The artist in the field: investigating tourist performativity and ethnographic methodology through art practice

This research centres on an artistic exploration of ethnographic methodologies whilst investigating tourist performativity and the presentation of self within tourist documentation. Central to this presentation is the performance of the documented smile. The materiality of this research comes from documentary evidence (video, sound, photography, interviews, fieldnotes and diaries) recorded during a fieldtrip around popular tourist destinations in Europe. Data gathering methods, such as participant observation, reflexive writing and informal interviews with tourists, were employed not just to capture the tourist experience of others, but also to explore the multiplicity and variability of the researcher self within the field. The representation of the researcher within the research findings has become one of the issues that this project has sought to address. Two practical outputs, a primary case study entitled Smile: Formaggio con Queso (a randomly configuring computer networked installation) and a secondary case study (an interactive kiosk), interface a database constructed from the field data. Both case studies support research into how ethnographic methods might be used to inform the production processes of an art project, and, additionally, how digital art practice might contribute to the presentation of post-paradigm ethnography. The practical issues of data collecting and the implications of using the self as part of the data source are highlighted. This will be of interest to artists working in field environments where the self and 'other' is synonymous. Furthermore, the primary case study challenges conventional representational ethnographic modes in order to facilitate new kinds of qualitative and ethnographic insights. A reflexive autoethnographic approach to writing the thesis has been utilised to validate my personal narrative as a line of inquiry

City Tells:

City Tells. Guidelines to an Emotional Wayfinding System were developed to provide wayfinding information to visitors walking through historic environments and to ensure that unknown urban places become more welcoming, easier to navigate and more enjoyable for both visitors and tourists

How can Fox networks group become a successful live events & experience player in Iberia?

FOX Networks Group currently develops branded content in the form of Live Events and Experiences in Iberia. However, it lacks strategic planning in order to turn those into profit generating Business Models. Hence, the subsequent report evaluates growth and profitability opportunities intended to catapult FOX Networks Group into a successful Live Events and Experiences player in Iberia through three new business models (FOX Fever: ‘Family Guy’ Edition, FOX ‘Prison Break’ Bar, and FOX Crime Scene). This solution arises from an extensive marketing analysis, including primary and secondary research, which originated a far-reaching marketing plan, comprising an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan

Aportaciones al proceso de creación de contenidos de realidad aumentada, orientados a formación, industria y construcción

La Realidad Aumentada (AR) consiste en aumentar la percepción que el usuario tiene del mundo real con información virtual que lo complementa. Esta característica de aumentar los sentidos, es deseable en muchos campos de aplicación, por lo que aunque es un campo de investigación relativamente joven, ha experimentado un gran auge en los últimos años. La evolución de cada uno de los procesos que componen un sistema AR, ha permitido que está tecnología traspase las puertas de los laboratorios, y pueda ser utilizada por cualquier usuario que disponga, por ejemplo, de un Smartphone. Sin embargo, todavía existe una gran limitación y es la creación de contenidos (authoring). En la actualidad existen un pequeño número de herramientas de authoring que permiten crear contenidos AR, y en la mayoría de casos son herramientas propietarias que se limitan al uso de su propia tecnología. En este trabajo se presentan las aportaciones al proceso de authoring de contenidos AR orientados a formación, industria y construcción. Estas aportaciones se engloban en dos campos principales: la creación de contenidos para ayudas visuales, y la creación de información durante la revisión del proceso constructivo por medio de AR (denominada información As-Built). Para la creación de ayudas visuales AR se define un nuevo modelo de authoring, a partir del modelo de presentaciones de diapositivas digitales, en el que se incluyen los mecanismos necesarios para crear los contenidos aumentados. Para la creación de la información As-Built, se han desarrollado, tanto una metodología, como el sistema que permite llevarla a cabo. Todas las aportaciones presentadas en este trabajo tienen la finalidad de permitir a usuarios no expertos crear contenidos AR, abstrayéndoles del funcionamiento a bajo nivel de los sistemas AR. En los resultados presentados a lo largo de este trabajo se muestra cómo los sistemas desarrollados logran dicho objetivo, permitiendo a los usuarios no expertos, crear contenidos AR tanto en ayudas visuales, como para documentar el proceso constructivo.Augmented Reality (AR) consists in augmenting the user’s perception of the real world adding virtual information that complements it. This capability of augment the senses, it is desirable in many applications, so although it is a relatively young field of research, has experienced a boom in recent years. The evolution of each of the processes involved in AR systems (computer vision, 3d rendering, etc.), it is making possible that this technology goes out from laboratories, to be used by anyone who own, for example, a Smartphone. However, there is still a major constraint, the AR content creation (denominated authoring). Nowadays, there are a small number of authoring tools for creating AR content, and in most cases are proprietary systems that are limited to using its own technology. In this thesis, the contributions to the process of authoring of AR content oriented to training, construction and industry are presented. These contributions are focused on two main areas: creating AR content for visual aids, and the creation of information during the review of the construction process through AR (As-Built information). To create AR visual aids, a new authoring model is defined extending the digital slide presentations, which include the necessary mechanisms to create the augmented content. To create the As-Built information, during the revision of the construction process, a methodology and the system that allows carrying it out are proposed. All contributions presented in this paper are intended to allow non-expert users to create AR content, by abstracting them from the low level technical details of AR applications. The results presented will show how the proposed systems achieved this objective; allowing non-expert users to create AR content both AR visual aids and As-Built information to document the construction process

Mathematical surfaces models between art and reality

In this paper, I want to document the history of the mathematical surfaces models used for the didactics of pure and applied “High Mathematics” and as art pieces. These models were built between the second half of nineteenth century and the 1930s. I want here also to underline several important links that put in correspondence conception and construction of models with scholars, cultural institutes, specific views of research and didactical studies in mathematical sciences and with the world of the figurative arts furthermore. At the same time the singular beauty of form and colour which the models possessed, aroused the admiration of those entirely ignorant of their mathematical attraction

Architectonics of Game Spaces

What consequences does the design of the virtual yield for architecture and to what extent can the nature of architecture be used productively to turn game-worlds into sustainable places - over here, in »reality«? This pioneering collection gives an overview of contemporary developments in designing video games and of the relationships such practices have established with the design of architecture. Due to their often simulatory nature, games reveal constructions of reality while positively impacting spatial ability and allowing for alternative avenues to complex topics and processes of negotiation. Granting insight into the merging of the design of real and virtual environments, this volume offers an invaluable platform for further debate

Architectonics of Game Spaces: The Spatial Logic of the Virtual and Its Meaning for the Real

What consequences does the design of the virtual yield for architecture and to what extent can the nature of architecture be used productively to turn game-worlds into sustainable places - over here, in "reality"? This pioneering collection gives an overview of contemporary developments in designing video games and of the relationships such practices have established with the design of architecture. Due to their often simulatory nature, games reveal constructions of reality while positively impacting spatial ability and allowing for alternative avenues to complex topics and processes of negotiation. Granting insight into the merging of the design of real and virtual environments, this volume offers an invaluable platform for further debate