Artech 2008: proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Digital Arts

ARTECH 2008 is the fourth international conference held in Portugal and Galicia on the topic of Digital Arts. It aims to promote contacts between Iberian and International contributors concerned with the conception, production and dissemination of Digital and Electronic Art. ARTECH brings the scientific, technological and artistic community together, promoting the interest in the digital culture and its intersection with art and technology as an important research field, a common space for discussion, an exchange of experiences, a forum for emerging digital artists and a way of understanding and appreciating new forms of cultural expression. Hosted by the Portuguese Catholic University’s School of Arts (UCP-EA) at the City of Porto, ARTCH 2008 falls in alignment with the main commitment of the Research Center for Science and Technology of the Arts (CITAR) to promote knowledge in the field of the Arts trough research and development within UCP-AE and together with the local and international community. The main areas proposed for the conference were related with sound, image, video, music, multimedia and other new media related topics, in the context of emerging practice of artistic creation. Although non exclusive, the main topics of the conference are usually: Art and Science; Audio-Visual and Multimedia Design; Creativity Theory; Electronic Music; Generative and Algorithmic Art; Interactive Systems for Artistic Applications; Media Art history; Mobile Multimedia; Net Art and Digital Culture; New Experiences with New Media and New Applications; Tangible and Gesture Interfaces; Technology in Art Education; Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. The contribution from the international community was extremely gratifying, resulting in the submission of 79 original works (Long Papers, Short Papers and installation proposals) from 22 Countries. Our Scientific Committee reviewed these submissions thoroughly resulting in a 73% acceptance ratio of a diverse and promising body of work presented in this book of proceedings. This compilation of articles provides an overview of the state of the art as well as a glimpse of new tendencies in the field of Digital Arts, with special emphasis in the topics: Sound and Music Computing; Technology Mediated Dance; Collaborative Art Performance; Digital Narratives; Media Art and Creativity Theory; Interactive Art; Audiovisual and Multimedia Design.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Digital Emotion Regulation on Social Media

Emotion regulation is the process of consciously altering one's affective state, that is the underlying emotional state such as happiness, confidence, guilt, anger etc. The ability to effectively regulate emotions is necessary for functioning efficiently in everyday life. Today, the pervasiveness of digital technology is being purposefully employed to modify our affective states, a process known as digital emotion regulation. Understanding digital emotion regulation can help support the rise of ethical technology design, development, and deployment. This article presents an overview of digital emotion regulation in social media applications, as well as a synthesis of recent research on emotion regulation interventions for social media. We share our findings from analysing state-of-the-art literature on how different social media applications are utilised at different stages in the process of emotion regulation

The Use of Digital Mediums in Expressive Arts Therapy

In recent years, there have been considerable advances in technology, which have made digital devices such as computers and cellphones cheaper and more accessible for most Americans. The Pew Research Center (2019) reports that 96% of adult American’s own a cellphone, with 81% owning a smartphone. Usage rates for cellphones and other digital devices amongst children and adolescents are also high with 95% of teens, aged 13-17, report owning a smartphone (Jiang, 2018). Despite these staggering statistics the field of psychology and creative therapies have been slower to adopt and incorporate the use of digital media and technology into the therapeutic setting with clients. Through an exploration of existing literature current applications of digital media use was explored in the areas of mental health applications, and the use of digital application with various populations such as people with Autism Spectrum disorder, as well as with differing age groups. Reasons for therapeutic resistance to the use of digital media was also explored, such as the therapeutic value of digital art versus traditional media, and a lack of training for counselors in college and university programs. Ethical considerations were another area of note, and the importance of maintaining client privacy and well-being with the use of digital technology in therapy. Lastly, the benefits and limitations of use are explored, as well as possible areas for future research

Does Traditional Academic Training in Visual Arts Support a Blending for the Future Artist in Using both New and Traditional Media?

The digital revolution has impacted the entirety of our lives, from how we interact with one another, to how we learn, and what we do in our careers. The world of art and art education specifically have been greatly impacted by digital technologies through the plethora of new art making tools and technologies. Over the course of history, the traditional academic mediums of drawing, painting, sculpture, and printmaking have been ever present in the art curriculum, from apprenticeships, to academies, to art schools. In addition to these academic art mediums, new art tools and technology have been gradually introduced into the curriculum as they have become increasingly present in the world. As new technologies have been introduced into society, education and specifically art education practices and curriculum have been re-evaluated to accomodate for the new media available. The current state of education has left art students yearning for a bigger digital presence, one that holds digital media at an equal level to the traditional media. Currently, the National Core Standards for Art Education have the visual arts and media arts separated. This separation is detrimental to student growth as it fosters a faction between the traditional and media arts. Perhaps, the solution to this problem is to create a new, more inclusive set of standards that allow for students to be exposed to both digital and traditional mediums from a young age in order to foster greater artistic development. Access to both types of media allows for students to expand their creative possibilities and utilize all types of media based on their needs. I demonstrated this idea through the creation and curation of a series of works titled “The Process: Blending Old and New.” This series demonstrates a blending of technology through the use of photos and photo editing applications to create a series of drawings and paintings done in the traditional style

Creative Applications Network (CreativeApplications.Net, CAN) Website and related platforms

