Through description and analysis of the balancing and intersection of gender in the collaborative artist couples of Marina Abramović and Ulay, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, I make evident the separation between their public lives and their private lives, an element that manifests itself in unique and contrasting ways for each couple. I study the link between gendered negotiations in these heterosexual artist couples and this division, and correlate this relationship to the evidence of problematic gender dynamics in the artworks and collaborations.

Governance is a response to a recognition that traditional forms of decision-making have become inadequate to address complex societal and health problems generated by significant social and global changes (Chhotray & Stoker, 2009). The contributions of scientific and technical knowledge towards solving these complex problems have also been recognized as insufficient (Jasanoff, 2007). Community-based research (CBR) is an approach to research which is designed to make use of the knowledge of community and university members and their participation and collaboration ―in all phases of the research process, with a shared goal of producing knowledge that will be translated into action or positive change for the community‖ (Lantz, Israel, Schulz & Reyes, 2006, p. 239). However, although the contributions of lay knowledge have been acknowledged, how governance or collaborative decision-making is arranged in the context of community-based research is not well described in the literature. In order to address this knowledge gap, a study was undertaken in which in-depth interviews were conducted with community and university members of Canadian CBR collaborations to determine their governing experiences. Results are reported in a thesis by research papers. The first paper focuses on describing the governance structures that CBR collaborations used. In the second paper, the nature and content of problems which occurred in governing CBR collaborations, point to the importance of theory for conceptualizing and solving governance problems. To develop a theory of participation in governance of community-based research, the third paper uses Arnstein‘s theory of participation to propose a grounded theoretical basis for implementing participation in governance of CBR collaborations (Arnstein, 1969). Governance is a means of organizing, shaping and steering a course of decision-making. Governance is a critical component in the organization of knowledge production. Study and theory of governance in community-based research may help in improving understanding and implementation of a critical population health practice.

Collaboration is neither the ethos, nor the experience, of most professionals in health care. Nevertheless, the concept of collaboration has become increasingly popular in recent years, promising to enhance all aspects of work, academic, and political life. And while collaboration is a significant and complex phenomenon, it has not been clearly understood for its impact on health care professionals and their work, or for the factors that influence its success or failure. The purpose of the study was to explore the meaning of collaboration, as conveyed by the lived experience of health care professionals, as well as the interpersonal and interactional determinants and their impact on the outcomes of their collaboration. The conceptual paradigm of phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenological methods guided the research. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 health care professionals engaged in interprofessional practice in a novel community-based geriatric care program. The interviews were audiotaped and transcribed verbatim. Ricoeur’s procedural steps were used to analyze the transcripts. Acquiring the ‘real world’ experiences of health care professionals enabled the emergence of six themes: engaging in collective thinking and action to produce best outcomes and optimize clients’ health; responding to collaboration for self and other members as a continued work in progress; experiencing the personal and professional rewards as markers of success with collaboration; existing challenges create barriers that impede collaboration; experiencing the interactional dynamics of collaboration and their influences requires the interpersonal attributes of quality communication, openness, trust, and respect; and forming a common vision is necessary for collaboration but difficult to achieve. The findings of this study suggest that collaboration is a genuinely experiential phenomenon: it is a human process that requires leadership on the part of all health care professionals to negotiate and agree upon the processes that will enhance their relationships and are necessary for collaboration to unfold. This study produced a number of recommendations that can be offered to multiple stakeholders in the geriatric care setting, as well as extended to those in the other domains of health care.

