1,913 research outputs found
Mobile heritage practices. Implications for scholarly research, user experience design, and evaluation methods using mobile apps.
Mobile heritage apps have become one of the most popular means for audience
engagement and curation of museum collections and heritage contexts. This
raises practical and ethical questions for both researchers and practitioners, such
as: what kind of audience engagement can be built using mobile apps? what are
the current approaches? how can audience engagement with these experience
be evaluated? how can those experiences be made more resilient, and in turn
sustainable? In this thesis I explore experience design scholarships together with
personal professional insights to analyse digital heritage practices with a view to
accelerating thinking about and critique of mobile apps in particular. As a result,
the chapters that follow here look at the evolution of digital heritage practices,
examining the cultural, societal, and technological contexts in which mobile
heritage apps are developed by the creative media industry, the academic
institutions, and how these forces are shaping the user experience design
methods. Drawing from studies in digital (critical) heritage, Human-Computer
Interaction (HCI), and design thinking, this thesis provides a critical analysis of
the development and use of mobile practices for the heritage. Furthermore,
through an empirical and embedded approach to research, the thesis also
presents auto-ethnographic case studies in order to show evidence that mobile
experiences conceptualised by more organic design approaches, can result in
more resilient and sustainable heritage practices. By doing so, this thesis
encourages a renewed understanding of the pivotal role of these practices in the
broader sociocultural, political and environmental changes.AHRC REAC
Recalibrating machine learning for social biases: demonstrating a new methodology through a case study classifying gender biases in archival documentation
This thesis proposes a recalibration of Machine Learning for social biases to minimize harms from existing approaches and practices in the field. Prioritizing quality over quantity, accuracy over efficiency, representativeness over convenience, and situated thinking over universal thinking, the thesis demonstrates an alternative approach to creating Machine Learning models. Drawing on GLAM, the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and Design, the thesis focuses on understanding and communicating biases in a specific use case. 11,888 metadata descriptions from the University of Edinburgh Heritage Collections' Archives catalog were manually annotated for gender biases and text classification models were then trained on the resulting dataset of 55,260 annotations. Evaluations of the models' performance demonstrates that annotating gender biases can be automated; however, the subjectivity of bias as a concept complicates the generalizability of any one approach.
The contributions are: (1) an interdisciplinary and participatory Bias-Aware Methodology, (2) a Taxonomy of Gendered and Gender Biased Language, (3) data annotated for gender biased language, (4) gender biased text classification models, and (5) a human-centered approach to model evaluation. The contributions have implications for Machine Learning, demonstrating how bias is inherent to all data and models; more specifically for Natural Language Processing, providing an annotation taxonomy, annotated datasets and classification models for analyzing gender biased language at scale; for the Gallery, Library, Archives, and Museum sector, offering guidance to institutions seeking to reconcile with histories of marginalizing communities through their documentation practices; and for historians, who utilize cultural heritage documentation to study and interpret the past. Through a real-world application of the Bias-Aware Methodology in a case study, the thesis illustrates the need to shift away from removing social biases and towards acknowledging them, creating data and models that surface the uncertainty and multiplicity characteristic of human societies
Information actors beyond modernity and coloniality in times of climate change:A comparative design ethnography on the making of monitors for sustainable futures in Curaçao and Amsterdam, between 2019-2022
In his dissertation, Mr. Goilo developed a cutting-edge theoretical framework for an Anthropology of Information. This study compares information in the context of modernity in Amsterdam and coloniality in Curaçao through the making process of monitors and develops five ways to understand how information can act towards sustainable futures. The research also discusses how the two contexts, that is modernity and coloniality, have been in informational symbiosis for centuries which is producing negative informational side effects within the age of the Anthropocene. By exploring the modernity-coloniality symbiosis of information, the author explains how scholars, policymakers, and data-analysts can act through historical and structural roots of contemporary global inequities related to the production and distribution of information. Ultimately, the five theses propose conditions towards the collective production of knowledge towards a more sustainable planet
Scalable Exploration of Complex Objects and Environments Beyond Plain Visual Replicationâ
Digital multimedia content and presentation means are rapidly increasing their sophistication and are now capable of describing detailed representations of the physical world. 3D exploration experiences allow people to appreciate, understand and interact with intrinsically virtual objects.
Communicating information on objects requires the ability to explore them under different angles, as well as to mix highly photorealistic or illustrative presentations of the object themselves with additional data that provides additional insights on these objects, typically represented in the form of annotations. Effectively providing these capabilities requires the solution of important problems in visualization and user interaction.
In this thesis, I studied these problems in the cultural heritage-computing-domain, focusing on the very common and important special case of mostly planar, but visually, geometrically, and semantically rich objects. These could be generally roughly flat objects with a standard frontal viewing direction (e.g., paintings, inscriptions, bas-reliefs), as well as visualizations of fully 3D objects from a particular point of views (e.g., canonical views of buildings or statues). Selecting a precise application domain and a specific presentation mode allowed me to concentrate on the well defined use-case of the exploration of annotated relightable stratigraphic models (in particular, for local and remote museum presentation).
My main results and contributions to the state of the art have been a novel technique for interactively controlling visualization lenses while automatically maintaining good focus-and-context parameters, a novel approach for avoiding clutter in an annotated model and for guiding users towards interesting areas, and a method for structuring audio-visual object annotations into a graph and for using that graph to improve guidance and support storytelling and automated tours.
We demonstrated the effectiveness and potential of our techniques by performing interactive exploration sessions on various screen sizes and types ranging from desktop devices to large-screen displays for a walk-up-and-use museum installation.
