Semantic Dimensions
A crowdsourcing game to measure the meaning of form
How can the three-dimensional form of an object alone convey a specific meaning? This crowdsourcing game investigated the question quantitatively.
The website showed a random combination of a plaster form and a term, and players rated how well the term fit the form. A second player rated the same pair at the same time, and points were awarded only if both agreed. The game mechanics increased participation and thus the amount of data collected, making it possible to determine empirically how the average player perceives each form. The data were analysed and translated into a theory of the semantic effect of three-dimensional form.
I led the project with Katja Thoring and developed and programmed the web-based game, which is no longer online since data collection has ended. In hindsight it was an early instance of a theme that runs through my current work: measuring meaning systematically, today with language models.