Audiovisual preservation strategies, data models and value-chains

This is a report on preservation strategies, models and value-chains for digital file-based audiovisual content. The report includes: (a)current and emerging value-chains and business-models for audiovisual preservation;(b) a comparison of preservation strategies for audiovisual content including their strengths and weaknesses, and(c) a review of current preservation metadata models, and requirements for extension to support audiovisual files

The Translocal Event and the Polyrhythmic Diagram

This thesis identifies and analyses the key creative protocols in translocal performance practice, and ends with suggestions for new forms of transversal live and mediated performance practice, informed by theory. It argues that ontologies of emergence in dynamic systems nourish contemporary practice in the digital arts. Feedback in self-organised, recursive systems and organisms elicit change, and change transforms. The arguments trace concepts from chaos and complexity theory to virtual multiplicity, relationality, intuition and individuation (in the work of Bergson, Deleuze, Guattari, Simondon, Massumi, and other process theorists). It then examines the intersection of methodologies in philosophy, science and art and the radical contingencies implicit in the technicity of real-time, collaborative composition. Simultaneous forces or tendencies such as perception/memory, content/ expression and instinct/intellect produce composites (experience, meaning, and intuition- respectively) that affect the sensation of interplay. The translocal event is itself a diagram - an interstice between the forces of the local and the global, between the tendencies of the individual and the collective. The translocal is a point of reference for exploring the distribution of affect, parameters of control and emergent aesthetics. Translocal interplay, enabled by digital technologies and network protocols, is ontogenetic and autopoietic; diagrammatic and synaesthetic; intuitive and transductive. KeyWorx is a software application developed for realtime, distributed, multimodal media processing. As a technological tool created by artists, KeyWorx supports this intuitive type of creative experience: a real-time, translocal “jamming” that transduces the lived experience of a “biogram,” a synaesthetic hinge-dimension. The emerging aesthetics are processual – intuitive, diagrammatic and transversal

Private Talk in the Public Sphere: Podcasting as Broadcast Talk

With the rise of participatory media such as podcasting consumers are increasingly providers of media content. Consequently, the discourse of individual citizens, rather than only that of media professionals and elite gatekeepers, contributes to the contemporary mediated public sphere. It would seem likely that this discourse would offer social roles and speaking positions that privilege the quotidian and subsequently reconfigure public discourse. This paper uses insights from conversation analysis to study a small sample of podcasts aggregated at The Podcast Network. It focuses on the uses of institutional speech forms and expert speaking positions within three examples of pro-am media production. Rather than a direct inversion of elite discourse, these examples demonstrate a complex mixing of the mundane talk of the everyday and the abstract speech of the expert. This paper argues that the significance of participatory media is therefore not merely the empowerment of non-professional or subjugated discourse, but lies in a complication of the naturalised politics of the public sphere

Augmented analyses: supporting the study of ubiquitous computing systems

Ubiquitous computing is becoming an increasingly prevalent part of our everyday lives. The reliance of society upon such devices as mobile phones, coupled with the increasing complexity of those devices is an example of how our everyday human-human interaction is affected by this phenomenon. Social scientists studying human-human interaction must now take into account the effects of these technologies not just on the interaction itself, but also on the approach required to study it. User evaluation is a challenging topic in ubiquitous computing. It is generally considered to be difficult, certainly more so than in previous computational settings. Heterogeneity in design, distributed and mobile users, invisible sensing systems and so on, all add up to render traditional methods of observation and evaluation insufficient to construct a complete view of interactional activity. These challenges necessitate the development of new observational technologies. This thesis explores some of those challenges and demonstrates that system logs, with suitable methods of synchronising, filtering and visualising them for use in conjunction with more traditional observational approaches such as video, can be used to overcome many of these issues. Through a review of both the literature of the field, and the state of the art of computer aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), a series of guidelines are constructed showing what would be required of a software toolkit to meet the challenges of studying ubiquitous computing systems. It outlines the design and implementation of two such software packages, \textit{Replayer} and \textit{Digital Replay System}, which approach the problem from different angles, the former being focussed on visualising and exploring the data in system logs and the latter focussing on supporting the methods used by social scientists to perform qualitative analyses. The thesis shows through case studies how this technique can be applied to add significant value to the qualitative analysis of ubiquitous computing systems: how the coordination of system logs and other media can help us find information in the data that would otherwise be inaccessible; an ability to perform studies in locations/settings that would otherwise be impossible, or at least very difficult; and how creating accessible qualitative data analysis tools allows people to study particular settings or technologies who could not have studied them before. This software aims to demonstrate the direction in which other CAQDAS packages may have to move in order to support the study of the characteristics of human-computer and human-human interaction in a world increasingly reliant upon ubiquitous computing technology

