Shikakeology: Designing Triggers for Behavior Change: Papers from the 2013 AAAI Spring Symposium
Shikake as Affordance and
Curation in Chance Discovery
Akinori Abe
Faculty of Letters, Chiba University
1-33 Yayoi-cho, Inage-ku, Chiba 263-8522, Japan
ave@ultimaVI.arc.net.my
Abstract
In chance discovery, in the curated environment we can
properly collect affordance. I will discuss later but a chance
and shikake are in a certain sense similar. That is, a shikake
exists in an environment, and if it is applied to us we can
change or proceed our activities for the better future. A
chance will be exist in an environment, and by discovering
it we can proceed to the better future. Thus the curated environment can be regarded as an environment equipped with
a shikake. According to the policy of chance discovery, curation will be performed implicitly, but shikake can be explicitly and implicitly placed. This point is not the same as
in chance discovery and shikakeology.
Shikakeology and chance discovery seem to have a certain relationships. In this paper, I, first, illustrate the chance
discovery scheme which I recently have proposed. Then
I discuss the relationships between chance discovery and
Shikakeology.
In this paper first I introduce curation and affordance in
chance discovery. According to Matsumura’s definition, a
shikake is a trigger to start a certain action or to change person’s mind and behaviour. As a result of the action, all or part
of problem will be solved. A chance and shikake are in a certain sense similar. In addition, affrodance seems to play a significant role in shikakeology. From the point I will discuss the
relationships between chance discovery and Shikakeology.
Introduction
In our surroundings, we can find many things. If we find a
chair, we can sit down it and take a rest. If we are tired, we
try to find something to sit down. But even if we are not so
tired, when we find a chair, we will sit down. That is, when
we find such things we sometimes change our mind and activities. Then such things can be regarded as a trigger to
our new activities. Matsumura focuses on such triggers (he
calls it shikake) to explain various situations. He proposes
shikakeology which discusses the feature of a shikake. Sihakeology is rather new research field, and many researchers
gave several approaches.
We are studying chance discovery for more than 10 years.
A chance is rare, hidden, potential or novel event(s) / situation(s) that can be conceived either as a future opportunity or
risk (Ohsawa and McBurney 2003). Thus chance discovery
means discovering rare, hidden, potential or novel matter(s)
which will lead the user to the better future. Several discovery strategies have been proposed in these 10 years (for instance strategies in (Abe 2010b)). In addition, in the context of chance discovery, I proposed rather different scheme
for discovery. That is, I proposed the scheme how to display chances. I introduced a concept of curation (Abe 2010a;
2011; 2012c) and affordance (Abe 2009; 2012b) to chance
discovery. Detailed explanations are given in the following
sections, but here I briefly explain it. That is, a chance is discovered with a guidance of affordance. In addition, curation
offers a hidden or potential assistance to chance discovery.
That is, I did not propose a discovery strategy but a discovery environment.
Curation
This section reviews various types of curation. Actually “curatorial task” is usually performed for tasks in (art) museum.
Many cases introduced in this section are curatorial works in
gallery and (art) museum. In addition a new type of curation,
digital data curation, is also reviewed.
(General) curation
There is at least a person who is responsible as “curator”
in (special) exhibitions, galleries, archive, or (art) museums.
Their main task is a curatorial task, which is multifaceted.
Curator comes from a Latin word “cura” which means cure.
Then originally it used for a person who take care of a cultural heritage.
In the report by American Association of Museums Curators Committee (AAMCC) (of Museums Curators Committee 2009), they pointed out “curators are highly knowledgeable, experienced, or educated in a discipline relevant
to the museum’s purpose or mission. Curatorial roles and
responsibilities vary widely within the museum community
and within the museum itself, and may also be fulfilled by
staff members with other titles.” Then they showed the definition of curator as follows;
• Remain current in the scholarly developments within their
field(s); conduct original research and develop new scholarship that contributes to the advancement of the body of
Copyright c 2013, Association for the Advancement of Artificial
Intelligence (www.aaai.org). All rights reserved.
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knowledge within their field(s) and within the museum
profession as a whole.
