FCJ-176 a skeuomorphic cinema: film form, content and criticism in the ‘post-analogue’ era

Adopting an archaeological approach to digital cinema that helps us to recognise both the old in the new, and the new in the old, this article argues that a 'skewed' critical concept of the 'skeuomorph' can help us move beyond notions of remediation, convergence, and simulacra to better understand the complex entanglement of the familiar and the novel that currently defines contemporary cinematic form, content, and criticism. Using different examples to make our case, we maintain that audiences and filmmakers alike have not yet fully adapted to best read or understand the newly emerging digital forms, and are thus consequentially 'not quite seeing them for what they are, and always unconsciously trying to understand them in terms of the old and familiar' (Gessler 1998). By drawing attention to several contemporary blind spots, our detoured notion of the skeuomorph aims to make the new and novel features of digital film palpable

Postalogos - Convenções gráficas nos logótipos postais internacionais

Este projeto pretende investigar como o serviço postal se traduz nos seus logotipos, uma vez que este é um serviço comum a múltiplas regiões do mundo com uma origem história semelhante. Suportando-se em áreas de estudo como a história postal, elementos do universo postal, geografia, história geográfica e cultura de regiões particulares, o conceito de logotipo, metodologias de investigação e organização visual, noções de semiótica e teoria da cor. Explora também a aplicação de metodologias de investigação e organização das informações referentes aos logotipos postais, bem como a análise de casos particulares de metodologias de mapeamento de informação gráfica que serviram de influencia na criação do website Postalogos, que reúne, arquiva e mapeia os logotipos postais internacionais numa plataforma, categorizando-os segundo elementos geográficos - continentes e territórios especiais da Europa - e gráficos - símbolos, cores e tipografia. Segundo os resultados observados no website através da categorização e comparação de logotipos fez-se uma análise crítica destes na qual são expostas conjeturas e observações acerca dos valores que os serviços postais transmitem intencionalmente ou não através do uso de certos símbolos como as aves, brasões e cartas e de certas cores como o azul e o vermelho

Modes of Interaction in Computational Architecture

This thesis is an enquiry into the importance and influence of interaction in architecture, the importance of which is observed through different modes of interaction occurring in various aspects of architectural discourse and practice. Interaction is primarily observed through the different use of software within architectural practice and in the construction of buildings, façades and systems. In turn, the kind of influences software has on architecture is one of the underlying questions of this thesis. Four qualities: Concept, Materiality, Digitization and Interactivity, are proposed as a theoretical base for the analysis and assessment of different aspects of computational architecture. These four qualities permeate and connect the diverse areas of research discussed, including architecture, cybernetics, computer science, interaction design and new media studies, which in combination provide the theoretical background. The modalities of computational architecture analysed here are, digital interior spaces, digitized design processes and communicational exterior environments. The analysis is conducted through case studies: The Fun Palace, Generator Project, Water Pavilion, Tower of Winds, Institute du Monde Arabe, The KPN building, Aegis Hyposurface, BIX Façade, Galleria Department Store, Dexia Tower, and also E:cue, Microstation, Auto-Cad, Rhino, Top Solid and GenerativeComponents software. These are important for discussion because they present different architectural concepts and thoughts about interactivity within architecture. The analytical processes used in the research distinguished and refined, eight modes of interaction: (1) interaction as a participatory process; (2) cybernetic mutualism; (3) thematic interaction; (4) human-computer interaction during architectural design production; (5) interaction during digital fabrication; (6) parametric interaction; (7) kinetic interaction with dynamic architectural forms; and (8) interaction with façades. Out of these, cybernetic mutualism is the mode of interaction proposed by this thesis

The potential of video games for exploring deconstructionist history

This thesis examines the potential of historical video games for exploring deconstructionist history. Historical video games have become one of the most popular and accessible forms of historical narratives in the 21st century, forming a key part of public engagement with history. This popularity has also placed these games under growing scrutiny, including calls for critically analysing their role in the construction and representation of historical narratives and epistemologies. For example, addressing topics like the emphasis on military history, the dominance of western perspectives and contexts, or teleological notions of progress. Such studies have become a central focus of historical video game studies, which has developed approaches for exploring how particular forms of historiographical representation and narrative arise and become embedded within historical video games. This thesis develops a unique contribution to these debates by focusing on a deconstructionist approach to history. Defined by historian Alun Munslow (2007), the deconstructionist approach presents history as a constructed narrative and aims to identify discourses behind the process of writing history. In video games, the control that players have over the narrative experience can be described as unintentionally embedding a deconstructionist perspective. Expanding on this argument, this research addressed how formal aspects of the medium exert pressure over epistemology and how historiographical ideas can consciously be shared with players. In contrast with previous approaches to the study of historical video games, this thesis goes beyond formal analysis of existing games, and includes design and reception perspectives. The arrangement of this study drew insights from several interdisciplinary fields, including the digital humanities, design and cultural studies. The result was a research through design methodology which engaged in the design, production, and evaluation of a historical video game prototype. Through the design process, the study set out to identify, implement, and test aspects of the medium that can emphasise a deconstructionist approach and allow players to reflect on their conceptualisation of history. This process involved multiple stages of data gathering and analysis. The results show that perceptions of historical video games are marked by tensions between what is seen as historical and what is seen as fictional or ludic. This thesis proposes a framework to navigate through these tensions, and uses it to develop a video game prototype, Time Historians. The evaluation of this prototype shows that players recognised the deconstructionist approach and openly discussed historiography. The findings indicate the feasibility of intentionally embedding a deconstructionist historiographical approach by relying on core aspects of the medium and navigating through the discourses surrounding it. The main contributions of the study include: a new approach for the analysis of historical video games; methodological reflections on the interdisciplinary combination of video game design and history; a set of epistemological guidelines for the design of historical video games; and new reflections on the role of video games as public history. Finally, this thesis expands on the discussions about historical video games and epistemology, offering a design-based perspective to approach this issue and unveiling further considerations on the potential of this medium

