Wholetoning: Synthesizing Abstract Black-and-White Illustrations

Black-and-white imagery is a popular and interesting depiction technique in the visual arts, in which varying tints and shades of a single colour are used. Within the realm of black-and-white images, there is a set of black-and-white illustrations that only depict salient features by ignoring details, and reduce colour to pure black and white, with no intermediate tones. These illustrations hold tremendous potential to enrich decoration, human communication and entertainment. Producing abstract black-and-white illustrations by hand relies on a time consuming and difficult process that requires both artistic talent and technical expertise. Previous work has not explored this style of illustration in much depth, and simple approaches such as thresholding are insufficient for stylization and artistic control. I use the word wholetoning to refer to illustrations that feature a high degree of shape and tone abstraction. In this thesis, I explore computer algorithms for generating wholetoned illustrations. First, I offer a general-purpose framework, “artistic thresholding”, to control the generation of wholetoned illustrations in an intuitive way. The basic artistic thresholding algorithm is an optimization framework based on simulated annealing to get the final bi-level result. I design an extensible objective function from our observations of a lot of wholetoned images. The objective function is a weighted sum over terms that encode features common to wholetoned illustrations. Based on the framework, I then explore two specific wholetoned styles: papercutting and representational calligraphy. I define a paper-cut design as a wholetoned image with connectivity constraints that ensure that it can be cut out from only one piece of paper. My computer generated papercutting technique can convert an original wholetoned image into a paper-cut design. It can also synthesize stylized and geometric patterns often found in traditional designs. Representational calligraphy is defined as a wholetoned image with the constraint that all depiction elements must be letters. The procedure of generating representational calligraphy designs is formalized as a “calligraphic packing” problem. I provide a semi-automatic technique that can warp a sequence of letters to fit a shape while preserving their readability

Symmetry sensitivities of Derivative-of-Gaussian filters

We consider the measurement of image structure using linear filters, in particular derivative-of-Gaussian (DtG) filters, which are an important model of V1 simple cells and widely used in computer vision, and whether such measurements can determine local image symmetry. We show that even a single linear filter can be sensitive to a symmetry, in the sense that specific responses of the filter can rule it out. We state and prove a necessary and sufficient, readily computable, criterion for filter symmetry-sensitivity. We use it to show that the six filters in a second order DtG family have patterns of joint sensitivity which are distinct for 12 different classes of symmetry. This rich symmetry-sensitivity adds to the properties that make DtG filters well-suited for probing local image structure, and provides a set of landmark responses suitable to be the foundation of a nonarbitrary system of feature categories

Smartphone as Ritual Fan:Poaching in Weixin-mediated (Cyber)space with Nuosu-Yi Ritualists of Liangshan, Southwest China

This article explores the engagement of the bimo – the Liangshan ethnic Nuosu-Yi literati-ritualists of Sichuan Province, China – with Weixin (WeChat), a ubiquitous Chinese all-in-one app. Utilizing a nethnographic approach – an ethnography of culturally conditioned simultaneous online and offline practices – I argue that by using the smartphones in ways unforeseen by their developers, the bimo are poaching the property of those who designed the app primarily for the Chinese-speaking majority. The usage of technology stipulated by the modernization push of the Chinese authoritarian state then transforms both the bimo and technology. The resultant techno-culture not only builds upon, reinvents, develops and reinforces the allegedly diminishing Nuosu-Yi folkways – especially inter-clan competition – but also feeds the state-approved Yi folklore. The dialogic reconciliation of the top-down computerization of society and the bottom-up socialization of technology reveals itself as intrinsically connected to the culturally conditioned use of technology in our everyday lives

Arts Integration in Elementary Curriculum: 2nd Edition

This open textbook was revised in 2018 under a Round Eleven Mini-Grant for Revisions. Topics include: Arts Integration Music Visual Arts Literary Arts Performing Arts Physical Education and Movement A set of lecture slides for the textbook are also included as an additional file. Accessible files with optical character recognition (OCR) and auto-tagging provided by the Center for Inclusive Design and Innovation.https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/education-textbooks/1002/thumbnail.jp

