Archeology of Abandoned Human Settlements in No Man’s Sky: A New Approach to Recording and Preserving User-Generated Content in Digital Games

2021 ◽  
pp. 155541202110052
Author(s):  
Andrew Reinhard
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Human Settlements ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
Human Habitation ◽  
Digital Human

This article presents the tools, methods, and findings of an archaeological survey, excavation, and ethnography of abandoned human settlements within a digital built environment. In 2016, Hello Games (Guildford, UK) released the game No Man’s Sky, set in a procedurally generated universe approximating the size of our own. Future game updates disrupted planetary climate and topography, forcing human players to abandon their homes and farms and relocate elsewhere. As an archaeologist, I was able to apply archaeological principles within a digital/human habitation while also investigating what became of the players and their constructions as well as their in-game community. This approach may well lend itself to efforts in the preservation of these digital environments, and especially for player-created content.

scholarly journals POSI BOLA OF JAMI MOSQUE AS SPATIAL TRANSFORMATION SYMBOL

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 181-188
Author(s):  
Moh Sutrisno ◽  
Sudaryono Sastrosasmito ◽  
Ahmad Sarwadi
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
New Approach ◽  
South Sulawesi ◽  
Space Transformation ◽  
City Space ◽  
Islamic Religion ◽  
Zero Points ◽  
Horizontal Slice ◽  
Contextual Meaning

Palopo city space as the center of Tana Luwu cannot be separated from the significance of the oldest kingdom in South Sulawesi. The entry of the Islamic religion in Luwu was marked by the Jami Mosque, which is located at the zero points of Palopo city. The preservation of pre-Islamic heritage and after the entry of Islam in the present tends to not a dichotomy in two different meanings. The research is aimed to explore the semiotic meaning of the Jami Mosque, which has become an icon in Palopo City. The research used the ethnomethodology method within the framework of the semiotics paradigm to obtain contextual meaning as well as the application of a new approach in architecture semiotics study. The results show that the Jami Mosque keeps the complexity of meaning, which can be the foundation of conservation philosophy and planning of the built environment. The cosmos axis of Palopo city space and the territory of Luwu become the central point of religious civilization, especially in Islamic cosmology. The space transformation is represented by ‘posi bola’ (house pole). The symbolic ‘posi bola’ moves from the palace to the Jami mosque as the axis of Luwu space in the Islamic era. The horizontal slice of the pole has implications on the particular geometrical patterns of Luwu. The elements of structure and construction of buildings become a symbol of Islamic teachings.

The Inescapable Intertextuality of Blade Runner: The Video Game

2016 ◽  
pp. 22-38
Author(s):  
Clara Fernandez-Vara
Keyword(s):  
Video Game ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Fictional World ◽  
Traditional Media ◽  
Transmedia Storytelling ◽  
Blade Runner ◽  
The World ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
Source Materials

The video game adaptation of Blade Runner (1997) exemplifies the challenges of adapting narrative from traditional media into digital games. The key to the process of adaptation is the fictional world, which it borrows both from Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968) and Ridley Scott's film Blade Runner (1982). Each of these works provides different access points to the world, creating an intertextual relationship that can be qualified as transmedia storytelling, as defined by Jenkins (2006). The game utilizes the properties of digital environments (Murray, 2001) in order to create a world that the player can explore and participate in; for this world to have the sort of complexity and richness that gives way to engaging interactions, the game resorts to the film to create a visual representation, and to the themes of the novel. Thus the game is inescapably intertextual, since it needs of both source materials in order to make the best of the medium of the video game.

scholarly journals Human settlements and sustainability: a crucial and open issue

2019 ◽  
Vol 119 ◽  
pp. 00012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caterina Mele
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Large City ◽  
The United States ◽  
Ecosystem Functions ◽  
Human Settlements ◽  
Human Footprint ◽  
Open Issue ◽  
Human Habitation ◽  
Industrialised Countries

