Intimate Perception Research Articles

Being There, and Being Together: Avatar Appearance and Peer Interaction in VR Classrooms for Video-Based Learning

The development of technology and the recent Covid-19 has moved a substantial part of education into online environments, and video-based learning has become a common format of online learning. An alternative to enhance the co-learning experience in video-based online learning is to make use of immersive virtual reality (VR) technology. The current study focused on how to build a sense of being together in an immersive VR classroom for video-based learning, when individual learners can schedule and pace their learning on their own. Two alternative in-class interaction mechanisms for video-based learning were proposed (i.e., real-time interaction and timeline-anchored interaction). The impact of in-class interaction design was investigated, together with the impact of different styles of visual embodiment of learners (i.e., realistic and cartoon-styled), through a laboratory experiment involving 48 participants, and the influences on learners’ immersion in a VR classroom, identification with the avatars, perceived social presence of peer learners, and learning outcomes were analyzed. The results showed that enabling in-class interaction with peer learners in VR classrooms enhances immersion in the learning environment and their identification of peer avatars, as well as helping learners to develop a stronger co-presence and more intimate perception of peers. Whereas real-time interaction improves perceived social presence the most, the reduced learning outcome suggests that it may distract learners from the video. The timeline-anchored interaction, on the other hand, improves social presence at no cost of learning performance. Appearance style, however, has no significant influence on learning experiences and outcomes.

A case of cruel optimism: white Australian women’s experiences of marriage migration

This article approaches marriage migration ‘from below’ by examining the journey of marriage migration from the perspective of Australian women who are sponsors to their African male partners. The article asserts that journeys of marriage migration can be seen as examples of cruel optimism: while women in binational, interracial relationships embarked on their journeys of marriage migration as to pursue a happy future, in reality, the journey of marriage migration itself obstructed happiness. Geopolitical inequalities, stemming from colonial discourses on race and difference, affect both public and intimate perceptions and biases regarding male marriage migrants. In particular, this article narrates the ways in which gendered and race discrepancies in imaginings of cross-border love and intimacy impact happiness in relationships. Intimate gendered racialisations are present throughout journeys of marriage migration as they are part of women’s attraction to their partners, during the visa application process, as well as in everyday life intimate relationships after settling in Australia. Such experiences, together with the migrant men’s not always easy journey of marriage migration, make women experience intimate relationships as not as happy as previously imagined and instead created a context for unhappiness. Marriage migration thus becomes a case of cruel optimism.

The Diaries of Besieged Leningraders (1941-1944): Representations of a Mass Famine during World War II.

During the siege of Leningrad by the Nazis and their allies between 1941 and 1944 (one of the most deadliest events of World War II), famine caused hundreds of thousands of deaths among the civilian population. How did people react to malnourishment and its impact on the body and mind? The diaries kept by hundreds of ordinary men and women provide an insight into the intimate perception of the famine as these events were unfolding. While the extent of food deprivation is heavily downplayed (even concealed) in Soviet propaganda, it is absolutely central in the diaries. At the crossroads of history and literature, this article examines the challenges of addressing the experience of hunger: the search for resources (linguistic, literary, historical), the attempts at verbalization, and the limits of language. Ultimately, the diarists furnish us with an invaluable testimony of unmitigated malnourishment, giving us the unique opportunity to it see through the eyes of the starving.

Contrasts and ambivalences in French parents’ experiences regarding changes in eating and cooking behaviours during the COVID-19 lockdown

Using open-ended questions, this study explored parents’ experiences regarding changes in their family’s food-related behaviours during the first COVID-19 lockdown in France (March-May 2020). Parents (N = 498, 72% mothers) of children aged 3–12 years described which food-related changes they (1) perceived as positive during the lockdown, (2) perceived as negative, and (3) would like to maintain after the lockdown. A thematic analysis revealed that parents appreciated the choice of more local, fresh foods, the time to prepare food (home-made dishes, new recipes) and cooking and eating together with the family. In contrast, some parents highlighted a burden imposed by the increased food preparation at home. They also described a higher intake of unhealthy, palatable food (or the temptation to do so), and weight concerns. Parents would like to maintain their choice of local, fresh foods, and to continue spending more time together around food but doubt the feasibility after the lockdown. The results revealed many inter- and intra-individual contrasts in parents’ answers. An ambivalent attitude toward food pleasure was demonstrated: the sensory/commensal pleasure of eating versus the concerns about an increased intake of pleasurable food. Additionally, gender differences were observed: mothers perceived the preparation of additional meals, for example, more often as a burden than fathers. This study revealed intimate perceptions of the impact of the lockdown on eating habits in families. They give insight into possible facilitators and barriers (e.g., time) for the adoption of recommended eating and cooking behaviours in families, beyond the pandemic.