Make recommendations for acquiring and deaccessioning
objects in the museum collection.
Assume responsibility for the overall care and development of the collection, which may include artifacts, fine
art, specimens, historic structures, and intellectual property.
Advocate for and participate in the formulation of institutional policies and procedures for the care of the collection that are based on accepted professional standards
and best practices as defined by AAM, CurCom, and other
relevant professional organizations.
Perform research to identify materials in the collection
and to document their history.
Interpret the objects belonging or loaned to the museum.
Develop and organize exhibitions.
Contribute to programs and educational materials.
Advocate and provide for public use of the collection.
Develop or contribute to monographs, essays, research papers, and other products of original thought.
Represent their institution in the media, at public gatherings, and at professional conferences and seminars.
Remain current on all state, national, and international
laws as they pertain to objects in the museum collection.
Bacon usually painted a flesh of human beings most of
whose parts are removed to express the essence of human
existence. However, in the catalogue of the exhibition “Bacon and Caravaggio,” at first, Coliva wrote “This exhibition
proposes a juxtaposition of Bacon and Caravaggio. It intends
to offer visitors an opportunity for an aesthetic experience
rather than an educational one... (Colvia 2009).” Then Coliva continued
“An exhibition of generally conceived and prepared
with a historicist mentality, but when it materializes,
the simultaneous presence of the works — in the sense
precisely of their hanging — opens up parallels and
poses very complex and spontaneous questions, which
may even be unexpected and not all stem exactly from
questions initially posed by art-historical motives and
theses. There are parallels that appear by themselves
to the visitor’s sensibility and are not imposed by a
theory of the curator. This is certainly one aspect of
the vitality of exhibitions, which make the works live
and in this are necessary for the works. The display itself, in the sense of the presentation of the works that
appear in an exhibition —the spectacle of their being
on display — creates trains of thought that are independent of the interpretations provided by art-historical
scholarship. And since for a profound experience of understanding a work these ramifications sometimes are
more surprising and significant than the achievements
of a specialized scholarship in its own field of action,
an art raised to the status of an enigma like Bacon’s
seems to require the gamble of provoking these parallels. And since at the time, and again because of its
qualitative greatness, Caravaggio’s art deserves a similar provocation, the juxtaposition thus satisfies a legitimate aesthetic desire. On the other hand, the juxtaposition is a modest and prudent solution, not so much for
demonstrating, but for offering the attribute of “genius”
— which the expressive common language attributes to
the great artist of the past — opportunities to manifest
itself. And the juxtaposition is induced by the Galleria
Borghese itself, one of the most sensitive spaces with
the simultaneous presence of genius.”
In addition, AAMCC showed curatorial responsibilities as
follows;
A:
B:
C:
D:
E:
Research, Scholarship, and Integrity
Interpretation
Acquisition, Care, and Disposal
Collection Access and Use
Replication of Objects in the Collection
Thus curators have responsibilities for various aspects of
exhibition activities. However, the most important activity
will be a plan of exhibition. For that the above activities
such as research, interpretation and acquisition are necessary. They should properly exhibit a truth which is result of
their researches and interpretations.
Exhibition “Bacon and Caravaggio”
Besides the importance in aesthetics and philosophy, I
think the most important point is that “There are parallels
that appear by themselves to the visitor’s sensibility and are
not imposed by a theory of the curator.” That is, though actually a curator has a certain philosophy, he/she does not
insist his/her philosophy but audiences will be able to discover additional meanings as well as the curator’s intended
philosophy.
An exhibition “Bacon and Caravaggio” was held in Museo e
Galleria Borghese, Roma, Italy during October 2 2009 and
January 24 2010.
The display policy of this exhibition is rather different
from that of general special exhibitions. First, the special exhibition was not separated from the space for permanent collections. Of course several Caravaggio’s works were exhibited in their original places. The other Caravaggio’s works
and Bacon’s works were exhibited between permanent collections. For this type exhibition, usually an exhibition is
educational and two painters are compared in various viewpoint, for instance days and society painters lived. Before
arriving at the exhibition, my expectation was that it would
be an exhibition to address the contrast between the drawing policies of Bacon and Caravaggio. Caravaggio usually
painted a perfect body of human beings. On the other hand,
Exhibition in the Museum of University of Tokyo
In the museum of University Tokyo, they tried a unusual and
tricky exhibition style. Where no panel for explanation is
displayed. A director (curator) Endo pointed out that “We
have intently organized a space without introduction, information, and educational objective. When audiences watch
dead bodies which used to have lives and activities, they will
conceive an importance of lives (Miyadai 11 March 2010).”
