COMPUTER GAME THERAPY

DIGITAL ART THERAPY

SOCIAL ABILITY, Social Sharing of emotions: a social network with disabled boys

The project developed at UTR in Grottaglie (TA) on a weekly basis. It involved people between 10 and 30 years old, in rehabilitative treatment at UTR with the involvement of the educator.
The main objectives were:

1 Spread and test devices for Computer Game Therapy

2 Spread and support Digital Art Therapy

3 Spread the good practice of SocialWare, to accompany the traditional hardware (material components) and software (services)

4 Continue the experience of directly involving users of the computer product in its implementation, broadening participation to disabled users.
5 Promote the personal welfare of the disabled giving them the ability to find relevant news and multimedia applications in a portal dedicated to them, increasing their self-esteem through the recognition of specific personal skills.
6 Promote the expression of their affective-emotional dimension.
7 Promote communicative modes sharing photos and videos.
8 Promote socialization processes using the medium of computer networks.
9 Activate interactive game modes.

COMPUTER GAME THERAPY

The Computer Game Therapy (CGT) is a rehabilitation methodology theorized and applied by the
speech therapist Antonio Consorti, who first made use of computer technology and games for the rehabilitation of disorders of thought, speech and relationship. It aims at users of all ages because it is a non-invasive therapeutic modality, highly motivating and respectful of the person.

The first rule of Computer Game Therapy is: "There is no learning without fun" and starting from this assumption, the GCC does not consider the PC only for the potential of cognitive learning (memory games, reading-writing), but as a tool for total experience, strong emotional and affective involvment based on the dynamic relationship between the operator, the subject and the virtual environment to experiment.
Video games stimulate mental processes, as attention is captured by a series of multi-sensory stimuli and maintains the mind in a continuous state of alert, creating new neural groups that are organized subsequently in brain-maps.
In the CGT proposal is not necessary to act directly on the machine and traditionally operating with mouse and keyboard, but it was agreed to use the new touch devices, tracking systems with webcams and mobile devices with accelerometer.
The heterogeneity of the participants provided an overall improvement in the group in the emotional-affective sphere, for the social relations and cultural exchanges, so awarding the IT. It was possible to recreate some sports activities like table tennis, athletics, swimming, etc. .., which repeated charitable and rehabilitative activities that children already knew.
The boys have used both platforms as a time of relaxation and as a learning activity: playing first-person they repeated the gestures that they would make in the field.

This response to stimuli that they received makes them feel the key players, and stimulates concentration, precision, acuity, attention, sequential movement, stress tolerance, and endurance.

The chance to play together and at the same time, encourages interaction and the sharing of emotional intelligence and its benefits. We want to see a creative and permanent use of computers in education and rehabilitation.
Through mobile devices with accelerometer it was possible to monitor the balance of their movements and it was possible to travel in a virtual sense, and even to simulate a flight using some applications, just as if they 'flew' the ground.
To prevent or not to intensify symptoms of stereoscopy (split image and thus split concentration) we avoided devices that could have been accentuated this effect, using touch screen smartphone that pointed the attention directly on the screen.
It will be possible to experience games with visually impaired subjects that can be simulated on a mental level and can train the auditory discrimination through the use of video games that interface on a tactile and auditory level.
The game becomes more a metaphor for life, simulating scenarios of other therapies, such as pet therapy or some perceptions of time and space.
Video games can be very useful in identifying the so-called "space eminegligence" (neglect) that involves a difficulty to pay attention or do things in the left part of the body, or in the right one.
It seems, therefore, that the syndrome is due to phenomena of imbalance between the two hemispheres of the brain that leads to a modification of connections originating from the parietal cortex. While the patient is able to perform basic activities such as feeding himself or take care of his person, he seems not to perceive and to explore all that is in the left (or right) of his environment or body
Therefore, as a line of development it can be shown that precisely through the CGT (simulations and virtual tours) they can be re-educated to normal balance of these connections, thus inducing a significant clinical improvement.

DIGITAL ART THERAPY

Beyond the strictly medical or paramedical therapies, a considerable help can be brought to the disabled adult from art therapy. To have a good result you need to know both the therapeutic action of the Arts on various diseases and the nature of the diseases themselves. The basic principle underpinning art therapy is the awareness of the strong interaction between bodies and souls, of fundamental importance in the case of a disabled person. For this last reason art therapy, acting on the psychic body, reflecting a positive influence on the physical body, provided that such application has to be applied accurately.
Drawing, done in special methods, can help to the concentration of thinking. Watercolor painting for instance serves as a help to dissolve strct states of being, especially those conducted on a digital display that have not the problem of a palette of colors and glasses of water that can be reversed by the disabled, thus inhibiting him.
Moreover, to prevent or intensify symptoms of stereoscopy (split image and thus concentration) dwe avoided devices that could have been accentuated this effect, using touch screen smartphone that pointed the attention directly on the screen.
But new applications allow you to use the digital art practice to play, creating nice photo montages expanding and re-mixing and effects directly on the touch screen on the basis of the shots played directly from the boys, and they always adjusted them so simply, intuitively and on free software, unlike the famous (and expensive) graphics program Adobe Photoshop.
Finally, the playful and interactive experience is essential for the recovery of the psycho-motor disabilities.