The human habitation of the surface of the planet has led, especially since the mid-twentieth century, to an enormous increase in the built up area. This phenomenon concerns both the oldest industrialised countries, such as European Union and the United States, and the so-called emerging countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America.The urbanised built area has increased in different ways, but has led everywhere to the destruction of large portions of virgin soil, the loss of biodiversity in the number and type of species in fauna and flora, and often the total or partial impairment of ecosystem functions of enormous environmental value (such as the evapotransportive mechanisms of soil and vegetation). Although the curve of global population growth is slowing, the growth of urban areas continues to expand, even in countries which have long been industrialised, where the spread of building has given rise to cities dispersed over a territory so that there is no longer a recognisable clear division between the city and the countryside. In fact, contemporary cities are the main consumers of all environmental resources, from water to food, including energy and environmental stressors, and are responsible for 80% of CO2 emissions into the atmosphere. The ecosystem surface required to sustain a large city on the planet today canbe about 200 times larger than its physical size. The urban civilisation of the 21st century, which at a superficial glance may appear as a symbol of the human capacity to radically adapt and transform the natural habitat toits own needs, is also a witness to the unsustainability of the human footprint on earth. Radically rethinking cities and human settlements entails an equally radical rethinking of our economic and development model, but it is a necessary and strategic task if we really want to face the challenge of sustainability with appropriate instruments.

The application of critical realism as a basis for agency in environmental education: The case of Roy Bhaskar

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (3) ◽  
pp. 230-238
Author(s):  
Mehri Mirzaei Rafe ◽  
Khosrow Bagheri Noaparast ◽  
Afzal Sadat Hosseini ◽  
Narges Sajadieh
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Environmental Education ◽  
Philosophy Of Science ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Real ◽  
New Materialisms ◽  
Human Habitation

AbstractThis article will investigate the philosophy of science of Roy Bhaskar (1944–2014) as a coherent basis for environmental education. The work of Bhaskar serves as an in-depth approach to understanding how to apply critical realism (the critical and the realist) to matters such as environmental education, because he concretely theorises the connections between science, social change and metaphysics. By mobilising key Bhaskarian motifs — that is, the primacy of ontology over epistemology, the laminated system as a means to understand reality, the ways in which inquiry may be organised through the real, actual and the empirical, and the positive application of dialectics — this article constructs a new approach to environmental education and positions it in the field of environmental education by comparing it to posthumanism and the new materialisms. This article contains inquiry-based study outlines for enhanced thinking around: (1) climate change and social justice; (2) movements towards a carbon-free economy; (3) water, food and population; and (4) the future of human habitation.

scholarly journals Drawn to the Rhythm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matthew Reid
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Economic Disadvantage ◽  
New Approach ◽  
World Championship ◽  
The Public ◽  
Apartment Complex ◽  
New Development ◽  
Unique Site

<p>Rowing is one of New Zealand’s premier international sports, and our New Zealand rowers have won significant acclaim in Olympic and World Championship competitions. Most recently at the 2012 London Olympics, three of the six New Zealand gold medals and both of the silver medals were for rowing.  The spirit, camaraderie, emotion, and atmosphere of a great sporting occasion are enhanced by a great venue; the sports stadium is not a passive backdrop but a theatre set that can only enhance the experience through its design and management. Yet unlike other premier sports in the country, such as cricket, netball and rugby, New Zealand has no permanent stadium wherein spectators can witness and celebrate rowing competitions and the training of these athletes. Typically the sport of rowing has always relied on boatshed architecture as its only relationship to the built environment. This thesis argues that the use of ‘boatshed’ architecture for rowing teams actively disconnects the sport from the public; but stadium architecture has its own distinct economic disadvantage, in that stadiums are empty more often than they are full. The thesis therefore proposes a new approach to a rowing stadium – integrating boatshed, stadium, gymnasium, and hospitality elements – to provide a new typology for rowing that remains activated throughout the year.  Linda Pollak and Anita Berrizebeitia believe that our relationship to the built environment has increasingly isolated us from experiencing the landscape upon which it is sited. This thesis argues that a rowing facility provides an ideal opportunity to explore how critical boundaries separating waterfront architecture and the sea can be re-examined in order to re-enforce our experience of the waterfront built environment and its unique site, offering new ways to re-connect our experience of inside and outside.  The site of this research investigation is Athfield Architects’ $100 million redevelopment of the Overseas Passenger Terminal into 76 high-end private waterfront apartments in Wellington. The Wellington waterfront is in particular need of public activation, yet this new development effectively privatises an important segment; the goals of developers and cities are often at odds with one another. The thesis argues that, when set within the context of a larger waterfront program, rowing can actually help activate that larger program and enhance its economic value in the same way that a gym adds value to a residential apartment complex and sea views add economic value to a restaurant.  Our harbour cities depend on public activities along the waterfront that encourage visual as well as physical participation throughout the day. This thesis investigates how a permanent rowing facility can become a viable urban activator for both a city and a private development, while also enhancing the public’s relationship with this premier New Zealand sport. Creating the opportunity for the sport and its athletes to be celebrated in the eyes of the public is important to ensure the sport continues to thrive and receives the recognition that it deserves.</p>