Pericles, Prince of Tyre: Transforming a Shakespeare Play for Gamified Experience

This paper is rooted in an exploration of an ongoing research project to produce a VR game based on Shakespeare’s lesser-known romance Pericles, Prince of Tyre. We argue that the play, a maritime travelogue recounting the story of a family separated at sea and brought together again by fate, is well suited for the demands of gamification, offering rich potential for first-person problem-solving, self-discovery, and world exploration. While its episodic nature, diversity of settings, and unexpected narrative trajectory have challenged those wishing to present the play on the traditional stage, we demonstrate how approaching the text through the lens of immersive gamified media offers the opportunity to re-evaluate and reconsider the “flawed” perception of the text. The paper takes our project as a case study to outline how we approached the process of adapting the original play for gamification, framing our project within the broader context of both game adaptations of Shakespeare’s other works and previous creative, experimental adaptations of Pericles. In particular, we highlight how our practice-led research approach and partnership between animators, technical developers, and researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and leading Shakespeare scholars associated with The Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, UK, brings together creative production, technical development, and academic research to create an experience that is both entertaining and offers an innovative interrogation of Shakespeare’s original plot and language. We hope the discussion offers valuable insight into both novel approaches to the adaptation of Shakespeare’s works and the gamification of classic texts more broadly

Construction of Students’ Innovation Ability Portrait for Cultural Intelligence Computing

At the age of artificial intelligence, the inheritance and development of innovation culture are crucial for constructing an innovative country, and they are major components of cultural intelligence computing. The portrait of innovation ability is a digital representation of innovative culture, and its accurate description is the basis for the personalized cultivation of innovation ability. Therefore, how to objectively and accurately design a labeling system for an innovation ability portrait and depict a high-pixel portrait is an urgent problem to be solved for the digital representation of innovation culture. To address this problem, based on innovation theory, our study (1) uses a combination of subjective and objective methods to design an innovation ability evaluation system, (2) constructs a scientific and reasonable portrait label system, (3) represents the system’s results as individual students’ innovation ability portraits and student groups’ innovation ability portraits, and (4) visualizes the portraits’ results. Finally, considering resource recommendation as an example, this study (1) adopts a computational model of crowd intelligence computing, (2) designs and implements a personalized recommendation system for educational resources based on the resulting innovation ability portraits, (3) improves the computing efficiency, and (4) expounds the applications of portraits in personalized learning, precise teaching, and smart educational decision-making to promote personalized innovative talent training and realize the core value of innovative culture

Introduction

An exhibition curated by Paul Middleton & Carolyn Puzzovio as part of the Tirana Book Fair, November 201

Pericles, Prince of Tyre: Transforming a Shakespeare Play for Gamified Experience

This paper is rooted in an exploration of an ongoing research project to produce a VR game based on Shakespeare’s lesser-known romance Pericles, Prince of Tyre. We argue that the play, a maritime travelogue recounting the story of a family separated at sea and brought together again by fate, is well suited for the demands of gamification, offering rich potential for first-person problem-solving, self-discovery, and world exploration. While its episodic nature, diversity of settings, and unexpected narrative trajectory have challenged those wishing to present the play on the traditional stage, we demonstrate how approaching the text through the lens of immersive gamified media offers the opportunity to re-evaluate and reconsider the “flawed” perception of the text. The paper takes our project as a case study to outline how we approached the process of adapting the original play for gamification, framing our project within the broader context of both game adaptations of Shakespeare’s other works and previous creative, experimental adaptations of Pericles. In particular, we highlight how our practice-led research approach and partnership between animators, technical developers, and researchers at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and leading Shakespeare scholars associated with The Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, UK, brings together creative production, technical development, and academic research to create an experience that is both entertaining and offers an innovative interrogation of Shakespeare’s original plot and language. We hope the discussion offers valuable insight into both novel approaches to the adaptation of Shakespeare’s works and the gamification of classic texts more broadly