process
therefore partially produced by my engagement with and store the information provided by the sensing
them. However, with this encounter some foreclosed and recognition modules. The purpose of the
realities of others could, perhaps, be made more Understanding module is to model both the user's
visible. current mood as well as his or her emotional profile.
It will receive and pass information between itself
and the other modules and eventually build and
AFFECTIVE COMPUTING: REPRESENTING AFFECT maintain a more complete and contextually aware
model of the user's behavior.
Affective Computing Research Group, [4] directed
by Rosalind W.Picard at the MIT, is undoubtedly The affective user subject
one of the most influential projects conducting
research and development on the emotional aspects What I am curious about is, how, exactly are the
of computing at the moment. The project started in parallels between the physical states, the cognitive
1995 and now involves thirty subprojects, including states and the affective models being drawn. The
projects in Affect Recognition, such as Computer user has a body, for it is through body that the
Response to User Frustration, Detecting Driver affective states of the user become articulate and
Stress or Mood Interfaces. The research project measurable. Does it matter, what kind of body? Do
understands affectivity as the emotional aspect of bodily attributes, such as age, gender or ethnic
human-computer interaction. It is "computing that background count as differences?
relates to, arises from or deliberately influences As the group is careful to point out, the baseline
emotions. (The) research focuses on creating for skin conductivity, for instance, is affected by
personal computational systems endowed with the such factors as "gender, diet, skin type and
ability to sense, recognize and understand human situation". What counts as a significant difference in

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the determination of the baseline or in the recovery. The status of frustration is clear, it
categorization of a group of baselines? Do baselines prevents the human-computer system from
operate as background information that serves in the achieving its goal, whether it is successful learning
factoring out of difference in order to arrive at clear, or safe and pleasant driving. Emotions then appear
distinct representations of emotional states? Within in the form of positive or negative feedback that the
the tradition of the HCI research, the Affective system needs to be able to recognize and regulate in
Computing research is taking an adventurous step order to stay functional. Both emotions and the
towards taking the embodiment of the human user physical states involved are seen as unintentional
into account. Yet, as it seems to forget the social and layer of interaction, arising independently from the
semiotic situatedness of the subject, it may risk goal oriented action of the user.
representing the affective user as a cognitive subject This kind of approach places skin in a curious
equipped with an additional channel for affective position in the translation from physical emotional
information, that is free from all social and cultural states into representations of emotions. Skin, as the
determinants. surface of the body, becomes that mediating surface
It is possible, that the absence of social context in through which the unintentional, and to some extent
the discourse of the Affective Computing is related uncontrollable flow of fluids, such as sweat, is
to its isolation into the confines of a laboratory, that translated into representable data. The Galvanic
often characterizes the preliminary stages of such Skin Response (GSR) Sensor figures as a piece of
innovative development. There are some references equipment that turns the flowing underside of
in the Affective Computing research overview that human communication into controllable
suggest an inadvertent slippage of a designer into representations. Semiotically, skin seems to take the
the place of the user. When describing the place usually reserved for nature in the
"Affective Understanding" module, which technological discourse. It serves as the limit
constitutes the "brains" of the system, the designers between the inside and the outside, and as the
express the need of the module to recognize if "the membrane through which the transgression from the
user has not slept in several days, is ill or starving or reality of uncontrollable fluids into the reality of
under deadline pressure". For this kind of context symbolic representations is being most intensely
sensitivity the module should respond for instance articulated.
by "playing uplifting music" or even opening "an There is an aspect in the discourse of the
application that can carry on a therapeutically- Affective Computing overview that I, personally,
motivated conversation with its user". find most intriguing. The ethical dimension of the
Consecutively, it seems to me that the missing Affective Computing is addressed in relation to
contexts should be critically interrogated also in the privacy. The affective user is pictured as an
preliminary development stage. Else, what will individual, independent subject that has private
become inscribed in the prototypes that may access to and the ownership of his or her emotions.
significantly structure future developments, are the The strong emphasis on privacy may risk ignoring
unexamined values of those in the privileged other kinds of political dimensions, for one may ask,
position of doing the prototyping work. whether emotions are such a private business after
all. In the context of situatedness, I would prefer to
Skin as the underside of human communication see the affective user as an embodied, culturally
conditioned, socio-technically located and
What kinds of emotions figure in the Affective connected subjectivity.
Computing overview? It seems to me, that the most From that perspective, affectivity does not appear
common one is frustration. There are several in the form of private property but as an amalgam of
projects that recognize frustration in the form of mechanisms through which these subjectivities are
driver stress, in various situations arising at the constituted as intelligible, culturally meaningful
computer or in relation to videoconferencing. In beings and as actors in the global networks of
"Computer Response to User Frustration" project, power, economy and technoscience. That is, as
for instance, an HCI agent is designed to "support situated subjects, affective users are seen as
users in their ability to recover from negative agencies, the actions of which are constituted and
emotional states, particularly frustration. The agent conditioned by their locatedness within these
uses social-affective feedback strategies" for networks. From the perspective of situatedness,