How Far is Up? the functional properties and aesthetic materiality of children’s storybook applications

This study centres on a project, a children’s book application titled How Far is Up? This artefact is an interactive, narrative-based digital book containing written text, animation, video, audio narration, music and sound effects. Book applications have become a new format for the picture book. Printed picture books are used to teach children literary and social skills; they are cornerstone tools in early developmental education. Increasing numbers of children now read digital books and engage in literature via digital devices. Given the crucial educational and social role that picture books have played in Western cultures, it is timely that we investigate how this medium has changed due to digitisation. This research evaluates the design of book applications and the educational and social implications of remediating the picture book. Theorists of children’s literature and cognitive science suggest the need for a more comprehensive set of principles aimed at guiding book application designers. In particular, there are concerns relating to the design of interactive, animated activities within these artefacts. Evidence shows that these features may distract users from a story. Further to this, existing applications commonly contain an audio narrator who ‘reads’ the written text aloud. An adult is not required to read these items with a child. This is despite the clear educational and social benefits associated with shared reading. My results demonstrate new insights, focused towards three main areas. Firstly, my findings show how designers can apply a counterpointed triad formed from typographic text, imagery and audio, alongside the alluring qualities of animated and interactive features, in order to form a richly described narrative environment. In presenting a refined level of visual movement, designers can direct users’ attention towards narrative detail. Animated interactive activities may also help users to imaginatively engage in application content. Secondly, as a result of deploying my counterpointed triad technique, whereby typographic text, imagery and audio each impart separate narrative messages, the narrator in How Far is Up? does not ‘read’ the written text; the narrator supplies additional story information. In order to comprehend this application’s textual content, a pre-literate child will need to engage in shared reading. Participant studies show that young children can understand and enjoy the How Far is Up? story when they read the application independently. My findings also show that children enjoy reading this application together with an adult, and that this shared reading activity may invoke deeper narrative comprehension and it may support the formation of close social bonds. This application’s design encourages intergenerational social interaction to occur over a shared mobile device. Finally, this research uncovers connections between material practices and social and experiential activities. By extending the counterpointed triad technique, I form a connection between digital and physical environments; highlighting the ways in which functional and aesthetic practices can lead to usable artefacts existing in social and physical contexts. This project contributes to the fields of digital humanities, education and human-computer interaction, and to the disciplines of interaction design, digital design and picture book design

Rupture and recuperation :technological traces in digital narrative cinema

PhD ThesisIn this thesis I analyse visual traces of digital technologies in narrative cinema as a way of exploring broader questions about the medium and the cultural status of its technological constituents. In so doing, I not only identify a number of areas of filmmaking that are currently under-researched or overlooked, but move the focus away from the questions of what digitisation means for cinema’s ‘identity’, and towards a consideration of how the implications of digitisation are at once exaggerated in rhetoric and tempered in practice by aesthetic, ideological, and economic factors. To do this, I focus on recent narrative films (1998-2013) in which digital filmmaking technologies are themselves salient features of the cinematic image. I argue that initial appearances of these digital traces are presented and received as disruptive, in that they appear to symbolise both a break with the ontological assumptions of cinema, and the potential to re-imagine the very notion of the medium itself. However, I demonstrate how each of these disruptions are, to differing extents, soon absorbed into the conventional formal structures of narrative cinema, such that their ultimate effect on the medium is to broaden its stylistic palate rather than to radically transform its identity. In so doing, I make four main scholarly contributions. Firstly, I provide an account of digital cinema contextualised in relation to the broader use of digital image technologies over this time period. Secondly, I use the technological trace as a locus for exploring intersections of aesthetic, ideological, and industrial factors in the production of these films. Thirdly, I temper hyperbolic reactions to digitisation by stressing continuities with, and echoes of, the history of analogue narrative cinema. Finally, I demonstrate how digital ontologies are shaped by popular discourses, and how these reinforce, qualify, and in some instances, contest, existing scholarly debate.Arts and Humanities Research Counci

Choosers: A Visual Programming Language for Nondeterministic Music Composition by Non-Programmers

This thesis focuses on the design of Choosers, a prototype algorithmic programming system centred around a new abstraction (of the same name) designed to allow non-programmers access to nondeterministic music composition methods. Algorithmic composition typically involves structural elements such as indeterminism, parallelism, choice, multi-choice, nesting, weighting, and looping. There are powerful existing tools for manipulating these and other elements of music. However, while these systems give substantial compositional power to musicians who are also skilled programmers, many musicians who lack programming skills find these tools inaccessible and difficult to understand and use. This thesis presents the design and evaluation of a prototype visual programming language designed to allow structural elements of the kind involved in nondeterministic music composition to be readily visualised and manipulated, while making little or no demand on programming ability. Initially, a Cognitive Dimensions of Notations review of a representative selection of user interfaces for algorithmic composition software was conducted. The review led to a set of findings used to identify candidate design principles which were then tested via a series of design exercises. The findings from these design exercises led to the development of a new abstraction, the Chooser, via a series of iterative design cycles. Once a candidate design had been finalised it was evaluated with participants via two sets of programming walkthroughs, with the findings from each step used to refine the formalism. The final study used Choosers as a design probe through a series of interviews with domain experts in which manipulable compositions were introduced to prompt discussions on potential future implications for music computing education, music production, and music composition