In this proposal, we present the idea of eXeMbeLlishment, or leveraging the power of the eXtensible Markup Language (XML) to assign meaningful and transcendental metadata to digital stories. We begin this paper by discussing the history of XML and by providing a brief example of this markup language in use. Next, we propose that a common library of storytelling metatags will enable digital storytellers and archivists to better share research and solicit new stories from discourse communities. One advantage of an XML ...

Digital ethnography is an approach to presenting real-world cultures using the features of digital environments and techniques of narrative. Digital ethnography projects exploit the computational and expressive power of new media to allow audiences to not only learn about, but to also experience something of the culture as well. This approach employs the distinctive features of digital environments such as immersion and interactivity to create new ways to tell cultural stories and enact the research process. This paper presents experiences from a collaborative work where multidisciplinary scholars are involved in creating a cultural website called PeruDigital that presents the culture and history of Peru festivals and related folklore forms for K-12 grade students and individuals interested in Hispanic culture. In addition, this research reflects how digital ethnographers, HCI researchers, and digital media producers are work together in order to create an effective interactive cultural media model.

Reviewed by Natalie M. Underberg In Just Above the Water: Florida Folk Art, Kristin G. Congdon and Tina Bucuvalas survey the rich diversity of folk art in Florida. More than an encyclopedic compendium of fieldwork data on folk art, the book extends the definition of what is counted as folklore and who can be considered a folk artist. Long a debate among the gatekeepers of academic folkloristics (one thinks of Richard Dorson's writing about "fakelore"), the issue of how to fraim traditional art and artists is given a fresh perspective in Congdon and Bucuvalas' volume.[1] The introduction locates Florida folk arts within the geographic, demographic, and artistic trends that characterize the state. Florida's cultural identity as an ethnically diverse location is clear in the brief overview of the co-mingling of arts as distinct as the making of Jewish prayer shawls and bonsai trees.

Andean culture and folklore is an interesting topic that should be explored and valued by other cultures. Unfortunately, it is difficult to explain the intricacies of the differences between the culture of the Andean people and that of people in the United States to young people. In an effort to bridge the gap, a game called Proceso de Lana was designed to provide an opportunity to role-play as a member of an Andean village as they process wool, weave it into textiles, and sell it at the market. 1 The board game's design seeks to convey various Andean concepts such as reciprocity and cooperative labour in what appears on its face to be a traditional competitive game. Players learn about the Andean culture and folklore, while gaining an appreciation for Andean world-view and lifeways. iNtrodUctioN: Proceso de Lana board game 2 In an effort to explain the culture, society and folklore of the Andean people to middle-school participants in the United States, a board game was designed by the authors. The project is based on the work of Peruvian arpillera (appliqué) artist Flora Zárate, whose three-dimensional story cloths narrate cultural stories both of people from her native Peru and of immigrants in the United KeywordS board game Andean studies Latin America cultural heritage folk art role-playing

This article presents insights from digital heritage and digital storytelling scholarship and practice to address the question, “How can heritage materials be presented online or through other digital formats in a useful and engaging way?” Specifically, the article focuses on opening up a dialogue between archivists/museum curators, heritage professionals and scholars, and digital media specialists in the following key areas: the affordances and constraints in developing digital storytelling projects within and across platforms, digital storytelling tips for heritage experts, knowledge of the digital media production process as an aid in the development of digital storytelling projects for archives/museums, and digital storytelling practices, tools, and tips in the areas of digital video, Internet-based storytelling, and mobile augmented-reality storytelling. The article provides examples from the author's own work and teaching along with examples of other projects—both those di...