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In the above exhibition, small number of explanatory panels have been provided. However, in this exhibition, no explanatory panels is prepared. Actually, for (archaeological)
museums specialized information will be necessary as basic
knowledge or educational knowledge. However sometimes
reading such panels requires much times to audiences and
removes opportunities of deep understandings of exhibitions
from audiences. In the worst case, audiences do not watch
displayed things but only read explanations. Thus properly
few information gives audiences a chance of thinking and
deep understandings of the exhibition.
Thus as shown above, originally a curation was an activity
for offering an explicit education to audiences. However a
contemporary curation offers audiences a certain freedom or
opportunity such as deep thinking and new discovery, which
can be regarded as a chance. Sometimes a situation without information or with a few information offers us chances
which might become important factors for our future. Curation should be performed with considering such implicit and
potential possibilities. In addition, such possibilities should
be rather easily discovered and arranged according to the
user’s interests and situations.
only by a viewpoint such as search keyword, place and program but also by the specialized person’s sense of value and
world view. His viewpoint is based on Social Network System (SNS), then his curation can be regarded as a generation
of explicit, multi-core circle type, and indefinite relationship
supported by social media.
Katsumi Katsumi seems to extend a task of curation in
museums. He uses a framework of a curator’s task. He illustrates a curator’s task is as follows (Katsumi 2011):
1. Reconsider meanings of existing works etc.
2. Select contents and add relationships to them.
3. Offer a new meaning and value to customers.
He compares a river model with a well model in recognition of customer’s needs in business world. In a river model
customers are on the opposite side of a river. (information)
providers, based on their previous experience, existing concepts, and various sorts of surveyed data, expect customers’
position and throw a ball. In a well model, if providers
dig their own well, they will discover a new underground
stream and it might be connected to customers’ underground
stream. In this underground stream potential needs which
customers are not aware exist.
Katsumi illustrates a new curation model in business
based on innovators’ successful examples such as the strategy of Seven-Eleven.
Curation in business and information market
In 2011, several books on curation were published. In Japan
we had at least two publications which I noticed by Katsumi (Katsumi 2011) and Sasaki (Sasaki 2011). In addition, Rosenbaum published “Curation Nation” (Rosenbaum
2011) in the same year. They discuss a “curation” in “business” and information market field. I do not know why in
2011 such publications on (information) curation appear simultaneously.
Rosenbaum Rosenbaum gave features to curation as follows (Rosenbaum 2011):
Curation comes in many shapes and sizes. It is critically
important to understand two things. First, curation is about
adding value from humans who add their qualitative judgment to whatever is being gathered and organized. And second, there is both amateur and professional curation, and the
emergence of amateur or pro-sumer curation isn’t in any way
a threat to professionals. He continued that “Curation is very
much the core shift in commerce, editorial, and communities that require highly qualified humans.” Accordingly he
mainly discuss curation in the field of magazine and networks. He characterizes curation as the future of consumer
conversation. He mentions that “as curated customer conversation take hold, there will not be a brand, a service, or
a company that will emerge to give feedback and filter customer reaction to goods and services. [...] Indeed, reasonable and balanced communities curated to be about honest
feedback and customer solutions will emerge as a new and
powerful force in consumer-and-brand interaction.” In addition, he seems to extend curation tasks to quite different type
of jobs, for instance DJ. His definition of curation seems to
cover quite a large field.
At the end of (Rosenbaum 2011), he states “We are all
curators. We all will be sharing into the ecosystem of our
friend and families. For some, it will become part of who we
are. And for a few of us, curation will become our livelihood.
It’s exciting for me to see that we’re turning a corner. The
network is built. The data center are in place. The next step
will involve the human piece of the equation—humans are
more-valuable machines.”