DATABASE

We created a directly accessible database within the Social Network (Socialability.ning.com) on the Internet that has facilitated the encounter between supply and demand of working persons with disabilities through
the online inclusion of their profiles for free, releasing the consent to the processing of personal data and a Blog (in flash format browsable - Webzine) updated on news regarding disability and employment opportunities, and Telecommuting, in Italian, English and Spanish that could be enjoyed for free in podcast format (iPod, iPhone, Mp3, Symbian), also available in audio format for people with disabilities on the Forum. With these tools it has started a plan of information and awareness to facilitate the reception, selection and placement in a favorable working environment for disabled workers.
Considering the small budget of communications for the Associations, Internet (or, if you prefer, web 2.0) is an opportunity to achieve the maximum visibility with minimum investment, as well as to adopt VoIP and Skype for telephony.
The project and the Association have promoted the spread of telework (VideoCV, Database + Blogs on the Web for disabled ...) and sharing programs and participation in projects ton the network pursuing new environmentally sustainable works. An environmental sustainability must be imagined in the everyday, starting from your own bioregion.
Moreover, these technologies could improve teaching and training methods, bringing unimaginable planes until now. Telework, then, may represent the cutting edge of electronic and information revolution, the arrival point for a journey starting from the goods and services and arrived to man. Each of us today has potentially formidable tools, that were unthinkable only a few years ago and modest compared to what we expect in the near future.
Communication of information through blogs, podcasts, social networking is a vital need for people with disabilities and their families to gain access to resources and social opportunities, rehabilitation and integration envisaged by the law and undertaken by public and private social.
The initiation of a social observatory to help the disabled through the use of information technology, is entirely appropriate both from the improvement of personal life and relationship of people with disabilities in situations of gravity (allowing them to overcome barriers and the difficulties of their condition), both in terms of social communication and for a playful and interactive way.

Social Sharing of Emotions: A social network with disabled boys

Until a few decades ago learning abilities of disabled people pointed to the mere improvement of their cognitive sphere, marginalizing or denying the emotional part not easily controllable, uncomfortable.

Gardner (Frames of Mind, 1993) and, especially Goleman (Emotional Intelligence, 1996) began to speak of intelligence applied to the development of personality and the ability to teach people to manage their emotions.
Emotional Intelligence opens revolutionary and dynamic perspectives for the integration of psychological and social disabilities. The evolution of information technology and communications gives us good environments for the recognition, management and enhancement of the emotional dimension in the learning process.
Paradoxically, it is technology with its new forms of communication (hypermedia, networks, virtual reality) to bring back emotions in the area of disability.

Using the characteristics of these environments, the digital interfaces can be understood as a metaemotional laboratory in which the disabled person learns to identify and recognize its own and others' emotions in a controlled and protected environment, how it can be a specifically created social network.

Managing their own profile by updating video and photo, managing their own blogs makes the kids authors and not only actors of the treatment.
In this way family, schools, health institutions, etc.. can activate and develop not only cognitive skills but also emotional and relational skills helping them to be subjects in the world.

We created a multimedia site that has seen the disabled not only end users of the project, but the actors able to create multimedia and graphic and text contents, uploading photos and personal videos that showed the best moments during the various therapies they already attended.
The sharing of such content over the Internet along with the other participants have established a link on the model of interpersonal relationships and, as in every interaction, an exchange of feelings, emotions that had a positive influence.

We formed over time a large collection of photos on the Web sites that were visited and photographed by the children during the treatment and travelling and leisure activities, which are the pieces of a documentary and a collaborative ArcApulia Mosaic in which everybody will be tagged. Tagging: Assigning a "virtual label" (tag) to a file or part of files (text, audio, video, image). More often, on social networks, it is said that "you have been tagged" when someone has given your name to a face in an online picture. Therefore, if someone searches your name, the photo is shown.
They created with the same photos a video clip as part of the activity 'See the music "-" Listen to the video" mounted automatically thanks to the subtitling and adherence of images to the text and rhythmic score, giving the impression to "see music".
They recorded a VideoCV, updated independently with their own data Database Datability learning to fill in an online form, they have updated their blog on the social network.

Computer has been an essential operational tool for the disabled.
The service also allows a relationship of care and support that goes outside the meeting. During these meetings it emerges some needs and requests for assistance and help concerning, for example, school aid, working, mobility and personal autonomy. Problems that often requires strategic choices and priorities, I.e. choosing the type of portable terminals and aids in order to be used in different places.


