A New Space of Storytelling

Following decades of inventing new display and sensing technologies, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (XR) devices, platforms, and communities provide a new space for storytellers to tell their desired stories. While we are in the process of developing new conventions for fully immersive storytelling, we must first define the properties and functionalities of the new digital medium. This chapter is based on my research in the field of virtual reality (VR). I would like to share some insights I have gained through exploring a wide range of VR works from various countries

Re-presenting China in Digital Immersive Art: Virtual Reality, Imaginaries, and Cultural Presence

The thesis explores how digital technology, in particular virtual reality and augmented reality, is playing a role in China’s rejuvenation, especially in relation to cultural displays, performances, and art exhibitions. This project examines how audiences, both in China and globally, respond to ‘Digital China’, a concept describing how people’s everyday lives in China are becoming superconnected by digital technology. Qualitative methodology with a multi-perspectival approach is applied to advance the aim of the project

teamLab Research

teamLab undoubtedly opened a new era of art. It allows professionals in multi-industries to use the latest science and technology to create art, they are all popular for local audiences from Japan to the United States, from Italy to China, wherever they go. As a significant representative form of the trendy show and immersive exhibition, teamLab\u27s works are completely different from the past in terms of creative logic, exhibition experience, and collection methods. By going through the development history of teamLab, this article studies the characteristics of its exhibitions, audience, and the connection with traditional art, in order to explore the development of today\u27s art and look forward to the future of new art

Illuminating Virtual Reality Creative Practice: Three Case Studies in the Context of Australian Art Museums

Contemporary immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies present significant potential for artists to expand their creative repertoire, and for art museums to facilitate exhibition delivery and visitor engagement. To date, studies in the field focus predominantly on identifying the affordances and constraints of VR for art museums and examining visitor experience in the virtual context, with little attention paid to artists as creators of VR works and their realities in the creative process. Illuminating artists’ experiences of ideation and creation helps develop insider’s perspectives beyond what can be determined from solely inspecting the finished works or their reception, and understand how the potentiality and novelty of VR are negotiated in practice and translated into meaningful installations. This research seeks to cast light on the creative practice with VR through three selected projects in the context of Australian art museums as case studies, exploring why and how the artists employed VR in their particular situations. Adopting a qualitative research paradigm and naturalistic inquiry approach, each case study follows a two-phase research design, conducting a review of literature that critiques the project and semi-structured interviews with artists in each phase respectively. Thematic analysis is applied to analyse interview data to derive meanings, patterns and embedded ideas from artists’ accounts. Within-case analysis has generated a detailed presentation of each project regarding its context, VR work(s) produced and the creative process. Led by the research questions, cross-case comparative analysis has established a range of themes and sub-themes (as manifestations of the themes in the case studies), which are integrated and presented as a table. These themes concern the affordances of VR valued by the artists that lead to their employment of the technologies, significant factors influencing their creative process, and key considerations underlying their conceptualisation of VR works and adoption of corresponding approaches. This research contributes new knowledge to understanding artist’s practice in making VR installations, by revealing a range of significant and commonly encountered elements characterising the creative practice, and their contextualised manifestations in the particular case projects. The findings provide art practitioners with a set of considerations for future engagement with VR

A sustainable approach to threatened digital cultural heritage

Endorsed by UNESCO as an effective and timely way to facilitate action against illicit trafficking of cultural property, widespread digitisation of inventories and artefacts mitigates loss of movable heritage and can facilitate expedited restitution of displaced items in the future. However, the frameworks for undertaking expedited, pre-emptive digitisation are outdated. This research therefore aims to develop a new methodology for “responsive digitisation”, via a systematic re-evaluation of digitisation strategies for at-risk materials. It will explore how such comprehensive digitisation practices can be situated for analytical evaluation, in line with the strategic values of collections use, access, and reuse in the heritage sector. This research explores the role of digitisation praxis for the preservation of contested cultural heritage under threat, where there is an immediate need for pre-emptive digitisation to mitigate the displacement of inventories and collections. It undertakes a gap analysis of relevant policy documents in the heritage sector, and thereby proposes a new framework and methodology for employing a strategy for digitisation of cultural heritage in under threat, prioritising methods that have the scope for long-term sustainability. It identifies four key challenges that a theory of responsive digitisation should address: 1. A lack of formal digital preservation planning in existing policy documents, 2. A lack of standardised procedures for digitisation, 3. A lack of emphasis on undertaking digitisation methods with digital sustainability integrated from the planning stage, and 4. Missing methods for disseminating digital information to parties situated in conflict. In doing so, it provides a framework for cultural heritage under threat, focusing on long-term digital sustainability, informed by wider disciplinary narratives concerning preservation, destruction, information control and the role of museums in the future. Further, it develops a theoretical framework for undertaking pre-emptive and rigorous digitisation of heritage with regards to conflict and preservation, which will emphasise long-term digital sustainability

Testing times: Virtual heritage, 'time travel' and the user experience of museum visitors: a case study of an enriched time-based virtual heritage world

