53,055 research outputs found

    On systematic approaches for interpreted information transfer of inspection data from bridge models to structural analysis

    Get PDF
    In conjunction with the improved methods of monitoring damage and degradation processes, the interest in reliability assessment of reinforced concrete bridges is increasing in recent years. Automated imagebased inspections of the structural surface provide valuable data to extract quantitative information about deteriorations, such as crack patterns. However, the knowledge gain results from processing this information in a structural context, i.e. relating the damage artifacts to building components. This way, transformation to structural analysis is enabled. This approach sets two further requirements: availability of structural bridge information and a standardized storage for interoperability with subsequent analysis tools. Since the involved large datasets are only efficiently processed in an automated manner, the implementation of the complete workflow from damage and building data to structural analysis is targeted in this work. First, domain concepts are derived from the back-end tasks: structural analysis, damage modeling, and life-cycle assessment. The common interoperability format, the Industry Foundation Class (IFC), and processes in these domains are further assessed. The need for usercontrolled interpretation steps is identified and the developed prototype thus allows interaction at subsequent model stages. The latter has the advantage that interpretation steps can be individually separated into either a structural analysis or a damage information model or a combination of both. This approach to damage information processing from the perspective of structural analysis is then validated in different case studies

    From Sensor to Observation Web with Environmental Enablers in the Future Internet

    Get PDF
    This paper outlines the grand challenges in global sustainability research and the objectives of the FP7 Future Internet PPP program within the Digital Agenda for Europe. Large user communities are generating significant amounts of valuable environmental observations at local and regional scales using the devices and services of the Future Internet. These communities’ environmental observations represent a wealth of information which is currently hardly used or used only in isolation and therefore in need of integration with other information sources. Indeed, this very integration will lead to a paradigm shift from a mere Sensor Web to an Observation Web with semantically enriched content emanating from sensors, environmental simulations and citizens. The paper also describes the research challenges to realize the Observation Web and the associated environmental enablers for the Future Internet. Such an environmental enabler could for instance be an electronic sensing device, a web-service application, or even a social networking group affording or facilitating the capability of the Future Internet applications to consume, produce, and use environmental observations in cross-domain applications. The term ?envirofied? Future Internet is coined to describe this overall target that forms a cornerstone of work in the Environmental Usage Area within the Future Internet PPP program. Relevant trends described in the paper are the usage of ubiquitous sensors (anywhere), the provision and generation of information by citizens, and the convergence of real and virtual realities to convey understanding of environmental observations. The paper addresses the technical challenges in the Environmental Usage Area and the need for designing multi-style service oriented architecture. Key topics are the mapping of requirements to capabilities, providing scalability and robustness with implementing context aware information retrieval. Another essential research topic is handling data fusion and model based computation, and the related propagation of information uncertainty. Approaches to security, standardization and harmonization, all essential for sustainable solutions, are summarized from the perspective of the Environmental Usage Area. The paper concludes with an overview of emerging, high impact applications in the environmental areas concerning land ecosystems (biodiversity), air quality (atmospheric conditions) and water ecosystems (marine asset management)

    Spatialising Illustration

    Get PDF
    As an illustrator I reflect on human behaviour and the psychological effects of space through drawing. I use people I have met and whose lives intrigue me. Taking a woman I know, I observe and draw. ‘She sat at the table in the sparse kitchen. It had belonged to her grandmother, and her mother before her.’ (Regan, 2012) This quote is taken from the illustrated book I have created ‘The Set,' it is significant in introducing what I discovered about space. Space is not physical and universal. It is personal and formed in the mind. ‘The Set’ explores a woman and the spaces she inhabits. I visualise and try to make sense of this by drawing

    Illumination through illustration: Positioning illustration as practice-led research

