An important capacity that is still lacking in intelligent systems such as robots, is the ability to use concepts in a human-like manner. Indeed, the use of concepts has been recognised as being fundamental to a wide range of cognitive skills, including classification, reasoning and memory. Intricately intertwined with language, concepts are at the core of human cognition; but despite a large body or research, their functioning is as of yet not well understood. Nevertheless it remains clear that if intelligent systems are to achieve a level of cognition comparable to humans, they will have to posses the ability to deal with the fundamental role that concepts play in cognition. A promising manner in which conceptual knowledge can be acquired by an intelligent system is through ongoing, incremental development. In this view, a system is situated in the world and gradually acquires skills and knowledge through interaction with its social and physical environment. Important in this regard is the notion that cognition is embodied. As such, both the physical body and the environment shape the manner in which cognition, including the learning and use of concepts, operates. Through active partaking in the interaction, an intelligent system might influence its learning experience as to be more effective. This work presents experiments which illustrate how these notions of interaction and embodiment can influence the learning process of artificial systems. It shows how an artificial agent can benefit from interactive learning. Rather than passively absorbing knowledge, the system actively partakes in its learning experience, yielding improved learning. Next, the influence of embodiment on perception is further explored in a case study concerning colour perception, which results in an alternative explanation for the question of why human colour experience is very similar amongst individuals despite physiological differences. Finally experiments, in which an artificial agent is embodied in a novel robot that is tailored for human-robot interaction, illustrate how active strategies are also beneficial in an HRI setting in which the robot learns from a human teacher.

During the last decade of the twentieth century both ’manhood’ and gender studies seems to have undergone changes. With the field of masculinity and the critical studies of men, added as ’subsections’ of broader gender studies, new knowledge has been produced to better grasp the production of gender and power relations of patriarchy. During the same decade as the ’metrosexual’ first appeared of the urban stage, acts of homophobia and attitudes towards ’manhood’ seems to have changed. The ’macho’ ideal from the eighties apparently gave way for a more inclusive and gentle masculinity and this ’softening’ of men resulted in ’the new man’ or ’new masculinity’. Brittish journalist and author Mark Simpson, who published the first ’obersvation’ of metrosexuality back in the nineties, now proposes that a new generation of metrosexual men have entered the international stage of masculinity. He calls them ’spornosexuals’. According to Simpson they are the heirs of the metrosexuals widened or feminized masculinity but instead of ’new man’ attitudes, fashion and grooming they focus their attention towards their own well chiseled, lean muscular and defined male bodies. This paper reviews academic texts on men, masculinity and the male body in an attempt to create a sociological understanding of the spornosexual expression and practice. / Under slutet av förra seklet verkade både ”manlighet” och genusvetenskap ha förändrats. Med nya fält som maskulinitet och kritiska mansstudier breddades studier av genus och ny kunskap har producerats för att bättre belysa produktionen av genus och patriarkala maktrelationer. Samma årtionde som den ”metrosexuella” mannen dök upp, verkade homofobi ha minskat och attityder kring manlighet förändrats. ”Macho-idealet” från åttiotalet hade till synes givit vika för en mera öppen och mildare maskulinitet, och denna mjukare manlighet resulterade i föreställningar om ”den nya mannen”. Journalisten Mark Simpson, som myntade begreppet ”metrosexualitet”, föreslår nu att en ny generation av metrosexuella klivit upp på den internationella maskulina scenen. Han kallar dem ”spornosexuella”. Enligt Simpson är de arvtagare av metrosexualiteten, men istället för mode och hår- och hudvård fokuserar de spornosexuella på sina egna välformade muskulösa manliga kroppar. Denna uppsats försöker genom akademiska texter om män, maskulinitet och den manliga kroppen sociologiskt belysa spornosexualitet.

The purpose of this study is to conduct an investigation of the lived experiences of asthma and sporting embodiment in non-elite sportspeople of different ages and levels of ability, involved in a range of sports. Asthma is characterised as a breathing disorder and the aim of this research is to add to embodied literature by providing ‘fleshy’ realities of the moving, sweating, sensuous sporting body, which holds meanings, purposes and interests for people who experience sport with asthma. Breathing is not only a physiological process, but it is also cultural and people may deal with their asthma symptoms in ways that reflect cultural attitudes embedded in sport. This qualitative study addresses five exploratory questions: 1) How do sportspeople experience asthma? 2) How do sportspeople negotiate their asthma and sporting identities? 3) How do emotional dimensions play a role in sportspeople’s asthma and sporting experiences? 4) How do perceptions of environment and illness shape one another by examining the relationship between the body, the self and environment? 5) What is the role of trauma in sportspeople with asthma? 6) How do key senses (sound) play a role in sportspeople’s asthma and embodied sporting experiences? Through a symbolic-interactionsist and phenomenological-inspired approach, this research places emphasis on the mind-body-self nexus in relation to sensory experiences with a focus upon the centrality of the ‘visceral’ body in the relationship between self-consciousness and the self. A bodily disruption (e.g., asthmatic attack) is likely to heighten awareness of the body-self and contingency and may amplify how sportspeople listen to their own embodied selves when engaged in sporting action. Therefore, sportspeople may become even more acutely aware of, and attuned to, their breathing in ways that link the physiological, the psychological, the social and the environment. This may lead to a permanent re-ordering/negotiation of identities (e.g., athletic identity - asthma identity) through ‘emotion work’ and ‘somatic (auditory) work’ in which a concern with the body is central. The findings are represented as a typology consisting of Conformers, Contesters and Creators, which may be used as a framework to assist health care and sporting professionals in developing more appropriate and effective rehabilitation regimes for sportspeople, in order to improve the quality of treatment and outcomes.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

