Interactive and Digital Media

Digital systems for live multimodal performance in Death and the Powers

by Peter Torpey

published in 'International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media'

The opera Death and the Powers by Tod Machover tells the story of a man, Simon Powers, who evades death by... more The opera Death and the Powers by Tod Machover tells the story of a man, Simon Powers, who evades death by transferring his essence into his environment as his corporeal body dies. To realize the effect of the theatrical environment coming alive as the main character, the Opera of the Future research group at the MIT Media Lab developed new technologies and control systems for interactive robotics, sound and visuals in live theatre. A core component of this work is the technique of Disembodied Performance, a method and associated technological infrastructure that translates the live performance of the offstage opera singer into multimodal representations onstage. The author was principally responsible for the control architecture and Disembodied Performance software implementation, as well as the design of the visual language used to represent Simon Powers. These digitally-enabled elements were created in order to support the story of the opera and facilitate the process of crafting and rehearsing the staged experience. This article reflects on the dialogue between the design of the technological systems in conjunction with the development of the story and scenography of the opera. Several design principles are presented for the role of new technologies in digital opera and music-driven performance contexts that arose during the course of this work. The discussed methods of cuing, authoring, organizing and collaborating suggest an approach for scoring the multimedia elements of digitally augmented stagecraft.

Low Cost TV Based Messaging from Remote Desert Communities

by Maurice McGinley

Tony Eyers, Daniel Franklin, Andrew Turk, Maurice McGinley

Abstract—In recent years telecommunications services in remote Australia have received considerable attention, with... more Abstract—In recent years telecommunications services in remote Australia have received considerable attention, with services for indigenous desert communities a key focus. This project, known as Desert Interactive Remote Television (DIRT), uses existing community rebroadcast TV infrastructure to provide low cost multimedia messaging services for remote desert communities. The system architecture, key applications, and field trial outcomes are described

Developing a framework for advancing e-learning through digital storytelling

by Dr Eva Dakich

By Smeda Najat, Eva Dakich and Nalin Sharda (2010). Developing a framework for advancing e-learning through digital storytelling, in IADIS International Conference e-learning 2010, Ed. Miguel Baptista Nunes and Maggie McPherson. IADIS International Conference, e-Learning 2010 Freiburg, Germany, 26 - 29 July 2010, 169-176.

Digital Storytelling is an innovative pedagogical approach that has the potential to engage learners in... more Digital Storytelling is an innovative pedagogical approach that has the potential to engage learners in student-centered learning, and enhance learning outcomes across the curriculum. This paper describes how to develop a framework for advancing e-Learning systems through digital storytelling. It starts with an overview of digital storytelling and the learning environments, also describes some current models of digital storytelling. Furthermore, the paper discusses the benefits of digital storytelling in the classroom, and concludes with an overview of the research that needs to be conducted to test the efficacy of the proposed e-Learning Digital Storytelling framework on several dimensions.

Fundamental Concepts for Interactive Paper and Cross-Media Information Spaces

by Beat Signer

Beat Signer, Dissertation ETH No. 16218. Zurich, Switzerland, 2006.

Buy from Amazon.co.uk: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fundamental-Concepts-Interactive-Cross-Media-Information/dp/3837027139

While there have been dramatic increases in the use of digital technologies for information storage, processing and... more While there have been dramatic increases in the use of digital technologies for information storage, processing and delivery over the last twenty years, the affordances of paper have ensured its retention as a key information medium. Despite predictions of the paperless office, paper is ever more present in our daily work as reflected by the continuously increasing worldwide paper consumption.

Many researchers have argued for the retention of paper as an information resource and its integration into cross-media environments as opposed to its replacement. This has resulted in a wide variety of projects and technological developments for digitally augmented paper documents over the past decade. However, the majority of the realised projects focus on technical advances in terms of hardware but pay less attention to the very fundamental information integration and cross-media information management issues.

Our information-centric approach for a tight integration of paper and digital information is based on extending an object-oriented database management system with functionality for cross-media information management. The resulting iServer platform introduces fundamental link concepts at an abstract level. The iServer’s core link management functionality is available across different multimedia resources. Only the media-specific portion of these general concepts, for example the specification of a link’s source anchor, has to be implemented in the form of a plug-in to support new resource types. This resource plug-in mechanism results in a flexible and extensible system where new types of digital as well as physical resources can easily be integrated and, more importantly, cross-linked to the growing set of supported multimedia resources. In addition to the associative linking of information, our solution allows for the integration of semantic metadata and supports multiple classification of information units. iServer can, not only link between various static information entities, but also link to active content and this has proven to be very effective in enabling more complex interaction design.

