GANCCRobot:Generative Adversarial Nets based Chinese Calligraphy Robot

Robotic calligraphy, as a typical application of robot movement planning, is of great significance for the inheritance and education of calligraphy culture. The existing implementations of such robots often suffer from its limited ability for font generation and evaluation, leading to poor writing style diversity and writing quality. This paper proposes a calligraphic robotic framework based on the generative adversarial nets (GAN) to address such limitation. The robot implemented using such framework is able to learn to write fundamental Chinese character strokes with rich diversities and good quality that is close to the human level, without the requirement of specifically designed evaluation functions thanks to the employment of the revised GAN. In particular, the type information of the stroke is introduced as condition information, and the latent codes are applied to maximize the style quality of the generated strokes. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed model enables a calligraphic robot to successfully write fundamental Chinese strokes based on a given type and style, with overall good quality. Although the proposed model was evaluated in this report using calligraphy writing, the underpinning research is readily applicable to many other applications, such as robotic graffiti and character style conversion

Enhancing the Appreciation of Traditional Chinese Painting Using Interactive Technology

In this paper, we present a two-part study. The first part was a cultural appreciation study. Through this study, we explored the specific approach of cross-cultural aesthetic appreciation and mapped out the potential insights for a prototype design. In the second part, we carried out a design-led study. We designed a tablet application and conducted focus group studies to explore the interactive technology that assists in the support of cross-cultural audiences’ aesthetic appreciation and engagement of traditional Chinese painting. Based on these findings, we went on to further explore an approach of interactive engagement which is specific to supporting cross-cultural appreciation, while also reflecting upon the interactive design suggestions for the development of aesthetic appreciation to offer various transferable insights to the Human–Computer Interaction (HCI) community

Appropriateness in design

When the term ‘design object’ is used to refer to artifacts, we presuppose that they can serve mundane functions and provide aesthetic pleasure. In many cases, the visual form of a design object is a result of achieving aesthetic function and practical function. What is the relation between these two functions? In the design process, designers also strike a balance between aesthetic pursuit, utilitarian purpose and other factors, such as environmental protection. What is the balance of these aims (aesthetic aim and the non-aesthetic aims)? My research on this topic suggests that it may be useful to conceive it in terms of appropriateness. The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the relation between aesthetic and non-aesthetic functions in design objects. Another, larger and more fundamental, purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the notion of appropriateness in design through the conceptions of aesthetic value and moral value. The findings of this research contribute to my argument that appropriateness as a property found in design objects is a balance of aesthetic value, functional value and moral value. This unique quality found in design object can be found in many successful universal designs, and it is also part of the reason why this style can prevail for decades. This research also brings two academic disciplines (the studies of design and aesthetics) together. It is something new and timely from which both disciplines could benefit. In addition, the discussion of Wucius Wong’s art, which is part of the analysis of the different functions of design objects, is an original finding which contributes a detailed understanding of Wong’s art and its relation with design concepts. The appropriateness of design is a decision after all things have been considered in the deliberation. It is not necessarily the best and it can be ever changing according to different situations. The investigation of this topic is not aimed at finding an ideal approach to achieve the appropriateness in design, but through the investigation of the relation between aesthetic function and non-aesthetic functions, and the relation of aesthetic value, functional value and moral value of design objects to contribute architects and designers in making an appropriate decision during the design process

Dataremix: Aesthetic Experiences of Big Data and Data Abstraction

This PhD by published work expands on the contribution to knowledge in two recent large-scale transdisciplinary artistic research projects: ATLAS in silico and INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night and their exhibited and published outputs. The thesis reflects upon this practice-based artistic research that interrogates data abstraction: the digitization, datafication and abstraction of culture and nature, as vast and abstract digital data. The research is situated in digital arts practices that engage a combination of big (scientific) data as artistic material, embodied interaction in virtual environments, and poetic recombination. A transdisciplinary and collaborative artistic practice, x-resonance, provides a framework for the hybrid processes, outcomes, and contributions to knowledge from the research. These are purposefully and productively situated at the objective | subjective interface, have potential to convey multiple meanings simultaneously to a variety of audiences and resist disciplinary definition. In the course of the research, a novel methodology emerges, dataremix, which is employed and iteratively evolved through artistic practice to address the research questions: 1) How can a visceral and poetic experience of data abstraction be created? and 2) How would one go about generating an artistically-informed (scientific) discovery? Several interconnected contributions to knowledge arise through the first research question: creation of representational elements for artistic visualization of big (scientific) data that includes four new forms (genomic calligraphy, algorithmic objects as natural specimens, scalable auditory data signatures, and signal objects); an aesthetic of slowness that contributes an extension to the operative forces in Jevbratt’s inverted sublime of looking down and in to also include looking fast and slow; an extension of Corby’s objective and subjective image consisting of “informational and aesthetic components” to novel virtual environments created from big 3 (scientific) data that extend Davies’ poetic virtual spatiality to poetic objective | subjective generative virtual spaces; and an extension of Seaman’s embodied interactive recombinant poetics through embodied interaction in virtual environments as a recapitulation of scientific (objective) and algorithmic processes through aesthetic (subjective) physical gestures. These contributions holistically combine in the artworks ATLAS in silico and INSTRUMENT | One Antarctic Night to create visceral poetic experiences of big data abstraction. Contributions to knowledge from the first research question develop artworks that are visceral and poetic experiences of data abstraction, and which manifest the objective | subjective through art. Contributions to knowledge from the second research question occur through the process of the artworks functioning as experimental systems in which experiments using analytical tools from the scientific domain are enacted within the process of creation of the artwork. The results are “returned” into the artwork. These contributions are: elucidating differences in DNA helix bending and curvature along regions of gene sequences specified as either introns or exons, revealing nuanced differences in BLAST results in relation to genomics sequence metadata, and cross-correlation of astronomical data to identify putative variable signals from astronomical objects for further scientific evaluation

