This thesis aims at exploring how probabilistic reasoning arises in explorative learning situations that are random in nature. The focus is especially on what learners with scant experience of formal theories of probability do and can do when dealing with compound random situations in which they are offered opportunities to integrate different probabilistic lines of reasoning. Three studies were carried out for the purpose of gaining an understanding of how learners’ probabilistic reasoning is organised and re-organised in explorative, random-dependent situations. In two of the studies 12 to 13 year-old students acted within a dice-game setting, which was based on the total of two dice. The third study examined 14 to 16 year-old students’ ways of dealing with ICT-versions of compound, independent events viewed in a random-dependent ramified structure. To uncover the basis and the content of the students’ reasoning, behaviour has been regarded in terms of intentions. That is, to understand and make sense of the students’ reasoning, their activities have been matched and re-matched with conjectures about their intents to fulfil certain goals. Although the students were acting on the same learning material, the analyses revealed various kinds of probabilistic reasoning among the students. It has been argued that students’ various ways of dealing with chance encounters may be understood and explained with reference to the ways in which they interpret the learning situations. Thus, this thesis suggests that probabilistic reasoning takes form through a process of contextualisation, i.e. through a compound process where the cognitive activity oscillates between interpretations and reflections about context, the focal event and new information that comes into play. This thesis reveals that students, prior to instruction, are able to devise ideas of an underlying probability distribution in the case of compound random phenomena. The students bring into the discussion geometrical and numerical considerations, as well as arguments reflecting principles of the law of large numbers.

Spontaneous interactions and chance encounters are important for establishing a sense of connection and shared identity for colleagues since they are a natural possibility for informal conversations, but when work is moved from the physical shared offices to digital workplaces it is no longer as easy to run into a colleague by the coffee machine and just chat for a couple of minutes. This thesis examines what factors are needed in order to create a structure where digital spontaneous interactions could happen. To do this, ten interviews were conducted with people who had been working from home during the pandemic of Covid19, examining what structures for communication and socialisation already existed and that were used. The study showed that the social aspects of work had been missing when the work was done from home and not from the office. It also showed that organized social activities was common among the interviewees, but not always successful nor popular. The study found few workplaces that had created structures that could be the start of establishing possibilities for spontaneous interactions and chance encounters. By taking inspiration from those cases, and looking at previous research, the study found three main factors for creating spontaneous interactions. Creating passive awareness of colleagues; finding ways to present availability; and establishing digital communal areas were all important factors for creating spontaneous interactions. / Spontana interaktioner är viktiga för att skapa en sammanhållning och delad identitet mellan kollegor eftersom de ger en naturlig möjlighet för informella konversationer, men när arbetet flyttas från de fysiska kontoren till digitala arbetsplatser är det inte längre lika enkelt att träffa på en kollega i fikarummet och prata en liten stund. Den här uppsatsen undersöker vilka faktorer som krävs för att skapa kommunikationsstrukturer där spontana interaktioner skulle kunna ske. Tio intervjuer genomfördes med personer som hade arbetat hemifrån under Covid19 pandemin, för att undersöka vilka strukturer för kommunikation och socialisering som redan existerade och utnyttjades. Studien visade att de sociala aspekterna av arbetet hade saknats under hemarbetsperioden, samt att organiserade sociala aktiviteter var vanliga men inte nödvändigtvis lyckade eller populära att delta i. Ett tydligt gap mellan behov och tillgång, där några arbetsplatser gjort försök att minska klyfta. Med inspiration från de fallen, i kombination med resultat från tidigare forskning, lyckades studien hitta tre huvudfaktorer som behöver tas i åtanke för att kunna skapa digitala spontana interaktioner. Att skapa passiv medvetenhet för kollegor; hur man presenterar om en kollega är tillgänglig för kommunikation; och att skapa gemensamma utrymmen är viktigt för att ge möjlighet till spontana interaktioner.

Lost&Found Videothek is the concept for an interactive video library thought for users engaged in an exploratory research mode, in which content is organized according to a collaborative, subjective and implicit indexing system for the enhancement of serendipity. This idea was the result of a design-based research with a user-centered approach in the field of information retrieval. With the use of design methods such as heuristic UX evaluation, co-sketching, and other original design experiments, the project aimed at identifying the most valuable qualities of physical and digital libraries in order to integrate them within one retrieval system.

The photographic series Ideal Cities that I started in 2011 is inspired by the conflict between my idea of the “west” and my evolving experience in the United States. What struck me was the popularity of what I see as model experience – a spatial experience controlled by the Spectacle. In the terms of the Situationist International and its most prominent figure Guy Debord, the Spectacle is the collapse of reality into the streams of images, products and activities sanctioned by centralized monopolist business or state bureaucracy. Thus, personal experience is replaced with preconceived notions, which control the way people perceive and understand their surroundings.