The sharing of such content over the Internet with other foreign participants of the International Campus SCI (Service Civil International) has established a bond of friendship and cooperation, an exchange of feelings, emotions, that had a positive influence and allows the realization of a truly European network, including Facebook in Italian, English (http://www.facebook.com/home.php? # / pages/Social-LAB-No-Profit-Organization/122990298347? ref = ts) and Spanish (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120308264853&ref=ts).
3,500 members a.c. Facebook, MySpace, Ning ..
515 photos a.c. load
25 videos a.c. upload

For our boys the computer is always a discovery, but the training are long and tiring and it is also necessary that the boys learn to build the infoormatic mentality to understand the meaning of windows and buttons, to build a personal mind-set as close as possible to the terminology and its references to real objects, representing the functions and objects on the video.
Through the workshop the boys learned to manage pages in a social network that made them understand the thoughts, needs, desires and substance of their communications.
Having the opportunity to use their own tool in an almost familiar way, to speak directly with their counterparts without relying on a third person represent an important development towards autonomy and privacy.

Through the constant training they have acquired a good writing speed and good range of motion of the mouse pointer.
Being able to control the mouse means you can use a personal computer, and write, communicate with other people, play games, surf the Internet, interact with various tools (such as your phone or smartphone) and much more.
Applications installed, freely redistributable under any open source license (FLOSS, Free Licensed Open Source Software), have provided the additional benefit of being able to distribute without license fees, plus a selection of basic commonly used softwares ( Firefox for example for "web browsing", Openoffice.org 3 for the preparation of documents, Gimp and other free programs for graphic treatment of photos, drawings and cliparts).

Each subject provided a specific contribution according to the individual skills and development objectives of its potential assumed by the educators.
The activities proposed in the form of an educational game provided an opportunity to work for the stimulation of certain cognitive abilities with a multimedia tool which is especially notable for its proximity to the reality experienced by people who have used it, which have limits and comparable potential to those of ordinary users.
The educational contents of the exercises within the network are of different types: from the storage of photo-graphic sequences to the resolution of problems, from discrimination of colors and objects to eye-hand coordination, to the training of visual memory etc. ...
The use of computers has had as its objective the real perception of their ability considering the skills that should be increased and the chance to record their changes over time, through the continuous insertion of videos and pictures on the site.
The self as a digital extension of the body which reinforces its consistency, so intangible as a shadow, makes it more true than a body without it.
The computer gives its user a feeling of being able to control a tool commonly understood as a complex communicative tool: each of the boys has built a personal relationship with his own blog making it become a means of communication with others and especially with himself. Christianly Internet, this time, fulfills the Gospel message of cancellation of differences and discriminations toward the disabled.

The product was very simple, but here again a discovery leaps to the eye: the use of technology has proved important in his instrumentality, not in its productivity. The most interesting thing is to rediscover the steps (logical and narrative), the filmed and photographed "landscapes" and the dialogues that led to the construction of small hypertext.
The free trial has played a key role in the result. Repeated tests have also been prepared in the pipeline, consisting of the request to show the photos reproduced on the site. In a reasonable amount of time each subject was able to reconstruct the logical connections which underlie the explanation and narrative of the events portrayed.
The project, carried out taking into account the potentialities of the boys to whom it addressed, allows the testing of strategies to develop learning skills through research of the picture corresponding to his own identity or activity to be included in the site.
Through the multimedia system they:
"visually" created conceptual connections and grasped the meaning of an image, a design created for the purpose.
correlated two images.
noted the coincidence in time between two actions, "while".
tidied two or more images.
encouraged self-assessment and self-evaluation, to read clock.
internalized the division of the day: dawn, morning, afternoon, evening, night and day.

It's important to consider, then, that technology products can be effective instruments of mediation of knowledge, and that, among other things, increasing motivation, they can have a positive effect on the learning process. The success of using a support that is sophisticated or "poor" does not depend on which those expectations for which is used but by other factors:
the competence of the therapist / educator who proposed it
the acceptance by the involved person in using his restricted or enlarged social sphere
the possibility of re-opening within a responsible team for putting the actual use of the effective changes in the work plan.

Thanks to multimedia, a disabled person may experience a course that is no longer of cancellation of participation, but that can be shared by other people, regardless of the psychophysical condition in which he lives. The multimedia course is therefore a container of various forms of expression .

The network is primarily a social space of interconnection between people. It is indeed revealing that the spread of the Internet is bringing out new cultures of interaction, new types of users, behaviours and values, the explosion of social and participatory nature of the network as a tool on which you can form relationships and discussions. It is important, therefore, that anyone working on the web understand the psychological and social dynamics internal to the social network.

Too often in the design of network it tends to overestimate the informatic side of interaction, to the detriment of what ultimately is the engine of the network itself, ie users, considered as psychological and social systems. For this reason we consider of major importance to have a systemic perspective of the network as a unifying element in an ecosystem made up of other media, other dynamic, strong ties and groups.