Time is fundamental to human experience - it is how we make sense of the world. Time is critical to place in general and heritage place in particular. As well as the built environment, it determines both the cultural context and the phenomenological affect experienced at a particular place at a particular time. This thesis argues that time-based virtual heritage supporting navigable time, or time travel with agency, offers two different but complementary opportunities for heritage learning. Going to a specific place at a specific time gives users an informed idea of what it was like then and travelling through time in a time-lapsed fashion reveals the changes that occur over time. Heritage is culture through time yet curiously time is almost entirely absent from virtual heritage despite the power of 3D computer graphics to support time-based virtual worlds. This thesis describes the creation and testing of a time-based virtual heritage world on a museum audience. Navigable time is shown to be a popular and powerful tool for creating affective experiences with virtual heritage and fostering engaging learning opportunities. Additionally this thesis argues for, and the findings support, the importance of providing users with a range of activities in a virtual heritage world

Virtual Cultural Heritage: Virtual Reality Navigation of Cultural Heritage Environments

With the plethora of digital devices that can provide information about almost anything anywhere the Virtual Cultural Heritage project implements a prototype for the integration of personal computers and o the shelf new media accessories functioning in concert in order to deliver cultural heritage information. The virtual experience is navigated through the use of Microsoft Kinect motion control technology, integrating both gesture recognition and full body control, giving an element of realism and control previously not available in VR simulations. The interactive VR environment explores the possibilities of Le Musee Imaginaire, or the Museum Without Walls. The short-term goal is to draw upon scholarly research in areas of history and archaeological interpretation in order to distribute that knowledge to a general public in a non-traditional, engaging and entertaining manner. The long-range goal is to develop collaborative interdisciplinary projects that explore developing technologies and their new media applications in matters of cultural heritage, education and tourism.M.S., Digital Media -- Drexel University, 201

An Exploration of the Emerging Original Chinese Design As Found in Select Furniture Design SMEs in China

abstract: Starting from 21st century BC, China has had strong but isolated philosophies for making things, which dominated the style and spirit of Chinese design. With globalization, however, contemporary Chinese design fell under the influence of Western design including design practice, design theory, and education. Today, by improving capacity for independent innovation, and creating its own brand, China may be able to change its current practices of production that are defined by high consumption of resources, high pollution and low value-add. The search for high-quality Chinese design, which is both original and innovative with unique and identifiable features, has become a vital challenge for the Chinese government, organizations, and companies. Promoting original Chinese design with adding cultural values, in the past decade, has become prominent in various design fields because of the growing need to support economic development, upgrade industrial infrastructure, and promote national identity. In this context, many small-medium, creative and design-focused companies have been established with the goal of pursuing original Chinese design all the while concentrating on Chinese culture and users. In order to understand the present scenarios of original Chinese design, this research examines furniture design in select SMEs in China by studying relevantly critical issues: the motivation of designers for pursuing original Chinese design; the design ideas, practices and business strategies of these SMEs to build original and influential design brand; the challenges and opportunities in the furniture design industry while promoting original Chinese design; and the emerging picture of future Chinese design. This research applies the methodological framework of grounded theory with qualitative research methods including semi-structured interview and in-depth case studies. As a result, regarding interaction among Chinese culture, original design, and entrepreneurship, the research reveals three key findings regarding the interaction among Chinese culture, original design and entrepreneurship. First, “reflect Chinese culture”, particularly essential traditional Chinese culture, is a common ground of original Chinese furniture design, which has been shown both from design ideas and practices of the select SMEs. Second, insufficient entrepreneurship influences the promotion of original design brands both in domestic and international market. Third, innovative design among contemporary furniture designers is constrained by a morass of Chinese culture impediments, such as lacking critical thinking and overemphasizing on inheritance of traditions. Moreover, the research presents a theoretical framework with key implications for developing and promoting Chinese design that is original, innovative and socially impactful. The insights gained from the research also provide a foundation and possible direction for future studies on design, culture, entrepreneurship, and other creative industries both for China and other nations.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Design, Environment and the Arts 201

Video Screen as Matrix of Sensations. A Multisensory Approach to the Artistic Development of Responsive Video Membranes

The immateriality of moving images is manifest on a plethora of surfaces, shapes, and formats. Artists have access to a cornucopia of tools and medium to develop different forms of interactivity between the body and media, space, and time. Thus, since the 1960s artists have been pushing the limits of both the virtual and the physical worlds, expanding and transforming the static, two-dimensional frame while utterly, attempting to escape its tangibility. But, what if the video screens evolve into a responsive video membrane specifically designed for chosen moving images? How could this catalyst of sensations push creativity forward? And how would people embrace this innovative form of visualization as it moves them even closer to its subjects? In addition to involving an transdisciplinary inquiry into the artistic development of two responsive video membranes for projected moving images, this doctoral research comprised the ethnographic investigations on how the video display’s materiality, spatiality, and interactivity are key factors in altering perception and augmenting sensory, affective, and cognitive responses to a moving image. Finally, I propose a multisensory approach to the design of responsive video membranes where an emphasis is placed on the interplay among sensory modalities, sensory memories, associations and the sensory imagination. This realization emerges from studies in the fields of fine arts, anthropology of the senses, computer science, and mechanical engineering