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emotions form an essential element in how human terms of setting standards for user experience, with
beings are being integrated into the networks of the development of ubiquitous and multiple points
power. of contact for information access.
Consequently, emotions should not be seen as Second, I could imagine an implementation in
discrete entities, but within the larger framework of which the user's skin would constitute the mediating
culture that participates in the production of the surface. An application, based on direct skin
complex psychical realities of the speaking and contact, might; however, lead to a different set of
interacting subjects. The discourse on emotional questions that border the issue of exclusion from
privacy may inadvertently participate in covering another direction. For, as a designer of such a
the very operation of those mechanisms of system, I might not be able to avoid reflecting,
production. whether there are any bodies after which I would
prefer not to interface with the system.
Public information systems and skin contact So far, I have been able to locate surprisingly few
references to hygienic concerns in relation to
For me then, there is something in the discourse on interfaces requiring extensive bodily contact, [6] but
privacy that insists on further interrogation. As the if they are ever considered for implementation into
Affective Computing overview states, "research any publicly accessible information systems, the
focuses on creating personal computational systems political dimension of the hygienic concerns is
endowed with the ability to sense, recognize and likely to become more explicit. Any unwanted
understand human emotions, together with the skills conductivity, such as an outbreak of a new disease,
to respond in an intelligent, sensitive, and respectful might constitute the basis for exclusive practices, in
manner toward the user and his/her emotions." I am which the questions of identity, politics, economy
curious as to how the Affective Computing research and intimacy intertwine, as the recent news on sars
would have to readdress its agenda, if the group epidemic have proved.
decided to develop an affective interface, requiring
corporeal contact, for public use instead of personal Abject skin
use. Let me imagine a public information system, an
arena for communal exchange that might greatly In the very beginning of her meditation on
benefit from being emotionally responsive. Could abjection, Julia Kristeva addresses abject as that
an implementation based on skin contact be used for which threatens the certainty of the border
such purpose? It seems to me that the design could separating the inside and the outside of the "I".
proceed in two directions, at least. Abjection emerges in a process in which a not-yet-
First, I could imagine a wearable interface that subject makes an effort to separate itself from what
would, perhaps wirelessly, connect into the public is to become an object. In Kristeva's words: "We
information system. Such an interface would remain may call it a border; abjection is above all
in personal use and become an additional skin-like ambiguity. Because, while releasing a hold, it does
layer. The actual, physical contact point between an not radically cut off the subject from what threatens
individual user and the public system would be it – on the contrary, abjection acknowledges it to be
technically mediated. There would be no skin in perpetual danger." (Kristeva, 1982, 9)
contact between the physical body of the user and In the context of Kristeva's account, one is then
the public information space. tempted to think about skin conductance, not as
This kind of solution would raise questions seamless and neat, but as a leaky process, in which
concerning the social contexts of use. Would there will be something, a leftover that cannot be
wearable interface elements constitute an exclusive mapped into the artefact. The inexplicable and
border between affective and non-affective nauseous uneasiness, evoked by the idea of skin
information access - and even a border between conductance turned bad, might suggest that this
accessible and inaccessible forms of information? uncertain terrain is the site of abjection. As the
This potential asymmetry in information access border between the inside and the outside of the
raises questions concerning information design, for body, skin embodies both psychical and corporeal
interfaces are not to be considered as external layers negotiations, in which the inside and the outside of
for information only. One may only imagine how the "I" becomes established. These negotiations as
tricky future information design might become in Kristeva suggests, constitute an ephemeral and

10

ambiguous process, in which the "I" may try to "letting go". Using breathing and balance in
violently separate itself from the part that threatens navigation is intuitive to certain point, for it is
its identity. impossible not to breathe. Interestingly, unlike the
Later, Kristeva has addressed the rejection of a Affective Computing research that treats bodily
"stranger" in the context of difference, associating it processes as non-controllable, involuntary
with the experience of otherness. What is not processes, Osmose lets the immersant use breathing
culturally assimilable becomes rejected. For her, the as a way to control one's movement. In other words,
process of positing the other as a stranger draws on in Osmose, the activity of breathing lingers between
the psychical mechanism, in which the disturbing uncontrollable and controllable. Davies has pointed
and irreducible otherness of the self is externalized. out the connection between her interface and the
(Kristeva, 1991, 191-192) The unthought matter of practice of breathing in meditation, in which
hygiene or "bad conductance", that in my reading breathing participates in altering the state of the
contaminates the margins of the Affective consciousness of the meditating subject. (Davies,
Computing overview, may also indicate the 1998: 1, 65-74)
exclusion of certain social realities. For, it might be In the space of Osmose the metaphoric skin and
that as soon as their existence was taken into the affective subject then form a chiasmatic entity.
account, designers would also have to deal with the Skin is no more the surface that envelops the
abject dimension of those realities as well as their subject, separating the inside and the outside. It
own otherness to themselves. becomes a porous entity, serving as the vehicle for
multiple transmissions. The name of the piece refers
to the biological process of osmosis involving
THE TRANSGRESSIVE SKIN OF OSMOSE passage from one side of a membrane to another.
For Davies, osmosis is a metaphor "for
Osmose, [7] an immersive interactive space, created transcendence of difference through mutual
by Char Davies was first introduced in the Museum absorption, dissolution of boundaries between inner
of Contemporary Art in Montreal during the and outer, inter-mingling of self and world."(Davies,
ISEA95. It is an immersive virtual environment, 1998: 1, 65-74)
utilizing stereoscopic 3D computer graphics and The thematic of the boundary breakdown in the
spatialized sound through real time interaction. The experience of the world is prevalent in both Davies'
"immersant", Davies' term for the user, enters own discourse and that of the commentators.
"Osmose" wearing a head-mounted display and a Drawing on phenomenology she intends to place the
motion capture vest with breathing and balance immersive subject into an embodied relation to the
sensor. The interface is highly body-centered; with virtual world in which that which differentiates the
breathing the immersant is able to rise and fall in inner and outer space is subject to constant flow and
space and with altering one's balance to change transmission to the extent of the dissolution of
direction. difference.
Osmose thus demonstrates a new, more physical
approach to the relationship between the perceiving Feminine space
body and the experiential virtual space. The
interface does not bracket out the bodily processes A lot has already been written about Osmose and
from the means of navigation. Sense of balance and the work of its originator, Char Davies. The way
breathing constitute an interactive surface that, Osmose is being presented both by Davies and her
while moving the body in the immersive space commentators, ascribes it to her vision in such an
simultaneously alter the physiological condition and extent that the discourse always seems to pass
state of the body. Deep breath does not only move through her personal experience as an artist, her
one down in relation to the stereoscopic 3D space unique position in the corporate world and her
but also brings more oxygen to the body and affects personal philosophy. It is as if Davies' person served
its physical and chemical balance. to hold together the various discourses through
which Osmose and the following Éphémère are
Boundary breakdown being accessed, for in them technological, corporate
and philosophical intermingle in an interesting way.
The interactive experience in Osmose is about Davies has also written extensively about her work,

