MINI-PUBLIC SOM METODISK EKSPERIMENT I STUDIER AF FREMTIDSTEKNOLOGIER OG SOCIALE ROBOTTER

Denne artikel udspringer af spørgsmålet om, hvordan man som antropolog kan arbejde med fremtiden som forskningsobjekt, når det, som man ønsker at undersøge, endnu ikke er og derfor ej heller kan observeres med klassiske antropologiske metoder. Artiklens formål er at præsentere mini-public som en alternativ metode til kvalitativ dataindsamling og vidensformidling i antropologisk forskning af fremtidsscenarier. Dette sker ved en beskrivelse af et mini-public-event, der blev afviklet for frivillige repræsentanter fra forskellige samfundsgrupper i Aarhus i efteråret 2018 som led i et større tværfagligt forskningsprojekt på Aarhus Universitet om udviklingen og brugen af sociale robotter. Søgeord: metodediskussion, fremtidsteknologier, eksperimenterende metoder, sociale robotter, „foreign entanglements“

Video Frame Synthesis Combining Conventional and Event Cameras

Event cameras are biologically-inspired sensors that gather the temporal evolution of the scene. They capture pixel-wise brightness variations and output a corresponding stream of asynchronous events. Despite having multiple advantages with respect to conventional cameras, their use is limited due to the scarce compatibility of asynchronous event streams with traditional data processing and vision algorithms. In this regard, we present a framework that synthesizes RGB frames from the output stream of an event camera and an initial or a periodic set of color key-frames. The deep learning-based frame synthesis framework consists of an adversarial image-to-image architecture and a recurrent module. Two public event-based datasets, DDD17 and MVSEC, are used to obtain qualitative and quantitative per-pixel and perceptual results. In addition, we converted into event frames two additional well-known datasets, namely Kitti and Cityscapes, in order to present semantic results, in terms of object detection and semantic segmentation accuracy. Extensive experimental evaluation confirms the quality and the capability of the proposed approach of synthesizing frame sequences from color key-frames and sequences of intermediate events.

A model for the Twitter sentiment curve

Twitter is among the most used online platforms for the political communications, due to the concision of its messages (which is particularly suitable for political slogans) and the quick diffusion of messages. Especially when the argument stimulate the emotionality of users, the content on Twitter is shared with extreme speed and thus studying the tweet sentiment if of utmost importance to predict the evolution of the discussions and the register of the relative narratives. In this article, we present a model able to reproduce the dynamics of the sentiments of tweets related to specific topics and periods and to provide a prediction of the sentiment of the future posts based on the observed past. The model is a recent variant of the Pólya urn, introduced and studied in Aletti and Crimaldi (2019, 2020), which is characterized by a “local” reinforcement, i.e. a reinforcement mechanism mainly based on the most recent observations, and by a random persistent fluctuation of the predictive mean. In particular, this latter feature is capable of capturing the trend fluctuations in the sentiment curve. While the proposed model is extremely general and may be also employed in other contexts, it has been tested on several Twitter data sets and demonstrated greater performances compared to the standard Pólya urn model. Moreover, the different performances on different data sets highlight different emotional sensitivities respect to a public event.

Theatrical component of protests against Covid-quarantines: socio-philosophical reflection

The socio-political life of society presupposes communication between the authorities and the people, and the people with the authorities. This communication can be carried out in various forms, including with elements of theatricality (play, performance, artistry, costumes and sets, drama, direction, etc.). The Covid-19 pandemic has largely changed the socio-political life of different countries, but has not canceled the desire of people to theatricalize this life. This is evidenced, in particular, by the protests against the Covid-quarantines, which added new techniques and subjects to the repertoire of the political “theater”. The purpose of this study is to identify elements of theatricality in protests against Covid-quarantines and to interpret them in a socio-philosophical aspect. The methodological strategy of this study is based on the concept of theatricality of socio-communicative manifestations of culture. This concept allows us to comprehend the essence and forms of existence of social reality in the dynamics of their changes with a change in the cultural (political, socio-economic, informational, etc.) context. As a result of the study, it was found that many protests against quarantine restrictions are characterized by theatrical component withe elements such as play, performance, costumes and scenery, corresponding drama, etc. This is due to the fact that any protest action (whether it be a mass meeting or an individual protest) is a public event addressed to a specific audience to which a specific message needs to be conveyed. However, it was found that in protests against lockdowns, the theatrical component manifests itself in different ways at different stage of the pandemic. During the first wave, elements of costumed performances and comic antics prevailed in them, but for the second wave mass rallies became characteristic, most of which end in clashes with the police. There is much less theatrical content in these actions. This indicates that the theatrical component of the protest action lasts only as long as there is hope for a dialogue with the authorities. When the people do not receive answers to their questions, they begin to use other forms of communication with the authorities.

Online Rally as a Way of Exercising Political Rights

The Internent as the information and telecommunication network has an increasing impact on the life of modern people, and digitalization affects almost all legal relations existing at the moment. The political rights of citizens that are increasingly being exercised through the Internet, have not become an exception. In 2020, the conduct of demonstrations and various public events on the Internet no longer surprises anyone. This method is becoming a more and more popular and mass method of expressing public opinion that attracts increased attention. The paper examines existing online forms of protest actions, explores their correlation with the current legislation, as well as the possibility of their normative regulation. The author analyzes and studies a new legal concept an online meeting, and also suggests options for its legal consolidation. The author comes to the conclusion about the need to expand the concept of public event and to include new forms of mass events in regulatory acts.