From Blueprint to Digital Model: The Information Age, Archives and the Future of Architectural History*

The digital revolution has not only transformed the process of thinking and making architecture, but has also led to shifts for researchers in the field and the institutions that safeguard and interpret evidence of the architect's design process. As the rise of PowerPoint made it less cumbersome to view multiple images simultaneously, pioneering art historian Heinrich Wöfflin's more limited binary lantern slide presentation was effectively rendered obsolete. However, digital imaging and projection in the field brought risks as great as the new freedoms it afforded. The shift from a work environment dominated until recently by drawings on paper and architectural models (even as CAD was being implemented over the last 20 years) to one dominated by digital design and 3D modeling has irrevocably affected the ways contemporary architects produce and save their drawings as well as how they are stored and accessed in archives, how they are displayed, and how they are published. As technology has brought new horizons to the profession, the image of the architect has gone from the solitary scholar of Medieval architecture depicted by A. W. N. Pugin in 1841 to that of savvy manager overseeing large firms like Foster + Partners; the historian too has shed the image of recluse toiling in the bowels of a dusty archive or library

From Blueprint to Digital Model: The Information Age, Archives and the Future of Architectural History*

The digital revolution has not only transformed the process of thinking and making architecture,but has also led to shifts for researchers in the field and the institutions that safeguard and interpretevidence of the architect's design process. As the rise of PowerPoint made it less cumbersometo view multiple images simultaneously, pioneering art historian Heinrich Wöfflin's morelimited binary lantern slide presentation was effectively rendered obsolete. However, digital imagingand projection in the field brought risks as great as the new freedoms it afforded. The shiftfrom a work environment dominated until recently by drawings on paper and architectural models(even as CAD was being implemented over the last 20 years) to one dominated by digitaldesign and 3D modeling has irrevocably affected the ways contemporary architects produceand save their drawings as well as how they are stored and accessed in archives, how they aredisplayed, and how they are published. As technology has brought new horizons to the profession,the image of the architect has gone from the solitary scholar of Medieval architecture depictedby A. W. N. Pugin in 1841 to that of savvy manager overseeing large firms like Foster +Partners; the historian too has shed the image of recluse toiling in the bowels of a dusty archiveor library.

Review of the cutting-edge technology employed in medical education

[EN]The new technologies have advanced astonishingly in the last few decades. There are more and more Medical Schools adopting new tools to teach Medicine to undergraduate students or even to teach the continuous training for professionals. Not all the Universities adopt these technologies at same level or same grade of the speed but as a result it seems that they will adopt more and more often the new technologies as part of the curriculum. This paper wants to be a review of the state of the art technologies that have stepped in the Medical Schools in the last decade. Overall, we want to describe the function of these new tools, how all of them have been adopting to teach Medicine answering most part of the demands of physicians and how they could be evolved in the future to continue making the medical education a new revolutionary industry in continual progress. Not only that, it makes the engineering biomedical a field very interesting to explore and to be invested on, as they could enhance the skills of new professionals of Medicine to be prepared for the digital environment where they will work on. It is important to notice that the advanced technologies are enhanced at more speed than the education is able to adopt in. Sometimes, the reason could be the unawareness of these technologies. Occasionally, it could be the money needed to invest and from time to time it could be that the leaderships of Medical Schools are not convinced enough that the new technologies will work

Europeana communication bug: which intervention strategy for a better cooperation with creative industry?

Although Europeana as well as many GLAMs are very engaged - beside the main mission, i.e. spreading cultural heritage knowledge- in developing new strategies in order to make digital contents reusable for creative industry, these efforts have been successful just only in sporadic cases. A significant know how deficits in communication often compromises expected outcomes and impact. Indeed, what prevails is an idea of communication like an enhancement “instrument” intended on the one hand in purely economic (development) sense, on the other hand as a way for increasing and spreading knowledge. The main reference model is more or less as follows: digital objects are to be captured and/or transformed by digital technologies into sellable goods to put into circulation. Nevertheless, this approach risks neglecting the real nature of communication, and more in detail the one of digital heritage where it is strategic not so much producing objects and goods as taking part into sharing environments creation (media) by engaged communities, small or large they may be. The environments act as meeting and interchange point, and consequently as driving force of enhancing. Only in a complex context of network interaction on line accessible digital heritage contents become a strategic resource for creating environments in which their re/mediation can occur – provided that credible strategies exist, shared by stakeholders and users. This paper particularly describes a case study including proposals for an effective connection among Europeana, GLAMs and Creative Industry in the framework of Food and Drink digital heritage enhancement and promotion. Experimental experiences as the one described in this paper anyway confirm the relevance of up-to-date policies based on an adequate communication concept, on solid partnerships with enterprise and association networks, on collaborative on line environments, on effective availability at least for most of contents by increasing free licensing, and finally on grassroots content implementation involving prosumers audience, even if filtered by GLAMs

