This special issue on embodied making and learning is dedicated to aspects of embodied cognition that goes on in the field of art, craft and design. The contributors to this issue were invited from ...the Em-bodied Making and Learning (EMAL) research group at the University of South-Eastern Norway, where aspects of learning in creative practices have been studied from many differentangles throughout the institutions nearly 80 years existence. With its 50 members, divided into five thematic clusters related to embodied making and learning, this research group is one of the largest in the field. It involves both experienced and early career researchers, as well as experienced university teachers, from several disciplines.
The arrival of Virtual-Reality, Augmented-Reality, and Mixed-Reality technologies is shaping a new environment where physical and virtual objects are integrated at different levels. Due to the ...development of portable and embodied devices, together with highly interactive, physical-virtual connections, the customer experience landscape is evolving into new types of hybrid experiences. However, the boundaries between these new realities, technologies and experiences have not yet been clearly established by researchers and practitioners. This paper aims to offer a better understanding of these concepts and integrate technological (embodiment), psychological (presence), and behavioral (interactivity) perspectives to propose a new taxonomy of technologies, namely the “EPI Cube”. The cube allows academics and managers to classify all technologies, current and potential, which might support or empower customer experiences, but can also produce new experiences along the customer journey. The paper concludes with theoretical and managerial implications, as well as a future research agenda.
•Virtual, augmented and mixed realities are reshaping customer experiences.•The terms describing the different realities are clarified and standardized.•EPI Cube (Embodiment-Presence-Interactivity) assorts reality-virtuality technology.•EPI Cube technologies create technology-enhanced customer experiences.•Technology-enhanced experiences add value to the customer purchase journey.
Embodiment and bodily experiences are vital parts of communication and learning in the early years. Children are believed to develop their thinking processes and language skills through sensory and ...motor experiences in early childhood education while they show, touch, mimic, and think by doing; in other words, they are learning by doing. In this paper, embodied and playful learning activities are explored through a translanguaging approach. The embodiment experiences in education can be understood as modalities of learning; this especially concerns play. Thus, the pedagogical scaffolding of these modalities by teachers can be analysed through a translanguaging approach. In Finnish early childhood education, there is a whole-child approach that considers children to be active agents in learning. Moreover, recognizing the whole child and viewing their development from social, physical, and mental perspectives have been rooted very strongly in pedagogical philosophy and practices in ECEC Finland through the playful learning approach. In this paper, we emphasize the expression of children’s embodiment and non-verbal communication when combined with spoken verbal languages and fantasy animal languages using a translanguaging approach. We focus on children’s translanguaging practices and embodied expressions. Embodiment in learning practices is essential for children in their sensory-motor or pre-perational phase of development because they show, touch, mimic, and think through an active approach. The Finnish early childhood education and care (ECEC) is known for the EduCare approach. Children are considered active agents and the whole child approach is considered the basis of educational activities and interaction (Kangas, Ojala & Venninen, 2015). Recognition of the whole child and viewing the development through social, physical, and mental aspects have been rooted very strongly in pedagogical philosophy and practices in ECEC Finland through the playful learning approach (Kangas & al. 2019). In this paper we emphasize the importance of the visual environment, design learning process, and expression of young children’s embodiment in learning in the early childhood education context. In this study we focus on 2-3 years old toddlers' visual and kinesthetic expressions of bodily learning and embodiment. Bodily learning means active learning experiences that early childhood education should include within everyday interaction and learning environment. Embodiment in learning practices is essential for children in the senso-motor or pre-operational phase of development because children show, touch, mimic and think by doing. In other words, they are learning by doing (Dewey 1916; Leinonen & Sintonen, 2014). The research questions are: 1) How do the learning materials scaffold children’s participation and meaning making? 2) How are the embodiment and active learning used as a tool for communication and interaction between children and teachers? We understand embodiment learning as visual and bodily expressions of agency, participation, and learning. These aspects are understood as modalities of interaction, language, and communication. With young children it has been shown that translanguaging takes place through movement, gestures, expressions, and emotions as well as a spoken language(s) (Leinonen & Sintonen, 2014). The study was conducted as video observation of learning design of two kindergarten groups with one teacher and 6 to 7 children in each. The study takes place in the Playful Learning Center (PLC). The PLC is a learning laboratory in University of Helsinki, that is specially designed to scaffold young children's visual and kinesthetic exploration and expression through play and playful activities (Sefton-Green et al. 2015). The observation data were analysed through content analysis using researchers’ triangulation to discuss the visual communication and embodiment themes.
