Unfolding visual characteristics of social media communication: reflections of smart tourism destinations

Purpose This study aims to explore the visual social media (SM) (Instagram) communication and the visual characteristics of smart tourism destination (STD) communication from destination marketing/management organizations (DMOs) and user-generated content (UGC) perspectives, which refer to projected image and perceived image, respectively. Design/methodology/approach Three DMO official accounts of STDs (Helsinki, Gothenburg and Lyon) and corresponding official hashtags were selected for the sample and total 6,000 post data (1,000 × 6) were retrieved from Instagram. Visual communication content was examined with a netnographic design over a proposed four-level visual content framework using corresponding methodological approaches (thematic analysis, visual analysis, object detection and text mining) for each level. Findings Among the eight emerging themes dominating the images, communication of smart elements conveys far less than expected textual and visual signals from DMOs despite their smart status, and in turn, from UGC as well. UGC revealed three extra image themes regardless of smartness perception. DMOs tend to project and give voice to their standard metropolitan areas and neighborhoods while UGCs focus on food-related and emotional elements. The findings show a partial overlap between DMOs and UGCs, revealing discrepancies in objects contained in visuals, hashtags and emojis. Additionally, as a rare attempt, the proposed framework for visual content analysis showed the importance of integrated methods to investigate visual content effectively. Research limitations/implications The number of attributes in visual analysis and focusing on the observed elements in text content (text, hashtags and emojis) are the limitations of the study in terms of methodology. Originality/value Apart from the multiple integrated methods used over a netnographic design, this study differs from existing SM and smart destinations intersection literature by attempting to fill a gap in focusing on and exploring visual SM communication, which is scarce in tourism context, for the contents generated by DMOs and users.

PRECONDITIONS OF MINING LOGISTICS SYSTEMS RATIONALITY ASSESSMENT

The article formulates the preconditions for reasonable assessment of the levels of social rationality of a real or developed (existing, implemented, planned for implementation) integrated logistics system of the mining industry (ILSMI) and some “ideal” ILSMI with predetermined desired parameters (characteristics, requirements), as well as preconditions for comparing these evaluations in order to determine the conformity of the actual or developed ILSMI to the standard visual characteristics

THE MALAY CULTURAL LANDSCAPE CHARACTERISTICS FOR THE ISLAMIC ARISTOCRAT TOWN IN KELANTAN, MALAYSIA

The Malay cultural landscape has become an integral part of examining the cultural significance in Malaysia. Thus, the main objective of the study is to determine the impact of the visual characteristics of the built cultural landscape in conserving and preserving Kota Bharu as an aristocratic area in this modern era. Kota Bharu is one of the Islamic cities in Malaysia. This study embarks into a quantitative study using a mixed-method. A significant implication is to propose a significant model to value the Malay cultural heritage and preserve the culture and spirit among the Kelantanese Malay population who live in the modern era.

What Was the Visual Appeal of Kabuki?

By using several woodblock-printed pictures to explore the visual appeal of kabuki in the Edo period. (1) Focus on the construction of kabuki theatre and the props on stage, considering prevailing examples to interpret how the kabuki theatre acted as an adequate arena for the exercise of actors’ talents, thus entrancing the audiences. (2) Discuss the costumes, make-up and wigs of classic characters to directly capture the visual experiences of the Edo people in kabuki theatres. (3) The representative dancing and acting will be considered to analyse their visual characteristics.

What is visual Vaporwave? Vaporwave arts and their history and position in China

By Vaporwave we refer to a digital-born electronic music genre and a trend in visual aesthetics. It emerged in some US-based online communities in the early 2010s, and now its visual expressions are in vogue in Chinese visual media context. In this article, Vaporwave’s aesthetics are discussed through three stages of analysis. In the first part, the paper outlines relevant theories and general features of Vaporwave’s (both visual and musical) aesthetics; next, the paper focuses on Vaporwave's visual characteristics, and, to provide a deeper understanding of its visual aesthetics, I discuss a school of painting derived from early twentieth-century Italy—Metaphysical art. In the second part, the article discusses why and how vaporwave aesthetics are inseparable from some Japanese visual characteristics and how it is represented in China, with particular reference to examples of Japanese comics from the 1980s/early 1990s and one popular Chinese video-focused social media TikTok in recent years. In the third part, the article focuses on illustrating Vaporwave's visual features in the Chinese context in recent years, and several examples are provided.

A Measurement of Visual Complexity for Heterogeneity in the Built Environment Based on Fractal Dimension and Its Application in Two Gardens

In this study, a fractal dimension-based method has been developed to compute the visual complexity of the heterogeneity in the built environment. The built environment is a very complex combination, structurally consisting of both natural and artificial elements. Its fractal dimension computation is often disturbed by the homogenous visual redundancy, which is textured but needs less attention to process, so that it leads to a pseudo-evaluation of visual complexity in the built environment. Based on human visual perception, the study developed a method: fractal dimension of heterogeneity in the built environment, which includes Potts segmentation and Canny edge detection as image preprocessing procedure and fractal dimension as computation procedure. This proposed method effectively extracts perceptually meaningful edge structures in the visual image and computes its visual complexity which is consistent with human visual characteristics. In addition, an evaluation system combining the proposed method and the traditional method has been established to classify and assess the visual complexity of the scenario more comprehensively. Two different gardens had been computed and analyzed to demonstrate that the proposed method and the evaluation system provide a robust and accurate way to measure the visual complexity in the built environment.

A STUDY ON THE DIFFERENCES IN VISION BETWEEN THE YOUNG AND THE ELDERLY IN SIGNS

It has been shown that with aging, cataracts become cloudy and colour perception and visual acuity deteriorate. As the world's population ages, there is a need for signage that considers older people's visual characteristics. This study aimed to clarify the effects of sign components on visual perception and identify differences in the effects of age. We conducted a psychological evaluation using the semantic differential method on 20 young and 10 elderly. The results showed that the younger participants gave higher ratings to many questions than the older participants. The factor analysis results showed that the items of the questionnaire consisted of a "visibility factor" and "harmony factor". The elderly were more likely to be affected by the viewing distance than the young invisibility.