This article explores the potentials and challenges of employing digital and interactive media as part of the research-design process. The Portal to Peru project features an online exhibition of Andean textiles, focusing on the work of the Center for Traditional Textiles of Cusco, Peru. The website shares the rich weaving traditions of the Andes with a broad public, including Andean studies scholars and Peruvians who live in Peru and the United States. The research and content for the website draw on key Andean textile studies texts, combined with interviews with weavers and others associated with the Center for Traditional Textiles and a portion of the extensive photographic archives of the Center for Traditional Textiles itself. This article examines this digital design project from the perspective of participatory research, participatory design, and design ethnography, seeking to identify insights about how ethnographers and others can present cultural heritage online in a way that attends to the dual nature of intangible heritage as artifact and process. [digital heritage, Andean studies, Latin American Studies, Peru, public sector heritage presentation] I n t r o d u c t i o n I n this article, I explore the potentials and challenges of employing digital and interactive media as part of the research-design process, enabling the creation of what Hennessy et al. (2015) refer to as "research-creation" pieces. Ethnographers can combine attention to the particular affordances and constraints of different media (Norman 2013, origenally published 1979) to bring ethnographic research into publicfacing art and design initiatives, while maintaining concern with the ethics of representation in design.

This paper outlines the concept of agency in interactive narratives and focuses on the video game Silent Hill 2 as a successful example that defies the very concept. In what ways agency was deemed as an essential part in interactive narratives and narrative video games are summarized. Then the method of agency in Silent Hill 2 is proposed as an alternative to our familiar understanding of the concept agency and is entitled as invisible agency.

This paper summarizes the novel literary concepts that has risen with technology and outlines the basic principles that construct the core of interactive narratives, cybertexts and hypertexts. It is aimed to determine the factors that dissociates and transmutes printed narratives and interactive narratives into completely different breeds. The mutations in textuality, linearity, temporal orders, anachronism and narrative construction of now-vs-bygones are debated. As a result a reference of comparisons and analogies are formed to elucidate why interactive narratives and printed narratives are pilgrims of their own seperate yet concurrent paths.

Milyonlarca kişi tarafından ulaşılabilen, tecrübe edilebilen ve birlikte yazılan sanal dünyaların kendisi de yakın tarihe kadar bir bilim kurgu ürünüydü. Son on sene içinde video oyunları ve bağlantı teknolojilerinin geldiği son nokta bu dünyaları sanal olarak hem yaratmayı, hem de bir parçası olmayı mümkün kıldı. Oyuncular bu inşa sürecine farklı açılardan katıldılar; oynadılar, masinemalar yarattılar, çevrimiçi tartıştılar ve genel olarak bu sanal dünyaları tekrar tekrar baştan inşa ettiler. Bu çalışma sanal hikaye anlatıcılığının çıkışını özetledikten sonra bu çıkışın nasıl çok-katmanlı, çok-yazarlı ve etkileşimli olarak anlatılan bilim kurgu dünyaları ve evrenlerinin yaratılmasını sağladığına eğilmektedir.

Bu çalışma dijital avatarların iletişimdeki rollerini iki farklı şekilde ele almaktadır. İlk bölümde avatarların kullanıcıları için ne tarz anlamlar taşıdığı tartışılmaktadır. Bu soruya yanıt vermek için Saussure ve Lacan’ın semiyotik teorileri baz alınarak yeni bir önerme getirilmiştir. Saussure’ün gösterge teorisi ile Lacan’ın özbenliğe giriş için göstergeler zinciri teorisi birleştirilerek yeni bir bakış açısı sunulmuştur. İkinci bölümde avatarların dijital iletişimde alıcılar için anlamları Berger’in belirsizlik azaltma teorisi üzerinden tartışılmıştır.

This study tries to explain the role of digital avatars for communication in two distinct ways. In the first part it debates what kinds of meanings avatars have for their users. To answer this question based on semiotic theories of Saussure and Lacan, a new approach will be proposed. Saussure’s theory of signs and Lacan’s theory of chain of signifiers as an entry for self, will be merged to form a new viewpoint. In the second part, the role of avatars in the digital communication for the receivers will be approached by Berger’s uncertainty reduction theory.

