Visually tracked flashlights as interaction devices

This thesis examines the feasibility, development and deployment of visually tracked flashlights as interaction devices. Flashlights are cheap, robust and fun. Most people from adults to children of an early age are familiar with flashlights and can use them to search for, select and illuminate objects and features of interest. Flashlights are available in many shapes, sizes, weights and mountings. Flashlights are particularly appropriate to situations where visitors explore dark places such as the caves, tunnels, cellars and dungeons that can be found in museums, theme parks and other visitor attractions. Techniques are developed by which the location and identity of flashlight projections are recovered from the image sequence supplied by a fixed camera monitoring a target surface. The information recovered is used to trigger audiovisual events in response to users' actions. Early trials with three prototype systems, each built using existing techniques in computer vision, show flashlight interfaces to be feasible both technically and from a usability point of view. Novel methods are developed which allow extraction of descriptions of flashlight projections that are independent of the reflectance of the underlying physical surface. Those descriptions are used to locate and recognise individual flashlights and support a multi-user interface technology. The methods developed form the basis of Enlighten, a software product marketed by the University of Nottingham spinoff company Visible Interactions Ltd. Enlighten is currently is daily use at four sites across the UK. Two patents have been filed (UK Patent Publication Number GB2411957 and US Patent Application Number 10/540,498). The UK patent has been granted, and the US application is under review

Use of symbolic reconstructions in open-air museums

The Russian-Ukrainian war, which took on a full-scale form in February 2022, became a tragedy and set the question of restoring lost monuments with new vigour. Therefore, the publication which aims to identify the specific features of symbolic reconstructions’ use for the representation of lost architectural monuments becomes especially relevant. Based on a comprehensive architectural-typological and comparative analysis of the renovation of architectural structures and non-existent objects, open-air exhibiting methods in Ukraine and the world (fixation, interpretation, revitalisation, reconstruction, and modelling), the study reflects on the possibilities to preserve the history of destroyed monuments. Open-air museums offer a wide range of activities allowing to include monuments that are not subject to further functional adaptation into the expositions. The study proposes to use symbolic reconstructions to reproduce and exhibit lost monuments. Graphic (the simplest and most universal, consist of the two-dimensional image demonstration), physical (larger-scale, permanent, three-dimensional stylised installations that carry information about the lost monument’s nature), virtual (the most flexible and the most promising, do not require the direct impact on the exhibit, include the use of augmented reality technologies), and performative (one-time or temporary activities, most often are used in the associative landscapes’ territories) symbolic reconstructions on the example of their use in museums and open-air exhibitions were examined in detail. The effectiveness of these measures in open-air museums was considered and recommendations for their use, which can become the basis for further implementation in practice in Ukrainian exhibition institutions, were formulate

London Science Museum Launch Pad Extension Project

The project team developed exhibit extensions for the London Science Museum\u27s outreach program associated with the hands-on gallery, Launch Pad. The team researched effective extensions, met with Science Museum staff, designed prototypes, and evaluated these prototypes with museum staff, schoolteachers, and students. Based on the evaluations, the team adjusted the prototypes to complete exhibit extensions that complemented classroom lesson plans while allowing teachers to demonstrate scientific principles with confidence and increasing students\u27 interest and knowledge in science

From State Exposition Building to Science Center: Changing Ideals of Progress in Los Angeles, 1873-1992

