Creativity and Culture in Copyright Theory

Creativity is universally agreed to be a good that copyright law should seek to promote, yet copyright scholarship and policymaking have proceeded largely on the basis of assumptions about what it actually is. When asked to discuss the source of their inspiration, individual artists describe a process that is intrinsically ineffable. Rights theorists of all varieties have generally subscribed to this understanding, describing creativity in terms of an individual liberty whose form remains largely unspecified. Economic theorists of copyright work from the opposite end of the creative process, seeking to divine the optimal rules for promoting creativity by measuring its marketable byproducts. But these theorists offer no particular reason to think that marketable byproducts are either an appropriate proxy or an effective stimulus for creativity (as opposed to production), and more typically refuse to engage the question. The upshot is that the more we talk about creativity, the more it disappears from view. At the same time, the mainstream of intellectual property scholarship has persistently overlooked a broad array of social science methodologies that provide both descriptive tools for constructing ethnographies of creative processes and theoretical tools for modeling them

Representing Korean Buddhist art and architecture - a 3D animated documentary installation

This practice-led research 'One Mind' - seeks to represent Korean Buddhist architectural aesthetics and Buddhist spiritual ideas using the animated documentary genre as a form of creative representation. It is intended that the piece be shown either as an installation in a gallery, or within a museum or cultural exhibition context. The key goal is to offer this digital artwork to European audiences, in a spirit of engendering the same feeling state as when present in the real monastery, encouraging an understanding of the sacred, and experiencing a form of transcendence. My art work in some ways functions as a digital restoration of sacred architecture outside its real environment and context, and seeks to document cultural heritage and knowledge. One Mind is different from a classic form of documentary, though, because it does not echo the idea of documentary based on live-action footage as a mode of non-fiction record and expression. I have particularly stressed the suggestiveness of the architectural aesthetics and the philosophic principles embedded in the environment. I have sought to bring my own subjective artistic interpretation to Korean Buddhism accordingly, resisting typical character animation and classical narrative, seeking instead, to encourage the viewer to be part of the environment. I focus on the meaning in Buddhist buildings and the landscape they are part of, and dramatise the environment, using the poetic tone of the voice over performance, the sound track of Buddhist chanting, and the visual effects and perspectives of computer generated imagery. This digital visualisation of the Buddhist s spiritual world is informed by a Buddhist s traditional way of life, but, most importantly, by my own past experience, feelings and memory of the Buddhist monastery compound, as a practising artist. My thesis is categorised into eight chapters. Chapter One offers an overview of the aims and objectives of my project. Chapter Two identifies my research questions and my intended methodology. Chapter Three focuses on important background knowledge about Korea s natural and cultural aspects and conditions. Chapter Four offers an analysis of the issue of the Korean cultural identity, suggesting that a more authentic image of Korea and Korean-ness is available in the philosophy and spiritual agenda of Buddhism. Chapter Five addresses the practical ways in which digital restoration of architecture has taken place, identifying three previous cases which both resemble and differ from my own project. Chapter Six looks at the specific characteristics of Korean Seon Buddhism and architecture, and engages with three theoretical approaches about the spatial composition of the monastery, and the ways it may help in constructing the monastery in a digital environment. Chapter Seven offers an evaluation and validation of my artwork, having adopted the approach of creating an animated spiritual documentary to reveal Buddhist philosophy and experience as a model of Korean cultural identity. Chapter Eight offers some conclusions about my intention, process and outcomes

Immersive Participation:Futuring, Training Simulation and Dance and Virtual Reality

Dance knowledge can inform the development of scenario design in immersive digital simulation environments by strengthening a participant’s capacity to learn through the body. This study engages with processes of participatory practice that question how the transmission and transfer of dance knowledge/embodied knowledge in immersive digital environments is activated and applied in new contexts. These questions are relevant in both arts and industry and have the potential to add value and knowledge through crossdisciplinary collaboration and exchange. This thesis consists of three different research projects all focused on observation, participation, and interviews with experts on embodiment in digital simulation. The projects were chosen to provide a range of perspectives across dance, industry and futures studies. Theories of embodied cognition, in particular the notions of the extended body, distributed cognition, enactment and mindfulness, offer critical lenses through which to explore the relationship of embodied integration and participation within immersive digital environments. These areas of inquiry lead to the consideration of how language from the field of computer science can assist in describing somatic experience in digital worlds through a discussion of the emerging concepts of mindfulness, wayfinding, guided movement and digital kinship. These terms serve as an example of how the mutability of language became part of the process as terms applied in disparate disciplines were understood within varying contexts. The analytic tools focus on applying a posthuman view, speculation through a futures ethnography, and a cognitive ethnographical approach to my research project. These approaches allowed me to examine an ecology of practices in order to identify methods and processes that can facilitate the transmission and transfer of embodied knowledge within a community of practice. The ecological components include dance, healthcare, transport, education and human/computer interaction. These fields drove the data collection from a range of sources including academic papers, texts, specialists’ reports, scientific papers, interviews and conversations with experts and artists.The aim of my research is to contribute both a theoretical and a speculative understanding of processes, as well as tools applicable in the transmission of embodied knowledge in virtual dance and arts environments as well as digital simulation across industry. Processes were understood theoretically through established studies in embodied cognition applied to workbased training, reinterpreted through my own movement study. Futures methodologies paved the way for speculative processes and analysis. Tools to choreograph scenario design in immersive digital environments were identified through the recognition of cross purpose language such as mindfulness, wayfinding, guided movement and digital kinship. Put together, the major contribution of this research is a greater understanding of the value of dance knowledge applied to simulation developed through theoretical and transformational processes and creative tools