As part of the European project Paper++, under the Disappearing Computer Programme, an iServer plug-in for interactive paper has been implemented to fully integrate paper and digital media, thereby gaining the best of the physical and the digital worlds. It not only supports linking from physical paper to digital information, but also enables links from digital content to physical paper or even paper to paper links. This multi-mode user interface results in highly interactive systems where users can easily switch back and forth between paper and digital information. The definition of an abstract input device interface further provides flexibility for supporting emerging technologies for paper link definition in addition to the hardware solutions for paper link definition and activation that were developed within the Paper++ project.

We introduce different approaches for cross-media information authoring where information is either compiled by established publishers with an expertise in a specific domain or by individuals who produce their own cross-media information environments. Preauthored information can be combined with personally aggregated information. A distributed peer-to-peer version of the iServer platform supports collaborative authoring and the sharing of link knowledge within a community of users.

The associations between different types of resources as well as other application-specific information can be visualised on different output channels. Universal access to the iServer’s information space is granted using the eXtensible Information Management Architecture (XIMA), our publishing platform for multi-channel access.

Our fundamental concepts for interactive paper and cross-media information management have been designed independently of particular hardware solutions and modes of interaction which enables the iServer platform to easily adapt to both new technologies and applications. Finally, the information infrastructure that we have developed has great potential as an experimental platform for the investigation of emerging multimedia resources in general and interactive paper with its possible applications in particular.

A Model and Architecture for Open Cross-Media Annotation and Link Services

by Beat Signer

Beat Signer and Moira C. Norrie, Information Systems 36(3), Elsevier, May 2011

Over the last decade, we have seen a tremendous increase in the number of digital media types that we deal with as... more Over the last decade, we have seen a tremendous increase in the number of digital media types that we deal with as part of our daily work. While the Web with its linking functionality was originally designed for organising information in the form of HTML documents containing embedded media such as images, movies and sounds, the underlying hypertext model is not flexible enough to deal with new media types. A flexible link and annotation service should not only support a growing set of digital media types, but also pay attention to emerging possibilities for linking and integrating the physical environment with digital information spaces in the form of augmented reality environments. The successful implementation of these so-called cross-media information spaces, where different types of digital information get linked and integrated with physical entities, demands for a rethinking of models and architectures for extensible and scalable cross-media annotation and linking. In this paper, we present our general model for open cross-media annotation and link services and highlight how this model enabled the realisation of an extensible cross-media architecture. We further introduce the concept of open cross-media information spaces where the integration of new media types on the data level as well as on the visualisation level is supported via a resource plug-in mechanism.

What is Wrong with Digital Documents? A Conceptual Model for Structural Cross-Media Content Composition and Reuse

by Beat Signer

Beat Signer, Proceedings of ER 2010, 29th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, Vancouver, Canada, November 2010

Many of today's digital document formats are strongly based on a digital emulation of printed media. While such a... more Many of today's digital document formats are strongly based on a digital emulation of printed media. While such a paper simulation might be appropriate for the visualisation of certain digital content, it is generally not the most effective solution for digitally managing and storing information. The oversimplistic modelling of digital documents as monolithic blocks of linear content, with a lack of structural semantics, does not pay attention to some of the superior features that digital media offers in comparison to traditional paper documents. For example, existing digital document formats adopt the limitations of paper documents by unnecessarily replicating content via copy and paste operations, instead of digitally embedding and reusing parts of digital documents via structural references. We introduce a conceptual model for structural cross-media content composition and highlight how the proposed solution not only enables the reuse of content via structural relationships, but also supports dynamic and context-dependent document adaptation, structural content annotations as well as the integration of arbitrary non-textual media types. We further discuss solutions for the fluid navigation and cross-media content publishing based on the proposed structural cross-media content model.

Interactive Paper: Past, Present and Future

by Beat Signer

Beat Signer and Moira C. Norrie, Proceedings of PaperComp 2010, 1st International Workshop on Paper Computing, Copenhagen Denmark, September 2010

Over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of researchers dealing with the... more Over the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the number of researchers dealing with the integration of paper and digital information or services. While recent technological developments enable new forms of paper-digital integration and interaction, some of the original research on interactive paper dates back almost twenty years. We give a brief overview of the most relevant past and current interactive paper developments. Then, based on our experience in developing a wide variety of interactive paper solutions over the last decade, as well as the results of other research groups, we outline future directions and challenges for the realisation of innovative interactive paper solutions. Further, we propose the definition of common data formats and interactive paper design patterns to ensure future cross-application and framework interoperability.