Sensemaking (i.e. the process of deriving meaning from complex information to make decisions) is often cited as an important and challenging activity for collaborative technology. A key element to the success of collaborative sensemaking is effective coordination and communication within the team. It requires team members to divide the task load, communicate findings and discuss the results. Sensemaking is one of the human activities involved in visual analytics (i.e. the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces). The inherent complexity of the sensemaking process imposes many challenges for designers. Therefore, providing effective tool support for collaborative sensemaking is a multifaceted and complex problem. Such tools should provide support for visualization as well as communication and coordination. Analysts need to organize their findings, hypotheses, and evidence, share that information with their collaborators, and coordinate work activities amongst members of the team. Sharing externalizations (i.e. any information related to the course of analysis such as insights, hypotheses, to-do lists, reminders, etc recorded in the form of note/ annotation) could increase awareness and assist team members to better communicate and coordinate their work activities. However, we currently know very little about how to provide tool support for this sort of sharing. This thesis is structured around three major phases. It consists of a series of studies to better understand collaborative Visual Analytics (VA) processes and challenges, and empirically evaluate design ideas for supporting collaborative sensemaking. I investigate how collaborative sensemaking can be supported during visual analytics by a small team of collocated analysts. In the first phase of this research, I conducted an observational study to better understand the process of sensemaking during collaborative visual analytics as well as identify challenges and further requirements. This study enabled me to develop a deeper understanding of the collocated collaborative visual analytics process and activities involved. I found that record-keeping plays a critical role in the overall process of collaborative visual analytics. Record-keeping involves recording any information related to the analysis task including visualization snapshots, system states, notes, annotations and any other material for further analysis such as reminders and to-do lists. Based on my observations, I proposed a characterization of activities during collaborative visual analytics that encompasses record-keeping as one of the main activities. In addition, I characterized notes according to their content, scope, and usage, and described how they fit into a process of collaborative data analysis. Then, I derived guidelines to improve the design of record-keeping functionality for collocated collaborative visual analytics tools. One of the main design implications of my observational study was to integrate record-keeping functionality into a collaborative visual analytics tool. In order to examine how this feature should be integrated with current VA tools, in the second phase of this research, I designed, developed and evaluated a tool, CoSpaces (Collaborative Spaces), tailor-made for collocated collaborative data analysis on large interactive surfaces. Based on the result of a user study with this tool, I characterized users' actions on visual record-keeping as well as their key intentions for each action. In addition, I proposed further design guidelines such as providing various views of recorded material, showing manually saved rather than automatically saved items by default, enabling people to review collaborators' work unobtrusively, and automatically recommending items related to a user's analytical task. In the third phase, I took supporting record-keeping activities in the context of collaborative sensemaking a step further to investigate how this support should be designed to facilitate collaboration. To this end, I explored how automatic discovery and linking of common work can be employed within a ``collaborative thinking space'' (i.e. a space to enable analysts to record and organize findings, evidence, and hypotheses, also facilitate the process of sharing findings amongst collaborators), to facilitate synchronous collaborative sensemaking activities in visual analytics. The main goal of this phase was to provide an environment for analysts to record, organize, share and connect externalizations. I expected that this would increase awareness among team members and in turn would enhance communication and coordination of activities. I designed, implemented and evaluated a new tool, CLIP (Collaborative Intelligence Pad), that extends earlier thinking spaces by integrating new features that reveal relationships between collaborators' findings. Comparing CLIP versus a baseline tool demonstrated that linking collaborators' work led to significant improvement in analytical outcomes at a collaborative intelligence task. Groups using CLIP were also able to more effectively coordinate their work, and held more discussion of their findings and hypotheses. Based on this study, I proposed design guidelines collaborative VA tools. In summary, I contribute an understanding for how analysts use VA tools during collocated collaboration. Through a series of observational user studies, I investigated how we can better support this complex process. More specifically, I empirically studied recording and sharing of analytical results. For this purpose, I implemented and evaluated two systems to be able to understand the effects of these tools on collaboration mechanics. These user studies along with various literature surveys on each specific topic resulted in a collection of guidelines for supporting and sharing externalizations. In addition, I proposed and evaluated several mechanisms to increase awareness among team members, resulting in more effective coordination and communication during the collaborative sensemaking process. The most novel contributions of this research are the identification and subsequent characterization of note taking behaviours as an important component of visual data exploration and analysis. Moreover, the design and evaluation of CLIP, providing preliminary evidence in support of automatically identifying and presenting relationships between collaborators' findings. / Graduate / 0984 / narges.mahyar@gmail.com

This study employs classic grounded theory methodology to produce a theory of rehumanising knowledge work through fluctuating support networks in the knowledge workplace. Data consisted of field notes and transcripts from personal interviews and focus groups. Participants were drawn from the public and private sectors and a variety of professional fields under the general rubric of knowledge work. Data were analysed using the full complement of procedures that comprise classic grounded theory methodology, including theoretical sensitivity, core emergence, constant comparison of empirical indicators to theoretical saturation and hand sorting of conceptual memos to achieve theoretical integration. The thesis explains the basic social structural process of fluctuating support networks through which knowledge workers self-organise to overcome dehumanised work environments, consequent of a rapidly changing workplace context. Such networks operate outside the formal organisation. They are epiphenomenal - self-emerging, self-organising, and self-sustaining. Participation is voluntary and intuitive. The core variable of the theory is the basic social psychological process of rehumanising. Through fluctuating support networks, knowledge workers rehumanise their work and work environments. Rehumanising gives meaning to work while sustaining energy and commitment. Rehumanising is characterised by authenticity, depth and meaning, recognition and respect, safety and healing and kindred sharing. Network relationships offer validation and support. Network members pursue shared interests and passions. Network activities are characterised by challenge, experimentation, creativity and learning, providing members with renewed energy and learning. The resultant sense of achievement builds confidence and passion for sustained network engagement. The contributions of the thesis to knowledge centre on the role of informal networks in the knowledge workplace and relate to theories of organisation, social networking, motivation and social learning. Knowledge of fluctuating support networks will enable managers to understand their functionality as psychological infrastructure for resolving workers’ concerns and needs in coping with change in the knowledge workplace