11

particularly on its philosophical aspects. substrate, which is unlocatable in terms of inside-
Even though Davies does not explicitly ground outside dichotomy.
her discourse on Osmose in sexual difference – by The metaphoric skin of Osmose acquires
for instance making claims about the "femininity" of connotations both through technologized mediation
the Osmose's space – it is hard not to think about of the interface as well as through the physiological
Osmose in a gender specific way. Both she and her processes of the body. However, in the discourses
commentators suggest that Osmose provides an surrounding Osmose, the bliss of dissolution tends
alternative for the Cartesian representation of space, to forget both aspects of the mediating substrate.
which in the context of feminist theory has been Osmose is described as if opening an unmediated
criticized as the phallic acquisition of spatiality. [8] access to the experience of nature - or, in my
Moreover, many of the characteristics of the reading, to the maternal body. [11] However, as
interactive experience in Osmose, such as Morse points out emphatically, the immediate
embodiment, sensitivity, surrendering the desire for experience is only possible because of the second
control or the enveloping quality of space, are skin. As skin, the mediating interface surface masks
culturally coded as feminine rather than masculine. the very apparatus of that mediation. And as film
Also, because the discourse tends to pass through theory has so well demonstrated, a series of
Davies and her subjective experience, which is the negations and foreclosures are in operation when the
embodied experience of being a woman, it is mediating technology is organized to stay out of
difficult to resist the temptation to read Osmose as frame. (Morse, 1998, 134)
the articulation of a female experience of space.
However, I suggest, that it should rather be read as The invisible technological mediations
the fantasy of a female space, more specifically as
the fantasy of the maternal body. In Osmose, the artistic vision of Davies as well as
her ethical commitment to the questions of ecology
Immediacy of the maternal body is so tightly connected to the audiovisual
representation, the interface, and the discourses of
From the point of view of psychoanalytically Osmose that they might be seen symptomatic for
minded feminist thinking, Osmose is then most such a foreclosure. This is not to say, that Osmose
intriguing. It seems to me that Osmose, in a very would not be able to produce those deep and
extraordinary way, situates the subject in a space engaging psychical experiences that so many have
that is the other to the dominant mode of described. I seriously believe that the virtual worlds
representation. Davies herself has called Osmose a like Osmose could increase our sensitivity and our
"counter-environment". [9] But it can also be capability for empathy by placing us into the skins
thought of in terms of "second skin", a term of others, helping us to see from the embodied
proposed by Margaret Morse. Under the electronic perspectives of those others - and I believe, that in
skin, as Morse suggests, one can adopt the place of this, exactly, is the power of Osmose.
another persona and experience the virtual world as However, what needs to be interrogated - and not
if it was an immediate experience. (Morse, 1998, only in the context of Osmose – is how virtual and
132-133) embodied technologies while opening heightened,
Who then, is the affective subject in Osmose? immersive realities simultaneously foreclose others.
What characterizes the fantasy of the maternal body In other words, the beauty of Osmose may seduce us
is the lack of distance, needed for the constitution of from seeing its situatedness within the socio-
the subject and object in the symbolic relation of technical networks of production. The discourse
representation. [10] It seems then, that the addressing Osmose as the site of privileged
immediacy of the experience within the embodied subjective experience and the body as its ultimate
interface of Osmose provides access to this fantasy. grounding risks forgetting Osmose's position as one
In other words, Osmose draws the user into the of the technologies of the self, that, perhaps
fantasy in which the not-yet-subject is not separable increasingly, will be used for aligning subjects into
from the maternal body. Interaction in Osmose is the socio-technical networks of the future.
mediated simultaneously by the motion capture vest
and the chemical balance induced in breathing, in
such a way that these two constitute a diffuse

12

INTER_SKIN AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF object for the communication. There is no way to
HETEROSEXUAL ENCOUNTER forget myself or hide out what actions I take. If I
touch my genitals, you will feel that I touch them. In
Inter_skin [12] consists of a datasuit designed for this way a very direct form of communication
mediating touch by Stahl Stenslie. Its preliminary arises."
version, cyberSM by Stenslie and Kirk Wolford was Now, for me, what seems to be arising is a series
presented in the ISEA'94 art exhibition in the of questions concerning the embodied subjectivities
Helsinki Ateneum. [13] Where cyberSM still used in datasuits. What exactly does direct
visual interface for controlling the remote communication mean in this context? If Stenslie
environment, inter_skin wraps around the user like touches his genitals, how am I supposed to
another skin. Inter_skin is intended for sharing an experience that? For, me being a woman, something
affective space with another affective and sensual would certainly have to be reconfigured in the
subject. The interface enveloping user's body is datasuit. And after that reconfiguration, how direct
designed to transmit affective touch in such a way would communication be? The idea of direct
that it becomes the extension of the user's skin both communication that inter_skin is built on, then
receiving and passing stimuli. As Stenslie describes seems to foreclose the possibility for heterosexual
the interface: "The main emphasis of the relation, for one to one mapping would require two
communication is in the transmission and receiving similar bodies.
of touch. By touching my own body I transmit the There are two images depicting inter_skin. One
same touch to my recipient. The strength of the shows an androgynous figure posing with the
touch is determined by the duration of the touch. datasuit. The other shows the upper torso of a male
The longer I touch myself, the stronger stimuli you figure engaged in an activity that takes place below
will feel." In addition to touch, the user in inter_skin the frame of the picture. The image that schematizes
can communicate with voice. the full androgynous body has erased any signs of
As the material on this case is still relatively sexual difference and only indicates with an arrow
sparse, consisting only of a short description in the place in which sexual stimulation is supposed to
Stenslie's personal website, I will limit my take place. The way the inter_skin maps the
discussion of it in a few preliminary remarks. erogenous zones of the human body is then, to some
However, I think it merits a short discussion in the extent left for the imagination of the reader. The
context in which I have, more extensively, images and Stenslie's account suggest for me that in
addressed Affective Computing and Osmose. For inter_skin, the encounter between two similar
what is interesting in inter_skin is that it takes the bodies is not only homoerotic, but also, what Luce
issue of cyber sex and tries it out in the real world. It Irigaray designates as, hommoerotic, an encounter
helps to realize the missing sexual dimension of between two male bodies, which conceive of
embodiment that characterizes the discourses of themselves as universal.
both preceding cases. Inter_skin is about the sexual
aspect of affectivity. Stenslie specifically describes The unthinkable feminine body
interaction in terms of a sexual contact. However,
the sexual contact in inter_skin is quite difficult to For it seems to me, that the way inter_skin
imagine, for in it, strangely, autoerotic stimulation conceptualizes human sexual body, forecloses
and the touch of the other are mixed and mediated heterosexual relation, because in its terms the
by the datasuit. female body appears, to certain extent, unthinkable.
If the female body version of the inter_skin were
Autoeroticism specifically designed, the designer would have to
figure out how to map the hole that in the male
Stenslie himself brings up the importance of imaginary constitutes the female sexual organ. For
autoeroticism in his discussion. I will quote him in in such representational economy female body is not
length: "The fact that I must touch my own body in enveloped, it envelops.
order to send tactile information imply several How then, would this enveloping surface be
significant aspects to the communication. First of all conceptualized in terms of the technology
I must do to myself what I want my accomplice to constituting inter_skin? How can an enveloping
feel. This makes my own body to a self-referential surface be enveloped? Could inter_skin cover

