Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Affordances


"an action possibility available in the environment to an individual, independent of the individual's ability to perceive this possibility"

How do  you understand this definition/description of affordance? Please put into your own words. What if anything may or may not be problematic about this interpretation of the notion of affordances?

What might be the connection between affordance and evolution?

What is the difference between a niche and a habitat? Explain in your own words and give an example of each. What is your niche?

An affordance cuts the dichotomy of subjective and objective and helps us to understand its inadequacy. The affordances of the environment are facts of the environment, not appearances. But they are not on the other hand, facts at the level of physics concerned with matter and energy and animals left out.

Get into your groups and answer the following questions
Pick three aspects/environmental conditions of this room or the third floor of FAC. Describe each of these aspects as an affordance. What activity is implied by the material? What sorts of sensory input does this  condition/object offer the user? One way of doing this might be able to put yourself in the place of an alien. What about the object or condition compels you to act upon it in a particular way?

What do you think is the difference between usefulness and utility with respect to affordances?

What might be a false affordance? Create a situation other than that of the cat on the glass floor who is afraid to walk because the glass is transparent and there is a drop in floor? Think about how zoos keep animals in w/o cages or slapstick comedy.

Are we aware of all of the affordances of an object or a condition?  Do you think affordances are cultural? Are they different for people with disabilities? 

Draw parallels between the idea of affordances and intentionality and art. What is the relationship between metaphor and affordances? I think this might be worth thinking about this.

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