Extending the personal branding affordances typology to parasocial interaction with public figures on social media: Social presence and media multiplexity as mediators

The extent of a social media public figure's success often rests on their ability to establish a personal connection with audiences. Drawing from decades of prior research on parasocial interaction and a typology of personal branding affordances developed in our prior work, this study examined the extent to which a platform's perceived affordances might predict such parasocial interaction. Results supported this association and identified social presence and media multiplexity as independent mediators of it, consistent with prior work in interpersonal communication and technology research. Moreover, the pattern of findings validated audience involvement and locus of promotion as key dimensions delineating the personal branding affordances typology, with multiplatform participatory affordances fostering the most intimate perception of public figures by audiences (i.e., with heightened social presence, media multiplexity, and parasocial interaction).

Can Desire and Wellbeing Be Promoted in Adolescents and Young Adults Affected by Cancer? PhotoTherapy as a Mirror That Increases Resilience.

PhotoTherapy represents a recent psychotherapeutic intervention which, through the medium of photography, has the objective of helping a patient reach a higher self-knowledge and explore thoughts, desires, and intimate perceptions that would otherwise remain hidden. Because of this, it may help people overcome their cognitive and emotional boundaries and bring out their interiority, even when exploring some of the most distressing themes. The objective of the present research was to demonstrate that the elaboration and expression of inner desires, fears and needs of wellbeing among adolescents and young adults, who were either sick or had been cured of cancer, could be facilitated through the use of PhotoTherapy. Their responses were also compared with those of healthy young adults, in order to be able to explore the kind of impact such a pathology can have on those who are affected by it and highlight eventual differences in the kind of desires and needs expressed instead by those who never had a diagnosis of cancer. A qualitative research design was adopted. 45 people took part in the study, aged between 12 and 25 (mean age 19). The participants were divided into three groups: those currently being treated for cancer, those with a history of cancer and those who had no experience of cancer (third group). From the data analysis, different preferences and attitudes toward the presented pictures and themes emerged among the participants, depending on the specific group they belonged to. The article discusses these preferences and considers how PhotoTherapy can help treat psychological distress caused by cancer.

Livros e vidas: atravessando fronteiras em Livro, de José Luís Peixoto, e Biografia involuntária dos amantes, de João Tordo

Ao refletirmos sobre a noção de fronteira em obras de autores portugueses que representam a nova geração de escritores – Livro (2010), de José Luís Peixoto, e Biografia involuntária dos amantes (2014), de João Tordo –, pretendemos pôr em destaque algumas tendências recentes do romance. Verificamos que os limites do texto se expandem, revelando o novo lugar do romance na sociedade e na vida pessoal dos leitores. A hibridez (real/ficção) caracteriza o narrador em textos que renovam profundamente a escrita na primeira pessoa. A nosso ver, a perceção íntima – com caráter profundamente autêntico – do mundo, da sociedade e da história exposta no texto, revela o estatuto inédito do indivíduo na sociedade e representa uma tendência significativa do romance contemporâneo.

Lectura y visión heterogénea de la historia de América Latina en Changó el Gran Putas de Manuel Zapata Olivella

El escritor y antropólogo negro colombiano Manuel Zapata Olivella en su libro Changó el gran putas (1985), cuenta la historia del Muntu americano, la de la esclavización y de la trata negrera transatlánticas; apoyándose principalmente en las memorias negras. Zapata Olivella logra reactivar desde una perspectiva crítica, viejas encrucijadas como el mito, la memoria, la tradición y la modernidad pasando de una lectura canónica e hegemónica de la historia a una lectura heterogénea de ésta. Uno de los cometidos del autor es recalcar que el aprendizaje de la lectura y de la escritura incluye el aprendizaje de la percepción internalizada de la “realidad”. Así, este texto buscará mostrar como la aprensión de la realidad histórica latinoamericana por Zapata Olivella en su novela nos invita a leer América latina partiendo de la perspectiva de los subalternizados (negros en particular).

Visualising Intimate Spaces — The Example of “Bolderāja Inside-Out(side)”

This paper concerns an international and interdisciplinary research project accomplished during the 2010 summer school at Riga Technical University (RTU). The project’s overall aim was the cartographic visualisation of intimate perceptions of space in Bolderāja, a socially and economically problematic Riga district. Here, the international project participants as well as some locals were asked to represent Bolderāja’s topography from their individual perspectives. The paper shows the workflow and, especially, the results of this case study, which is to be seen as a specific variety of cognitive mapping.

<b>Perto de casa, longe da avenida: representação poética das escolas nos sambas de meio-de-ano</b><br>doi:10.5007/2176-8552.2011n11p11

The history of samba schools has been frequently written in associationwith carnival events and matters, focusing, for instance, on institutional organization of parades or on samba-enredo poetics. I would like to propose a different approach: in order to get a more intimate perception about these associations, one may inquire which meanings and feelings they evoke for their own artists and communities, when considered off and beyond the monumental scene of carnival competitions. The main corpus of this research is composed by a hundred of sambas-de-meio-de-ano (those that are not performed in carnival parades) speaking about the two most traditional samba schools: Portela and Mangueira. In comparative perspective, I try to identify metaphoric and symbolic nets, features and motives that constitute the self-image of schools and their communities. What analysis may bring to the light, then, is not a triumphant face displayed to public on the avenue or TV screen, but a familiar look shaped by communitarian psychosocial signs and revealed through the poetic-musical discourse of samba.