abstract: Los Angeles long served as a center of technological and scientific innovation and production, from nineteenth-century agriculture to twentieth-century aerospace. City boosters used spectacle-filled promotional strategies to build and maintain technological supremacy through industry. Evaluating the city’s premier industry-focused science museum, the California Science Center, is therefore a must. The California Science Center is one of the most-visited museums in the United States and is in the historic Exposition Park. Yet, no thorough analysis has been done on its influential history. This dissertation is an interdisciplinary study of the California Science Center, from its 1870s beginnings as an agricultural fairground, to the construction of the world’s fair-inspired State Exposition Building in the 1910s, to its post-World War II redesign as the California Museum of Science and Industry. It uses regional history, design history, and museum studies to evaluate the people behind the museum’s construction and development, how they shaped exhibits, and the ideologies of progress they presented to the public. This dissertation builds on established historical components in Los Angeles’ image-making, primarily boosterism, spectacular display, and racism. The museum operated as part of the booster apparatus. Influential residents constructed Exposition Park and served on the museum board. In its earliest days, exhibits presented Anglo Los Angeles as a civilizing force through scientific farming. During the Cold War, boosters shifted to promote Los Angeles as a mecca of modern living, and the museum presented technology as safe and necessary to democracy. Local industries and designers featured centrally in this narrative. Boosters also used spectacle to ensure impact. Dioramas, Hollywood special effects, and simulated interactive experiences enticed visitors to return again and again. Meanwhile, non-white residents either became romanticized, as in the case of the Mexican Californios, or ignored, as seen in the museum’s surrounding neighborhood, primarily-African American, South Central. Anglo elites removed non-whites from the city’s narrative of progress. Ultimately, this dissertation shows that the museum communicated city leaders’ ideologies of progress and dictated exhibit narratives. This study adds nuance to image-making in Los Angeles, as well as furthering regional analysis of science museums in the United States.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation History 201

Maine Perspective, v 11, i 15

The Maine Perspective, a publication for the University of Maine, was a campus newsletter produced by the Department of Public Affairs which eventually transformed into the Division of Marketing and Communication. Regular columns included the UM Calendar, Ongoing Events, People in Perspective, Look Who\u27s on Campus, In Focus, and Along the Mall. The weekly newsletter also included position openings on campus as well as classified ads. Articles cover the appointment of a task force to study UMaine\u27s role in K-12 education; the receipt of a $300,000 federal matching grant for the Maine Business School to develop an undergraduate concentration in International Business; and the creation of a fund by UMaine biologist and marine ecologist Susan Brawley to preserve the natural environment on the Orono campus

Refuge Update – July/August 2007, Volume 4, Number 4

Table of Contents: Counting Alpine Flora, page 3 Focus on Law Enforcement, pages 8–12 Virtual Geocaching, page 15 The Big Sit! at Your Refuge?, page 2

An Intersectional Examination of the Portrayal of Native American Women in Wisconsin Museum Exhibits

This project examines how White curators at four museums in Wisconsin portray Native American women based on a number of institutional and individual curatorial choices. Intersectional Theory is used to explore how museums and museum professionals navigate questions of representation of a traditionally marginalized group. It places specific emphasis on the relationship between Community Curation and Intersectional Theory and explores whether or not the involvement of Native groups noticeably impacts representation of Native American women. The study examines the exhibits of four museums: The Abel Public Museum, The New Canton College of Anthropology, The Pineville Public Museum, and The Wisconsin Museum of Natural History. These institutions vary in size, scope, audience, and curatorial strategies. However, they all have exhibits that depict Native Americans. Museum professionals from each institution were also interviewed to better understand how individual embodiments of particular Intersections of identity do or do not impact curatorial philosophies. In addition, the questions of bias, authority, and perspective are also evaluated in conjunction with critical approaches to museology. Finally, it explores some of the ways in which these structures uphold existing frameworks of colonialism and White supremacy and how Intersectional museum exhibits can be developed to combat these paradigms and ensure more diverse and accurate representation

Making conservation public: rhetorical environmentality and the contested future(s) of America's national parks

National parks have long played an important role in American culture as sites and sights of national nature. As tourist destinations, these places are imbued with rhetorical and cultural significance. At the same time, these public lands are often contested places where conservation and environmental issues are defined and presented to the visiting public. Following a critical-rhetorical methodological orientation, this dissertation explores how three park system units (Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Cape Hatteras National Seashore) make conservation public in ways that are particular to each unit's historical, environmental, and political contexts. This research extends the theoretical analytic of environmentality by suggesting that its rhetorical and performative elements are significantly important to understanding how power, discourse, public memory, and the rhetoric of place (re)produce environmental subjects. Drawing from fieldwork, interviews, and discursive analysis, this dissertation proposes the notion of conservation civics as a critical interpretive framework for understanding how nature, culture, and nation are articulated in official public discourses