Sasaki Sasaki defined curation in (Sasaki 2011) as follows:
Curation: From huge amount of information source, according to the curator’s sense of value and world view, picking up information, giving a new meaning to it and sharing
it with many persons.
Sasaki used a metaphor of biotope1 to illustrate the promotion of a unknown or less known but a good artist. His
main point to successful promotion is to recognize:
• Where those who need a certain information live?
• How to offer the information to those who need the information?
• How to make them impressed by the information?
He gave a metaphor the place where those who need a
certain information live as a biotope. Actually strategies he
illustrated are very intentional because they are business that
should be successful and that were succeeded. In addition,
he pointed out the importance of a human as a media. That
is in order to generate sympathies, there should be a certain context and the context will be generated (aware) not
1
Biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of plants and animals. Biotope is almost synonymous with the term habitat, but
while the subject of a habitat is a species or a population, the subject of a biotope is a biological community. (from Wikipedia)
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Curation in business? A “curation” for business in the internet age seems an interaction between customer (user) and
goods. There will not be a system to insist trends from big
companies, but trends will be constructed or selected according to customers’ interaction on (inter)networks. In addition,
a (small) company or community can use this system to give
rare goods a certain trend. Thus the strategy of information
delivery in business has changed in recent year and they call
this type of information delivery as “curation.” Curation in
business means not only an information display system but
also an information delivery strategy.
The above interface based application can be classified to
curation type applications.
Is curation chance discovery?
My experience in a market store2 can be regarded as a type
of chance discovery application, because the strategy generated a hidden or potential purchase chance to customers.
Customers who were inspired by the combination of chicken
and asparagus would have bought either or both of them for
dinner. Actually, this is not a task in museums, but it can
be also regarded as a curator’s work (curation). Because the
strategy includes philosophy in a combination of items, and
based on the philosophy it will offer certain effects or education to audiences. Visualization strategies such that referred to above function as curation. Because they display
candidate chances in a manner where important or necessary items or events can be easily or interactively discovered
by the user.
Curation in chance discovery
In (Abe 2010a; 2011; 2012c; 2012a), I proposed curation in
chance discovery. In this section, I review the concept and
definition of curation in chance discovery in the followings.
Chance discovery
Curation of the business situation in the internet
age
Though in various articles, the definition of a “chance” is
described which was introduced by Ohsawa (Ohsawa and
McBurney 2003), I wish to introduce it here again. In fact,
it rather differs from the original definition in (Ohsawa and
McBurney 2003) to reflect the recent research interests.
In the previous sections, I illustrated several curation in business and chance discovery. I summarized that a “curation”
for business in the network age seems an interaction between customer (user) and goods. There will not be a system to insist trends from big companies, but trends will be
constructed or selected according to customers’ interaction
on networks. In addition, a (small) company or community
can use this system to give rare goods a certain trend. That
is, no curation is directly performed by a “system manager.”
Instead a “system manager” tries to use a certain community
effectively. A “system manager” provides a certain information to those who will be interested in it. The information
will be shared in the community and sometimes it will be
delivered to other communities having the same or similar
interests. There exist a certain intention, but the feature of
curation is rather vague and changeable. Perhaps the task as
a curation is to offer a certain environment for communication among customers. Thus generation of customers communication is important in this type of curation.
Akiyama and Sugiyama discussed holistic communication in advertising (Akiyama and Sugiyama 2004). In a
holistic communication, an advertiser seeks active consumers and makes them a sort of hub from which a lot of
information will be delivered and exchanged to other consumers (B to C to C model3 ). Such an active consumer usually offers good opinion or information which is believed as
a better news source by many other customers and is sometimes a charismatic consumer. This model is similar to the
above curation strategy (by Sasaki).
A chance is rare, hidden, potential or novel event(s) /
situation(s) that can be conceived either as a future opportunity or risk.
Then “chance discovery” research is a type of research
to establish methods, strategies, theories, and even activities to discover a chance. In addition, it aims at discovering human factors for chance discoveries. Therefore not
only researchers in computer science and engineering but
also researchers with different expertise such as psychologists, philosophers, economists and sociologists take part in
chance discovery research.