In the current implementation of social tools, especially social networking, people tend to underestimate and even not to consider the human and social dimension.
While it is easy to define and design the network once it has been realized, we run into great difficulties in trying to identify what are the factors that:
1. lead people to use a particular technology infrastructure,
2. create social relationships
3. create collaborative content.
It's always better to design a network that respects the habits of users and change from time to time, depending on how the network evolves and how the community uses and rewards specific functions and applications based on some details:
1. Competition: need to impose oneself and / or his beliefs, taste for the challenge.
2. Curiosity: need of knowledge and control, exploratory instincts.
3. Affiliation: need for sharing and being part of a community that reinforces the approach and individual thinking, which also serves as a haven in which to protect themselves.
4. Narcisism: need for confirmation of their ability and excellence, need for approval.

These considerations might raise an ethical problem: leveraging on competition and other drives can be considered an exploitation of human weaknesses. The one who produces material will not have the same motivations of someone who only enjoys it. And the ones who will produce pictures and videos are subject to approval will have even greater motivations to promote their multimedia "productions".

In this society there is a discomfort in addressing the need to belong to a group and the need to preserve its individuality and identity at the same time. On one hand there is a primordial instinct that drives us to seek share, help and comfort in belonging to small groups (of which the oldest and the family must remain strong); on the other there is a strong and sometimes unbridled aspiration of self-realization and chauvinism. A social network fully complies with these two principles, offering the ability to create their own space to manage (atavistically "to mark territory," permitting only certain to enter or cause to be part) but also the ability to create groups of interests may have more or less success, as well as photos and videos that friends comment and in some cases vote.

Even in children with disabilities there is a strong sense of competition, even if in a playful form. Everyone is anxious that its video shines by collecting the maximum number of "starlets" of liking.
With YouTube, MySpace, Ning and social networking in general, you can rate a video from 0 to 5 stars, unlike Facebook where support is no longer expressed by a number, but by an "I like", "I do not like".

Perhaps this attention to the peculiarities of verbal language is one element of the success of Facebook compared to rivals, in addition to providing incentives for people to gather in groups or in small social network. With Ning, instead, you can create your own "niche" social network.

The need to train and identify oneself with groups is an instinctive need of man as a social animal and is therefore a vital phenomenon: even and especially for a disabled person who often finds immense difficulty in socializing in the so-called "normal" contexts.

There are three agents that make up the dynamics of the network:
1. individual users
2. user groups
3. community as a whole

The analysis of these various macro-areas and different types of users enables people with disabilities to enjoy more and more computer and assistive equipment to participate in creative partnership and to enable full social inclusion of people with different disabilities, that could be motors, visual, sensory, through a perspective of the network.

The ultimate goal is to enhance the human potential that exists in the disabled person through the electronic and computer "prosthesis" that try to overcome the sensory and communicative barriers as well as those that impede learning or, more simply, the completion of those functions of daily life and the fulfillment of social needs that make life worth living. "No man is an island, not even a disabled person.
The use of innovative platforms of communication and interaction based on the Internet as a channel for the exchange of textual, multimedia, or just emotional contents can become a preferred way of breaking down barriers to information, services for the disabled. Beyond the barriers, even tearing down the social and psychological ones.

Video CV

We have promoted and encouraged the inclusion of free video cv of young disabled people and various young people from Apulia in the Social Network, which has the opportunity to provide greater visibility and transparency to their skills and abilities, releasing and consenting the use of personal data.
The videocurriculum is an interesting and innovative promotional tool to accompany the curriculum paper, not released from employment centers and agencies. This is a powerful tool, especially now that very few people have one. In certain contexts, such as information technology or communication, it may even be decisive in the choice of personnel facilitating the reception, sorting and insertion into a favorable working environment for disabled workers, including the use of an instrument of immediate and strong impact as videoCV, which can encourage a more targeted recruitment. It means, in fact, a series of technical tools and supports to enable a proper assessment of people with disabilities in their work according to their abilities and skills, through an analysis of job forms, of support actions and solution of problems connected with the environments, tools and interpersonal relations on the places of work.