This study explores the human and technical limitations of looking and seeing. It proposes a model for design that expands technical sight toward harmony with our human notion. It proposes a model for design that expands technical sight toward harmony with our human notion. This study is guided by the phenomenological experience of being expressed primarily by Heidegger as well as neuro-physiological research on the mind and body relationship by Ramachandran, Sacks Nicolelis and Damasio. It examines, in two paths, the technical developments that seek to alter or enhance our ways of looking and seeing. The first path is an assessment of ways of looking with optics-based cameras that includes how cameras might be set to look, how they behave in looking and how they translate that look into an image on display. The second path is an assessment of the image in varying states of readiness which include the capture state, state of rendering (for view) and state of display. The study uncovers the various ways that images are translated to be seen, and how sight and ocular vision might be detached in the process of imprinting what is seen in the imagination. It includes key examples of modern image device capabilities, makes suggestions about how the framework of this study can be applied in specific cases and predicts the state of image devices in the future.

My research is comprised of two connected components – a written report, and an original artwork. In the written segment of the research, I critically assess arguments sourced from digital theorists writing mainly in the 1990s, who positioned “cyberspace” as means of bodily escape, physical transcendence and disconnection from lived reality. I link their writings to a larger notion of technological determinism. I use a combination of theoretical sources and case studies to argue that these determinist attitudes are being challenged by the emergence of a recent artistic practice (termed “locative art”), itself made possible through changes in the understanding of the integration of digital information into the material world. The second part of my research consists of an original locative work, entitled “Tree ID”. It is integrated into my written research in my third chapter, in which I discuss the technical function and conceptual background of the work. “Tree ID” functions alongside my case studies as an artistic response to technological determinism, and, additionally, as a practical investigation into the South African context of locative art.

Esta dissertação tem como principal objeto de estudo as interações sociais, que envolvem performances chamadas de cegueira, deficiência visual, baixa visão, vidência e correlativos. O objetivo desta pesquisa é descrever tais performances em termos de acionamentos de categorias de nomeação, sinais distintivos e atributos qualificativos. Pretende-se refletir sobre os processos de negociação e incorporação das mesmas na constituição do eu dos atores. Entre os pressupostos teórico-metodológicos, optou-se por uma aproximação com aspectos do modelo teatral de Goffman e da teoria da significação de Bourdieu. Para a construção dos dados, realizou-se observação participante principalmente em institutos especializados. / This dissertation focus on the performances of \"visual disability\", \"blindness\", \"low vision\" and seeing, through social interactions. Its main objective is to describe and to analyze these performances as the use of the nomination categories, distinctive signs and qualifying attributes. Furthermore, I present the processes of embodiment of these representations and its importance for the constitution of the actors \"self\". The theoretical and methodological assumptions rely on aspects of Goffmans dramaturgical perspective and Bourdieus theory of meaning. The data were developed through participant observation at specialized institutes.

