Paulo Bala
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View article: Being Water
Being Water Open
Being Water is an interactive art experience that explores water’s ways of being through 360° video, artifact-beings, voice-over, and atmospheric sound. After an initial version focused on guided navigation and authorial text, the second i…
View article: Speculating Migrant Possible Worlds through Magic Machines
Speculating Migrant Possible Worlds through Magic Machines Open
Migration and technology studies increasingly recognize the importance of incorporating migrant perspectives in design processes. Speculative design methods have emerged as powerful tools for imagining alternative futures, particularly whe…
View article: Football Games as Proxsituated Visualizations in eXtended Reality
Football Games as Proxsituated Visualizations in eXtended Reality Open
View article: Visualizing the Ledger: Teaching Blockchain as Design Material
Visualizing the Ledger: Teaching Blockchain as Design Material Open
View article: En-join: Speculative LLM Play for Energy Community Engagement and Sustainability Awareness
En-join: Speculative LLM Play for Energy Community Engagement and Sustainability Awareness Open
View article: Designing for Community Care: Reimagining Support for Equity & Well-being in Academia
Designing for Community Care: Reimagining Support for Equity & Well-being in Academia Open
Academic well-being is deeply influenced by peer-support networks, yet they remain informal, inequitable, and unsustainable, often relying on personal connections and social capital rather than structured, inclusive systems. Additionally, …
View article: Combining Interactive Narratives and Augmented Reality to Promote Engagement between Children and Nature
Combining Interactive Narratives and Augmented Reality to Promote Engagement between Children and Nature Open
View article: DreamScape: Fostering Financial Cognition through a Serious Game
DreamScape: Fostering Financial Cognition through a Serious Game Open
View article: Meta-evaluating the Effects of Social Preferences on NPC-evaluators in an Energy Community Game
Meta-evaluating the Effects of Social Preferences on NPC-evaluators in an Energy Community Game Open
View article: Meta-Evaluating Local LLMs: Rethinking Performance Metrics for Serious Games
Meta-Evaluating Local LLMs: Rethinking Performance Metrics for Serious Games Open
The evaluation of open-ended responses in serious games presents a unique challenge, as correctness is often subjective. Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly being explored as evaluators in such contexts, yet their accuracy and co…
View article: Interactive Digital Storytelling Navigating the Inherent Currents of the Diasporic Mind
Interactive Digital Storytelling Navigating the Inherent Currents of the Diasporic Mind Open
Due to a recent increase in conflicts, natural disasters, and economic crises, a growing wave of migrant populations has been searching for asylum in Europe. For this population of asylum seekers, the migration process, like currents and r…
View article: Financial DreamScape: Puzzle Narrative Games for Financial Education
Financial DreamScape: Puzzle Narrative Games for Financial Education Open
Financial literacy is essential for personal and national economic well-being, demanding attention in today's dynamic society. However, a concerning trend persists where individuals may lack basic financial knowledge; this is common even a…
View article: CBT-Darts: Identifying Cognitive Distortions in an Immersive VR Game
CBT-Darts: Identifying Cognitive Distortions in an Immersive VR Game Open
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a empirically validated treatment for anxiety and depression. By identifying negative thinking patterns (cognitive distortions), individuals are able to reevaluate and reframe thinking patterns for better me…
View article: Prompt-Gaming: A Pilot Study on LLM-Evaluating Agent in a Meaningful Energy Game
Prompt-Gaming: A Pilot Study on LLM-Evaluating Agent in a Meaningful Energy Game Open
Building on previous work on incorporating large language models (LLM) in gaming, we investigate the possibility of implementing LLM as evaluating agents of open-ended challenges in serious games and its potential to facilitate a meaningfu…
View article: Stories as Boundary Objects: Digital Storytelling with Migrant Communities for Heritage Discourses
Stories as Boundary Objects: Digital Storytelling with Migrant Communities for Heritage Discourses Open
Heritage is a dynamic concept, being constantly redefined by those that value it. Modern approaches to heritage bring focus to participatory processes that put communities at the centre of the heritage discourse. For migrant communities, t…
View article: "Connected to the people": Social Inclusion & Cohesion in Action through a Cultural Heritage Digital Tool
"Connected to the people": Social Inclusion & Cohesion in Action through a Cultural Heritage Digital Tool Open
Current cultural policies are evolving from social inclusion (removing barriers and promoting equality for participation in culture) to social cohesion (fostering solid bonds between groups despite their differences). Digital interventions…
View article: “Before gentrification, we claim for habitation”
“Before gentrification, we claim for habitation” Open
This pictorial outlines findings from a field study part of an inclusive digital storytelling project, which aims to develop digital tools for migrant communities to share their lived cultural heritage (CH). The field study intended to dis…
View article: Inclusive Digital Storytelling: Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to Re-centre Stories from the Margins
Inclusive Digital Storytelling: Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality to Re-centre Stories from the Margins Open
As the concept of the Metaverse becomes a reality, storytelling tools sharpen their teeth to include Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality as prominent enabling features. While digitally savvy and privileged populations are well-po…
View article: Amnesia in the Atlantic: An AI Driven Serious Game on Marine Biodiversity
Amnesia in the Atlantic: An AI Driven Serious Game on Marine Biodiversity Open
Part 2: Works in Progress
View article: VR Open Scores: Scores as Inspiration for VR Scenarios
VR Open Scores: Scores as Inspiration for VR Scenarios Open
In this paper, we introduce the concept of VR Open Scores: aleatoric score-based virtual scenarios where an aleatoric score is embedded in a virtual environment. This idea builds upon the notion of graphic scores and composed instrument, a…
View article: Tell a Tail: Leveraging XR for a Transmedia on Animal Welfare
Tell a Tail: Leveraging XR for a Transmedia on Animal Welfare Open
View article: "When the Elephant Trumps"
"When the Elephant Trumps" Open
Orientation is an emerging issue in cinematic Virtual Reality (VR), as viewers may fail in locating points of interest. Recent strategies to tackle this research problem have investigated the role of cues, specifically diegetic sound effec…
View article: Lucid Peninsula
Lucid Peninsula Open
In this paper we present Lucid Peninsula, an interactive installation designed to immerse participants in a dreamlike, post-apocalyptic story world. The goal of the installation is to offer a way for people to experience the future through…