Developing an interactive tabletop application for ‘Creative Interpretation’ in art museums

This paper presents the design and implementation of an interactive application - TACTEC - for multi-touch tables in art museums. With focus on visitor participant experiences we propose an application that promotes visitors engagement through the development of creative activities using interactive technologies.UiO -Universitetet i Oslo(undefined

Embodied creativity: a process continuum from artistic creation to creative participation

This thesis breaks new ground by attending to two contemporary developments in art and science. In art, computer-mediated interactive artworks comprise creative engagement between collaborating practitioners and a creatively participating audience, erasing all notions of a dividing line between them. The procedural character of this type of communicative real-time interaction replaces the concept of a finished artwork with a ‘field of artistic communication’. In science, the field of creativity research investigates creative thought as mental operations that combine and reorganise extant knowledge structures. A recent paradigm shift in cognition research acknowledges that cognition is embodied. Neither embodiment in cognition nor the ‘field of artistic communication’ in interactive art have been assimilated by creativity research. This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine the embodied cognitive processes in a ‘field of artistic communication’ using a media artwork called Sim-Suite as a case study research strategy. This interactive installation, created and exhibited in an authentic real-world context, engages three people to play on wobble-boards. The thesis argues that creative processes related to Sim-Suite operate within a continuum, encompassing collaborative artistic creation and cooperative creative participation. This continuum is investigated via mixed methods, conducting studies with qualitative and quantitative analysis. These are interpreted through a theoretical lens of embodied cognition principles, the 4E approaches. The results obtained demonstrate that embodied cognitive processes in Sim-Suite’s ‘field of artistic communication’ function on a continuum. We give an account of the creative process continuum relating our findings to the ‘embedded-extended-enactive lens’, empirical studies in embodied cognition and creativity research. Within this context a number of topics and sub-themes are identified. We discuss embodied communication, aspects of agency, forms of coordination, levels of evaluative processes and empathetic foundation. The thesis makes conceptual, empirical and methodological contributions to creativity research

Translating Sustainable Values

abstract: The composition of this project can be described as half responsive digital media composition and half social experiment. It is built for the seven screen display of the Decision Theater and utilizes a combination of digital media and creative software tools along with sensor technology to create a media environment that responds to real time physical feedback from participants. The experience uses different desired interactions or “levels” to examine the tension between Shalom Schwartz’ three sets of bipolar cultural values represented in his theory on cultural value orientation. Cultural values are significant drivers of human behavior that change throughout time, however rarely does society name and define these dominant forces outright. This project aims to expose people to consider these forces through interactive discovery and game play. The installation’s primary user input is based on movement and physical interaction and includes visual rewards for desired forms of cooperative engagement. Sustainability science and research often cites education and communication initiatives as the next actionable steps towards a sustainable solution. Art and design are two fields that are uniquely suited for completing this next step, because they both regularly examine, critique, create, and comment as a part of shaping culture and encourage reflexive thinking about our norms and values. The design process included interdisciplinary engagement which is detailed alongside project outcomes, theoretical ties to sustainability, symbolic representations, and observations of user experiences. It may be considered a pilot test of the potential for creative and interactive digital art platforms to allow for the exploration of cultural values and connections to sustainability. This ability to reflect and consider the assumptions that may be engrained within cultural value orientation is fundamentally important to the wider recognition of the cultural shifts needed to create a sustainable future

Digital media arts as terrain for inter-cultural political activism

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences.The increasing use of social media in politics is creating new opportunities for greater public engagement in participatory political activism, raising important questions about the most effective ways for activists and independent artists to use social media. This creative doctorate explores the role that social media can have in shaping Australia’s multicultural policies by engaging a wider section of the community in a cultural conversation. The creative component, Talking Cultures, is a campaign-based multimedia project that experimentally applies a hybrid model of online and offline campaigns, utilising social media and street art to elicit civic engagement. The major creative outcome of these campaigns is an interactive documentary that connects the street videos with social media exploring the creation of a ‘contact zone’ of engagement. From a theoretical perspective the research explores the implications of applying the contact theory of social studies to social media campaigns as a way to establish contact and create online political participatory actions within the frame of a ‘contact zone’. The research approach looks at participatory activism in the context of the communicative ecology of multicultural Australia as debated in the mainstream media, on social media and on the street. Using auto-ethnographic action research methods I examine the creative process of implementing Talking Cultures, through the artist’s iterative attempts at engagement. The research concludes with two key findings. The first is that beneficial to the success of any social media campaign is a hybrid model of engagement that operates on social media and also offline. The second is that in order for a ‘contact zone’ to be established there is a need for an authority that is not easily attainable solely through social media. This authority can be established by engaging an online personality, enlisting an existing established social media community, or by conducting part of the campaign offline. The Talking Cultures campaigns’ results conclude that it is possible to engage the public in participatory political activism using social media but that for this engagement to be strong enough to spill over to the offline sphere, all pillars of the contact theory must be met, especially the need for an authority that can add value to the message. Furthermore it is suggested that social media campaigns should frame their message in a way that would encourage participant to perform offline actions outside the social media platforms into a wider communicative ecology

Use of creative tools, technologies, processes and practices in the sectors of Art, Media, and Architecture: State-of the-Art and desired future scenarios

The aim of the paper is to analyse and present the preliminary findings of the EU FP7 funded CRe-AM project for the Art, Media, and Architecture sectors. This project bridges communities of technology providers and innovators with the creative industries, with the aim to build sector-specific dynamic roadmaps for the future of the European creative industries by examining the current state-of-the-art tools, technologies, processes, and practices supporting the creative process against the future scenarios envisioned by stakeholders in these sectors.This work was carried out as part of CRe-AM project, which is supported by European Commission (grant agreement n°612451)