Segmentation based Ottoman text and matching based Kufic image analysis

Ankara : The Department of Computer Engineering and the Graduate School of Engineering and Science of Bilkent University, 2013.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2013.Includes bibliographical references leaves 80-88.Large archives of historical documents attract many researchers from all around the world. The increasing demand to access those archives makes automatic retrieval and recognition of historical documents crucial. Ottoman archives are one of the largest collections of historical documents. Although Ottoman is not a currently spoken language, many researchers from all around the world are interested in accessing the archived material. This thesis proposes two Ottoman document analysis studies; first one is a crucial pre-processing task for retrieval and recognition which is segmentation of documents. Second one is a more specific retrieval and recognition problem which aims matching Islamic patterns is Kufic images. For the first segmentation task, layout, line and word segmentation is studied. Layout segmentation is obtained via Log-Gabor filtering. Four different algorithms are proposed for line segmentation and finally a simple morphological method is preferred for word segmentation. Datasets are constructed with documents from both Ottoman and other languages (English, Greek and Bangla) to test the script-independency of the methods. Experiments show that our segmentation steps give satisfactory results. The second task aims to detect Islamic patterns in Kufic images. The sub-patterns are considered as basic units and matching is used for the analysis. Graphs are preferred to represent subpatterns where graph and sub-graph isomorphism are used for matching them. Kufic images are analyzed in three different ways. Given a query pattern, all the instances of the query can be found through retrieval. Going further, through known patterns images can be automatically labeled in the entire dataset. Finally, patterns that repeat inside an image can be automatically discovered. As there is no existing Kufic dataset, a new one is constructed by collecting images from the Internet and promising results are obtained on this dataset.Adıgüzel, HandeM.S

Designing interactive technology for cross-cultural appreciation of intangible cultural heritage: Chinese traditional painting and puppetry

Ph. D. ThesisDigital heritage is becoming a significant component of cultural heritage, and cultural organisations are increasingly using interactive technologies to showcase and safeguard heritage assets. However, few studies focus on using interactive technology to enhance the appreciation of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) amongst cross-cultural audiences. This dissertation explores the design of interactive technologies to support the cultural appreciation, learning, and experience of Chinese ICH. In addition, the research seeks to explore the value of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) design strategies in supporting the appreciation of ICH. The research uses HCI design strategies to specifically explore how interactive technology might be effectively utilised in two case-study contexts, supporting traditional Chinese painting and traditional Chinese puppetry. To this end, in stage one of the research, a qualitative study involving interviews, workshops, and fieldwork for design was undertaken with potential cross-cultural audiences and both Chinese and international painting and puppetry practitioners. Based on the results of these studies, several suggestions were developed for safeguarding ICH across cultural boundaries. In the next stage of the research, two interactive applications were designed and deployed that supported cross-cultural audiences’ appreciation of traditional of ICH. One application explored Chinese painting, the other Chinese puppetry. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, studies were conducted that examined the efficacy of both applications and offered suggestions for a holistic approach to cross-cultural appreciation through the use of interactive applications. The analysis focuses on the use of element-based archiving to increase aesthetic appreciation, gestural/tangible interfaces for cultural engagement, and the use of interactive access to inspire self-expression and collaborative appreciation. Finally, this research relies on practical methods to deconstruct cultural elements from the HCI perspective and enhance the cross-cultural appreciation of Chinese ICH. It thus provides a framework for assisting non-Chinese people to better understand the cultural significance of Chinese ICH. The findings have design implications for both HCI researchers and digital heritage researchers