STEAM by Design

We live in a designed world. STEAM by Design presents a transdisciplinary approach to learning that challenges young minds with the task of making a better world. Learning today, like life, is dynamic, connected and engaging. STEAM (Science, Technology, Environment, Engineering, Art, and Math) teaching and learning integrates information in place-based projects accessing everyday technology of virtual field trips, digital interactives, apps, and contemporary art, science and design practices. STEAM by Design develops designing minds. Designing minds work across STEAM fields developing social, cultural, technological, environmental and economical responses to existing and future conditions. Design adds Art and the environment to the STEM equation to contribute site specific, culturally connected, contributions to creative economies. Documented case studies at the elementary, middle and high school level demonstrate the ease of delivering STEAM by Design opportunities and reveal the inherent creativity of students if encouraged. Design cultivates new knowledge, skills and values derived from becoming aware, developing understanding, and testing ideas through making. Designing place-based projects, K- 16 students acquire STEAM aptitude and better understand the use of STEM fields in solving contemporary problems. Access to everyday technologies cultivate ways to create, communicate and collaborate. STEAM by Design is supported by the ELearning Designopedia, NEXT.cc, aligned with newly released NEXT Generation Science Standards, North American Association for Environmental Education Standards and Art and Design Standards. STEAM by Design positions designing as world pedagogy that connects students as citizen activists in the communities in which they live and learn

The Art of Engaging: Implications for Computer Music Systems

The art of engaging with computer music systems is multifaceted. This paper will provide an overview of the issues of interface between musician and computer, cognitive aspects of engagement as involvement, and metaphysical understandings of engagement as proximity. Finally, this paper will examine implications for the design of computer music systems when these issues are taken into account

Interagir é fazer? Uma descrição de uma exposição de arte digital e interativa

The advent of digital technology and networked communication has brought new possibilities in the art making. It is common to spot professionals in the field of arts and communication announcing disruptions brought by the advent of digital art as the end of a work of finished and contemplative art, the dichotomy between author and public, nature and culture, man and machine. However, through fieldwork and contact with interactors linked to projects of interactive art, I question the hegemony of these considerations in relation to the positioning of the viewer on the digital, as it is related to a consolidated cyberculture and the traditional notion of art. Concepts such as interface, interactivity and virtuality are entering the field of arts. I here propose questioning the acting of artworks and artistic places within this conceptualization and transformation cited before. In order to do so, I have chosen the construction and dissemination sites of interactive netart for a field. Nevertheless, within the online environment it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to have an idea of the dimension that the interaction and the platform itself provide the viewer . Thus, I have observed an exhibition named “Emoção Art.ficial”, in São Paulo, where I could collect material for carrying out my work. O advento do digital e da comunicação em rede trouxe novas possibilidades no fazer artístico. É comum vermos teóricos do campo das artes e da comunicação anunciarem as rupturas trazidas pelo advento do digital como o fim da obra de arte fechada, acabada e contemplativa, a dicotomia entre autor e público, natureza e cultura, homem e máquina. Todavia, através do trabalho de campo e do contato com interlocutores ligados a projetos de arte interativa, questiono a hegemonia dessas considerações no que diz respeito ao posicionamento do espectador diante da arte digital, como esta dialoga com uma cibercultura já consolidada e com a noção tradicional da arte. Conceitos como interface, interatividade, virtualidade adentram o campo das artes. Tenho como proposta pensar a agência das obras de artes e dos espaços artísticos dentro dessa conceituação e transformação citados. Para tal, primeiramente, elegi como campo sites de construção e divulgação de netart interativa. Entretanto, dentro do ambiente online torna-se difícil, senão impossível, ter ideia da dimensão que a interação e que a plataforma em si proporcionam ao espectador. Dessa forma, observei a exposição Emoção Art.Ficial, em São Paulo, na qual pude coletar material para realização de meu trabalho

Rethinking affordance

n/a – Critical survey essay retheorising the concept of 'affordance' in digital media context. Lead article in a special issue on the topic, co-edited by the authors for the journal Media Theory