Digital Alchemy: Matter and Metamorphosis in Contemporary Digital Animation and Interface Design

The recent proliferation of special effects in Hollywood film has ushered in an era of digital transformation. Among scholars, digital technology is hailed as a revolutionary moment in the history of communication and representation. Nevertheless, media scholars and cultural historians have difficulty finding a language adequate to theorizing digital artifacts because they are not just texts to be deciphered. Rather, digital media artifacts also invite critiques about the status of reality because they resurrect ancient problems of embodiment and transcendence.In contrast to scholarly approaches to digital technology, computer engineers, interface designers, and special effects producers have invented a robust set of terms and phrases to describe the practice of digital animation. In order to address this disconnect between producers of new media and scholars of new media, I argue that the process of digital animation borrows extensively from a set of preexisting terms describing materiality that were prominent for centuries prior to the scientific revolution. Specifically, digital animators and interface designers make use of the ancient science, art, and technological craft of alchemy. Both alchemy and digital animation share several fundamental elements: both boast the power of being able to transform one material, substance, or thing into a different material, substance, or thing. Both seek to transcend the body and materiality but in the process, find that this elusive goal (realism and gold) is forever receding onto the horizon.The introduction begins with a literature review of the field of digital media studies. It identifies a gap in the field concerning disparate arguments about new media technology. On the one hand, scholars argue that new technologies like cyberspace and digital technology enable radical new forms of engagement with media on individual, social, and economic levels. At the same time that media scholars assert that our current epoch is marked by a historical rupture, many other researchers claim that new media are increasingly characterized by ancient metaphysical problems like embodiment and transcendence. In subsequent chapters I investigate this disparity

Actor & Avatar: A Scientific and Artistic Catalog

What kind of relationship do we have with artificial beings (avatars, puppets, robots, etc.)? What does it mean to mirror ourselves in them, to perform them or to play trial identity games with them? Actor & Avatar addresses these questions from artistic and scholarly angles. Contributions on the making of "technical others" and philosophical reflections on artificial alterity are flanked by neuroscientific studies on different ways of perceiving living persons and artificial counterparts. The contributors have achieved a successful artistic-scientific collaboration with extensive visual material

Its Skin is My Skin

This text examines the complexity of attempting to empathize with bodies that are vastly othered from my own. This broad yet nuanced subject crosses epistemological boundaries and complicates the dualities between both the mind and body, and between the corporeal and the virtual. My desire to better understand the conditions of another’s experience originates from a painful traumatic loss which caused me to feel isolated and incomplete. In response to this suffering, I long to emotionally connect with other beings and create artwork that attempts to bridge the qualia of individual experience. I am interested in the capacity (or lack thereof) to empathize with othered bodies; human, animal, non-human and virtual. As a result, my work involves discourse around the parameters that constitute being considered alive, the ability of cross-species empathy through shared experiences of embodiment, as well as corporeal relationships with digital technology and cyberspace. I utilize the media of digital photography along with 3D modeling and animation software to create abject amalgams of human flesh. Through the freedom of the digital medium, I can visually depict internal conflict in a way that transcends corporeal limitations. I manipulate representations of tangible bodies, placing them in surreal non-spaces that I intend to be suggestive of psychological states or digital voids. By doing so, I hope to not only convey intangible emotions of pain, but also speak to the complexity of understanding corporeal indeterminacy and a fragmentation of identity within a virtual environment unbound by physical limitations

Digital Hair Creation for Archaeological Facial Approximation: George Dixon, the Last Captain of the Hl Hunley

This study explores the application of digital hair creation techniques in archaeological facial approximation, focusing on the case of George Dixon, the last captain of the HL Hunley submarine. While digital hair creation techniques have been previously employed in facial approximation, this research seeks to investigate further their potential and advantages over traditional methods, particularly regarding flexibility and the ability to create multiple variations. Facial approximation is a critical method for reconstructing the physical appearance of historical individuals. However, accurately recreating their hairstyle presents a significant challenge due to limited information and reliance on artistic interpretation. This research aims to harness digital hair creation techniques to address these limitations by integrating archaeological evidence, historical records, and scientific principles. The methodology involves five steps: data collection, hair modeling, hair simulation, styling and texturing, and integration and evaluation. The data collection phase involves gathering archaeological evidence, historical accounts, and visual references of hairstyles from the relevant time period. Hair modeling involves creating a three-dimensional model of Dixon\u27s head using computed tomography (CT) scans or available data. Hair simulation employs advanced computer graphics techniques to simulate the physical properties of hair. Styling and texturing involve sculpting and manipulating the digital hair strands into the desired hairstyle and adding color and other attributes for a lifelike appearance. Finally, the reconstructed hairstyle is integrated with Dixon\u27s facial approximation model and evaluated for accuracy and realism. One of the key advantages of this digital approach is the ability to easily create alternate versions and conduct look development in consultation with archaeologists. This allows for a more comprehensive exploration of possible hairstyles and facial hair variations for Dixon, enhancing the accuracy and authenticity of the facial approximation. This research contributes to the growing body of work on the application of digital techniques in archaeological facial approximation. The findings from this study will offer valuable insights into the appearance of George Dixon and provide a useful reference for future research in the field. Keywords: digital hair creation, archaeological facial approximation, hairstyle reconstruction, George Dixon, HL Hunley, computed tomography, three-dimensional modeling, hair simulation, styling, texturing, accuracy, authenticity, forensic archaeology