NEUVis: Comparing Affective and Effective Visualisation

Data visualisations are useful for providing insight from complex scientific data. However, even with visualisation, scientific research is difficult for non-scientists to comprehend. When developed by designers in collaboration with scientists, data visualisation can be used to articulate scientific data in a way that non-experts can understand. Creating human-centred visualisations is a unique challenge, and there are no frameworks to support their design. In response, this thesis presents a practice-led study investigating design methods that can be used to develop Non-Expert User Visualisations (NEUVis), data visualisations for a general public, and the response that people have to different kinds of NEUVis. For this research, two groups of ten users participated in quantitative studies, informed by Yvonna Lincoln and Egon Guba’s method of Naturalistic Inquiry, which asked non-scientists to express their cognitive and emotional response to NEUVis using different media. The three different types of visualisations were infographics, 3D animations and an interactive installation. The installation used in the study, entitled 18S rDNA, was developed and evaluated as part of this research using John Zimmerman’s Research Through Design methodology. 18S rDNA embodies the knowledge and design methods that were developed for this research, and provided an opportunity for explication of the entire NEUVis design process. The research findings indicate that developing visualisations for the non-expert audience requires a new process, different to the way scientists visualise data. The result of this research describes how creative practitioners collaborate with primary researchers and presents a new human-centred design thinking model for NEUVis. This model includes two design tools. The first tool helps designers merge user needs with data they wish to visualise. The second tool helps designers take that merged information and begin an iterative, user-centred design process

Biosignal-driven Art: Beyond biofeedback

Biosignal monitoring in interactive arts, although present for over forty years, remains a relatively little known field of research within the artistic community as compared to other sensing technologies. Since the early 1960s, an ever-increasing number of artists have collaborated with neuroscientists, physicians and electrical engineers, in order to devise means that allow for the acquisition of the minuscule electrical potentials generated by the human body. This has enabled direct manifestations of human physiology to be incorporated into interactive artworks. This paper presents an introduction to this field of artistic practice and scientific research that uses human physiology as its main element. A brief introduction to the main concepts and history of biosignal-driven art is followed by a review of various artworks and scientific enquiry developed by the authors. This aims at giving a complete overview of the various strategies developed for biosignal-driven interactive art

Internet art and interaction: a study into the creation of a taxonomy of interaction in online art works

Using the hypothesis that interaction with net art can be categorised, the primary purpose of the research was to generate a taxonomy of this interaction. Emphasis is given to interactive web based works that require the user to participate by contributing material to the piece. An initial period of contextualisation was required to position net art within contemporary arts culture this included an examination of previous attempts at categorising interactivity and the exploration of connected historical art practices. Most previous attempts at categorisation either characterise types of interactive work, or detail specific interactive characteristics the work itself may have. This aim of this thesis was to take an alternative approach by focusing on the interaction itself in order to create a taxonomy. To establish this characterisation of interactivity, several practical pieces of internet art were created that doubled as data collection tools. The main outcome of this project resulted in the development of my own Connected, Partially Connected and Unconnected ( C.P.U.) model of interactivity. This in turn necessitated the examination of the interactive process which resulted in defining a loop of interaction . This loop of interaction specifies several separate phases to the interactive process, the C.P.U. model of interactivity occupying one of these phases. This thesis primarily provides a platform with which to further interrogate interaction with net art. An unexplored area of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) that is specific to net art has been identified and is therefore of use to theorists and researchers working in this area. It is also of use to artists enabling them to better understand how interaction is understood within the context of their own practice

Telling interactive stories: A practice-based investigation into new media interactive storytelling

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Telling Interactive Stories is a practice-based thesis, which theoretically and practically probes the field of digital fictional interactive storytelling. The submission takes the form of the interactive cinema installation Crossed Lines together with a written element of the thesis which interrogates historical, contextual, theoretical, technical and critical aspects of the field of interactive narrative using new media. Crossed Lines is an original fictional interactive AV piece, amalgamating multiform plots, a multi-screen viewing environment, an interactive interface and an interactive story navigation form. The installation tells the stories of nine characters in a way that the viewer can constantly explore and switch between all nine forms, using a telephone keypad and handset as an interface, and can simultaneously observe all characters’ presence between the nine remote locations. Several research methodologies are utilised to analyse and evaluate the installation. Quantitative methodologies include the use of user tracking systems where the computational output of the installation provides measurements and timings of user choices and behaviours. Qualitative methodologies include theoretical and visual analysis, and in depth analysis of user responses using interviews, questionnaires, video recordings and cuttingedge eye-tracking technologies