ArcApulia and Photomosaic Messapico

The association has promoted the creation of participatory documentary "ArcApulia" following the dictates of open cinema and licensing Creative Commons - Share Alike No Commercial, for which everybody is the intellectual owner of a work without profit. The intent was to rebuild a new metaphorically Noah's Ark, as everyone was able to contribute creatively, through photographs and videos, to conserve and protect a unique heritage and territorial good.
We also made a photomosaic "Messapico Mosaic, a collection of photos on the Web about messapiche land that form the tiles of a mosaic murals, to lay the foundations for a new development of informatic and futuristic technology in favor of Tourism, or Fu-Tourism.
ArcApulia is a documentary in which the public comes to be a part of the creative process, becoming the writer and producer. A horizontal, non-commercial production, which had become possible also thanks to the modular and interactive infrastructure of the network.
A really unusual proposal, the intention to develop a short participatory documentary, another phenomenon that was unknown in Puglia. The intent is to rebuild a new metaphorically Noah's Ark in a multimedia key. The idea is that - as with open-source softwares, that have come to constitute excellent alternatives to commercial software with the help of lots of people in their development (one example: the various distributions of Linux) , the open-source movies can achieve good levels of quality, thanks to the accessibility of new technologies and become a good alternative, completely free of traditional circuits for film products. With open movie we refer mainly to the phase distribution of the product: the film can be copied, modified and redistributed because the source code of the film is accessible to everyone. Hopefully in the future we will make a movie with open mode. And then we aim to create a new kind of film studio, an open studio, where artists and software developers can enter and work freely. We want to create a new ecosystem in which to develop artistic projects in an open way to outside contributions.
The modalities of participation have been published on the site, with a hotline through which association is always active and can explain techniques for creating content with the equipment and free software.


"See the Music" Listen to the video "

It is a contest for young people that incentives to produce usable video by deaf, thanks to subtitling and the adherence of images to the text and rhythmic score; so you can "see music." Participation has not provided the cost of entry by the user. The mechanism of the contest was that of voting on the Web, max 5 stars. The contest has used the same structure of social networks: users sent their works electronically directly into the video box and the Social Network space.
"Unheard" was the promotion of new forms of meeting over the Internet of musicians and video makers to develop innovative ways of producing independent music videos.
The modalities of participation have been published on the site, with a hotline through which association is always active and can explain techniques for creating content with the equipment and free software.

Colors & Sounds of the Universe: Depeche Mode & Isaac Newton

We wanted to dedicate the first post of "See the music" to an eclectic and syncretic person as Isaac Newton, who seems to have inspired the latest album of Depeche Mode, a musically eclectic group. Ergo the "strange" cohabitation in the title.
The title Sounds Of The Universe is full of meanings. "We used a lot of old synthesizers and traditional percussion, somehow evoking the image of the universe and space travel," says the author of the legendary band, Martin Gore. "It's like a future yesterday. That's why, for me, the title is perfect. "
Its raw material consists of 13 stellar and atmospheric songs, introspective and sometimes with subtle rhythmic pulsations.
Highly not recommended download in mp3 and not only because of legal or moral reasons, just listening to high quality (DTS) does justice to the painstaking work of building sound study done by Martin Gore and Ben Hillier: it changes its direction in some songs .

The cover of "Sounds of the Universe" has minimal and geometric graphics, just with a circle and colored rectangles, to simulate the creative origin.

It was also released a free application that allows you to create personalized "Sounds of the Universe", touching on the colored bars on the album cover, through which you can "see the music" . select 8 sets of audio loops created directly in the recording sessions of Sounds of the Universe. Sounds and colors mixed together, enclosed in a single circle.

Just as in Newton's color circle, which also shows links between the different colors and musical notes.
Early studies on the visible spectrum were led by Isaac Newton in his treatise entitled "Opticks", and by Goethe, in his essay "Theory of Colors", although previous observations were made in this direction by Roger Bacon, four centuries before Newton.

Newton first used the term spectrum (from the Latin spectrum, with the meaning of "appearance" or "apparition") in 1671, when he described his experiments on optics. He observed that when a beam of light stroke a surface of a glass prism at an angle, part of the beam was reflected while the remainder came through the prism and separated into colored bands. Newton hypothesized that light was composed of particles of different colors, each with its own travelling speed between that of red (the fastest) and that of violet (the slowest). It followed that each color underwent refraction differently, changing trajectory and separating itself from others (something similar happens in the rainbow: light passing through the small water suspended droplets in the air after a rain, breaks in seven colors of the spectrum).
Newton divided the spectrum into seven different colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
Starting from the observation of the color spectrum Newton drew the color circle on which the colors of the spectrum were reported in sectors whose width was related to that observed in the spectrum. The location of colors on the circle defined relations between the colors themselves, so Newton imagined that the colors could have a harmonious relation like the seven musical notes, and that near colors close (adjacent) developed harmonious relationships, while colors that were in opposition (complementary) had a dynamic relationship between them.
This representation showed for the first time the nature of the color vector, which was fully understood only after the vector calculus was conceived in the mid-nineteenth century. The results of his research on the light and vision were published in 1704 in the Treaty OPTIKS, one of the masterpieces of literature.

Today, Newton's color circle is the basis of chroma wheel function of many programs and graphics software.