scholarly journals Drawn to the Rhythm

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Matthew Reid
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
Economic Disadvantage ◽  
New Approach ◽  
World Championship ◽  
The Public ◽  
Apartment Complex ◽  
New Development ◽  
Unique Site

<p>Rowing is one of New Zealand’s premier international sports, and our New Zealand rowers have won significant acclaim in Olympic and World Championship competitions. Most recently at the 2012 London Olympics, three of the six New Zealand gold medals and both of the silver medals were for rowing.  The spirit, camaraderie, emotion, and atmosphere of a great sporting occasion are enhanced by a great venue; the sports stadium is not a passive backdrop but a theatre set that can only enhance the experience through its design and management. Yet unlike other premier sports in the country, such as cricket, netball and rugby, New Zealand has no permanent stadium wherein spectators can witness and celebrate rowing competitions and the training of these athletes. Typically the sport of rowing has always relied on boatshed architecture as its only relationship to the built environment. This thesis argues that the use of ‘boatshed’ architecture for rowing teams actively disconnects the sport from the public; but stadium architecture has its own distinct economic disadvantage, in that stadiums are empty more often than they are full. The thesis therefore proposes a new approach to a rowing stadium – integrating boatshed, stadium, gymnasium, and hospitality elements – to provide a new typology for rowing that remains activated throughout the year.  Linda Pollak and Anita Berrizebeitia believe that our relationship to the built environment has increasingly isolated us from experiencing the landscape upon which it is sited. This thesis argues that a rowing facility provides an ideal opportunity to explore how critical boundaries separating waterfront architecture and the sea can be re-examined in order to re-enforce our experience of the waterfront built environment and its unique site, offering new ways to re-connect our experience of inside and outside.  The site of this research investigation is Athfield Architects’ $100 million redevelopment of the Overseas Passenger Terminal into 76 high-end private waterfront apartments in Wellington. The Wellington waterfront is in particular need of public activation, yet this new development effectively privatises an important segment; the goals of developers and cities are often at odds with one another. The thesis argues that, when set within the context of a larger waterfront program, rowing can actually help activate that larger program and enhance its economic value in the same way that a gym adds value to a residential apartment complex and sea views add economic value to a restaurant.  Our harbour cities depend on public activities along the waterfront that encourage visual as well as physical participation throughout the day. This thesis investigates how a permanent rowing facility can become a viable urban activator for both a city and a private development, while also enhancing the public’s relationship with this premier New Zealand sport. Creating the opportunity for the sport and its athletes to be celebrated in the eyes of the public is important to ensure the sport continues to thrive and receives the recognition that it deserves.</p>

Evaluating the Smart and Sustainable Built Environment in Urban Planning

2018 ◽  
pp. 890-905
Author(s):  
Patrizia Lombardi ◽  
Silvia Giordano
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Urban Redevelopment ◽  
Sustainable Urban Development ◽  
Future Research ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Evaluation Systems ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Quantitative Performance ◽  
Building Level ◽  
New System

