Every machine learning system has hyperparameters, and the most basic task inautomated machine learning (AutoML) is to automatically set these hyperparam-eters to optimize performance. Especially recent deep neural networks cruciallydepend on a wide range of hyperparameter choices about the neural network’s archi-tecture, regularization, and optimization. Automated hyperpa…
The desire to alter and adorn the human body is universal. While specific forms of body decoration and the motivations for them vary according to region, culture, and era, all human societies have engaged in practices designed to enhance people's natural appearance. One of the most widespread types of body art, tattooing, appears on human mummies by 3200 BCE and was practiced by ancient culture…
Historically, polytechnic schools rose to prominence in many national settings dur-ing the second half of the nineteenth century (Fox and Guagnini 2004). Over time, new areas of technology have been developed and incorporated into their repertoire, and waves of academisation have swept over the former polytechnics, transforming some of them into technical universities (Christensen and E…
In recent decades, a flurry of excellent scholarship has described media and processes of mediation in increasingly expansive terms. Media, much of this work posits, is not only the specific technologies by which informa-tion is disseminated, but also any communicative conduit that conveys ideas or meaning between one place or person and another. As Lars Ellestr…
During f ieldwork at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, I spent most of the week explaining my research to game designers. With over 28,000 of them attending GDC that year, there was a lot of explaining to do. The most common question was not, “Why do you study what we make?” Most game developers are acutely aware that their industry is the largest and most interesting c…
Compared with other pre-industrial societies, a rather high percentage of the Roman population in the Gallic and Germanic provinces was not involved in agrarian production during the High Empire. Rural produce was needed to feed soldiers and the inhabitants of vici, small towns and cities. To maintain this system the Gallo-Roman villae – the rural settlements whose…
ata has been dubbed the “new oil” (Economist, 2017) driving the business models of the digital economy, but there are considerable privacy risks for those operating in the digital space. People whose livelihoods depend on crowdworking can be particularly affected, since the use of their data can be essential for them, namely when data processing…
The physical seclusion of the village and the social aloofness of the Kanashicommunity have contributed to the maintenance of its traditional culture and lan-guage,butrecentdevelopmentsarethreateningthetraditionallifestyle,includingthe language, where especially contact with Hindi4is becoming an integral partof the villagers’ daily lives. This is the latest episode in a long history of contin…
Grand, extravagant, magnificent, scandalous, corrupt, political, personal, fractious; these are terms often associated with the medieval and early modern courts. Moreover, the court constituted a forceful nexus in the social world, which was central to the legitimacy and authority of rulership. As such, courts shaped European politics and culture: architecture, art, fashion, patronage, and cult…
The interplay of physical reality and digital media technologies is getting enhanced by new interfaces. The age of hyper-reality turns into the age of hyper-aesthetics and immersive image technologies – like mixed reality – enable a completely novel form of interaction and user relation with the virtual image structures, the different screen technologies, and embedded physical artefacts for…