13

something that is inside body? It seems to me, that these three interface solutions to the notion of skin
the negotiations, such a design task would have to has opened up some interesting spaces for further
engage in, would have to pass through the uncertain discussion. If skin in the Affective Computing
terrain of inside/outside ambiguity and the research is taken as the measurable substrate
impossibility of its representation. mediating between the affect and the computer, the
Inter_skin then seems to reproduce the old dream articulations of skin in the contexts of the Osmose
of symmetry of the self and the other, which here and the inter_skin seem to gather an abundance of
effectively erases the sexual difference from its cultural connotations that they both consciously and
system. But one may wonder how much the dream unconsciously play with.
of direct communication would turn out as a Engaging in a dialogue with them, I have wanted
fantasy, for even in the encounter between two male to show that affectivity cannot be conceived of in
bodies an endless series of experiences, memories isolation from the socio-technical and cultural
and meanings would inhabit the surfaces of the two production. In order to make some of the trajectories
bodies. of this production more visible; I have interrogated
For me, then, the potential of a system like the affective subjectivities constituted by them. I
inter_skin is not in the fantasy of direct have further inquired into the metaphoric power of
communication but in the recognition of the skin. In my discussion skin has figured as a
fundamental difference between two embodied technologically fabricated artefact and as the site of
selves. This is why the voice is important, as complex and conflictual meaning production. I have
Stenslie also points out. In my visions, evoked by shown that multiple literacies have been needed to
Stenslie's inter_skin, something like inter-skin could trace these various networks of production and
be conceived of as an intimate, acoustic space in particularly their intersections.
which tactile stories enumerating uncountable
differences would be shared. The “return of the repressed” in affective design
projects

CONCLUSION I have inspected closely those discourses framing
the three affective environments. What I have
The three cases that I have discussed are attempted to show is, that there will always be
fundamentally incompatible. They set out to explore something that the design leaves unthought, and that
the affective dimension in computing with varying what is left unthought is likely to have social
frames of mind and with different goals. It is also implications, invisible to the designers themselves.
important to notice how their idea of the affective Moreover, I have suggested that this unthought can
aspect of interaction varies. In Affective Computing be approached as the "repressed thoughts" of the
research, affect is understood as an emotional design process. In psychoanalysis the idea of the
reaction and as component of a regulatory feedback "return of the repressed" is conceived of as an
system consisting of the computer and the human inexplicable and uncanny insistence that comes to
user. The situation with Osmose and inter_skin is haunt the well-constructed realities of subjects.
quite different, for they both are interested in I have then investigated what is it that insists in
evoking affection. In Osmose, the interface each piece of affective technology, its context of use
enveloping body monitors respiration and balance, and the discourses in which it is framed. It is not
serving navigation in the virtual and immersive surprising then that the corporeal technologies
world. Inter_skin is intended to share an affective aiming at embodied and affective interaction tend
space with another affective and sensual subject. not to think embodiment in all its viscerality.
The interface that wraps around the user's body is Drawing on Julia Kristeva's notion of abjection I
designed to transmit affective touch in such a way have suggested that the foreclosure of certain
that it becomes the extension of the user's skin. embodied realities, which too intimately may come
By staging them against each other and by to touch upon the embodied realities of the
thematizing them in terms of skin, I have wanted to designers, might result in the foreclosure of certain
elaborate on that affective space that is emerging in social realities as well.
conjunction with the innovative design focusing on However, for a conclusion, I want to introduce a
corporeal interfaces. It seems to me that exposing more specific and a practical question, which the