Thus it is very important to offer opportunities where receivers can feel and obtain chances in various situations.
Many applications on chance discover have been proposed
in these 10 years (Abe 2010b; Ohsawa and Tsumoto 2006).
For instance, visualization systems for making users aware
of unconscious preferences (Amitani and Edmonds 2010;
Maeno and Ohsawa 2010), an analogy game which varies
a construction of concepts according to perceptions, categorizations, and areas of focus derived from the expertise of the
observer (Nakamura, Ohsawa, and Nishio 2010), a deposit
overflow determination system to prevent various financial
crises (Yada, Washio, and Ukai 2010), ISOR-2, a combination of case-based reasoning and statistical modeling system which can deal with medical exceptions (Vorobieva and
Schmidt 2010), and a web-based interactive interface which
can check hidden or rare but very important relationships in
medical diagnostic data sets (Abe et al. 2010) have been proposed in (Abe 2010b). Those applications are real world applications where a discovery of chances plays an important
role. However, strategies how to display chances have not
been discussed in many applications. Strategy for discovering chances is of course important. In addition, strategy for
an easy discovery interface of chances is more important.
Curation in chance discovery
Actually curation in business is rather different from that in
chance discovery. For instance, the curation in business explicitly aims to show rare or hidden but important matters to
2
Meats (chicken) and asparagus were sold together. The other
vegetables were not sold there.
3
B: business, C: customer
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consumers. In the strategy, they seek a central or key person
to give information and expect that he/she will deliver the
information according to his/her interpretation or criterion.
This type of interpretation or criterion is very trustful and
general customers tend to believe the (filtered) information.
In chance discovery, however, we do not perform such an
explicit activity with intentions. Instead we try to hide such
intentions and adopt implicit strategies. Because we think
such implicitness will offer users a certain freedom of deep
thinking and possibilities. However, communication is also
an important factor in chance discovery. Because curation is
a type of communication between curator and audiences.
Accordingly, the strategy in business can be referred to
in chance discovery. For the original version of the curation
in chance discovery (Abe 2010a) I did not consider the effect of communication among audiences. I defined curation
style for individuals. A curation in business has a strategy
to use the effect of communication among communities. Of
course the strategy was introduced to expand the area of information delivery. A cuation in chance discovery does not
aim such strategy, but communication among users is very
important to reorganize or improve their thinking. In addition, sometimes even new idea might appear. For instance,
in (Ohsawa and Nishihara 2012) and continuing researches,
the effect of communication among participants is reported
and discussed. This type of communication is thus important
in chance discovery.
In addition, the other type of communication can be considered. I think another type of holistic communication4
shown above can be effective in chance discovery. That is, a
key person, matter, thing or event plays a role as a media or
guidance between curator and general or novice audiences.
This type of key person, matter, thing or event functions as a
hub of communication. That is, it sometimes functions as
a help or a guidance to discover chance. Such discovery
is sometimes achieved by a certain communication among
users. In addition, such discovery strategy might be learnt
by referring to the other’s activities. Of course no explicit
intention should be displayed from curators. Of course interpretations of the keys by users are free. Rather such free
interpretation should be encouraged. Then various chances
according to users situation or interests will be discovered,
generated or selected.
Accordingly such keys function as a guidance of affordance. For instance, yellow marks in a type of interface
shown in Figure 1 will function as keys.
Actually the mark might be intentional, but if several
marks in the same size and shape are provided close to the
place to be focused, it will function as a certain assistance for
novice persons. If we provide additional marks in the place
which are rather different from that to be focused, they probably function as certain influences or disturbances but offer
users possibilities of an active or deep thinking. In addition,
they can be removed for experts. Of course a decision of how
Figure 1: Result from Kamishibai
suggestions (yellow colored marks)
KeyGraph R with
many marks should be provided will be one of problems. If
there were too many marks, they might disturb users appropriate selection and thinking procedure.
Accordingly curation in chance discovery can be defined
as follows:
[New definition of curation in chance discovery]
• Curation is a task to offer users opportunities to discover
chances.
