The Office of Research Services will be hosting a Research Rendezvous with research presentations by the following two faculty members:
Peter Coppin, Faculty of Design
"What is Lost in Translation from Visual Graphics to Text for Accessibility (with implications for the picture perception debate and the graphic-linguistic distinction)"
Pam Patterson, Faculty of Art, with OCAD U Art & Design Education student Meaghan Barry
"How Are U OCAD U?"
Please join us for this one-hour session and feel free to bring your lunch!
Dr. Peter Coppin is an Assistant Professor of Design at OCAD University. He is a core Program Faculty member in the Master of Design (MDes) in Inclusive Design program. During his PhD, Peter developed a perceptual-cognitive model for understanding how graphics afford actions, a theme that cuts across inclusive design, human-computer interface design, visual art-design, and learning technology research. Prior to this, Peter developed ‘remote experience’ systems that delivered data from remote rovers operating in extreme environments to science teams and the general public as Principal Investigator and Director of the NASA funded EventScope Project at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). At CMU Peter also directed the BigSignal Project, one of the first telescience interfaces for educational audiences. Prior to BigSignal, Peter was a nationally and internationally exhibiting electronic media artist and designer, operating under the group alias ‘Centre for Metahuman Exploration.’ He developed telerobotic works and interactive television shows that were exhibited in venues such as the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria; MIR: Art in Space in Bolzono, Italy; and the SIGGRAPH Touchware Exhibition in Orlando, Florida. Peter also directed projects for EventScope’s commercial spin-off, resulting in patented technologies to solve problems for various NASA and university customers. Peter taught human centered art and technology project classes such as ‘Telepresence Art and Applications,’ within multiple departments at Carnegie Mellon.
"What is Lost in Translation from Visual Graphics to Text for Accessibility (with implications for the picture perception debate and the graphic-linguistic distinction)"
In this presentation, Peter will describe the progress toward translating ‘visual’ graphics into non-visual perceptual modes such as sound to produce more accessible interfaces. Additionally, he will demonstrate how our design is guided by a provisional model that treats the visual cortex as a spatial cortex that is recruited by sight, sound and touch (cf. Knauff, 2013). The problem: According to WCAG guidelines, a ‘visual’ graphic (i.e., a picture) is considered ‘accessible’ (e.g., to low-vision and/or blind users) if it has been ‘translated’ into a text description (Caldwell, et al., 2008). However, if an author’s intention could be conveyed via text, then why did they create a (visual) graphic? One often cited advantage is that “the eye and the visual cortex of the brain form a massively parallel processor that provides the highest-bandwidth channel into human cognitive centers” (Ware, 2012). In contrast, a screen reader sequentially reads through text descriptions. However, are these advantages only possible though visuals? Sonic interfaces are routinely used for sense making: Doppler ultrasound conveys anatomical structures via audible frequencies and researchers have converted video signals into sound to enable blind audiences to navigate outdoors and to recognize faces (e.g., Levy-Tzedek et al., 2012). Spatial structure seems to transcend the visual: It can be conveyed via sound (e.g., when we hear an echo) or touch. In addition to demonstrating how this provisional model can guide interface design, Peter will also propose how it relates to, and in some cases can help reconcile, classic debates about the ‘unlearned’ (e.g., Gibson, 1978; Kennedy, 1974) versus ‘learned’ (e.g., Goodman, 1976) properties of picture perception between art theory and perceptual psychology and the related graphic-linguistic distinction (Shimojima, 1999).
Dr. Pam Patterson has been active for over 30 years in the arts, academic and women’s communities. Her performances, research, teaching, and curatorial projects focus on embodiment and performativity in art practice, women’s, gender and disability issues, critical pedagogy and art(s) education. She founded an arts-informed feminist research, presentation, and publication program, WIAprojects (www.wiaprojects.com) at the Centre for Women's Studies in Education at OISE/ University of Toronto in 2004 and has been Director of the program since. As a performance and visual artist, she was a founding member of FADO Performance and ARTIFACTS and continues to exhibit and perform internationally. She currently teaches in the Faculty of Art at the Ontario College of Art & Design University. At OCAD U, she has facilitated a number of cross-disciplinary, cross-institutional projects including Food=Need OCAD U. ARTISTS TEACHING ARTISTS, and this recent HOW ARE U OCAD U? As Director, Research for the Canadian Society for Education through Art (CSEA) she is currently co-facilitating national research initiatives groups with CSEA President, Peter Vietgen (Brock University).
"How Are U OCAD U?"
Art and Design Education Lab - Community Leadership mounted a campaign fall 2014 term inviting the OCAD U community to assist them in re-imagining OCAD U for the 21st C. This action was an outgrowth of our deep curiosity about our own complicity in teaching and learning at OCAD U. We wanted to open the Pandora’s Box and excavate the messiness. We all know that we need to dig deep and take risks in studio practice in order to push our work to stronger and richer iterations. But, how can we as educators do the same? How can we define OCAD U as a community: Is it a place of/for community gathering(s)? What is its ethical grounding? What is its reason for being? How can we determine what learning means at OCAD? While our posters are presented as tongue-and-cheek, the data they were derived from was diverse, compelling, and often contradictory. Videos, which accompany this exhibition, provide a more storied response from OCAD U community members. Our devised terms for examination for the survey and Learning Zone (LZ) display are below. Demographics from LZ are also listed. Special thanks to the OCADSU for additional data from their own survey.
Six Terms for Examination:
1. How have you achieved a sense of community at OCAD U?
2. How has your learning experience been? How can it better prepare you for the working world?
3. What teaching methods are you looking for? What teaching methods are actually working for you?
4. How have OCAD U community initiatives improved your experience?
5. How does your experience match your expectations?
6. What have you achieved as a student or faculty or staff at OCAD U?
Survey monkey site: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/RDW5SDG