14

dialogue between these three affective environments 7. http://www.immersence.com/
seems to propose. How should one, as a designer, immersence_home.htm
engage with the user? In other words, how should 8. see Irigaray (1990) see also my elaboration on
the designer place him or herself in relation to the Irigaray in the context of VR space, Tikka, (1994,
user? As Madeleine Akrich argues, in technology 1995)
development, more visibility is needed for the 9. Davies refers to McLuhan's concept of "counter-
processes in which user representations are formed environment" and Henri Lefevbre's idea of "counter-
and applied. Her account also suggests that space" in "Landscape, earth, body. being. Space and
designers should be aware of their tendency to time in the virtual environments of Osmose and
unproblematically slide themselves into the place of Éphémère" in "Women in New Media", ed. Judy
the user in the course of the design project. But as Mallory (Boston: MIT Press, 1998) see also
Lucy Suchman points out, neither should the Marshall McLuhan and Harley Parker. 1969.
designer isolate him or herself from the realities of Through the Vanishing Point: Space in Poetry and
users or the realities of technological production. Painting: New York. Harper & Row, 241, 252 and
Locatedness means increased sensibility to the Henri Lefevbre. Production of Space. 1991.
consequences of one's design decisions. Blackwell. Oxford, p. 407
Working from a situated and embodied 10. For an extended discussion of distance and the
perspective also means recognizing one's lack of it in representation, see my licentiate thesis
vulnerability. And this is what the dimension of "Negotiating Proper Distance", Tikka (1999).
abjection might suggest. Learning to engage with 11 As Char Davies puts it: "As technology Osmose
other located and embodied realities might mean does not seek to replace nature. Immersion within
learning to deal with the strange and the frightening Osmose is not a replacement for walking in the
within. It may be then, that as soon as the realities of woods. Osmose is a filtering of nature through
the others were addressed, as soon as difference artist's vision, using technology to distil or amplify
was, truly, taken into account, the designers of certain interpretive aspects, so that those who enter
affective computing systems would also have to Osmose can see freshly, can become re-sensitized,
negotiate their psychical relation to the irreducible, and can remember what it's like to feelwonder. In
inassimilable difference of the other. reminding people of the extraordinariness of simply
being alive in the world, Osmose acts as a
NOTES spatialtemporal arena where we ca perhaps re-learn
how to "be"." Davies (1998, 65-74)
1. http://www.media.mit.edu/affect/AC_affect.html 12. http://sirene.nta.no/stahl/projects/
2. http://www.immersence.com/ interskin/ise.html
immersence_home.htm 13. The work consisted of two suits and a graphical
3. http://sirene.nta.no/stahl/projects/interskin/ interface. However, it suffered from technical
ise.html difficulties and did not work for the most of the
4. http://www.media.mit.edu/affect/AC_affect.html exhibition. The presentation of the inter_skin does
5. The GSR Sensor measures skin's conductance not specify whether what is presented is a prototype
between two electrodes. These electrodes can be and how functional it is. For my purposes, the
attached to any part of the user's body, but are functionality of the piece does not matter, for what I
typically attached to the fingertips. Skin am interested in, is how it conceptualizes skin
conductivity is understood as the function of the discursively.
skin's pore size and the sweat gland activity, which
is controlled partly by the sympathetic nervous BIBLIOGRAPHY
system. When the subject experiences stress or
anxiety, the skin's conductance will increase rapidly Printed sources:
because of the increased activity of the sweat
glands. After the excitation of the sympathetic Adam, Alison 1998. Artificial Knowing: Gender
nervous system the skin conductivity will decrease and the Thinking Machine. London & New York:
gradually as the duct of the sweat gland fills and Routledge.
pours out. Akrich, Madeleine 1995. User Representations:
6. Riedel, Oliver & Deisinger, Joachim (1996) Practices, Methods and Sociology. In Managing

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Technology in Society: The approach of Other sources:
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Thomas J.Misa and Johan Schot. London & New Tikka, Heidi 1999. Negotiating proper distance.
York: Pinter Publishers. Licentiate thesis. UIAH, Helsinki.
Davies, Char 1998 (1). Osmose: Notes on Being in
Immersive Virtual Space. Digital Creativity, Digital publications:
Volume 9 Number 2
Davies, Char 1998 (2). Changing Space: VR as an Affective Computing
Arena of Being. In The Virtual Dimension, ed. John http://www.media.mit.edu/affect/AC_affect.html
Beckmann. New York: Princeton Architectural Cycorp
Press http://www.cyc.com/
Haraway, Donna J 1997. Immersence (Osmose)
Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan http://www.immersence.com/
©_Meets_OncoMouse™. London & New York: immersence_home.htm
Routledge. inter_skin project
Haraway, Donna J 1991. Simians, Cyborgs and http://sirene.nta.no/stahl/projects/interskin/ise.html
Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Riedel, Oliver & Deisinger, Joachim 1996.
Association Books. Ergonomic Issues of Virtual Reality Systems: Head-
Hofmann, Jeanette 1999. Writers, texts and writing Mounted Displays. In: Virtual Reality World 1996.
acts: gendered user images in word processing Conference documentation. Hudak Druck München.
software. In The Social Shaping of Technology, at:http://vr.iao.fhg.de/papers/hci/ergonomi-en.htm
Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman. Buckinham Suchman, Lucy 2000. Located Accountabilities in
& Philadelphia: Open University Press Technology Production (draft). pub. Department of
Irigaray, Luce 1992. Speculum of the Other Woman. Sociology, Lancaster University at:
Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. Tr. http://www.comp.lancs.ac.uk/
Gillian G.Gill. sociology/soc039ls.html
Irigaray, Luce 1990. This Sex Whic Is Not One. Tikka, Heidi 1995. Cyberspace - A feminist point of
Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. Tr. view. On line MuuMediaFestival proceedings. AV-
Catharine Porter. arkki, Helsinki, at:http://www.uark.edu/depts/
Kristeva, Julia 1991. Strangers to Ourselves. New comminfo/cmc/tikka.html
York: Columbia University Press. Tikka, Heidi 1994. Vision and dominance - A
Kristeva, Julia 1982. Powers of Horror: An Essay critical look into interactive systems. ISEA’94
on Abjection. New York: Columbia University conference proceedings
Press.
Kuutti, Kari 1997. Activity Theory as a Potential
Framework for Human-Computer Interaction
Research. In Context and Consciousness, ed. Bonnie
A.Nardi. Massachusetts & London: MIT Press.
Lenat, Doug 1998. From 2001 to 2001: Common
Sense and HAL. In Hal’s Legacy: 2001’s Computer
as Dream and Reality, ed. David G.Stork.
Massachusetts & London: MIT Press.
Morse, Margaret 1998. Virtualities: Television,
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Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

16

Lily Díaz-Kommonen (diaz@uiah.fi)
Mariana Salgado (msalgado@uiah.fi)

Interface Design and Usability Testing in the Digital Facsimile of
Map of Mexico 1550

