Representation Challenges: Searching for New Frontiers of AR and AI Research

We have come to the second collection of essays that originated under the aegis of Representation Challenges and that, by reintroducing the combination of Augmented Reality (AR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI), explores its new frontiers

Educating future product developers in collaborative product development : lessons learned from the european global product realization (EGPR) international course

Changes in the business environment, responses of companies to these changes and the available information and communication technologies (ICT) pose a number of challenges to present and future product developers, as well as to educational institutions. An appropriate response to these challenges is to create a solid basis for strategies to combat stronger competition, since existing educational programs have provided this only to a small extent. In our opinion, the E-GPR course carried out by 5 European universities reflects the tasks of professional product development teams and their work conditions as realistically as possible and will enable students attending the E-GPR course who will soon enter the professional world to later progress along a steeper learning curve. This paper focuses on the role of communication between members of virtual teams and presents experiences gathered during the organization, designing and performance of each year’s courses

Gateway to the World: Data Visualization Poetics

In my creative research practice, I am interested in stretching new technologies and programmable languages in order to explore multimodal digital textualities. During the last seven years, I have developed projects assisted by programmers in order to create language-art media work through the exploration of interactive grammars, aesthetics, and poetics in digital writing. My interest in new literacies, new text, the reader/writer/performer of generative texts, sound, and visual interfaces in a world of unstable, generative visual words, is reflected in my creative work, and this essay considers how these concerns have unfolded through the development of an application for the iPad. The application, titled Gateway to the World (2014), was developed specifically for an exhibition in Hamburg, Germany. It is an exploration of data visualization poetics that use open data to visualize the routes of the vessels arriving at and departing from the Port of Hamburg, with the names of the vessels being mapped to Wikipedia entries. This paper establishes a context for the app through the discussion of artists’ and designers’ works, the presentation of ideas, notions, and concerns related to the creation of data visualization projects, as well as the creative process involved in the production of the application

Towards a Safeguarding Concept of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia – Aspects of Digitization, Processing, Conservation and Dissemination of Sound, Image and Shape

This paper is aimed at defining the concept of intangible cultural heritage in the context of safeguarding of speeches, customs, historical and traditional cultural assets of Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia. Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Croatia is endangered and it is becoming extinct due to the influence of a number of factors. Since the formulation of the 1999 Act on the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Goods, intangible cultural heritage has been under special protection as goods of interest to the Republic of Croatia and 85 items have been listed as intangible cultural heritage in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia so far. Intangible cultural heritage is the subject of scientific research, as well as a part of the tourist offer (knitting fishing nets, reconstruction of customs), and some craft activities (pottery, lace making, apiculture). However, the issues related to the sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage are numerous, the most important being the disorganized and insufficient documentation of intangible assets and dispersion of the collected documentation. This paper sets out to highlight the ways modern technology and scientific research can cooperate in the processing of intangible cultural assets, which seems to be the best and safest option for permanent preservation of intangible cultural heritage in its broadest sense. The preservation of intangible cultural heritage is regarded in this paper at four basic levels: the collection (digitization of data), the processing of data to the level of information, proper storage of data and information processed and the dissemination to final users. The vital step towards the realization of the goals is to gather all accessible data using modern technical tools and techniques. In the era of cloud computing and distributed data storage, it is necessary to provide sufficient data redundancy for permanent preservation, especially if such valuable information is in question. As an ultimate goal, it is necessary to disseminate the collected and preserved assets in a user-oriented manner, depending on the available and desired level of animation and technical knowledge of users

Art and Medicine: A Collaborative Project Between Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar and Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar

Four faculty researchers, two from Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar, and two from Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar developed a one semester workshop-based course in Qatar exploring the connections between art and medicine in a contemporary context. Students (6 art / 6 medicine) were enrolled in the course. The course included presentations by clinicians, medical engineers, artists, computing engineers, an art historian, a graphic designer, a painter, and other experts from the fields of art, design, and medicine. To measure the student experience of interdisciplinarity, the faculty researchers employed a mixed methods approach involving psychometric tests and observational ethnography. Data instruments included pre- and post-course semi-structured audio interviews, pre-test / post-test psychometric instruments (Budner Scale and Torrance Tests of Creativity), observational field notes, self-reflective blogging, and videography. This book describes the course and the experience of the students. It also contains images of the interdisciplinary work they created for a culminating class exhibition. Finally, the book provides insight on how different fields in a Middle Eastern context can share critical /analytical thinking tools to refine their own professional practices

Towards a Safeguarding Concept of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia – Aspects of Digitization, Processing, Conservation and Dissemination of Sound, Image and Shape

This paper is aimed at defining the concept of intangible cultural heritage in the context of safeguarding of speeches, customs, historical and traditional cultural assets of Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia. Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Republic of Croatia is endangered and it is becoming extinct due to the influence of a number of factors. Since the formulation of the 1999 Act on the Protection and Preservation of Cultural Goods, intangible cultural heritage has been under special protection as goods of interest to the Republic of Croatia and 85 items have been listed as intangible cultural heritage in the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia so far. Intangible cultural heritage is the subject of scientific research, as well as a part of the tourist offer (knitting fishing nets, reconstruction of customs), and some craft activities (pottery, lace making, apiculture). However, the issues related to the sustainable development of intangible cultural heritage are numerous, the most important being the disorganized and insufficient documentation of intangible assets and dispersion of the collected documentation. This paper sets out to highlight the ways modern technology and scientific research can cooperate in the processing of intangible cultural assets, which seems to be the best and safest option for permanent preservation of intangible cultural heritage in its broadest sense. The preservation of intangible cultural heritage is regarded in this paper at four basic levels: the collection (digitization of data), the processing of data to the level of information, proper storage of data and information processed and the dissemination to final users. The vital step towards the realization of the goals is to gather all accessible data using modern technical tools and techniques. In the era of cloud computing and distributed data storage, it is necessary to provide sufficient data redundancy for permanent preservation, especially if such valuable information is in question. As an ultimate goal, it is necessary to disseminate the collected and preserved assets in a user-oriented manner, depending on the available and desired level of animation and technical knowledge of users