• Curation should be conducted with considering to offer
implicit and potential possibilities.
• Chances should not be explicitly displayed to users.
• However, such chances should rather easily be discovered
and arranged according to the user’s interests and situations. This can be achieved for instance by affordance.
• There can be a certain holistic communication environment. This type of holistic communication might function
as media to discover chance for novice users.
• There should be a certain freedom for user to interpret
a key person, matter, thing or event, which should only
stimulate or assist users’ thinking procedure.
• There should be a certain freedom for user to arrange
chances.
The effect and assistance of (holistic) communication and
affordance in chance discovery is added to the new definition of curation. By addition of (holistic) communication,
during chance discovery users will be able to have the other
(perhaps better) opportunity compared with a solo chance
discovery.
Perhaps new task for curator is how to determine an implicit “hub” in holistic communication which will assist
chance discovery.
For curatorial task, a serious problem is pointed out.
Magnani and Bardone introduced an idea of chance-faking
as a possible outcome of the activity of chance-seeking
(Magnani and Bardone 2010). They discussed the problem by illustrating the idea of bullshit introduced by Frankfurt (Frankfurt 2005) as an activity promoting fake chances.
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In a holistic communication, an advertiser seeks active consumers and makes them a sort of hub from which a lot of information will be delivered and exchanged to other consumers (B to C to
C model (B: business, C: customer).
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Compared with lie, they illustrate the problem in bullshit.
Since a lie is not informatively empty, people have various
mechanisms for detecting lies. On the other hand, a bullshit
(fake) can be a semantic attack which is concerning with the
manipulation of the meaning a person assign to something
that he is going to use in his/her decision-making process.
That is, a bullshit has no intention to cheat and be logically
true. Accordingly, it is rather difficult to determine it as a
fake. It will be necessary to be careful of such chance-faking
situation or provide a mechanism to detect such chancefaking situation in curation.
Object [ af f ordance |= meaning
(1)
Object [ af f ordance 6|= 2
(2)
That is, affordance can be regarded as a hypothesis from
abduction. We can select consistent affordance (equation
(2)) in the environment (hypothesis base) to explain the
meaning.
For chance discovery, in (Abe 2012a) I also showed the
following formulae with considering the effect of affordance:
Affordance in chance discovery
F [ chance [ af f ordance |= f uture situation.
In (Abe 2009) and (Abe 2012b) I proposed an introduction
of affordance to chance discovery as a dementia care situation. I also discussed the relationship between chance discovery and affordance. In this section, I review the relationship between chance discovery and affordance.
(3)
F [ chance [ af f ordance 6|= 2.
(4)
The above formula shows that with referring to a guidance of affordance, chance will be effectively and properly
generated. Actually, the same framework (abduction) is used
in both formalization.
The above definition involves the effect and assistance of
holistic communication and affordance in chance discovery.
By addition of holistic communication, during chance discovery users will be able to have the other (perhaps better)
opportunity compared with a solo chance discovery.
Affordance
Gibson ecologically introduced the concept of affordance
for perceptional phenomena (Gibson 1977; 1979). It emphasizes the environmental information available in extended
spatial and temporal pattern in optic arrays, for guiding the
behaviors of animals, and for specifying ecological events.
Thus he defined the affordance of something as “a specific
combination of the properties of its substance and its surfaces taken with reference to an animal.” For instance, the
affordance of climbing a stair step in a bipedal fashion has
been described in terms of the height of a stair riser taken
with reference to a person’s leg length (Warren 1984). In the
context of human-machine interaction Norman extended the
concept of affordance from Gibson’s definition. He pointed
our that “...the term affordance refers to the perceived and
actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental
properties that determine just how the thing could possibly
be used. [...] Affordances provide strong clues to the operations of things. Plates are for pushing. Knobs are for turning. Slots are for inserting things into. Balls are for throwing
or bouncing. When affordances are taken advantage of, the
user knows what to do just by looking: no picture, label, or
instruction needed” (Norman 1988). Thus Norman defined
affordance as something of both actual and perceivable properties. Accordingly his interpretation has been effectively introduced to interactive designs. In the case of Norman, affordance should be installed correctly, but in the case of Gibson,
affordance is searched and obtained by the user according to
his/her preference. Matsumura’a affordance is rather similar
to Norman’s affordance.