This paper describes the usability test carried The concept of the Digital Facsimile
out as a part of the interface design to further
develop the Digital Facsimile of Map of Mexico Printed and material facsimiles of historical and
1550. The working method used brought insights archival artifacts are frequently used by scholars for
regarding the social and individual subjective research, as valid replacement for working with the
experience involved in navigating an interactive original. For reasons of security and preservation,
piece. The work also triggered reflections related facsimiles are also routinely used in exhibitions by
to user testing and experimental methods museums and libraries. Because of their value and
employed. It also defined the guidelines for the rarity, printed facsimiles are usually also exhibited
second version of the Digital Facsimile that is in glass containers, where they are out of the reach
presented from May of 2003 at the Gropius Bau of the public unable to peruse its contents. In
Museum in Berlin, Germany. contrast, researchers and audiences frequently raise
The Digital Facsimile of Map of Mexico 1550 is questions about both the accuracy and consistency
a work in progress of Systems of Representation of digital artifacts, with regards to their material
research group in Media Lab [1]. The Facsimile is counterparts.
being designed by Lily Díaz-Kommonen, Janne In spite of the fact that digitalization could solve
Pietarila, and Mariana Salgado. many problems regarding access to rare and unique
archival materials, traditional image scanning
BACKGROUND: THE MAP OF MEXICO techniques do not properly address many of the
needs and issues of museums and libraries that also
The map, that is thought to be the work of the noted happen to be major research centers. For one, these
Spanish cosmographer Alonso de Santa Cruz, is one methods cannot accurately transfer radiometric and
of only two known maps that give a fairly accurate volumetric properties of archival items made of
picture of the city of Mexico and its surrounding organic materials, such as parchment and vellum,
regions in the mid 16th century. The clearly drawn and which through the passage of time have
roads over the mountains to other parts of the acquired an almost three-dimensional topography.
country permit us to retrace the routes taken by the (Brown, 1994, 95) A sizable amount of archival
Spanish conquerors. The map also gives information artifacts in European libraries belong to this
about the ethnography and the flora and fauna of the category of parchment items.
region. The population is shown performing a
variety of activities, such as woodcutting, canoeing, The Map of Mexico 1550
hunting, and fishing. The approximately 150 glyphs
on the map, representing human and animal heads, As used in this project, the concept denotes a digital
feet, hands, circles and stars, refer to name places. representation of the original object of such a high
(Larsson, 2002, 492) quality, in terms of resolution, color and shape
accuracy, that it is accepted by researchers who
would normally require to get access to the material
version of the object. This is a significant feature

17

that distinguishes the proposed solution from other USABILITY TESTING AT THE MUSEUM OF CULTURES
“postcard” or “videogame” quality solutions, which IN HELSINKI
are mainly intended for non-expert audiences and
experiential purposes. This latter option makes it The usability test was conducted in March 2003.
possible to develop diverse types of digital cultural During four consecutive days, we carried out a
heritage artifacts targeted to different audiences. series of interviews in the Museum of Cultures,
The intensive data acquisition strategy presupposed Helsinki in order to test the current application and
for such a product could also ensure that there will to set the guidelines for future steps.
be enough for future generation products. A detailed user test plan was created before the
Digital Facsimiles offers significant benefits: they interviews, and some reformulation of this plan
can protect the original from excessive use, make appeared as the interviews were carried out. The
the material available in the best possible quality to people interviewed include some that were
the widest audience, and they provide the option of especially invited as well as normal visitors to the
reconfiguration and augmentation – the facsimile museum. For each of these two groups, we prepared
can be made a part of new works. a differentiated set of tasks and questions. Some of
the people invited were experts in anthropology,
history and education. All interviews were video
THE GAP BEWEEN A PROTOYPE AND A PRODUCT recorded for later analysis.
This was a special usability evaluation test,
The gap that exists between the model in the because the visitors to museums are a huge variety
designer’s mind and a final product that can be of people. At the same time it was not possible to
successfully employed by people has been a subject generate the conditions of a usability laboratory.
of research for quite some time. Donald Norman, for The advantage of this situation was that we
example, talks about the system that is the outcome collected a large amount of data coming from
of the designer’s effort and the system that emerges different sources. The disadvantages were that it
as a result of the user’s interaction with an artifact. was not possible to isolate the place, so in several
Between these two is a gap that results from the fact interviews we had other visitors to the museum
that designers do not really communicate directly observing the test. In these cases we observed the
with the user but rather, through the system reactions and comments of them, and consider this
image.[Norman, 1990] The system image results as a part of the data to analyze.
from the physical structure that has been built. In the During the interviews, we tried to answer the
case of the map, this includes the type of projection concerns about the interface using an open format
screen utilized, the tools for interaction itself, and for the questionnaire. We asked some questions
the types of screens available in addition to the map from all visitors, but depending on the performance
itself, such as the introduction and the help screens. of the user, we chose the order of them. We also
Yet in spite of the very thorough usability testing left some time for improvisation speaking freely
that can be done, at a more basic level, we will still about the project.
have the situation of being confronted with the We were as impartial as possible, not solving all
indeterminacy emerging from a complex system of the problems immediately, so as to stimulate the
interaction. As Nielsen points out: visitors to find their way in the application.
“A basic reason for the existence of usability Sometimes it was difficult not to help once we were
engineering is that it is impossible to design an there in front of the screen too, producing a dialogue
optimal user interface just by giving it your best with the visitor. Anyway all the observations were
try. Users have infinite potential for making based on the moments when the users needed help,
unexpected missing interpretations of interface trying to identify which features were difficult or
elements and for performing their job in a impossible to access without help.
different way than you imagine.” (Nielsen, 1993,
10) General characteristics, usability, and functionality
In this context, the main objective of the user
testing was to use the opportunity to evaluate and The usability goals were to make the navigation
improve the already existing interface. easy to understand. In the case of the application,
this translates into being able to find details of

