6,072 research outputs found
A Consensus on the Definition and Knowledge Base for Computer Graphics
Get PDFDespite several decades of historical innovation, measurable impacts, and multiple specializations the existing knowledge base for Computer Graphics (CG) lacks consensus, and numerous definitions for it have been published based on distinct contexts. Disagreement among post-secondary academics has divided CG programs into three contextual areas that emphasize different topics. This division has resulted in the decontextualization of CG education, and CG programs now face several challenges in meeting the needs of industry. Employing the Delphi Method, this investigation explored the perceptions among post-secondary educators and industry professionals about the definition of CG and how it is identified in terms of characteristics and context. The outcomes of this investigation identified CG in the technological paradigm, and provided a road map towards a true definition and distinct knowledge base necessary for establishing CG as a formal computing discipline
Virtual contexts: investigating physicality and rhetorical situation
Get PDFMy research stems from a service-learning project in my technical communication course---a project that involved the creation of print, oral, and electronic instructions for filming within a virtual reality chamber. Soon into the project, I realized that students had difficulty conceptualizing the project\u27s rhetorical situation---the context, purpose, and audience of a high-tech research center. Although I provided students with abstracted textual descriptions, oral explanations, and visual depictions of the virtual environment, they were unable to engage with or respond to the assignment\u27s rhetorical situation. My dissertation postulates the impasse was due to students\u27 lack of access to a virtual reality chamber. In other words, the virtual environment represented, for students, a new conceptualization of physical space/place: a physical materiality, or physicality, that could not be abstracted via text-based case study pedagogies;My research confirms that an inherent contradiction appears to exist between actual and virtual contexts---a contradiction that defies textual abstraction and reveals the importance of space/place in our interpretations of and responses to communicative situations. More important to my study, the contradiction confirms a gap in the heuristic for rhetorical situation when observing the available means of persuasion in any communicative situation: the heuristic does not currently allow analyses of the ways in which space/place may impact interpretations of and responses to rhetorical situation (Aristotle, 1.2.1)
‘IMPLICIT CREATION’ – NON-PROGRAMMER CONCEPTUAL MODELS FOR AUTHORING IN INTERACTIVE DIGITAL STORYTELLING
Get PDFInteractive Digital Storytelling (IDS) constitutes a research field that emerged from several areas of art, creation and computer science. It inquires technologies and possible artefacts that allow ‘highly-interactive’ experiences of digital worlds with compelling stories. However, the situation for story creators approaching ‘highly-interactive’ storytelling is complex. There is a gap between the available technology, which requires programming and prior knowledge in Artificial Intelligence, and established models of storytelling, which are too linear to have the potential to be highly interactive. This thesis reports on research that lays the ground for bridging this gap, leading to novel creation philosophies in future work.
A design research process has been pursued, which centred on the suggestion of conceptual models, explaining a) process structures of interdisciplinary development, b) interactive story structures including the user of the interactive story system, and c) the positioning of human authors within semi-automated creative processes. By means of ‘implicit creation’, storytelling and modelling of simulated worlds are reconciled.
The conceptual models are informed by exhaustive literature review in established neighbouring disciplines. These are a) creative principles in different storytelling domains, such as screenwriting, video game writing, role playing and improvisational theatre, b) narratological studies of story grammars and structures, and c) principles of designing interactive systems, in the areas of basic HCI design and models, discourse analysis in conversational systems, as well as game- and simulation design.
In a case study of artefact building, the initial models have been put into practice, evaluated and extended. These artefacts are a) a conceived authoring tool (‘Scenejo’) for the creation of digital conversational stories, and b) the development of a serious game (‘The Killer Phrase Game’) as an application development. The study demonstrates how starting out from linear storytelling, iterative steps of ‘implicit creation’ can lead to more variability and interactivity in the designed interactive story. In the concrete case, the steps included abstraction of dialogues into conditional actions, and creating a dynamic world model of the conversation. This process and artefact can be used as a model illustrating non-programmer approaches to ‘implicit creation’ in a learning process.
Research demonstrates that the field of Interactive Digital Storytelling still has to be further advanced until general creative principles can be fully established, which is a long-term endeavour, dependent upon environmental factors. It also requires further technological developments. The gap is not yet closed, but it can be better explained. The research results build groundwork for education of prospective authors. Concluding the thesis, IDS-specific creative principles have been proposed for evaluation in future work
- …