Narratives of ocular experience in interactive 360° environments

The purpose of this research project was to examine how immersive digital virtual technologies have the potential to expand the genre of interactive film into new forms of audience engagement and narrative production. Aside from addressing the limitations of interactive film, I have explored how interactive digital narratives can be reconfigured in the wake of immersive media. My contribution to knowledge stems from using a transdisciplinary synthesis of the interactive systems in film and digital media art, which is embodied in the research framework and theoretical focal point that I have titled Cynematics (chapter 2). Using a methodology that promotes iterative experimentation I developed a series of works that allowed me to practically explore the limitations of interactive film systems that involve non-haptic user interaction. This is evidenced in the following series of works: Virtual Embodiment, Narrative Maze, Eye Artefact Interactions and Routine Error - all of which are discussed in chapter 4 of this thesis. Each of these lab experiments collectively build towards the development of novel interactive 360° film practices. Funneling my research towards these underexplored processes I focused on virtual gaze interaction (chapters 4-6), aiming to define and historically contextualise this system of interaction, whilst critically engaging with it through my practice. It is here that gaze interaction is cemented as the key focus of this thesis. The potential of interactive 360° film is explored through the creation of three core pieces of practice, which are titled as follows: Systems of Seeing (chapter 5), Mimesis (chapter 6), Vanishing Point (chapter 7). Alongside the close readings in these chapters and the theoretical developments explored in each are the interaction designs included in the appendix of the thesis. These provide useful context for readers unable to experience these site-specific installations as virtual reality applications. After creating these systems, I established terms to theoretically unpack some of the processes occurring within them. These include Datascape Mediation (chapter 2), which frames agency as a complex entanglement built on the constantly evolving relationships between human and machine - and Live-Editing Practice (chapter 7), which aims to elucidate how the interactive 360° film practice designed for this research leads to new way of thinking about how we design, shoot and interact with 360° film. Reflecting on feedback from exhibiting Mimesis I decided to define and evaluate the key modes of virtual gaze interaction, which led to the development of a chapter and concept referred to as The Reticle Effect (chapter 6). This refers to how a visual overlay that is used to represent a user's line of sight not only shapes their experience of the work, but also dictates their perception of genre. To navigate this, I combined qualitative and quantitative analysis to explore user responses to four different types of gaze interaction. In preparing to collect this data I had to articulate these different types of interaction, which served to demarcate the difference between each of these types of gaze interaction. Stemming from this I used questionnaires, thematic analysis and data visualisation to explore the use and response to these systems. The results of this not only supports the idea of the reticle effect, but also gives insight into how these different types of virtual gaze interaction shape whether these works are viewed as games or as types of interactive film. The output of this allowed me to further expand on interactive 360° film as a genre of immersive media and move beyond the realm of interactive film into new technological discourses, which serves to validate the nascent, yet expansive reach of interactive 360° film as a form of practice. The thesis is concluded by framing this research within the wider discourse of posthuman theory as given that the technologies of immersive media perpetuate a state of extended human experience - how we interact and consider the theories that surround these mediums needs to be considered in the same way. The practice and theory developed throughout this thesis contribute to this discourse and allow for new ways of considering filmic language in the wake of interactive 360° film practice

Building experiences - a reflective design process for media architecture

Media Architecture design, although visually prominent and involving interdisciplinary collaboration, rarely succeeds in creating urban situations of contextual relevance beyond temporary effects. This research understands Media Architecture as a communication medium and proposes the need to engage with its multi-stakeholder audience from early on in the conceptual design stage. This practice-led design research presents a broad critical investigation into the emerging field of Media Architecture (Jaschko & Sauter 2006; Foth 2008; Haeusler 2009) spanning conceptions of media space, experience, participation and design as discourse (Scollon & Scollon 2003; Fatah gen. Schieck 2006). Its findings contribute a new perspective on Media Architecture as experiential visual design process, based on an analysis of design methods, principles of participatory design and reflection, as well as an overview and classification of Media Architecture practice. Following a related literature review, the thesis identified experiential learning and the notion of troublesome knowledge (Meyer & Land 2003; Perkins 1999) as a distinguishable new perspective on design for Media Architecture. By connecting exploratory and generative design research tools (i.e., interviews, collaborative expert workshops, visual prototyping) with theoretical constructs of learning theory (Schön 1983; Kolb 1983), experience (McCarthy & Wright 2004) and ownership in urban design (McDonnell 2009; Townsend 2013; Lange & Waal 2013), this thesis developed an experimental design methodology for stakeholder involvement in Media Architecture. An iterative review and reflection process led to methods evolving from initial research tools for analysis to self-reflective design process outcomes. The findings of this study were used to create the Media Architecture Archive (MAA), a digital participatory database using a comprehensive classification system of Media Architecture practice. It is complemented by an experiential method framework based on visual design for contextual research, envisioning and prototyping in Media Architecture. Thus, the research contributes a novel approach to visual communication in Media Architecture, by applying visual design to encourage stakeholder involvement, discourse and reflection at early stages in the design process. The self-reflective structure of the study contributes to our knowledge of how practice-led learning processes applied through visual communication can serve as an extension of the Media Architecture experience as both process and outcome

CRUMB doctoral research: reflections on creating and exhibiting digital art.

Based on doctoral research undertaken at CRUMB, the online resource for curators of media arts, this paper gathers together knowledge from different experiences of producing and presenting digital arts, from the perspectives of both curators/producers and artists. Suzy O’Hara reflects on art, technology, and the commercial digital sector, Marialaura Ghidini discusses hybrid models of offline and online curating, Dominic Smith writes about models of open source production compared to participative systems in new media art, Victoria Bradbury investigates the performativity of code, and Roddy Hunter identifies curatorial models of practice that articulate the principles of The Eternal Network

CRUMB doctoral research: reflections on creating and exhibiting digital art.

Based on doctoral research undertaken at CRUMB, the online resource for curators of media arts, this paper gathers together knowledge from different experiences of producing and presenting digital arts, from the perspectives of both curators/producers and artists. Suzy O’Hara reflects on art, technology, and the commercial digital sector, Marialaura Ghidini discusses hybrid models of offline and online curating, Dominic Smith writes about models of open source production compared to participative systems in new media art, Victoria Bradbury investigates the performativity of code, and Roddy Hunter identifies curatorial models of practice that articulate the principles of The Eternal Network