Herta Müller represents physical suffering and repression in her works, often reflecting on the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, and her constant interest in language and reflexivity towards writing have led her to develop sophisticated metaphors that she uses to illuminate language and its functioning under such subjugation. With reference to her fiction and non-fiction, I demonstrate how she uses concrete ideas to understand linguistic phenomena. She evokes injury, destruction, force, life, space, touch, silence, and other bodily experiences to make sense of language in the condition of suffering from social oppression. Drawing on conceptual metaphor theory within the framework of cognitive literary studies, I argue that Müller both relies on and estranges the ways in which people speak and think about language. Language is imagined differently depending on the circumstances and in close relationship with various sensory experiences. The complexity of the relationship between language and thought problematises the process of metaphor building and makes it difficult to identify its key aspects across different contexts and sensory modalities. Müller’s tropes are easy to experience, but difficult to analyse. The idea of language does not exist as a stable concept and is regularly reimagined in her texts; but its meaning is not arbitrary and depends on bodily experience. While Müller evokes such experience to understand language in the condition of suffering, she can also use linguistic concepts to elucidate more abstract ideas. Language can be regarded as an abstract or concrete phenomenon depending on the relevant bodily, linguistic, and cultural contexts. This project contributes to the study of Müller’s poetics as well as to the literary critical interpretation of embodied cognition, and develops the use of conceptual metaphor theory for literary analysis. It also seeks to develop understanding of the role of bodily experience in the metaphorical conceptualisation of language.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T18:12:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Beatriz de Almeida Pacheco.pdf: 5804317 bytes, checksum: 1c55c0fe5bb047261312a4e986f7cbde (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-05-13 / This research discusses the issue of the experiences offered by digital devices from its interfaces and interactions in the context of ICTs, and aims to answer the following question: is it possible to create a set of heuristics based on externalist theories of philosophy of mind (Embodiment and Enaction) that contributes to the Interaction Design area development. As a hypothesis, I work toward a positive answer to the presented question, whereas from these interactions each person sets a differentiated cognitive and learning relationship, which makes his cognitive channels more complex. With the daily unique products launch and complex behavior, due to the technology advancement, people have to deal with new codes, which need some kind of learning. Considering a world increasingly represented by images, the visibility provided by machines becomes extremely important to construct reality, especially in Western cities and developed regions. This is replaced by a value of reality, since it is less susceptible to the subjectivity of the human eye. It points to the important connections between the individual experiences and their links to his repertoire acquired throughout life as a key to the process of knowledge construction. Finally it indicates that digital devices, while providing multichannel and multisensory interaction ends up favoring the establishment of such relations. Thus, part of the concept of experience (Varela and Maturana -­‐ the new look at our bodies able to see both physical structures and lived experiential structures) transits through its unique characteristics of, individuality and cognitive plurality. Secondly discusses the interaction between men and computers from their development paradigms: presents the area development in the facer of its history and introduces the art state of the projected area, instinctively or intentionally, experiences create knowledge. It deals, afterwards, with the communication and the communicative processes mediated by digital devices, discusses the design of their interfaces and the interactive possibilities in the light of the Interaction Design (Preece et al), Human Machine Interaction (Benyon) and Design of Experiment (Shedroff) -­‐ which increasingly consider the user as the center of the design process and the construction. Finally discusses the Experience as a contemporary form of learning that moves between the singular universal knowledge and the experimentation / A presente pesquisa discute a questão das experiências proporcionadas pelos dispositivos digitais a partir de suas interfaces e interações, no âmbito das TICs, e visa responder à seguinte questão: é possível criar um conjunto de heurísticas baseado nas teorias externalistas da filosofia da mente (Mente Incorporada e Enação) que contribua para o desenvolvimento da área de Design de Interação. Como hipótese, trabalho na direção de uma resposta positiva à pergunta apresentada, pois cada indivíduo estabelece, a partir de tais interações, uma relação cognitiva e de aprendizado diferenciada, que torna complexos seus canais cognitivos. Com o lançamento diário de produtos originais e de comportamento complexo, fruto do avanço da tecnologia, as pessoas tem que lidar com novos códigos, o que torna necessário algum tipo de aprendizado. Considerando um mundo cada vez mais representado por imagens, a visibilidade propiciada pelas máquinas adquire extrema importância na construção do real, sobretudo nas metrópoles ocidentais e regiões desenvolvidas. Esta passa a ter um valor de realidade, pois está menos sujeita à subjetividade do olhar humano. Aponta para a importância da ligação entre as experiências vividas pelo indivíduo e as ligações dessas com o repertório por ele adquirido ao longo da vida como elemento fundamental para o processo de construção do conhecimento. Finalmente indica que dispositivos digitais, ao propiciarem interações multicanais e multissensoriais acabam por favorecer o estabelecimento de tais relações. Dessa forma, parte do conceito de experiência (Varela e Maturana novo olhar sobre nossos corpos capaz de vê-­‐los tanto como estruturas físicas quanto como estruturas experienciais vividas) a partir de um levantamento histórico e transita por suas características de singularidade, individualidade e pluralidade cognitiva. Num segundo momento discute a Interação entre homens e computadores a partir de seus paradigmas de desenvolvimento: apresenta o desenvolvimento da área a partir de sua história e apresenta o estado da arte da área que projeta, instintiva ou intencionalmente, as experiências geradoras de conhecimento. Trata, posteriormente, da comunicação e processos comunicativos mediados por dispositivos digitais, discute o projeto de suas interfaces e possibilidades interativas à luz do Design de Interação (Preece et al), da Interação Humano Máquina (Benyon) e do Design de Experiência (Shedroff) que cada vez mais consideram o usuário como centro do processo de design e construção. Por fim discute a Experiência como forma contemporânea de aprendizado que transita entre o conhecimento universal e a experimentação singular.

