An adaptation framework for new media artworks

In this paper, we are interested in adaptation mechanisms for the design, creation and experimentation of adaptive and interactive new media artworks. Through a concrete case study, we propose an adaptation framework that combines semantic and physical adaptation and that can be specialized to the specific needs of various new media artists. This adaptation framework is supported by an adaptation engine, the kernel of the software architecture we are currently building. We have validated our adaptation framework through the implementation of a prototype of the adaptation engine. This prototype integrates the management of various types of metadata and allows a representation of adaptation scenarios as policies of the form event-condition-action. \ud We present how we used our adaptation engine to reconstruct and experiment the adaptation model of The Man of the Crowd, an existing adaptive new media installation, where the artist introduces a semantic adaptation of the video content displayed on four screens, according to the relative position of the viewer in the artistic installation

Street Art, Graffiti and the Moral Right of Integrity: Can Artists Oppose the Destruction and Removal of their Works?

The relatively recent boom of street art and graffiti in many cities around the world animates and brings attention to the debate around their conservation. Can artists within these communities use the legal tools offered by moral rights laws to preserve their art? This note addresses this issue and, in particular, expands on whether street artists and graffiti writers can rely on moral rights regimes to prevent the destruction or removal of their works. It does so by looking at recent cases, especially in the US, where artists have started lawsuits aimed at preserving their street pieces or anyhow objecting to their erasure. The note also partially draws on semi-structured interviews I have conducted with several street artists and graffiti writers, whom I asked questions about whether they nurture interest in taking legal action for the above purposes

Rockhounding, Seafaring, and Other Material Tales for the End of the World

In the face of accelerated environmental degradation and climate instability, the future of the Earth and of all life on earth is difficult to visualize. Therefore, the different mediums through which we consider environmental issues are just as important as the actions we take to address them. Focusing on three projects combining art, science, and activism, this article suggests a compilation of material tales. They tell stories of plastic rocks and aluminum nuggets where the protagonists are partly finely crafted objects, partly waste materials, and sometimes both at once. Artists Kelly Jazvac, Yesenia Thibeault-Picazo, and the collective Studio Swine collaborate with scientists to offer different ways of experiencing environmental issues through objects and their materiality. They do so by cumulating gestures of making and collecting as a strategy to cope with our current epoch and to imagine its unfolding

Process modeling for new media artworks

Practices in new media art pose very interesting challenges to the multimedia research community in terms of software tools development, usage of media technologies or documentation and conservation of new meda artworks. In this paper, we present the different stages in the life cycle of new media artworks and we illustrate the use of the canonical processes of media production in this context. This work is a first step towards a process modeling framework for the description and documentation of new media artworks

Personalization in cultural heritage: the road travelled and the one ahead

Over the last 20 years, cultural heritage has been a favored domain for personalization research. For years, researchers have experimented with the cutting edge technology of the day; now, with the convergence of internet and wireless technology, and the increasing adoption of the Web as a platform for the publication of information, the visitor is able to exploit cultural heritage material before, during and after the visit, having different goals and requirements in each phase. However, cultural heritage sites have a huge amount of information to present, which must be filtered and personalized in order to enable the individual user to easily access it. Personalization of cultural heritage information requires a system that is able to model the user (e.g., interest, knowledge and other personal characteristics), as well as contextual aspects, select the most appropriate content, and deliver it in the most suitable way. It should be noted that achieving this result is extremely challenging in the case of first-time users, such as tourists who visit a cultural heritage site for the first time (and maybe the only time in their life). In addition, as tourism is a social activity, adapting to the individual is not enough because groups and communities have to be modeled and supported as well, taking into account their mutual interests, previous mutual experience, and requirements. How to model and represent the user(s) and the context of the visit and how to reason with regard to the information that is available are the challenges faced by researchers in personalization of cultural heritage. Notwithstanding the effort invested so far, a definite solution is far from being reached, mainly because new technology and new aspects of personalization are constantly being introduced. This article surveys the research in this area. Starting from the earlier systems, which presented cultural heritage information in kiosks, it summarizes the evolution of personalization techniques in museum web sites, virtual collections and mobile guides, until recent extension of cultural heritage toward the semantic and social web. The paper concludes with current challenges and points out areas where future research is needed