Tensions and conflicts in Zimbabwean society: Nyamubaya reminisces

This article explores how Freedom Nyamubaya examines the tensions and conflicts in post-independence Zimbabwe through her collection of poetry On the road again (1986). It also seeks to investigate how post-independence developments in Zimbabwe make her revisit and recount Zimbabwe's liberation war of the 1970s. Nyamubaya, who has also published Dusk of dawn (1995), a collection that combines short stories and poetry, is a veteran of this war – the second Chimurenga – which was waged in the then Rhodesia to unseat the colonial government of the time.This war, which was in resistance to the inconsistencies and injustices of colonial governance, has been narrated from various perspectives in both fictional and historical accounts. On the road again, as becomes evident, is one such account which does not only add a new voice to the corpus on this historical event, but also illustrates Nyamubaya's intimate perception, informed by her active participation in and lived experience of the war. In Zimbabwe, as in most African countries where there were armed movements against colonial governments, the war was not won by nationalists, but rather paved the way for elections, which gave ZANU PF – one of the nationalist parties – power in 1980 and ended formal colonial rule. Despite the advent of independence, which gave Zimbabwe its identity as a unitary nation, the country remains heterogeneous in composition, divided by factors such as race, gender, ethnicity, social class and economic status, to mention but a few distinguishing characteristics of its populace.These aspects give rise to the various artistic voices which have emerged to narrate the Zimbabwean nation.

The Rise and Fall of American Posture

THE DECLINE OF ONCE-FERVENT STANDARDS is always an interesting historical phenomenon. Stand up straight; Get your elbows off the table; If you're not careful, you'll grow up like once echoed through American homes. While the advice still lingers in obscure corners, there is no question that the American population has relaxed its collective backbone. Robert Bork used posture decline as the symbol for a larger decay of national standards in his recent book, Slouching towards Gomorrah.1 In their heyday, posture concerns were partly symbolic, so it is not inappropriate to interpret their relaxation in the same light, without reducing the slackening of standards to a Borkian jeremiad. From another, less political vantage point, some contemporary doctors are wondering whether contemporary Americans have not pushed the neglect of posture too far, reducing their capacity to deal with injuries and painful back problems in an increasingly lengthy adulthood. Unquestionably, modern posture history provides another important chapter concerning the roles of discipline in nineteenth-century life and the growing informality of the twentieth century. While the origins of explicit posture standards have been fruitfully traced, their evolution has not gained historians' attention, yet it is at least as significant. Shifts in posture norms involved alterations in what parents and teachers expected of children, as well as in the ways strangers were evaluated. The changes reveal much about the rise of new leisure habits and changes in material culture, especially furniture. They even suggest alterations in larger social relationships, serving as part of the decline of middle-class identification through etiquette standards and raising interesting questions about the centrality of military imagery. The basic issue is a classic case of historical change, applied to intimate perceptions of the body: why did what was once regarded as proper become too stiff and uninviting? Yet the posture story also offers revealing complexities. Posture standards did not ease with the advent of new leisure patterns and the intensification of consumerism around 1900. When shifts in clothing and furniture began to reduce structural supports of rigid posture, a vigorous counterattack emerged that

Archeology, Ethnohistory and the First Plaza of Carnuel

Combining the archeological techniques of excavation and analysis of material remains with the ethnohistorical techniques of collecting and analyzing archival and oral records is strategic for understanding historic sites, but demands caution because of the fragmentary nature of data. Problems inherent in the combined strategy appear in attempts to refer data from a site east of Albuquerque, New Mexico to the archival and oral data on the Carnuel settlement. Ever since Heinrich Schliemann started excavating the site of what he fondly believed was ancient Troy, guided by the writings on the Trojan wars, archeologists have been consulting documentary sources on historic sites with increasingly productive results. Recent excavations in Israel have brilliantly combined archeological and ethnohistorical techniques to recreate past societies with intimate perceptions of their human and cultural implications. Sometimes, archeologists have been reluctant to give credence to what the archives tell them. Had they paid closer attention to Professor Wigberto Jim6nez Moreno's archival data on the ancient Toltecs, they would have excavated the site of Tula, Hidalgo much sooner than they did. Some historic records provide almost eerie detail of data which can only be verified through excavation, as happened in Magdalena, Sonora, when the bones of Father Kino were uncovered. Other records leave much to be desired, as we know from the errors to locate the grave of Cuauhtemoc. Colonial sites in the state of New Mexico, with its long and reasonably well documented record of Hispanic occupation, provide exceptionally good opportunities for combining the efforts of archeologists with those of archivists and field ethnographers. Often, it is possible to verify what the archives and/or oral tradition tell us through a careful excavation, such as the