The Labour of Media Use: The Two Active Audiences

by Göran Bolin

published in Information, Communication & Society, online first (April 2012)

The ‘active audience’ has theoretically been conceptualized from two perspectives: in political economy, it is... more The ‘active audience’ has theoretically been conceptualized from two perspectives: in political economy, it is suggested that television audiences work for the networks while watching and that they contribute to the valorization process with their labour. Although contested, it has survived among media scholars, also feeding into the discussion on web surveillance techniques. The other conceptualization comes from reception theory, media ethnography and cultural studies, where the interpretive work by audiences is seen as productive and resulting in identities, taste cultures and social difference. This article relates these perspectives by considering audiences as involved in two production–consumptions circuits: (1) the viewer activities produce social difference (identities and cultural meaning) in a social and cultural economy, which is then (2) made the object of productive consumption as part of the activities of the media industries, the end product being economic profit. This article argues for the relevance of analysing these as separate circuits, with different kinds of labour at their centre, and that recent debates on the active audience often misrecognize the difference.

THINK ALOUD EXHIBITION FOR INTERACTIVE MEDIA ARTWORKS

by Maxim Bakaev

IASDR 2007, Hong Kong, Nov 2007. P. 1-9.

The Case for the Slow Internet

by Jennifer Proctor

Part of In Media Res's theme week on Interactive Documentaries.

Por uma teoria da publicização: transformações no processo publicitário

by Vander Casaqui

This article focuses on the analysis of changes in the advertising process, influenced by the current scenario, which... more This article focuses on the analysis of changes in the advertising process, influenced by the current scenario, which combines new technicities, sociabilities, ritualities and institucionalities — configured in meeting points between consumers, producers, goods and communication flows. The structure of our thinking is based on the map of mediations proposed by Martín-Barbero: we start from the discussion about the cultural matrices of advertising to reach the issues of communication contracts updated by contemporary forms of communication linked to consumption. This theoretical approach aims to delimit the focus of interest in studies of publicization — a concept that covers the mutations of the strategies involving persuasive communication of the corporations, brands and goods.

Collaborative performance and asynchronous action: World Without Oil’s fragmented forum

by Stephen Greer

International Journal of Performance Arts and Digital Media, Volume 7, Issue 1, 2011

This article considers how the politically engaged forum theatre of Augusto Boal may drive an understanding of... more This article considers how the politically engaged forum theatre of Augusto Boal may drive an understanding of networked collaboration and identity in recent participa-tory web dramas. Focussing on the recent web drama World Without Oil (2007), this discussion considers how theatrical and political logics within Boal's work grounded in synchronicity and embodiment may be challenged by practice that is distributed, asynchronous and fragmented.

Accordingly, this discussion proposes where strategies within World Without Oil that echo Boalian dramaturgy (such as the notion of play as rehearsal for change within the real world, and the potential of individuated, local expertise) may be transformed by the operation of mixed and alternate reality gaming. As this discussion will argue, such thinking which in challenging the centrality of synchronicity seeks to extend the account of mediation presented by Phillip Auslander's Liveness involves a re-examination of claims made to the political potential of hypertext and hypermedia

Interview with Leila Nadir and Cary Peppermint of Ecoarttech

by Leila C. Nadir

Furtherfield.org Interview with Sophia Kosmaoglou - 20/04/2012

Refusing to regard technology merely as a tool, Ecoarttech expand the uses of mobile technology and digital networks... more Refusing to regard technology merely as a tool, Ecoarttech expand the uses of mobile technology and digital networks revealing them to be fundamental components of the way we experience our environment. Their most recent work Indeterminate Hikes + (IH +) is a phone app that maps a series of trails through the city. IH + can be accessed globally, or wherever users have access to Google Maps on their mobile phones. After identifying the users’ location, IH + generates a route along random “Scenic Vistas" within urban spaces. Users are directed to perform a series of tasks along the trail and provide feedback in the form of snapshots generating an ongoing, open-ended dialogue. But the experience of their work is primarily an encounter with technology. Since 2005, Leila Nadir and Cary Peppermint of Ecoarttech have been engaged in an artistic exploration of environmental sustainability and convergent media. By drawing our attention to the increasing replacement or mediation of physical experiences by technology, Ecoarttech challenge the widely reproduced distinction between nature and culture. They present their work in the form of videos, digital networks, blogs, performance and installations. Their early video-based work (Wilderness Trouble and Frontier Mythology) plays out a performative and ironic encounter with the natural environment as a historically constructed concept. In the summer of 2005 Ecoarttech made A Series of Practical Performances in the Wilderness (2005) a database networked performance in QuickTime (DVD and Podcast).