18

special scientific interest while at the same time is a list of some of the problems that were identified:
preserving a mental image of the whole map. The - Lack of clarity with respect to functionality: The
new version of the interface aims to enhance the Moving button had an icon whose meaning was
experience of perusing through the map by giving unclear. Nobody who was asked could imagine what
the viewer an extreme close up view of the details, was the function of this button before pushing it.
providing the feeling of touching the map, allowing Also, the Intro button suggested to most users that it
for navigation according to different rhythms, and led to more information about the map. Instead it led
creating the feeling of being in front of an to the Title page that contained the name of the
augmented version of the map. application and developers information. This was
The older version of the application contained problematic, since most of the interviewees were
only two display screens: A Title page and the very curious about the map, asking a lot of questions
actual application with the image of the map and the related to the original map and to historical facts.
interface tool, or Button Area. (See image below.) Most of the people tried to drag the small
The original interface tool provided the following rectangle that was in the Button Area while doing so
functionalities: a Zoom-in button that provided a they touched different points of this small map. The
magnification of 16 times the original, a Zoom-out delay in this function provoked people to continue
button that zoomed down to a view of the whole touching in this area without understanding the
map, an Intro button that led to the Title page of the results. The program remembered all the points
application, and Moving button that allowed the touched and began to jump, confusing the user.
user to move the entire Button Area. - Incorrect positioning of the interface elements:
The whole Button Area was positioned in the
bottom right corner of the screen, with the button in
the upper left corner being the most visible. In the
old version the Intro button was in the upper left
hand corner. This seemed to suggest to some users
that they should press this button before the others
with the result that the first interaction would bring
them back to the Title page.
- Unclear use of the interface elements: The
buttons should work only when they are touched in
the center. As the borders between the buttons and
the small map were thin, there were
misunderstandings. For example, sometimes users
Image 1. Older version of interface tool, or Button Area. wanted to push the button and they went to the
Clockwise starting at upper left corner: the Zoom-in button, the corner of the screen because in fact they were
Moving button, the Intro button, and the Zoom-out button. touching one point inside the small map of the
Button Area.
Inside the Button Area, there was a reduced map Because it was not done from the Button Area,
image with a rectangle framing the area currently some people did not find at all the function of
displayed on the screen. Touching a section of this dragging and moving the map. This state of
map image also allowed the user to move from one uncertainty may also be related to the fact that for
section of the map to another, while maintaining the the test, we used a very large touchable screen.
same magnification level. This was supposed to help Since this is an unfamiliar gadget for general users,
to orient the user in the navigation of the map. they did not realize that they could touch it unless
Outside the Button Area, there was also the they were specifically invited to do so.
functionality of being able to select and drag the - Unclear indication of current application state:
entire map to all sides of the screen. The map could be left in a position occupying only a
quarter of the big screen. This sight can make the
Observation and concrete problems identified map uninteresting for the next visitor, who sees only
a quarter of image of the map on the screen.
The observations were based on testing and
discussion of the older version of the interface. Here

19

From the observations to the new version exhibition at the Gropius Bau Museum in Berlin,
Germany. For this version, we have added a Home
A deep, and thorough analysis of the video data screen as first page. (See Image 2) It has a sign
gathered still remains to be performed, however the inviting the visitors to touch the screen. The screen
usability test has been a useful way to identify also includes the title of the project, information
problems. Here is an example of how a problem was about the developers, and the URL of the web site
identified that was extracted from an interview: where people find more information about the
”Subject 1: Intro... research project.
Subject 2: Yes, Intro. We have also added an Intro screen that has some
Interviewer: Where do you think this button will information about the original map. This serves the
lead you? purpose of providing some historical details, as well
Subject 2: Something about the history of that… the as relating the digital application to the original
background of the whole project. [She presses it and map. (See Image 3)
arrives at the Intro screen.]
Subject 1: No, it is just the beginning.”
Additionally, some of the suggestions that came
from the users were implemented. This was the case
with the changes made to Intro screen. Here is an
example extracted from another interview:
“Interviewer: When you go to the Intro, which kind
of information would you like to have?
Subject 3: No just the date, as much as I know
about the original, about where is it know, more
about the library, and the actual material, the
physical material, the size, basic data that you can
relate this version to the original artifact. The story
referring to the original sources, because this seems Image 4. The Intro screen
the original, but is not the original.
Interviewer: Do you think it was difficult to A Help screen has also been added. It can be
understand how to navigate it? reached from the Intro screen and it is a clear and
Subject 3: It was easy.” simple guide to help users in their first steps. In case
that nobody has touched the computer screen for
General description of principal changes in the new more than two minutes, the application
version automatically returns to the Home screen.

Image 2. The Home Screen
Image 5. The Help screen.

After these observations we defined aspects that
could be improved for a new version. This version The Button Are was re-designed. The buttons
was especially developed for the AZTECS inside were repositioned. This allowed us to place

20

the Zoom-in button, which is also the one used at unexpected movements. This happened once with a
the beginning, in a privileged position, on the upper group of ten-year old girls, and another time with
left hand corner. A Reset button was added. This two young men whose age is around twenty-seven.
button resets, or returns, the application to its initial The older people interviewed were most
state that shows a view of the whole map. precautious, waiting their turn to approach the map
We think that the functionality previously but giving advices or suggesting what to do.
assigned to the Moving button is clearer. This In order to enjoy the experience of perusing
functionality has now been placed on the top bar of through this map, one needs a bit of time. The
the Button Area where we have also added arrows persons that came to the museum took the time and
to indicate directionality. Our rationale for this they had positive reactions towards the map. They
change is that this task affects only the Button Area found it especially pleasing to drag and move the
and not the image of the map on the screen. map with their hands on the screen and to have the
possibility to see in detail an interesting part of the
item.
We think that part of the feedback we received
was positively influenced by the fact that the
interviewees knew that we were doing the survey on
a project that we had done by ourselves. However,
this fact did not prevent the exchange of opinions,
and we received a lot of good critique that will
inform newer versions. For example: Some people
tried to find in this application the same features
Image 6. Revised interface design for Button Area. Clockwise commonly used in popular interactive media and
starting on the upper left hand corner: Zoom-in button, Intro
button, Home page button, Reset button, and Zoom-out button. CD-ROMs: In order to “open” other links with
different information, they clicked on different parts
The color that the buttons assume when they have of the map. We explained why, at this point, we
reached their operational limits, such as is the case didn’t want to put links and described the concept of
when you cannot zoom in any further, has been Digital Facsimile. We found that the concept is not
changed from blue to gray. Also, since it was easy to understand for those who are not art
deemed to be confusing, the function of moving historians or who are not familiar with the genre of
from one section of the map into another by facsimiles as a whole. It is anticipated that the
touching inside the small map in the Button Area concept will be modified as the project is further
has been eliminated. developed.