    Get PDF
    This thesis represents a practice-led enquiry into contemporary illustration from a UK perspective. This thesis argues for illustration to be recognised as an inductive practice-led research process, within both education and developing criticism. The methods and methodological discussion to support this are derived from the practical aspect of the enquiry.The inductive approach outlined through the methods chapter focuses on the benefits of removing the known outcome from projects, and of illustrators maintaining their own practice alongside commissioned work. The discussion of methods proposes that the commissioned strand of illustration adopts research in illustration as research for illustration. The discussion of performative forms adopted within illustration contributes to the discourse surrounding practice-led research outcomes, in particular Brad Haseman’s performative paradigm for creative arts research.The methodological approach is proposed as a supplementary strand of teaching, which equips illustrators with long-term skills to generate their own projects and employment. These enable illustrators to be flexible and able to adapt to economic and technological changes to industry practice. The thesis examines research processes within illustration which are transferable to different contexts. These include the increase in digital screens and their time-based communications, and the development of three-dimensional objects and environments within the field.The practical work undertaken employed these processes and generated a contribution to the growing discourse surrounding contemporary illustration in the UK. Illustration suffers from a lack of published analysis and as a result its critical discourse is limited. Therefore this study bases its argument upon themes identified within existing illustration commentary, the work of key practitioners, and my studio practice. The focus of research undertaken is mainly on self-initiated projects, but includes commissions where the outcome is not prescribed from the outset. Conversations with Matthew Richardson, Luise Vormittag, Steve Braund, Andrzej Klimowski and Henrik Drescher provide supplementary primary research.The outcome is a contribution to the development of a critical framework derived from practice, which acknowledges the shortcomings of existing frameworks available. The thesis proposes that the concept of time be adopted as a key characteristic of illustration, the discussion of which references Henri Bergson, comics and artist’s books. The utility of time lies in its productive application to both the production and analysis of work. Illustration’s unique negotiation of time through spatial manifestations is used to situate the field in relation to key shifts within culture such as Fredric Jameson’s postmodernism and Nicolas Bourriaud’s altermodernism. The thesis outlines the diversity of temporal achievements within illustration in this regard, and calls for greater recognition of illustration practice and discourse within such discussions of the time we live in

    Narration, abstraction, context: Contributions to the interpretation of the architecture of contemporary public buildings

    Get PDF

    The Illustration of Experience

    Get PDF
    Metadata merged with duplicate record (http://hdl.handle.net/10026.1/351) on 20.12.2016 by CS (TIS).This is a digitised version of a thesis that was deposited in the University Library. If you are the author please contact PEARL Admin ([email protected]) to discuss options.This thesis documents and describes a research project driven by the creative practice of an illustrator. It examines the proposition that the visual mark can act as a register of experience. The research comprises three bodies of work each of which address a specific issue within the broader context of the research proposition. Knowledge gained through practical exploration is discussed in the context of illustration as well as contemporary systems and models of aesthetic representation. Overview Chapter one discusses the origins of this research project and charts the establishment of a methodology. Working under the preliminary title The Illustration of Conversational Time and Space, the practice explores how human conversation and physical interaction can be recorded and illustrated. This research results in the title being changed to The Illustration of Experience in order to reflect a significant transition in thinking and approach. Chapter two addresses the question how can experience be illustrated? Experiences are first identified and then recorded using an established vocabulary of reflexive gestural marks. These marks are in turn subject to further investigation through a more considered system of reproduction and replication. This pursuit of a mimetic representation, I argue, creates a direct access to the actualities of the experience, as interpreted by the unconscious, and reveals a fundamental connection between phenomenological sensation and learnt aesthetic reasoning. The research proposes that the appearance of an illustration of experience is not directed by the phenomenological interpretation of an event but by the representation process itself. Chapter three challenges the conclusions of chapter two by asking how the unconscious transformation of source into experience can be illustrated? This is achieved by symbolically aligning this metaphysical transformation with the physical movement of an object through space. In doing so, the research attempts to move beyond the conventional codes of aesthetic understanding and questions illustration's traditional associations with referentiality and elucidation. The research concludes that an illustration of experience's epistemological value is heavily dependent upon the interpretation of the viewer. Chapter four expands upon the hypotheses formulated in chapter three by constructing an illustration of experience that is devoid of all mimetic reference. The research confirms the earlier understanding that mimesis is not an inherent quality in all representational art forms, but is in fact determined by the viewer's independent knowledge and understanding of the subject matter presented. It is concluded that while an illustration of experience's epistemological value is dependent upon the viewer's interpretation, interpretation is not itself contingent upon the presence of an explicit mimetic (visual) vocabulary. It has been the intention of the research to challenge existing models of illustrative communication by devising original creative structures that support the illustration of experience. Although this research identifies with a range of contemporary and historical models of enquiry, thorough searches have revealed no previous research in this area. It is therefore hoped that this research will provide a solid base from which future investigations can develop. This research project would serve as an introduction to other researchers trained as illustrators to deeply investigate the meaning and functions of their creative processes in order to reflect back on the discipline of illustration and how it might register experience
    • 

    corecore