A presença constante das imagens fotográficas, na contemporaneidade, evidencia-se em um cotidiano marcado pelo intenso uso da imagem fotográfica, levando a um olhar naturalizado e que, em princípio, não impacta a vida dos sujeitos. A partir da aliança entre o smartphone e o acesso à internet banda larga, nasce a fotografia conectada, da qual é difícil evadir, pois, em todos os momentos do cotidiano, podemos nos expor e nos comunicarmos numa fusão de fala e de imagem. Nos atuais estudos sobre comportamento informacional e práticas informacionais, falta compreensão de como os sujeitos fazem uso das imagens. Neste contexto, do ponto de vista do sujeito, cabe a questão - podemos identificar efeitos positivos ou negativos no uso de imagens fotográficas, na perspectiva da Ciência da Informação? O objetivo geral consistiu em analisar estudos sobre o uso da imagem na Ciência da Informação e, com base em critérios da Ontopsicologia, agregar valor aos estudos das práticas e comportamentos informacionais dos sujeitos frente a imagens fotográficas contemporâneas. O objeto de estudo comportou o uso dessas imagens fotográficas. A pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa e de natureza interpretativa, baseou-se em três fases: a) identificação de distintas formas de uso das imagens fotográficas, resultando em cinco práticas de uso: I. Imagem conectada; II. Imagem híbrida e reapropriada; III. Imagem e autorretrato; IV. Imagem efêmera; V. Imagem e os valores sociais. Uma vez identificados os usos, propomos: b) a identificação de funcionalidades (positivas ou negativas) no uso das imagens fotográficas. Após essas duas fases, com auxílio da Ontopsicologia, entendemos que o uso de imagens fotográficas e a funcionalidade desses usos devem estar associados à percepção visceral (organísmica) e desenvolvemos: c) um experimento. Neste, utilizamos 09 imagens fotográficas, analisadas por 20 adolescentes, em que objetivamos compreender o uso da percepção visceral com atenção voltada às variações emotivas. Ao analisarmos o uso da imagem fotográfica, concluímos que não podemos enfatizar apenas quais usos os sujeitos fazem da imagem, mas, sim, observar também o que a imagem ocasiona aos sujeitos, sugerindo, nesta pesquisa, portanto, que é a imagem que dá a funcionalidade (positiva ou negativa), e não o uso, isto é, a funcionalidade ou não funcionalidade, antes de tudo, dá-se pela imagem. Para conhecermos a funcionalidade, substancialmente, adicionamos o critério organísmico (visceral) ao critério lógico-racional. Por fim, é importante ainda salientar que o uso da imagem fotográfica conectada traz a característica do uso interativo, isto é, o sujeito se crê ativo na interação por meio das imagens fotográficas, mas é passivo diante da ação dos complexos. / The constant presence of photographic images nowadays is seen in a routine marked by an intense use of photographic images, accounting for a naturalized view upon images and giving the impression that they do not cause any impact on subjects. Since the alliance between the smartphone and broadband internet access, the connected photography comes to be, from which it is difficult to escape because at any moment in our daily life, we may expose ourselves and communicate with each other in a fusion between speech and image. In contemporary researches about information behaviour and information practices, such studies lack the comprehension of how subjects make use of images. In this context, from the subject\'s point of view, a question arises: can we identify the positive or negative effects in the use of photographic images according to Information Science? The main objective consisted in analyzing studies about the use of image in Science Information and according to the criteria of Ontopsychology, aggregating value to the studies about information behavior and information practices of subjects before contemporary photographic images. This research is of qualitative approach and of interpretative nature, focusing in three stages: a) identification of distinct ways of photographic image use, resulting in five practices of image use: I. Connected image; II. Hybrid reappropriated image; III. Image and selfie; IV. Ephemeral image; V. Image and social values. Once the uses were identified, carried out the b) identification of functionalities (positive and negative) in the use of photographic images. After these two stages, with the support of Ontopsychology, it was identified that the uses of photographic images and their functionalities must be associated with visceral perception (organismic perception) and developed c) an experiment. In this experiment, we used 09 photographic images were analyzed by 20 adolescents in which the aim was to comprehend the use of visceral perception with a focus on emotive variations. In analyzing the use of photographic image, rather it was concluded that one cannot emphasize only what uses such subjects make use but as well as to observe what the image causes in the subject hence suggesting, in this research, that it is the image that provides the functionality (positive or negative) and not the use itself, that is, the functionality or the non-functionality comes to be through the image. In order to know substantially the functionality, one must add the organismic (visceral) criterium to the logical and rational criterium. Lastly, it is important to highlight that the use of connected photographic image brings the characteristic of interactive use; the subject sees himself in the interaction through photographic images but becomes passive before the action of complexes.