The interactive documentary in a cross-platform, community context

by Julia Scott-Stevenson

Navigation and Devices

by Monika Fleischmann

by John Bowers, Monika Fleischmann, Wolfgang Strauss, Jeffrey Shaw, Sten-Olof Hellström, Michael Hoch, Jaeae-Aro, Thomas Kulessa, Jasminko Novak, CID-81, KTH, Stockholm, Sweden May 1998

eRena Project, Deliverable 6.1 is concerned with developing new interfaces and new metaphors for more physical... more eRena Project, Deliverable 6.1 is concerned with developing new interfaces and new metaphors for more physical interaction with virtual environments, involving the entire body and its physical properties.

DESAIN EMOTICON DALAM KOMUNIKASI INTERAKTIF

by Alvanov Mansoor

Published in Wimba, Journal of Visual Communication, vol. 03 no.01/2011 page. 25-49

Internet is become part of worldwide daily urban activities. Communication among people is intensified through various... more Internet is become part of worldwide daily urban activities. Communication among people is intensified through various interfaces and media because of information technology convergence and the application of visual icons which represents emotion.The icons that represent emotions, expressions and feelings are titled emoticons. Emoticons are highly used in IT based communication gadgets such as portable PCs or cellulars. This paper develops and depicts the creation process, perception and cultural aspetcs that influenced the development of emoticon through visual communication design study theoretical and historical review.

Keywords: communication, icon, emoticon, perception, interface design

BioCreative III interactive task: an overview

by Feifan Liu

Television Industry's Adoption of the Internet: Diffusion of an Inefficient Innovation

by harsh taneja

1.Forthcoming in proceedings of the Broadcast Education Association, April 15, 20102 Las Vegas
2. Selected to be included as a Book Chapter in an edited Volume on Media Economics and Management Research in a Transmedia Environment (Details TBA)

Two decades after it initially considered adopting the Internet as a platform for content delivery, the television... more Two decades after it initially considered adopting the Internet as a platform for content delivery, the television industry is still searching for a stable online business model. A suitable explanation warrants an historical inquiry into the adoption process. However, prior research on the relationship between the television industry and the Internet has been cross-sectional and moreover has neglected the interorganizational field of support industries in which the television industry operates. Through detailed examination of the events related to Internet adoption described in television industry trade publication, Broadcasting & Cable, during the period of 2001-2009, we achieve a longitudinal and interorganizational perspective on Internet adoption by the television industry. Our findings indicate that in adopting innovative online practices, television networks failed to reconcile their traditional business models with the unique affordances of the Internet. Institutional inertia, uncertainty, and complexity within the television industry forced networks’ online strategies to be informed by fringe players, who were successful in monetizing Internet audiences.

Guidelines for the design of location-based audio for mobile learning

by Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown)

Full citation:
FitzGerald, E., Sharples, M., Jones, R. and G. Priestnall (2010) Guidelines for the design of location-based audio for mobile learning. Proceedings of the mLearn 2010 Conference, Valletta, Malta, 19-22 Oct 2010, pp 24-31.

In this paper, we discuss the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. We distinguish three... more In this paper, we discuss the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. We distinguish three types of audio learning experience: audio vignettes, movement-based guides and mobile narratives. An analysis of projects in these three areas has resulted in the formulation of guidelines for the design of audio experiences. We offer a case study of a novel audio experience, called "A Chaotic Encounter", that delivers an adaptive story based on the pattern of movements of the user.

Real users, real results: examining the limitations of learning styles within AEH

by Elizabeth FitzGerald (née Brown)

Full citation:
Brown, E., Fisher, T. and T. Brailsford (2007) Real users, real results: examining the limitations of learning styles within AEH. Proceedings of the Eighteenth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia (Hypertext 2007), Manchester, UK, 10-12 Sept 2007, pp57-66. [Awarded Theodore Holm Nelson Prize for Best Newcomer Paper]

This paper examines the current state of AEH (adaptive educational hypermedia) research into explicit learning style... more This paper examines the current state of AEH (adaptive educational hypermedia) research into explicit learning style modelling for user personalisation. It addresses the problem of non-naïve test subjects, who are often in user trials, thus contributing to experimental bias. Instead, the authors suggest using "real people", i.e. users with a range of backgrounds and abilities, in order to gain a truer insight into evidence-based research.

We report on a study carried out with "real" users: around 80 children at a UK primary school. The study investigated sequential and global learning styles as a personalisation mechanism in an AEH system. The user trial involved matching and mismatching users and learning environments to see if learning improved. The AEH system used by the children was DEUS, a new e-learning platform that is conceptually similar to WHURLE, an AEH that also used learning styles as its user model.

No statistically significant differences were found between experimental groups, learning style preferences or learning environments. We discuss the significance of this, and then critically analyse the use of learning styles in relation to this study and also in the wider context.