Candid Kandinsky: Painting and Sound
Wassily Kandinsky wanted to interpret the Fifth Symphony of Beethoven through shapes and lines. Beethoven as the soundtrack of Kandinsky, the Fifth Symphony as a figure of rhythm and meter stretch of Kandinsky: an example of synesthesia.
The word synaesthesia comes from the greek = sin (through) = aesthesia (perception) and indicates the contamination of the five senses in the perception of art and reality. Essentially it refers to particular situations in which an auditory, olfactory, tactile and visual stimulation is perceived as two distinct but overlapping and interchangeable sensory events.
It arouses more interest in recent years, thanks to studies and researches carried out from neuroscience that emphasize the importance in "brain plasticity", which has revolutionized the classical concept of brain functioning.
There are hidden mechanisms that we do not know, a dark and rich world for our research.
At the University of Oxford, the study researcher Julian Asher published in American Journal of Human Genetics, has investigated the field of auditory-visual synesthesia.
Synesthesia is understood as a process by which the brain associates two different sensations in close correlation.
In particular sounds and colors: the 0.5% - 1% of the population have this neurological condition that triggers different senses in response to the same stimulus.

Julian Asher also belongs to this small percentale, which is the genetic researcher who led the study.
He, in fact, sees colors when he hears a melody. At the sound of the violin he combines burgundy, yellow to the cello, and so on for the other instruments.
The objective of this research was to find the causes that underlie the auditory-visual synesthesia and to identify the chromosomal regions responsible for this neurological condition. They studied 196 cases of persons belonging to 43 families that had cases of synaesthesia.
Examining the DNA, it was found that the chromosomes responsible for synesthesia can be identified in 2, 5, 6 and 12, the same involved in pathologies such as autism, epilepsy, dyslexia, cognitive learning processes and those related to memory.
Many had already noticed that the most common form of synesthesia is the grapheme (letter, number) - Color.
It seems, in fact, that their brain centers are very close together.
Neuroimaging techniques (eg fMRI) have identified the "center of color" (eg Zeki & Marini, 1998, Brain) or the epicenter of neural perception of color.
The area of graphemes was also detected in the left hemisphere near the "center of the color." The area activates itself following the presentation of letters to the presentation of numbers.
The most plausible hypothesis is that there is a joint activity. The submission of a grapheme, is activated on the area that triggers the same time, also the area of color, even without the presence of a stimulus itself. This is perhaps due to an excess of connections between the two areas, not present in all people.
What happens in the first months of life is a process called puring (thinning) of brain connections that are lost over time.
Perhaps connections between the area of colours and the area of graphemes, which usually undergo a process of puring, remain intact in cases of synaesthesia. Probably a genetic mutation that leads to the failure process puring.
Other theories or rules will be elaborated that will allow to develop special connections between the area of colours and the area of graphemes. This will explain why to a grapheme there is an associated color.

"Guide of the Social Network, a small manual on the proper ethical and practical use of social networking and electronic bullying prevention.
The book is enjoyable in all formats, from paper, to audiobook, electronic E-book Reader, browsable flash paper (Preview of 10 pages), advertised on the Internet using the new formula of booktrailer video (made by the association) in English, Italian, Spanish, written in Open Office and free software.
The distribution of this volume is free.

Social LAB Volume, which describes all the activities carried out by Social LAB, in all formats, from paper, to audiobook, electronic E-book Reader, browsable flash paper, advertised on the Internet using the new formula of booktrailer video (made by the association) in English, Italian, Spanish, written in Open Office and free software.
The distribution of this volume is free.

CV Social Lab

The Cultural Association Social LAB was born on the 20.02.2009, after the victory of the competition "Active Principle-Young ideas for a better Puglia" funded by Regione Puglia and the Ministry of Youth.

Activities of the Project Social Ability

The Association has already created several networks, social networks and computer databases for some projects, such as "Active Principle-Region Puglia. Ministry of Youth, Foundation for the South, EURES, Europe Direct, InnovAbilia, Handimatica Continues...
It is developing the network between associations of the Urban Laboratory of Grottaglie - funded by Hot Spirits-Reg Puglia.
It realized the project "Social Sharing of Emotions" that was ranked in first place in the National Competition "The visible PA ", organized by the Ministry of Public Administration and Innovation with the aim of highlighting the best experiences in the use of multimedia technologies for a new model of service to the citizen.

The Cultural Association Social LAB can provide various computer equipment such as PCs, Tablet PCs, notebooks and handhelds, and uses an expert sw open-source and networking, a computer tutor with 3 Master on Multimedia Communication (Advanced Professional Level II - Senior Technician for Computer Applications) with experience on the disabled (ASL TA Project RIP-UTR Grottaglie "The emotion that Cares"), a teacher with years of experience and with Master - Integration of disabled and SSIS specialization (in English and Spanish) and a graduate (Classical High School) 100% disabled Law 104/92.