Partners in learning : proceedings of the 12th annual Teaching and Learning Forum, Edith Cowan University, 11-12 February 2003

This publication of selected papers addressing the 12th Annual Teaching and Learning Forum theme of Partners in Learning provides an overview of the issues facing staff in higher education in Australia. The articles chosen for this post-forum publication provide innovative ideas that bring the opportunity to share and learn about teaching and learning into focus as lecturers consider ways to improve students’ learning and experiences in higher education through partnerships with them and with others. With the advent of Higher Education at the Crossroads by Federal Minister Brendan Nelson, it is evident that staff will face new challenges

Pocket size interactive films: Embedding the mobile devices’ features, characteristics and affordances into filmic interactive narratives.

Throughout the history of interactive film, creators have experimented with different modes of interaction to allow for the viewers’ agency. As interactive films have not yet established a standardised form, projects have continually been shaped by new technology. Over time, viewers have shifted from the cinema, to televisions, the personal computer and recently the mobile device. These devices further extend the interactive capabilities that are at the creators’ disposal. Therefore, this thesis proposes that mobile devices could facilitate new forms of interactive film that make use of these features. This study investigates the integration of the mobile devices’ characteristics, features and affordances into an interactive film project that is both viewed and interacted with on a mobile device. First and foremost, it establishes whether the mobile device can be successfully used by authors to relay interactive films. Secondly, it gives insights into design considerations for authors that aim to make use of the mobile devices’ features. Additionally, the thesis gathers insights into the use of game-engine technology for developing similar interactive film projects. The research begins with a literature review establishing the historical and academic context in regards to interactive- films, narratives, and interfaces, thereby focussing on mobile devices. Consecutively, a selection of projects is surveyed to garner insights into the current state of the art. These sections are then used to inform the practice-based part of this thesis in which the production of an interactive film project will be comprehensively documented. A concurrent think-aloud usability test, accompanied by a reflection on the outcomes and production process will conclude the research. The outcome suggests that mobile devices can act as successful vessels for interactive narratives. However, usability tests as well as reflection reveal that the thesis project cannot be strictly classified as an interactive film. Therefore, suggestions for future research as well as insights into the retention of filmic quality can be made in retrospect. Additionally, The use of game-engines for interactive film authoring proves to allow creators rapid prototyping and ease of implementation. Though their use might impact projects by over-complicating interaction paradigms more extensively used in game production.Media files notes: Project Documentation of Creations; an interactive short film for the mobile device. Media rights: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.

The diffusion of disruptive technologies

We identify novel technologies using textual analysis of patents, job postings, and earnings calls. Our approach enables us to identify and document the diffusion of 29 disruptive technologies across firms and labor markets in the U.S. Five stylized facts emerge from our data. First, the locations where technologies are developed that later disrupt businesses are geographically highly concentrated, even more so than overall patenting. Second, as the technologies mature and the number of new jobs related to them grows, they gradually spread across space. While initial hiring is concentrated in high-skilled jobs, over time the mean skill level in new positions associated with the technologies declines, broadening the types of jobs that adopt a given technology. At the same time, the geographic diffusion of low-skilled positions is significantly faster than higher-skilled ones, so that the locations where initial discoveries were made retain their leading positions among high-paying positions for decades. Finally, these technology hubs are more likely to arise in areas with universities and high skilled labor pools

A survey of ICT usage across English secondary schools

The use of information and communication technologies (ICT) is a statutory component of the Key Stages 2 and 3 National Curricula in the UK. This research presents findings from a national survey of the availability and usage of ICT in music classrooms within English secondary schools. It also examined a range of issues related to the training and continuing professional development opportunities that teachers utilised to develop their skills in this area. Key findings from the research show that music education is dominated by conservative uses of ICT that reinforce traditional subject content. Rigorous strategies for the sharing of knowledge in this area are needed if wider impact is to be made on the delivery of music curriculum that exploits the broader potential of ICT to widen access and provide students with an inclusive and personalised curriculum