Development of the learning game environment "Bukashka" ("Ladyb ug") Using client web technologies

The theme "Algorithmization and programming" is one of the most difficult in the school informatics course. The computer programs that implement models of microworlds in which virtual actors operate help to explain the basic concepts of this theme for schoolchildren.The best visualization can be achieved using learning environments with drawing actors. The learning environment "Kangaroo Ru" provides the most simple model. It was developed in the early 1990s as a part of an educational project for IBM PS/2 computers running the DOS operating system.The usage of "Kangaroo Ru" is fraught with difficulties on modern computers. This article describes a case of the learning environment that is "Kangaroo Ru" compatible, but is implemented using web technologies HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It is runnable in web browsers of a wide range of hardware platforms.

Synthetic Beings and Synthespian Ethics

The screen is the material and imaginative interface where biology meets technology. It is the nexus between science and fiction, where technological and ethical concerns surrounding synthespians, representations of replicants, and manifestations of synthetic biology come into play. This analysis of digital imaging and cinematic imagining of virtual actors and synthetic humans in films such as Blade Runner 2049 (Denis Villeneuve, 2017) examines the ethical implications of digital embodiment technologies and cybernetics. I argue that it is necessary to bring together science and the arts to advance understandings of embodiment and technology. In doing so, I explore commonalities between ethical concerns about technobiological bodies in cultural and scientific discourse and developments such as the creation of virtual humans and “deepfake” digital doubles in screen media.

Digital manipulation versus real one: learning and motivation in a case study on Storytelling

In this work, a Storytelling FabLab has been designed for the realization of virtual performances on a Shakesperian play in an elementary school. In this FabLab, many elements have been digitally manipulated: text, audio files, virtual actors on a 3D stage, and 3D Greek masks. Learning of contents and motivation have been assessed and compared to those of a traditional class working on the construction of real masks as artefacts. Regarding learning effectiveness, data show that there is no great difference between the score gained by the experimental group and the control one; however, results emphasize a high intrinsic motivation for both experimental and control groups. Moreover, qualitative results of both groups highlight the positive feeling of doing things reflecting user’s own interest: pupils want to invent their own stories and realize them (physically or digitally).

Chains of Evidence

A certain class of film acting has always depended on special effects for its realization. This chapter traces the history of augmented performance from its roots in cel and stop-motion animation to the digital “synthespian,” using the case of Gollum in the Middle Earth trilogy to argue that the sense of life for these characters relies on a “chain of evidence” through which the animator’s (and later actor’s) performance is channeled into the artificial screen body. Willis O’Brien’s creation of King Kong receives extended scrutiny, as does the 2001 film Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within. Ultimately, the chapter argues that augmented performance is central to the transmedia presence of virtual actors across media and platforms.