CreativeApplications.Net (CAN) is a web-based project that includes a blog, digital applications, live events and a print magazine. It was launched by Visnjic in October 2008, with the primary aim of creating a current, open source, online sharing and collective ‘scenius’ aimed at developing the intersection of art, technology and design. The project is driven by a number of research questions: What are the implications for open source, online sharing and collective ‘scenius’ on the future of art, technology and the culture of design? How are contemporary digital technologies and computation tools part of design production and development? How may digital media be used to develop projects, people, events and organisations? How may print media and events be used to compliment on-line collaboration and exchange? CAN’s online presence, amounting to over 20,000 users, allows it to drive the conversation in the art/design/digital technology arena. It is ranked 1169 of most influential sites by Technorati and used very often as a source by other respected technology blogs such as Wired US, Wired UK, The Creators Project, Gizmodo, Engadget and many others. The Resonate Festival organised by Visnjic each year since 2012 to complement CAN’s online presence attracted 1,000 participants in 2012 and 1,600 in 2013, and its print journal HOLO will go into circulation in October 2013. Since 2010, Visnjic has been regularly interviewed or invited to speak about the project at academic institutions and technology festivals and events

Paradoxes of Interactivity

Current findings from anthropology, genetics, prehistory, cognitive and neuroscience indicate that human nature is grounded in a co-evolution of tool use, symbolic communication, social interaction and cultural transmission. Digital information technology has recently entered as a new tool in this co-evolution, and will probably have the strongest impact on shaping the human mind in the near future. A common effort from the humanities, the sciences, art and technology is necessary to understand this ongoing co- evolutionary process. Interactivity is a key for understanding the new relationships formed by humans with social robots as well as interactive environments and wearables underlying this process. Of special importance for understanding interactivity are human-computer and human-robot interaction, as well as media theory and New Media Art. »Paradoxes of Interactivity« brings together reflections on »interactivity« from different theoretical perspectives, the interplay of science and art, and recent technological developments for artistic applications, especially in the realm of sound

Paradoxes of interactivity: perspectives for media theory, human-computer interaction, and artistic investigations

Current findings from anthropology, genetics, prehistory, cognitive and neuroscience indicate that human nature is grounded in a co-evolution of tool use, symbolic communication, social interaction and cultural transmission. Digital information technology has recently entered as a new tool in this co-evolution, and will probably have the strongest impact on shaping the human mind in the near future. A common effort from the humanities, the sciences, art and technology is necessary to understand this ongoing co- evolutionary process. Interactivity is a key for understanding the new relationships formed by humans with social robots as well as interactive environments and wearables underlying this process. Of special importance for understanding interactivity are human-computer and human-robot interaction, as well as media theory and New Media Art. "Paradoxes of Interactivity" brings together reflections on "interactivity" from different theoretical perspectives, the interplay of science and art, and recent technological developments for artistic applications, especially in the realm of sound

To what extent is the internet an appropriate medium for learning through and about contemporary visual art? A case study of the digital art resource for education (DARE) project.

This research looks at the Internet in relation to art, where art is examined broadly as a cultural, social and economic activity and body of knowledge, and specifically as it features within art and design education at secondary school. It considers the way digital technology features in learning, particularly in the art and design context, examining if and how this relates to the uses made of digital technology - particularly the Internet - by contemporary art practitioners. Recognising a gap here, a web-based art resource (www.dareonline.org) has been devised, created and evaluated trying in some way to bridge this gap, both through its practical usage and - by raising questions in the mind of the user - manifested in the language of its construction. The problems and possibilities of access, communication, collaboration and diversity offered by the use of web-based technologies as demonstrated by a number of artists, set against a generally utilitarian and apparently uncritical view of these technologies offered by statutory education materials, frame this research. The overarching research question, “To what extent is the Internet an appropriate medium for learning through and about contemporary visual art?” was in large part prompted by a consideration of these different perceptions and applications. If artists are using the hybrid and collaborative aspects of digital technology to critique conventional modes of production and exhibition, engaging with issues of identity, authorship and audience, why is most art and technology practice in education focussed solely on the acquisition of skills? In addition, with the Internet being used primarily as a research medium in formal learning, to what extent could an interactive Web resource also be a critical and creative space? These considerations have led to the development of the evaluative questions used to inform the key research question in this study. The development and use of DARE forms a case study, examined by both ethnographic educational research methods and an art practice-based methodology. In combining qualitative research techniques, such as the semi-structured interview and observation, with art-practice-based methods such as the creative reflective journal, the researcher/maker employs a unique hybrid method to reflect on the creation of DARE, its evolution and use and its relationship to other applications of Web-based technology. Having developed, trialled and revised the resource, with the help of secondary school pupils, teachers and PGCE student teachers, conclusions relating to the design and use of DARE are drawn, including recognition of the successes and failures of the aims of the initial project. Key issues and questions are identified to consider how the research question relates to secondary education. The key research findings suggest a number of recommendations, which the evaluation of DARE suggests are in fact interdependent, including the need for young people’s creative visual and interpretive responses to be published diversifying the voices (authorship) for the Web’s various audiences, highlighting the essential value of dialogue in relation to the form and uses of Webbased (and other) digital media, forming a key element in developing critical digital literacy. This should extend to an examination of the relationship between the digital and other forms of cultural production. Finally, the need for producers of Web-based art educational media to take account of and employ a range of design conventions and devices, as practiced by those net artists who are specifically interrogating the nature of the media and the ideas it can address or convey