I proposed the guidance of affordance in chance discovery (Abe 2009; 2012b). Where affordance is ecologically selected and obtained for the better understanding. Actually it
focused on a dementia care situation, but the strategy can be
applied to general situations. Anyway, in this application affordance is not installed explicitly, but affordance is aware of
and obtained by the user to understand the function of tools.
The affordance selection process is logically described as
follows:
Shikakeology as chance discovery
What is a shikake?
According to Matsumura’s definition(Matsumura 2012), a
shikake is a trigger to start a certain action or to change
person’s mind and behaviour. As a result of the action, all
or part of problem will be solved. It sometimes is not the
person’s will. Thus as shikakeology, such operation should
be conducted implicitly. Matsumura continues that shikake
should be properly designed. That is, the relationship between a problem to solve and a trigger to action should be
properly designed.
In addition, Matsumura uses a keyword “affordance” to
explain such trigger. Actually Matsumura distinguish psychological design from material design, but I think it can be
discussed together.
Shikakeology as chance discovery
Shikake Key concepts shown in chance discovery are very
similar to those in shikakeology. In fact, a chance is a rare
and novel event. In addition, we mainly deal with hidden
or potential events in chance discovery. Chance itself is not
easy to discover, because it is usually hidden or out of our
scope. Shikake may sometimes easy to discover, because it
functions as a trigger. If the trigger is difficult to discover, we
cannot proceed our action. For instance, if we cannot find an
AED (Automated External Defibrillator) apparatus and cannot find or understand any instruction, we cannot save illperson. Thus it should be explicitly displayed and its instruction should be easy to understand. I think an AED apparatus
can be regarded as a shikake. Because it is a trigger to save
a person. On the other hand, as an entertainment, shikake
should be difficult to discover. For instance, in a zoo or Disney Land, there are many shikake which lead us interesting
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events. If they are easy to discover, part of enjoyment will be
removed. Thus such shikake should be hidden and are rather
difficult to discover. If they cannot find the shikake, they will
be back to zoo or Disney Land to find such shikake. Even if
they can find it, they will be back for another enjoyment.
Thus shikake can be categorized into two — an explicit
shikake and an implicit shikake. In addition, they can also
be categorized into intentional shikake and non-intentional
shikake. An example of an explicit shikake is an AED apparatus. In the sense of Norman (Norman 1988), they should
be designed properly. That is, it can be discovered easily and
used few or without any instructions. In the other phrase, we
can easily collect a proper affordance from it. Usually an
AED apparatus is placed where anybody can be aware of
and has a big label showing this is an AED apparatus.
An example of an implicit shikake is, for instance, hidden
Mickey (Fig. 2) in the Disney Land. In order to discover the
hidden Mickey, people run around the Disney Land. During
searching, they may discover the other interesting things. Of
course, when they can find the hidden Mickey, they will be
happy. Thus hidden character functions as a trigger to such
activities (search and run). By this trigger (shikake), they can
enjoy the Disney Land more than a simple tour in the Disney
Land.
Yorker very refreshing. It is like an empty glass, nothing but
wheat, or is it corn? Does it matter which?”
He used a metaphor of a glass which seems a shikake. A
glass is a container and has many possibilities. It will accept anything (=interpretation). The place where a player
plays something, the player plays nothing. This is an implicit
shikake and some audience will be aware of such shikake. In
the first performance, many audience could not be aware of
such shikake. Only few person such as Stravinsky was aware
of such shikake and enjoyed it. Various interpretations to
the performance would be generated. In the case of implicit
shikake, sometimes such a case will occur. But it is not a
serious problem. We will be able to enjoy it next time. Thus
for instance, many persons visit to Disney Land repeatedly.
However if person misunderstand the shikake, it might be a
problem.