Dates / Events / Press Project Social Ability

The Cultural Association Social LAB guest of PUGLIA EURES European Job Days in 2009 - the European Job Days in Bari Fiera del Levante pad. 152 bis - Stand of Regional Council presents The VideoCV and teleworking 2.0, a project that promotes:

the spread of telework (VideoCV, Database + blogs, social networks ..)

the sharing programs and participation in joint projects to be carried out on the net
new dynamics for an environmentally and sustainable work.

the possibility of demonstrating people's skills by registering DemoVideo, Showreel and PromoCV, being able to add captions, effects, photos, logos superimposed (Free technical support by Social LAB).

European Job Days 2009 - the European Job Days in Bari
Fiera del Levante pad. 152 bis - Stand Regional Council
Wednesday, 16.09.2009 at 15 by Cultural Association Social LAB
Activities of the Project Social Ability, winner of the Active Principles - Young Ideas for a Better Puglia. Ministry of Youth-Apulia.

Workshop: "tools of work in 2.0"
Irene Paolino - an expert in public communication of Apulia: The Europe Direct network and communication strategies of the European Commission
Spilotros Marino - President and founder of Legambiente Bari euro-jobbing.com: The new professionals in the environmental field
Rocco Menna - job placement specialist at the University of Bari: Guidance services for graduates to work, Cosipa Bari
Thisbe Basile - responsible for selecting Lavoro.Doc Bari (job agency): The selection interview, expert advice Massimo Avantaggiati - Staff Hot Spirits - Region Puglia: The European "Erasmus for young entrepreneurs, the state of the art in Apulia
Carlo Sinisi - Adviser of EURES Puglia: 15 years of EURES, the next targets of the European network for the job
Moderated by journalist Rita Schena, Journal of Southern
Rocco Cilli - PLD Eurodesk rponse Barletta: Leonardo Action Mobility 2009
Ass Cultural Social Lab (active principles): project video CV
Info ==>> http://www.sistema.puglia.it/eures

The Cultural Association Social LAB announced that:

The Department of Solidarity of Apulia Region has established the pattern of the New Regional Plan for Social Policy 2009 - 2011, for the definition of which it has begun a phase of listening to all the organizations working in the field.

Social LAB Cultural Association promotes a meeting for all stakeholders (associations, institutions, cooperatives, disabled and their families, the disadvantaged) at 16.00 on the 23.09.2009 at the Swimming Hall of Grottaglie.

Project "Social Sharing of Emotions" presented by 'ASL Taranto and by the Cultural Association SOCIAL LAB ranked in first place in the National Competition "the visible PA " organized by the Ministry of Public Administration and Innovation with the aim experience of implementing the use of multimedia technologies for a new model of service to the citizen.
The activities were carried out under the Project Social Ability "Active Principles - Young Ideas for a Better Puglia, co-funded by the Ministry of Youth - Apulia Region, in partnership with the City of Grottaglie.

The video was the demonstration of the activity and participated to the Competition organized by the Ministry in the "Interactive Services of PA" and received the first prize from Minister Renato Brunetta in Milan on November 3 at the European Exhibition of Public Communication from over one hundred proposals submitted by PA throughout Italy.

Reason:
"The jury awarded this video that is clearly distinguishable on the vitality and richness of multimedia solutions and accessibility of interactive applications. All this is valuable for addressing to the world of disability, in the construction of a collective and shared social networks animated by an intention of therapy through socialization and art mediated by technology. "

We invite to the Encounter to be held on November 19 at 16 at Grottaglie UTR 6 to celebrate the success of the ASL TA

"HANDImatica continues: Social LAB Bari Saturday, November 28, 2009

Dear,
we are pleased to announce that Social LAB will be cheaters
in the important event HANDImatica continues-
promoted by Fondazione Asphi Bologna
This Saturday, November 28, 2009.
Exhibition - Conference:
"Environments for Learning: digital technologies for school education and integration"
9.00 to 13.00 on November 28
At IPSSAR "Majorana" - Headquarters - via Sunset, 2 - Bari (St. Paul District)
FREE ENTRY
Exemptions to School for Workshop
CME credits for social workers
Upon request it will be granted the Certificate of Attendance

Social LAB at Innovabilia - 5, 6 and 7 December 2009 Fiera di Foggia
Festival of innovations for the disabled
5, 6 and 7 December 2009
Fiera di Foggia

In Grottaglie "e.MOTIVA.mente": the first urban laboratory of the city.
Born in Grottaglie
"E.MOTIVA.mente"
The first urban laboratory of the city.
Funded by Hot Spirits, Apulia.

::: Introduction:::
Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 18:30
Grottaglie, C. Mastropaolo Street
(Square in front of the Chiesa del Carmine)

Program:
Greetings
Guided tour of the new structure
Video projections
Installation of Art
Concert Brand New Grottaglie - Youth Band Grottaglie (Angels of Sound, Houseless, The Good, Nexon, Sixtynine, The Kryptons)

What is "e.MOTIVA.mente?
Internet point, coffee / refreshment, Civic Forum of the third sector associations, local creative innovation, Library, Laboratory of ceramics and applied arts, exhibition space, space for associations, Language Lab, Multimedia Lab, Video / Photo Lab, animation workshops and social theater lab.