KEYWORDS - Computer Graphics, Human-Computer Interaction, Interactive Lenses, Focus-and-Context, Annotated Models, Cultural Heritage Computing
Archaeological palaeoenvironmental archives: challenges and potential
This Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) sponsored collaborative doctoral project represents one of
the most significant efforts to collate quantitative and qualitative data that can elucidate practices related to
archaeological palaeoenvironmental archiving in England. The research has revealed that archived
palaeoenvironmental remains are valuable resources for archaeological research and can clarify subjects that
include the adoption and importation of exotic species, plant and insect invasion, human health and diet, and
plant and animal husbandry practices. In addition to scientific research, archived palaeoenvironmental remains
can provide evidence-based narratives of human resilience and climate change and offer evidence of the
scientific process, making them ideal resources for public science engagement. These areas of potential have
been realised at an imperative time; given that waterlogged palaeoenvironmental remains at significant sites
such as Star Carr, Must Farm, and Flag Fen, archaeological deposits in towns and cities are at risk of decay due
to climate change-related factors, and unsustainable agricultural practices. Innovative approaches to collecting
and archiving palaeoenvironmental remains and maintaining existing archives will permit the creation of an
accessible and thorough national resource that can service archaeologists and researchers in the related fields
of biology and natural history. Furthermore, a concerted effort to recognise absences in archaeological
archives, matched by an effort to supply these deficiencies, can produce a resource that can contribute to an
enduring geographical and temporal record of England's biodiversity, which can be used in perpetuity in the
face of diminishing archaeological and contemporary natural resources.
To realise these opportunities, particular challenges must be overcome. The most prominent of these include
inconsistent collection policies resulting from pressures associated with shortages in storage capacity and
declining specialist knowledge in museums and repositories combined with variable curation practices. Many of
these challenges can be resolved by developing a dedicated storage facility that can focus on the ongoing
conservation and curation of palaeoenvironmental remains. Combined with an OASIS + module designed to
handle and disseminate data pertaining to palaeoenvironmental archives, remains would be findable,
accessible, and interoperable with biological archives and collections worldwide. Providing a national centre for
curating palaeoenvironmental remains and a dedicated digital repository will require significant funding.
Funding sources could be identified through collaboration with other disciplines. If sufficient funding cannot be
identified, options that would require less financial investment, such as high-level archive audits and the
production of guidance documents, will be able to assist all stakeholders with the improved curation,
management, and promotion of the archived resource
The Politics of Platformization: Amsterdam Dialogues on Platform Theory
What is platformization and why is it a relevant category in the contemporary political landscape? How is it related to cybernetics and the history of computation? This book tries to answer such questions by engaging in multidisciplinary dialogues about the first ten years of the emerging fields of platform studies and platform theory. It deploys a narrative and playful approach that makes use of anecdotes, personal histories, etymologies, and futurable speculations to investigate both the fragmented genealogy that led to platformization and the organizational and economic trends that guide nowadays platform sociotechnical imaginaries
Smart technological tools for rising damp on monumental buildings for cultural heritage conservation. A proposal for smart villages implementation in the Madonie montains (Sicily)
The Madonie district, in the inner Sicily, is composed of 21 villages, custodians of heritage, traditions, and values that constitute the identity of this area, now exclusively entrusted to the collective memory of an increasingly elderly and inactive population. In the study area, full of tangible and intangible heritage, technological tools, can revitalize and reuse examples of architecture, especially monumental, whose main problem is a deep rising damp affecting the masonry. That is particularly critical for the historic/traditional architectures. This research implements, in one of the villages of the enclave, a new technology system, namely Information and Commu- nication Technology (ICT) tool, like Charge neutralisation Technology (CNT), in contrast to the usual application of the classic and well-known resolution systems. This kind of methodology has been already applied in many monumental buildings in Italy with brilliant results and supporting the protection, enhancement, and promotion of cultural heritage. In Sicily it was never used and represents, in line with the smart village approach, a viable technology to be applied. The smart village model is one of the increasingly popular research topics globally and provides technologies aimed at preserving the identity of the territory and the historical buildings. Culture, if usable and accessible to all, results as an economic resource, a tourist attraction, and a factor of identity. The goal is to develop these inner areas through the smart villages approach by implementing smart technologies and establishing a synergic union of centers to be more competitive in the Sicilian hinterland, but also at the national level, with respect to the wise use of administrative, political, and governmental strategies. Cultural heritage and innovation, together, retrace the past with a view to modernity. The countryâs cultural heritage recovered and enhanced is a virtuous strategy to safeguard the identity and value of historic places such as that one of ancient villages and a way to find smart resilient strategies and a sustainability assessment for future communities
Grounds for a Third Place : The Starbucks Experience, Sirens, and Space
My goal in this dissertation is to help demystify or âfilterâ the âStarbucks Experienceâ for a post-pandemic world, taking stock of how a multi-national company has long outgrown its humble beginnings as a wholesale coffee bean supplier to become a digitally-integrated and hypermodern cafĂ©. I look at the role Starbucks plays within the larger cultural history of the coffee house and also consider how Starbucks has been idyllically described in corporate discourse as a comfortable and discursive âthird placeâ for informal gathering, a term that also prescribes its own radical ethos as a globally recognized customer service platform. Attempting to square Starbucksâ iconography and rhetoric with a new critical methodology, in a series of interdisciplinary case studies, I examine the role Starbucksâ âthird placeâ philosophy plays within larger conversations about urban space and commodity culture, analyze Starbucks advertising, architecture and art, and trace the mythical rise of the Starbucks Siren (and the reiterations and re-imaginings of the Starbucks Siren in art and media). While in corporate rhetoric Starbucksâ âthird placeâ is depicted as an enthralling adventure, full of play, discovery, authenticity, or âromance,â I draw on critical theory to discuss how it operates today as a space of distraction, isolation, and loss
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