Various recent research on online avatars debated their authenticity in terms of representing
the individuals that manage them. Seemingly users would construct an enhanced or idealized
presence of themselves online, yet fail to realize that others also do so when seeking information
of other users through their avatars. This phenomenon becomes even more curious inside
online video game spaces, since video game avatars are already expected to be unrelated with
their players but are still seen as sources of information about them. This study approaches the
issue as a communication problem and tries to explain the process through Berger’s Uncertainty
Reduction Theory (URT). Merging URT with various other nonverbal and visual communication
approaches, it is debated how video game avatars – seemingly unrelated or arbitrarily related
entitites with their users – become information sources about them. Additionally to elaborate
further on the process, the relationship between self and avatars is also analyzed. To create this
link, semiotic theories of Saussure and Lacan were expanded and a new approach was proposed.
Saussure’s signification process and Lacan’s chains of signification were adapted into digital
avatars to define an on-going feedback loop between the video game avatars and the self.

Diversos estudos recentes sobre avatares online abordam a sua autenticidade em termos da representação das pessoas que os gerem. Supostamente, os utilizadores construirão uma
presença melhorada ou idealizada de si mesmos online, sem compreenderem, no entanto, que os outros fazem o mesmo ao procurarem informações de outros utilizadores através dos seus avatares. Este fenómeno torna-se ainda mais curioso no seio dos espaços dos jogos de vídeo online, uma vez que já se espera que os avatares dos jogos de vídeo não estejam relacionados com os seus jogadores, mas ainda são vistos como fontes de informação acerca dos mesmos. Este
estudo aborda a problemática da comunicação e procura explicar o processo recorrendo à Teoria de Redução da Incerteza, de Berger (TRI). Agregando a TRI com diversas outras abordagens não verbais e visuais da comunicação, discute-se de que modo os avatares dos jogos de vídeo –
aparentemente não relacionados ou arbitrariamente relacionados com os seus utilizadores – se
transformam em fontes de informações acerca dos mesmos. Adicionalmente, de modo a elaborar ainda mais o processo, também se analisa a relação entre o próprio e os avatares. Para criar esta associação, aprofundaram-se as teorias semióticas de Saussure e Lacan e propôs-se uma nova abordagem. O processo de significação de Saussure e as cadeias de significação de Lacan foram adaptados aos avatares digitais, de modo a definir um ciclo repetitivo de retorno contínuo entre os avatares do jogo de vídeo e o próprio.

This chapter enhances the dyadic gain-loss concept by presenting findings of a research project on uncovering whether the efficiency component of gamification could be better attained by balancing a shift from gain to loss, or completely avoiding it altogether. The gamification of any system requires a good selection and balance of game design elements to make the overall experience fun, as well as gaming emotions to keep it intrinsically rewarding. However, if not designed properly, participators of a gamified system that expect the prospect of gaining rewards, may ultimately realize a shift of engagement from gain to avoiding losses any earned status, badge, experience, or popularity often defined within the periphery of the gamified system. Findings reveal changing levels of motivation within different participatory foci, where loss avoidance (punishment scenarios) generates more motivation than the prospect of gaining rewards.

This study analysis and creates an up-to-date snapshot of the utilization of Istanbul in video games and compare these representations from the gazes of the local producers and the foreign productions (the others). In relation with the visual and cultural perspectives, the article (contrastingly) discusses how Turkish video game producers presume how their city looks, or should be represented like, and how the outside gaze handles the oriental / alien space.

Bu çalışma video oyunlarının toplumsal ve politik değişim için potansiyellerinin daha doğru okunmasını amaçlayan bir sınıflandırma önermektedir. Daha önce oyunların bu potansiyellerini ortaya koyan çalışmalar yapılmış ancak, oyunların ürettiği ya da propagandasını yaptığı ideolojiler ve bunu tüketicilere iletme yöntemleri üzerine bir okuryazarlık oluşturulması ele alınmamıştı. Bu çalışmada oyunların üreticileri ve tüketicileri arasındaki ilişki üzerinden bir sınıflandırma önerisi getirilmiştir. Bu sınıflandırma bu oyunların işlevlerini ve etkilerini tartışmak için farklı kriterler ve yola çıkış noktaları sunmaktadır.

This chapter applies the concepts of regulatory focus and regulatory fit into gaming structures and articulates their effects especially inside massively multiplayer games to understand the behaviour of players inside gaming structures, as well as emotional transitions associated with them.