Social and individual subjective experience CONCLUSION

We think that there are two ways to experience the The Digital Facsimile intends to give the user the
map, social and individual. The social experience experience of being in front of an augmented
occurs when there is more than one person in front version of the original map. The current design
of the map. For example, it can be that the other represents the culmination of the first stage of the
person, the one not touching the screen, enjoys it project. It is an interactive display that provides
passively, or gives suggestions of how to use it. In visitors with an easy and simple way to handle a
both of the cases, s/he is actively participating digital replica. It also allows detailed examination of
enjoying and navigating the map, with the rhythm of the item.
the one that is actively interacting. During the second stage, a 3D stereographic
In some cases it happened that two or more of the model incorporating volumetric data derived from
users wanted to interact with the map at the same the already existing photographs of the map will be
time. Perhaps the big touchable screen motivated produced. A website version that displays the map
several users to approach simultaneously. The and also allows for compilation, dissemination, and
application is a single user application, so it was not sharing of information is also being created.
prepared for this kind of use. But the users in such The potential future directions are to propose
cases found a great deal of fun, observing the product solutions that involve the creation of a

21

museum piece, a professional research instrument,
and an educational tool. As a museum piece and as
an educational tool, the objective will be to extend
the project into an interactive media exhibit that
includes data related to Mexico City, thus tracing a
link between the historical features and the current
daily life in the city. As a professional tool for the
researcher, the Digital Facsimile will have the three-
dimensional aspect that is part of the original
version. We would also like to add some type of
sound feedback.
The results of this evaluation validated the three
potential future directions for the project since the
user test indicated the necessity of having
differentiated interactive products for the three
probable contexts of use. At the same time, it
confirmed that the expectations of different users
couldn’t be fulfilled in a universal efficient tool. The
project will benefit if these three directions are
developed in parallel. In that way, we will have the
possibility to compare issues about the roles and
implications of an interactive media project tied to
its context of use.

NOTES

1. http://cipher.uiah.fi/Systems_of_representation.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Brown, Michelle. 1994. Understanding Illuminated
Manuscripts, A Guide to Technical Terms, The J.
Paul Getty Museum and The British Library.
Larsson, Lars-Olof, Díaz-Kommonen, Lily. 2002.
“Catalogue Entries” in Aztecs, Thames & Hudson,
Ltd., London, UK.
Norman, Donald. 1990. The Design of Everyday
Things, Basic Books, New York, pg 16-33..
Nielsen, Jacob. 1993. Usability Engineering,
Academic Press, Boston,

22

Jazmín Avilés Collao (javiles@uiah.fi)
Lily Díaz-Kommonen (diaz@uiah.fi)
Mauri Kaipainen (mauri.kaipainen@uiah.fi)
Janne Pietarila (jpietari@uiah.fi)

Soft Ontologies and Similarity Cluster Tools to Facilitate
Exploration and Discovery of Cultural Heritage Resources

In this essay, we describe a system and tools repositories containing cultural heritage knowledge
that we are creating and that allows us to on a global scale. We want to use these tools to
produce similarity (SC) cluster representations empower visitors to investigate, navigate, and
of the contents of our Culture Heritage (CH) research the contents of the CH Forums created. In
Forum, namely the Exploring Carta Marina addition, users will be encouraged to produce their
Forum at Harkko Museum in Raisio. The concept own personal spaces, as well as shared spaces
of the CH Forum is being developed as part of owned by emerging communities of interest.
the CIPHER project. CIPHER, which stands for
Communities of Interest to Promote the Heritage Cultural Heritage Artifacts
of European Regions, is a research and
development project at the Media Lab that is The system is being tested with two cultural
funded as part of the IST Programme’s 5th heritage artifacts: A Description of the Northern
Framework. The motivation for introducing these People, 1555, and the Carta Marina of 1539. Olaus
types of technologies in the context of cultural Magnus, the last Catholic bishop of Uppsala,
heritage materials is to allow the use of spatial Sweden is the author of both of these items.
vector-based computational techniques that Considered by many to be one of the great
result in similarity mapping. achievements of European cartography, Carta
We propose that similarity mappings can be Marina provided the first comprehensive description
used to build navigation tools that enable users of the landscape, the people, and the customs of the
to explore these types of materials without Nordic region. In addition to documenting many of
knowing the search parameters in advance. the ethnographic aspects, the pictorial elements also
Also, this method of access to cultural heritage elaborate the mythical narratives of the region. This
materials might be less dependent of a priori is particularly true of the myriad representations of
determined ontologies than conventional monstrous figures included in the map. The map
curatorial practices. This is on line with our final consists of nine separate wood-cut sheets put
objective of developing representation methods together into a map, the total size of which is 1,25 m
and visualization tools that describe cultural x 1,70 m.
heritage material while at the same time allowing It can be argued that the Description of the
the user freedom to interpret the material, i.e. the Northern People, 1555, is the written counterpart of
open interpretation approach. Carta Marina. It is a chronicle written in Latin
containing 22 Books. Each Book is further
INTRODUCTION subdivided into chapters for a total of 778 chapters.
The work examines the history, landscape, beliefs
One of the aims of the CIPHER project is to and customs of the people in the Nordic countries.
develop innovative technologies and methodologies
that enable the exploration of large information

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