Design and production of new media artworks

New media artists today take advantage of, and are influenced by, the many possibilities offered by new digital technologies. They are very demanding users and a detailed examination of their practices and approaches will provide a better understanding of the usage of multimedia technologies. In this paper, we are interested in the design and creation of new media artworks. Through a concrete example, we present the different stages in the life cycle of an adaptive new media artwork and we identify the corresponding canonical processes

1001stories+: An effective and affordable multi-media, multi-format communication framework for cultural heritage institutions

Over the last decade, there has been an increasing number of technologies and devices (including smartphones, tablets and alike) able to provide new perspectives for the use of multimedia applications in the field of Cultural Heritage. This work arises from the interest in providing better authoring/delivery possibilities to cultural heritage institutions (small and medium sized in particular). Indeed, often medium and small sized museums do not have the necessary resources to create high quality multimedia productions. Not only have they faced short time and low budget, but a shortage of dedicated staff. Based on an interdisciplinary approach, this thesis focuses on the development of an effective and affordable multi-media, multi-format communication framework. The framework provides institutions with guidelines and methodologies and it is based on an innovative authoring tools (not developed in this thesis, but available). Specific concerns of the framework are: developing multimedia content within a short time span, developing multimedia content with a limited, low-budget, adapting multimedia content to different technologies and to different user experiences, making possible to “reuse multimedia content” (e.g. from websites, to audio guides, to multimedia guides, to YouTube or to paper brochures) This research has been conducted throughout parallel and intertwined processes, requiring a take of perspective. One the one hand, a general investigation (about multimedia formats, technologies and methodologies for production) has been conducted. On the other hand, an empirical work on real-life multimedia productions has been undergone. Indeed, the merging of theoretical knowledge and real fieldwork remains the main characteristic of this study’s methodological approach and of its strength. Its overall result is a fully developed framework (named 1001stories +), providing: multi-media, content information is presented throughout different media, including images, text, audio, and video; effective, the content can have the desired impact on the audience; affordable, content can be created in a short time, within low budget, and can be reused; multi-technology, content is available on different channels (web, smart phones, tablets, You tube, etc…); multi-format, content can be reorganized into various solutions, generating different formats for different user experiences. A more conceptual contribution of this thesis is about consideration of what communication in the Cultural Heritage domain is about, what its purposes are, and what the most appropriate means to reach the potential audience may be

The game jam movement:disruption, performance and artwork

This paper explores the current conventions and intentions of the game jam - contemporary events that encourage the rapid, collaborative creation of game design prototypes. Game jams are often renowned for their capacity to encourage creativity and the development of alternative, innovative game designs. However, there is a growing necessity for game jams to continue to challenge traditional development practices through evolving new formats and perspectives to maintain the game jam as a disruptive, refreshing aspect of game development culture. As in other creative jam style events, a game jam is not only a process but also, an outcome. Through a discussion of the literature this paper establishes a theoretical basis with which to analyse game jams as disruptive, performative processes that result in original creative artefacts. In support of this, case study analysis of Development Cultures: a series of workshops that centred on innovation and new forms of practice through play, chance, and experimentation, is presented. The findings indicate that game jams can be considered as processes that inspire creativity within a community and that the resulting performances can be considered as a form of creative artefact, thus parallels can be drawn between game jams and performative and interactive art

Hoping for the Best, Preparing for the Worst: Prepping, sculptural practice and the everyday crisis of insecurity

This research project investigates highly individuated preparatory activity, or prepping, through a practice-led research methodology which is articulated through three frameworks identified from commonalities found in prepping’s often highly disparate activities. These frameworks, narrative, adaptable objects, and preservation, aid in sculpturally articulating an often-overlooked aspect of the prepping spectrum. Namely, those attempting to secure already precarious lives in a world of constantly unfolding and speculative crises

Adaptive Institutional Change: Managing Digital Works at the Museum of Modern Art

From digital video to software-driven installations, digital art is now present in museums around the world. Museum systems designed for object-based collections like paintings and sculpture do not address the collections management and conservation requirements for these new technologies and their associated hardware. In this article the authors investigate processes through which digital art becomes embedded in museums. Based on original research conducted at The Museum of Modern Art in New York, we argue that the introduction of digital art to MoMA did not lead, as recent literature suggests, to disruptive or radical changes of existing institutional practices. Instead, the result has been organizational subunit proliferation and adjustments to established practices and procedures. Through our study of managing digital art at MoMA, we engage Science and Technology Studies and the institutional analysis tradition in the sociology of organizations to advance the understanding of processes of change in art museums.