• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.42
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• pp.505-524
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• 2016

This study examines the ways District 9, a film released in 2009, reworks the sci-fi genre to explore the human encounter with "other" alien populations. Like Avatar, released in the same year, District 9 addresses the tropes of conflict over land and human-alien hybridity and introduces non-humans and aliens, not as invaders, but as objects of human oppression and cruelty. Unlike many other science fiction films where the encounter between humans and non-humans occurs in an unidentifiable future time and location, District 9 crosses genre barriers to engage with urban realism, producing a social critique of contemporary urban population problems. The arrival of aliens in District 9 occurs as part of the recorded human past and the film's action is carried out in the present time in the specifically identified city of Johannesburg. A distinctly anti-Hollywood film that locates the action at the street level, District 9 plays out human anxieties about contact with others by referencing the divisions and conflicts historically attached to South Africa's sprawling metropolis and its current problems of urban poverty and illegal immigrants. Focusing on how this particular urban setting frames the film, the study investigates the ways Blomkamp's sci-fi film about extra-terrestrials presents a curious postcolonial mix of aliens and immigrants surviving in abject conditions in an urban slum and forces a realistic examination of the contemporary social problems faced by South Africa's largest city and by extension other major global cities. The paper also examines the film's representation of the human-alien hybrid and its potential as a force to resist human exploitation of the other. It also claims that though the setting is highly local, District 9 speaks to a wider global audience by making obvious the exploitative practices of profit-seeking multinationals. A sci-fi film that is keen on making a social commentary on urban population conflicts, District 9 resonates with the wider sense of insecurity and fear of others that form the horizon of the uncertain and potentially violent contemporary human world.

• Land and Housing Review
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• v.11 no.3
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• pp.93-101
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• 2020

Recently, as a BIM-based construction simulation system, 4D CAD tools using virtual reality (VR) objects are being applied in construction project. In such a system, since the expression of the object is based on VR image, it has a sense of separation from the real environment, thus limiting the use of field engineers. For this reason, there are increasing cases of applying augmented reality (AR) technology to reduce the sense of separation from the field and express realistic VR objects. This study attempts to develop a methodology and BIM module for the pre-construction verification system using AR technology to increase the practical utility of VR-based BIM objects. To this end, authors develop an AR-based drawing verification function and drawing object-based 4D model augmentation function that can increase the practical utility of 2D drawings, and verify the applicability of the system by performing case analysis. Since VR object-based image has a problem of low realism to field engineers, the linking technology between AR object and 4D model is expected to contribute to the expansion of the use of 4D CADsystem in the construction project.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.29
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• pp.133-152
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• 2012

Franciso Ayala's narrative work was published in the collection "Nova novorum" (1926-1929) of Revista de Occidente, founded by $Jos{\acute{e}}$ Ortega y Gasset. The author of Cazador en el alba was well aware of the avant-garde aesthetics and hence he put into practice an artistic rupture of the traditional narrative forms of Realism. The work consists of two short stories: "Cazador en el alba" and "Erika ante el invierno". The use of metaphor, Francisco Ayala's preferred literary device (which Ortega y Gasset already emphasized in The Dehumanization of Art), reveals the influence of $Ram{\acute{o}}n$ $G{\acute{o}}mez$ de la Serna's Aphorisms. Through a metaphoric language, "Cazador en el alba" describes the life of Antonio, a soldier and peasant, who visits Madrid and confronts the urban reality of the metropolis. "Erika ante el invierno" portrays with a singular depth the solitude of a woman living in another metropolis, Berlin. The author confessed that he wrote both short stories influenced by the European avant-garde and its use of poetic imagery and metaphor, common practice at that time. However, the main purpose of this article is to reflect upon the society of the first decades of the $20^{th}$ Century: the city, the people and their lives, the societal changes, as well as the innovative perspective of the new art.

• Journal of Convergence for Information Technology
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• v.11 no.11
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• pp.172-177
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• 2021

As part of the digital era, a digital twin that simulates the weak part of a product by performing a stress test that reduces the lifespan of some expensive equipment that cannot be done in reality by accurately moving the real world to virtual reality is being actively used in the manufacturing industry. Due to the development of IoT, the digital twin, which accurately collects data collected from the real world and makes it the same in the virtual space, is mutually beneficial through accurate prediction of urban life problems such as traffic, disaster, housing, quarantine, energy, environment, and aging. Based on its action, it is positioned as a necessary tool for smart city construction. Although digital twin is widely applied to the manufacturing field, this study proposes a smart city model suitable for the 4th industrial revolution era by using it to smart cities and increasing citizens' safety, welfare, and convenience through the proposed model. In addition, when a digital twin is applied to a smart city, it is expected that more accurate prediction and analysis will be possible by real-time synchronization between the real and virtual by maintaining realism and immediacy through real-time interaction.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.46
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• pp.173-197
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• 2017

The present work aims to analyze the concept of space in $Jes{\acute{u}}s$ $Fern{\acute{a}}ndez$ Santos' work Los bravos. Throughout its pages, one can observe the multidimensional possibilities of space in literature. Throughout time, the concept of literary space has developed and it has been modified constantly in order to meet the needs required for the evolution of narratology. In the past, Aristotle stated that space is the place where characters and physical objects happen to exist. This remained almost unchanged until the Renaissance. In the $19^{th}$ century, space stopped being considered just a mere scene where the action takes place as it was given more importance by romantic authors in their works. Realism intensified the spaces as the interior of the house. In fact, the descriptions of space became more important. In this article, I focus on the various meanings of space in the novel Los bravos. First, I analyze the dichotomy between real and ideal spaces, and continue with the cathartic dimension of the fictional space. Then, I present and analyze the opposition between urban and rustic spaces in this novel, and, finally, I show the confrontation between the spaces of men and women. Through this analysis, we can observe that characters have a space where they feel more comfortable and how, occasionally, they leave their "usual space of action" to reach their "ideal place". Women want to stay in their kitchen to chat with each other, while men prefer to leave the house to visit a cafe with their colleagues. The door and the window divide the border of the worlds of men and women. However, that line is not only dividing the structure of the house, but it is also of a psychological house.