The measurement of urban performance is one of the important ways in which one can assess the complexity of urban change, and judge which projects and solutions are more appropriate in the context of smart and sustainable urban development. This chapter introduces a new system for measuring urban performances. This is the result of two years of joint cooperation between the authors and the Italian iiSBE members group. It is based on previous research findings in the field of evaluation systems for the sustainable built environment. This new approach is useful for evaluating smart and sustainable urban redevelopment planning solutions, as it is based on benchmarking approaches and multi-scalar quantitative performance indicators (KPIs), from individual building level to city level. A number of important implications of the main findings of this study are set out in the concluding section, together with suggestions for future research.

Sustaining Democracy

2021 ◽  
pp. 65-96
Author(s):  
Jennifer Forestal
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Sustainable Communities ◽  
Digital Environment ◽  
Communities Of Interest ◽  
Digital Environments ◽  
Cooperative Activity ◽  
Democratic Communities ◽  
Democratic Spaces

Democratic spaces must also be durable. Durable spaces facilitate our attachments to our communities and to other members; they help us sustain communities. Chapter 3 draws from Alexis de Tocqueville’s writing on democracy to explain how the durability of the built environment can be a powerful resource for generating the attachments that sustain democratic communities by (1) continually reminding citizens of their social obligations and (2) facilitating repeated interactions between citizens. The chapter then turns to the example of Twitter—particularly the mechanism of hashtags—to explore these dynamics in a digital environment. Hashtags provide temporary boundaries that are useful for mobilizing, but not sustaining, communities of interest; as a result, Twitter is not a platform well suited for cultivating the attachments required for longer-term cooperative activity. The chapter concludes with suggestions as to how we might design more durable spaces—and sustainable communities—in digital environments.

Conservation and Maintenance as a Means of Sustainable Development - Finnish Perspective

2011 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
Kaisa Broner-Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Built Environment ◽  
Environmental Planning ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Subsequent Change ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Grassroots Level

The article deals with the environmental consciousness emerged from the 1970's onwards, and with subsequent change in the ideology of city planning. The focus is on the development of urban conservation methods and on the maintenance of the built environment, which have marked a decisive shift away from the CIAM theses that dominated urban thinking during half-a-century. The decision to take the existing built environment as the starting point for all actions of city planning and design has been a radical stand for a new approach, corresponding to and paralleling the idea of sustainable development that crystallized in the 1980's up to the 1992 UN Conference. Grassroots-level strategies are considered important for all actions towards a sustainable way of life. The case of Finland is studied in some detail, with the conservation atlas of the historic milieu as an example of teaching a sustainable approach to environmental planning and design.

The Great Divide: Teaching Collaborative Methodologies In Academia

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-32
Author(s):  
Katherine Boyle ◽  
Kyla Cools
Keyword(s):  
Built Environment ◽  
Historic Preservation ◽  
Applied Anthropology ◽  
Archaeological Survey ◽  
Academic World ◽  
Academic Setting ◽  
Field School ◽  
Historic Structures ◽  
Great Divide ◽  
The University

During the summer of 2017, the University of Maryland's Anthracite Heritage Program held a combined historic preservation and archaeological field school at Eckley Miners' Village in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Complementing the University's dual masters in applied anthropology and historic preservation, this field school emphasized the value of utilizing historic preservation and archaeology to inform one another. This field school has provided an invaluable opportunity for students to learn the process of documenting historic structures, as well as taking the built environment into account when conducting an archaeological survey. The collaborative methodologies used in this field school are rare in the applied academic setting yet are oftentimes found in industry and practice settings. This begs the question as to whether the divisions in “applied” and “practicing” anthropology are based in reality or artificial. By highlighting the benefits of teaching collaborative methodologies, we argue that it is a disservice to students to maintain this division between “applied” and “practicing” anthropology, as it does not adequately prepare them for a career outside of the academic world.

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