What chess games and chess problems tell us about digital games and art

This article examines the relationship between chess games and chess problems (‘compositions’) in order to describe the chess problem as art. Arguing that the chess problem is a manipulation of game form guided by human aesthetic principles (e.g. Schiller's ‘beauty’ and Wimsatt's ‘human condition’), the article draws a parallel between art derived from games and art derived from nature. This parallel has important implications in circumstances where a natural world is replaced by a virtual world and nature is, in some sense, ‘lost’ to the artist. The article argues that, in such circumstances, the interactive and ‘concreative’ nature of digital media – particularly digital games – allows for unabated aesthetic production.     

中国传统意境美学下的当代海报设计

纵观我国文化历史上下五千年,期间产生了诸多美学思想。而这些美学思想运用到当代海报设计中,对我们的日常生活消费,公益事业的宣传等会起到了潜移默化的作用。然而今日的地球在科技发展的影响下成了一个地球村,各国文化思潮的涌入,对我国传统美学思想造成一定的影响,但我们更应批判地继承传统美学文化,取其精华,去其糟粕,结合当前国际,创造出属于我们当代的、新的美学思想,并以此来促进我国广告设计事业的发展。     

Scaling Kernel-Based Systems to Large Data Sets

In the form of the support vector machine and Gaussian processes, kernel-based systems are currently very popular approaches to supervised learning. Unfortunately, the computational load for training kernel-based systems increases drastically with the size of the training data set, such that these systems are not ideal candidates for applications with large data sets. Nevertheless, research in this direction is very active. In this paper, I review some of the current approaches toward scaling kernel-based systems to large data sets.     

Cognitive-Mathematical Approaches for Evaluating Architectural Contextual Fit

The main goal of this study is to apply a scientific quantitative approach to the investigation of contextual fit. This is approached mathematically within the framework of cognitive science and research on categorization and prototypes. Two experiments investigated two leading mathematical-cognitive approaches for explaining people’s judgment of contextual fit of a new building with an architectural/urban context: prototype approach and feature frequency approach. The basic concept is that people represent the built environment via architectural prototypes and/or frequencies of encountered architectural features. In the first experiment, a group of twelve participants performed rank order tasks on artificially created architectural patterns, for the purpose of psychological scaling. Perceptual distances among all patterns were mathematically determined. In the second experiment, three groups of architectural patterns were constructed to represent assumed architectural contexts. The prototype of each context was mathematically determined according to prototype cognitive model, and based on the distances calculated in the first experiment. Fifty-six students participated in the main experiment, in which they rank ordered a group of fifteen architectural patterns in terms of contextual fit to each of the three architectural contexts. Participants’ rank order data of the fifteen patterns were regressed on both the perceptual distances from prototypes, and numbers of features shared with each architectural context. Results indicated that both prototype and feature frequency approaches significantly accounted for important portions of participants’ judgments. However, participants tended to prefer one approach to the other according to context composition. Results have implications for both research on utilizing cognitive-mathematical models in architectural research and on urban design guidelines and control.     

绘画创作意象论

中国古典美学体系实质上是以"意象"为基础范畴的审美本体体系,绘画美学则侧重于从艺术的角度看待审美,所以"意象"就成为美学本体论的基本范畴。中国古典美学将"象"作为本体之基,是通过对"象"的观察去把握"道",中国绘画创造的思维过程实质上就是意象的思维过程。本文立足从中国画的创作思维的角度探究意象的形成步骤,以达到对情和景二种基本因素构成的"意象",这一中国古典美学的审美本体做出全面的诠释。     

羌族村落建筑的布局之美

羌族村落的建筑物多采用集中修建的布局形式。始出于防御的需要,在长期与自然相适应的过程中,羌人智慧地处理了人与自然的关系,创造出令人叹为观止的建筑景观,其村落布局具有独特的美学价值。     

从香奈尔品牌文化的角度谈女性服饰美

服饰是女性展现自我魅力的有效途径,可以雕塑女性身材,塑造完美形象。它不仅反映着一个时代的精神面貌与生活方式,还传达着关于文化、艺术等方面的信息。服装美包含了色彩美、材质美、结构美、造型美、饰物美以及服装包裹下的人体的形体美。香奈尔让女性摆脱繁复装束的束缚,体现女性独立、自立意识。文章从香奈儿品牌风格中的简洁、精美、优雅的角度探讨女性服饰审美观。     

隐喻性儿童用户界面的设计

隐喻认知是一种普遍的认知机制,其应用为推进软件界面从专业走向日常生活,从效率优先到注重体验的转变发挥了重要的作用。在儿童教育和语言应用等儿童相关领域,隐喻的认知特点也获得研究人员的肯定,并积累了一定的研究结果。本文简要分析了隐喻的认知原理和审美功能,从儿童构建与解读隐喻的角度,提出儿童隐喻性人机界面设计过程中应注意的一些环节。     

发现传统 再造时尚——浅谈中国传统美学思想对现代平面设计的启发

本文讨论传统美学观在现代平面设计中的应用,分析传统与现代相结合的设计典范,指出中国现代平面设计既要尊重民族艺术的独特性,体现中华民族的审美心理,又要将其和谐地融入到国际时尚风格中去,使传统文化有更深远的研究与发展空间。     

The role of non-visual aesthetics in consumer product evaluation

The present article addresses the impact of non-visual aesthetics of consumer products on the outcomes of usability tests such as perceived usability, user performance and user affect. Building on the research surrounding the impact of visual aesthetics in usability testing, the present work aimed to determine whether the same pattern of effects repeatedly found for visual aesthetics will also be found for non-visual aesthetics. A series of three experiments was carried out, all examining sound and touch as two prominent dimensions of non-visual aesthetics. To increase the robustness of the results, the experiments were conducted with three different consumer products, which were a smartphone (N=60), vacuum cleaner (N=60), and video racing game (N=60). Although manipulation checks confirmed that users generally experienced both sound and tactile product properties as intended by the experimental manipulation, in none of the studies the results showed an effect on perceived usability. Other outcome variables such as affect and performance showed a few selected effects. Overall, this suggests that findings from the field of visual aesthetics cannot be easily transferred to the domain of non-visual aesthetics. The findings of the present studies are discussed within the framework of Schifferstein’s work on sensory dominance.