While puppets have been used to test infants’ and young children’s understanding of agency, social cognition, and learning in developmental psychology labs, most research does not include a critical ...component of puppets for children: movement. In addition to various cognitive affordances, puppets can be used and interacted with in active, physicalized, embodied ways. A wide variety of fields, including theatre, education, and therapy have long used interactive and physicalized puppet play to help children learn, experience art, and express themselves. In developmental science, embodiment and physicalizing of knowledge, particularly through gesture, is known to enhance children’s learning. However, research on whether and how children engage with puppets using embodiment and gesture is missing. Without knowing the levels and types of gesture children use with puppets, theories of puppets cannot be inclusive of both passive and active methodologies. Here, we compare preschool aged children’s puppet play to their costumed role play and their physically passive watching of puppets or media. We ask if children show more gesture while using puppets, if so, what kinds, and whether that gesture affects their learning from vignettes. We find regardless of age or sex, children gesture significantly more while playing with puppets than when watching puppets or media. This level of gesture is similar to when they are role playing in costume. While more gesturing does not predict learning directly, types of gesture, which also differ in puppet play uniquely, do predict learning. These findings have implications for the use of puppets as passive theatrical shows meant to test children’s learning and understanding, and for the use of puppets in developmental research beyond infancy. Taking cues from the applications of puppets in other childhood contexts, children’s movements should be integrated as additional prospects for puppet-based developmental methods.
•Children’s natural out-of-lab engagement with puppets is embodied.•Children gesture more with puppets than when watching narratives.•Children’s puppet play gestures are closer to role play.•Some puppet gesture is associated with learning.
•Young children can accept a virtual body which moves incongruently with their own.•Children and adults can accept virtual bodies of different sizes.•In a small virtual body, children and adults feel ...that surrounding objects have enlarged.•In a large virtual body, children and adults feel that surrounding objects have shrunk.•In a large virtual body, children additionally feel that their body has grown.
Previous work shows that in adults, illusory embodiment of a virtual avatar can be induced using congruent visuomotor cues. Furthermore, embodying different-sized avatars influences adults’ perception of their environment’s size. This study (N = 92) investigated whether children are also susceptible to such embodiment and size illusions. Adults and 5-year-old children viewed a first-person perspective of different-sized avatars moving either congruently or incongruently with their own body. Participants rated their feelings of embodiment over the avatar and also estimated the sizes of their body and objects in the environment. Unlike adults, children embodied the avatar regardless of visuomotor congruency. Both adults and children freely embodied different-sized avatars, and this affected their size perception in the surrounding virtual environment; they felt that objects were larger in a small body and vice versa in a large body. In addition, children felt that their body had grown in the large body condition. These findings have important implications for both our theoretical understanding of own-body representation, and our knowledge of perception in virtual environments.
Applying the theory of embodied cognition as the research framework, the purpose of the current study was to explore the influence of virtual wine tours on young consumers' wine sensory experience ...and purchasing behaviors. A lab tasting experiment was conducted to compare the influence of a VR video with that of a traditional video featuring a vineyard and winery tour. Results indicated that the VR wine tour video evoked higher intentions to purchase and willingness to pay than the traditional video. Consumers with higher levels of wine knowledge appreciated the video presence and the tastes/aromas of the wine more than consumers with lower levels of wine knowledge. Combined with the taste/finish of the wine, video presence mediated the relationships between video types and consumers' purchase behaviors, revealing that the integration of offline and online embodiments makes a difference in consumers’ purchasing decisions. Recommendations were then provided based on these results.
The struggle for justice is not new, yet the impact of intentional embodiment and dance in protest is on the rise. Bringing together embodied anti-racist work and dance as a practice of resistance, ...this artists’ statement describes a grassroots coalition in Rochester, NY: Artists Coalition for Change Together. Co-founded in 2017 as a response to the recent election, ACCT began as an organization of progressive dance artists and collaborators who sought to generate social change through performance, direct action, community dialogues, and scholarship. Written as a dialogue between two founders of ACCT, this statement examines the history of the coalition and its acts of embodied protest. As moving bodies and art communicated resistance in direct “ACCTions,” community activism was generated. Through the lens of existing research and college courses on arts activism, the authors reference multiple reckonings in the North American cultural body, which peaked during the pandemic in 2020.
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