:::

It opens in Grottaglie at the former prison (former employment office) once occupied by the Convent of Mount Caramel, the Urban Laboratory in Grottaglie.

"E.MOTIVA.mente. A project promoted by the Associations and the Town Council for providing a space and a set of integrated services aimed at giving "young" the possibility, whether single or associated, of further ideas and projects in various fields of interest in music, art, photography, film, video, world of communications, environment and sustainable development, entrepreneurship, etc.., to verify the feasibility.

In a word, an incubator of "ideas and projects by young people for young people and community!

A favourable environment to creativity, expression and research in which young people can deepen their training project, culturally and professionally and which will propose a way for change and growth opportunities in the area, based on "doing" , the recovery of the sense of "ownership" and experimentation of "democratic forms of participation" in the community.

An open space for dialogue and cooperation with all the institutional realities, community and economic territory.

:::

info: emotivamente@live.it

www.laboratorioemotivamente.info


Site by Salvatore Centonze - Social LAB



Social Xmas Castle Virtual Tour


Multimedia Visit - Virtual Tour on touch screen

XXX EDITION of the Nativity Show "The trades"
promoted by 'Cultural Association Social LAB

at the Bishop's Castle

Large Immaculate
on the day of Christmas

starting from 17.00

until 20.00
Admission is free, accessible to everybody.


For the first time the Festival of the Nativity will be seen by all, thanks to computer and multimedia technologies on the touch screen.
Since the early 1980, the Municipal Administration of Grottaglie organizes this important "exhibition" that has crossed the regional boundaries and has initiated a process to enhance and disseminate the traditional Christmas crib, highlighting the "genius" and "creativity" of the artists from the major Italian ceramic centers. Next to the Museum of Ceramics" on January 15, 2002 were inaugurated the halls of the Museum of the Nativity, that the municipal administration wanted to call to memory of Lillina Favale, unforgettable Culture Office official, died in October . The "Museum of the Nativity" is, to borrow a phrase that has accompanied its birth, "the story of a beautiful idea."

To set up the show there were the students of the State Art Grottaglie that "illuminated" the rooms of the fourteenth-century castle with a veritable forest of lights ". The reception of the exhibition is curated by the Tourist Information Desk. Opening show: every day including holidays, at 9.30-12.30/17.00-21.00. Free admission


English Social Slides

http://issuu.com/social.lab/docs/social_ability


Presentation Social Ability 5 'min


http://animoto.com/play/ITdPgCJ9QBOG64bk6oyYOg?autostart=true


Social LAB & EURES Apulia at European Job Days 2009

Slide
http://issuu.com/social.lab/docs/social_lab

Social Video report
Social activities VideoS Social Ability

http://animoto.com/play/DrMLUOZd7hOMinF2a4yYvw?autostart=true

VideoGuide to automatically create music videos: "See the music"
Italian
http://animoto.com/play/ArQev18NFZlf5vQC8L0jaQ?autostart=true
English
http://animoto.com/play/DYmwXuS6qRlhSuczCR2MnQ?autostart=true
Spanish
http://animoto.com/play/uHl8BPMrc0bQiVoDUo7PCw?autostart=true?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=one_click_share

About:
http://socialability.ning.com/

Social Ability is a social and on-line laboratory involving disabled and young European volunteers (18-30) in a computer and multimedia lab, and subsidiary to the collective construction of a social network. We have created a multimedia site that has seen the boys not only end users of the project, but also actors able to create photo and video to the portal. The sharing of such contents over the Internet together with the participants of CAMPUS SCI (Service Civil International) has established a bond of friendship and cooperation, an exchange of feelings that had a positive influence for the creation of a European network, including on Facebook in Italian, English and Spanish.
We encouraged an exchange of language and culture among participants in the campus and then they posted messages on social networking and photos of the most beautiful landscapes of their countries.
We, then, created an online community that has extended the integration of disabled children and young Europeans already accumulated during cohabitation.
The activities were carried out by the Social LAB under Project Social Ability fun. by Ministry of Youth - Apulia - the active principles which has enabled young people, Italians and foreigners resident in Puglia, in the case of project approval, to establish a new legal entity (association, cooperative, etc.)..

The site of the Social LAB (eng, eng and spa).
http://www.wix.com/socialab/org

Video demonstration of the Project.
http://animoto.com/play/U6HOIYFPPKii9j9wa64QoQ
http://animoto.com/play/DrMLUOZd7hOMinF2a4yYvw?autostart=true
http://animoto.com/play/Pn1oWEMVtNYyMB5aCSk4tQ
http://animoto.com/play/DYmwXuS6qRlhSuczCR2MnQ

http://animoto.com/play/9Dwl54YM6Xcxjtu8nhhdAA