As an understanding of users' tacit knowledge and latent needs embedded in user experience has played a critical role in product development, users’ direct involvement in design has become a necessary part of the design process. Various ways of accessing users' tacit knowledge and latent needs have been explored in the field of user-centred design, participatory design, and design for experiencing. User-designer collaboration has been used unconsciously by traditional designers to facilitate the transfer of users' tacit knowledge and to elicit new knowledge. However, what makes user-designer collaboration an effective strategy has rarely been reported on or explored. Therefore, interaction patterns between the users and the designers in three industry-supported user involvement cases were studied. In order to develop a coding system, collaboration was defined as a set of coordinated and joint problem solving activities, measured by the elicitation of new knowledge from collaboration. The analysis of interaction patterns in the user involvement cases revealed that allowing users to challenge or modify their contextual experiences facilitates the transfer of knowledge and new knowledge generation. It was concluded that users can be more effectively integrated into the product development process by employing collaboration strategies to intensify the depth of user involvement.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Thesis originally distributed electronically. Includes bibliographical references (p. 87-99).

‘Art worlds’ (Becker 1982) tend to be treated as autonomous spheres but there have always been artistic enterprises that combine different art forms. Contemporary dance theatre is an example of such an intersection: the collaboration between music and dance worlds requires a network of different kinds of artists to produce a coherent artwork. This PhD research investigated the social interrelations of musicians and dancers and the development processes in a collaborative music-dance production. The artists are part of a multi-component network where all parties ideally need to cooperate closely in order to present a coherent artistic performance. In this context music and dance are codependent and an intrinsic understanding among the artists is expected. However, this is not inherent to all participants and projects. For artists from more than one discipline to make a coherent artwork means to challenge the conventional characteristics of their own art worlds (Cope 1976; Becker 1982). Otherwise barriers in communication and behaviour develop rapidly and irreparably. This study sought to understand the development of new music and dance productions and the involvement of their participants in a systematic way. This led to the investigation of cross-disciplinary communication, hierarchies and creative approaches. The research is based on two case studies, the ethnographies of work in progress of dance companies, using observation and interviews as the main methodology. The systematic study of the processes during collaborative work uncovered hindrances including limitations in the financial budget, committed production time and physical requirements of the artists and how those have been handled when approaching these projects. This study also defined differing expectations towards collaboration, varying listening approaches of musicians and dancers to music and differences in performance practice as challenges of the process. The overall aim was to provide new insights into the process of producing collaborative art works, improve the planning and execution of them and connect the academic fields of music and dance.

Lacome is a multi-user cross-platform system that supports collaboration in a shared large screen display environment. Lacome allows users to share their desktops or application windows using any standard VNC server. It supports multi-user concurrent interaction on the public shared display as well as input redirection so users can control each other's applications. La-come supports separate types of interaction through a Lacome client for window management tasks on the shared display(move, resize, iconify, de-iconify) and for application interactions through the VNC servers. The system architecture provides for Publishers that share information and Navigators that access information. A Lacome client can have either or both, and can initiate additional Publishers on other VNC servers that may not be Lacome clients. Explicit access control policies on both the server side the client side provide a flexible framework for sharing. The architecture builds on standard cross-platform components such as VNC and JRE. Interaction techniques used in the window manager ensure simple and transparent multi-user interactions for managing the shared display space. We illustrate the design and implementation of Lacome and provide insights from initial user experience with the system. / Science, Faculty of / Computer Science, Department of / Graduate

Governance is a response to a recognition that traditional forms of decision-making have become inadequate to address complex societal and health problems generated by significant social and global changes (Chhotray & Stoker, 2009). The contributions of scientific and technical knowledge towards solving these complex problems have also been recognized as insufficient (Jasanoff, 2007). Community-based research (CBR) is an approach to research which is designed to make use of the knowledge of community and university members and their participation and collaboration ―in all phases of the research process, with a shared goal of producing knowledge that will be translated into action or positive change for the community‖ (Lantz, Israel, Schulz & Reyes, 2006, p. 239). However, although the contributions of lay knowledge have been acknowledged, how governance or collaborative decision-making is arranged in the context of community-based research is not well described in the literature. In order to address this knowledge gap, a study was undertaken in which in-depth interviews were conducted with community and university members of Canadian CBR collaborations to determine their governing experiences. Results are reported in a thesis by research papers. The first paper focuses on describing the governance structures that CBR collaborations used. In the second paper, the nature and content of problems which occurred in governing CBR collaborations, point to the importance of theory for conceptualizing and solving governance problems. To develop a theory of participation in governance of community-based research, the third paper uses Arnstein‘s theory of participation to propose a grounded theoretical basis for implementing participation in governance of CBR collaborations (Arnstein, 1969). Governance is a means of organizing, shaping and steering a course of decision-making. Governance is a critical component in the organization of knowledge production. Study and theory of governance in community-based research may help in improving understanding and implementation of a critical population health practice.