Shikake and curation Curation can be regarded as a strategy of the information display. Shikake can also be regarded
as a strategy to lead us information. In the usual curation, information display is designed for audience to understand information easily. The curator’s knowledge can be transferred
to audience by his/her curation. By a shikake, the staff will
not directly transfer his/her knowledge to the audience, but
by a trigger of shikake, their knowledge will be transferred
to the audience. Thus a shikake will be provided in some
case in curation.
Shikake and affordance From the viewpoint of the concept of affordance, a shikake is in an environment and give
a certain affordance. When we can collect the affordance
properly, the shikake functions and we can proceed to the
next stage. A shikake is a controller for the affordance selection. By being awared of a shikake, we can be lead to
proper affordance source to collect it. For instance, if people are aware of affordance from an AED apparatus or hidden Mickey which are shikakes, we can collect proper affordance which shows that an AED apparatus can save person’s
life or a hidden Mickey is very interesting and enjoyable.
That is, they select a proper affordance according to their
better benefit. Thus shikake can be explained by the concept
of affordance.
Figure 2: Hidden Mickey
Shikake and chance In the previous section, I introduced
the importance of affordance in chance discovery. In addition, I show that shikake can be explained by the concept of
affordance.
A shikake exists in an environment, and if it is applied
to us we can change or proceed our activities for the better future. A chance will be exist in an environment, and
by discovering it we can proceed to the better future. Thus
the curated environment can be regarded as an environment
equipped with a shikake. According to the policy of chance
discovery, curation will be performed implicitly, but shikake
can be explicitly and implicitly placed. Except from explicit
placement, chance and shikake have a certain relationship.
Because the above type of strategy is explained by affordance selection. That is, in the environment, a shikake exists
and shikake is a certain pointer for the proper selection of
affordance.
In addition, the first performance of John Cage’s 4’33”
can also be regarded as shikake. In fact, many concerts or
exhibitions have a certain shikake. In the case of 4’33” performance, audience believed that David Tudor played something, but he did not play any tunes. He only seated in front
of the piano. Because it is a silent music. No tune is described in the score. Cage wrote in (Cage 1961) “This space
of time is organized. We need not fear these silences, we may
love them. This is a composed talk, for I am making it just
as I make a piece of music. It is like a glass of milk. We need
the glass and we need the milk. Or again it is like an empty
glass into which at any moment anything may be poured. As
we go along, (who knows?) an idea may occur in this talk.
I have no idea whether one will or not. If one does, let it.
Regard it as something seen momentarily, as though from a
window while traveling. If across Kansas, then, of course,
Kansas. . . . Kansas is like nothing on earth, and for a New
8
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Magnani, L., and Bardone, E.
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Faking
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Rosenbaum, S. 2011. Curation Nation. McGrau Hill.
Then shikake can be included in the formulae shown in
the previous section.
F [chance[shikake[af f ordance |= f uture situation.
(5)
F [ chance [ shikake [ af f ordance 6|= 2.
(6)
In the previous section, I mentioned that the above formula shows that with referring to a guidance of affordance,
chance will be effectively and properly generated. If we consider the existence of shikake, affordance will be selected
more easily. Because a shikake functions as a hint to select
an affordance. A shikake is not coincide a chance but it can
help in chance discovery. Of course, in chance discovery,
any shikake cannot be explicit.
Thus Shikakeology and chance discovery seem to have a
certain relationships.
In the previous section I review the problem of chancefaking introduced by Magnani and Bardone (Magnani and
Bardone 2010). By using the guidance of shikake, such
chance-faking will be reduced. In addition, in the framework
of shikakeology, such misunderstandings might sometimes
be a certain entertainment.
Conclusions
In this paper, I showed the relationship between a chance
and a shikake. I compare a chance and a shikake in the
framework of affordance. Actually a shikake is a trigger and
chance is an event or a situation. That is, a trigger will introduce us to an event or a situation. Thus a shikake can be a
trigger to discover a chance. In addition, I showed the chance
discovery scheme can be explained by curation. As I shown
in the previous section, shikake can be a trigger in curation.
And a shikake can also be explained by affordandce. By introducing a shikake to affordance-based chance discovery,
more proper selection of affordance can be performed.
This is a fist step of integration of chance discovery and
shikakeology. In the future, more feature can be considered
for the better formalization.
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