A Programmable Model for Designing Stationary 2D Arrangements

This paper introduces a programmable method for designing stationary 2D arrangements for element textures, namely textures made of small geometric elements. These textures are ubiquitous in numerous applications of computer-aided illustration. Previous methods, whether they be example-based or layout-based, lack control and can produce a limited range of possible arrangements. Our approach targets technical artists who will design an arrangement by writing a script.These scripts are using three types of operators: partitioning operators for defining the broad-scale organization of the arrangement, mapping operators for controlling the local organization of elements, and merging operators for mixing different arrangements. These operators are designed so as to guarantee a stationary result meaning that the produced arrangements will always be repetitive. We show that this simple set of operators is sufficient to reach a much broader variety of arrangements than previous methods. Editing the script leads to predictable changes in the synthesized arrangement, which allows an easy iterative design of complex structures. Finally, our operator set is extensible and can be adapted to application-dependent needs

A Programmable Model for Designing Stationary 2D Arrangements

This paper introduces a programmable method for designing stationary 2D arrangements for element textures, namely textures made of small geometric elements. These textures are ubiquitous in numerous applications of computer-aided illustration. Previous methods, whether they be example-based or layout-based, lack control and can produce a limited range of possible arrangements. Our approach targets technical artists who will design an arrangement by writing a script.These scripts are using three types of operators: partitioning operators for defining the broad-scale organization of the arrangement, mapping operators for controlling the local organization of elements, and merging operators for mixing different arrangements. These operators are designed so as to guarantee a stationary result meaning that the produced arrangements will always be repetitive. We show that this simple set of operators is sufficient to reach a much broader variety of arrangements than previous methods. Editing the script leads to predictable changes in the synthesized arrangement, which allows an easy iterative design of complex structures. Finally, our operator set is extensible and can be adapted to application-dependent needs

Synthesis and evaluation of geometric textures

Two-dimensional geometric textures are the geometric analogues of raster (pixel-based) textures and consist of planar distributions of discrete shapes with an inherent structure. These textures have many potential applications in art, computer graphics, and cartography. Synthesizing large textures by hand is generally a tedious task. In raster-based synthesis, many algorithms have been developed to limit the amount of manual effort required. These algorithms take in a small example as a reference and produce larger similar textures using a wide range of approaches. Recently, an increasing number of example-based geometric synthesis algorithms have been proposed. I refer to them in this dissertation as Geometric Texture Synthesis (GTS) algorithms. Analogous to their raster-based counterparts, GTS algorithms synthesize arrangements that ought to be judged by human viewers as “similar” to the example inputs. However, an absence of conventional evaluation procedures in current attempts demands an inquiry into the visual significance of synthesized results. In this dissertation, I present an investigation into GTS and report on my findings from three projects. I start by offering initial steps towards grounding texture synthesis techniques more firmly with our understanding of visual perception through two psychophysical studies. My observations throughout these studies result in important visual cues used by people when generating and/or comparing similarity of geometric arrangements as well a set of strategies adopted by participants when generating arrangements. Based on one of the generation strategies devised in these studies I develop a new geometric synthesis algorithm that uses a tile-based approach to generate arrangements. Textures synthesized by this algorithm are comparable to the state of the art in GTS and provide an additional reference in subsequent evaluations. To conduct effective evaluations of GTS, I start by collecting a set of representative examples, use them to acquire arrangements from multiple sources, and then gather them into a dataset that acts as a standard for the GTS research community. I then utilize this dataset in a second set of psychophysical studies that define an effective methodology for comparing current and future geometric synthesis algorithms

Student Teaching Practicum: Sophomore Biology at Wachusett H.S.

This paper documents the completion of a student teaching practicum completed in accordance with requirements of the Massachusetts Department of Education for initial licensure. The practicum took place at Wachusett Regional High School in Holden, Massachusetts. The student taught two honors sophomore biology sections, and one Academic Enrichment sophomore biology section. Overall, lesson plans and course materials for seven units were designed and presented to these classes

Patriotism, race, and gender bending through American song: cover illustrations of popular music from the Civil War to World War I

This dissertation engages America's illustrated sheet music through topical analyses of political and social ruptures from the Civil War to World War I. In so doing, it demonstrates that music illustrations fit into larger networks of American picture making, participating in the recording and redirecting of contemporary American anxieties. Chapter 1: Bloody Banner, Silent Drum: The Material Wounded on Civil War Sheet Music argues that violated flags and drums in music illustrations transcended their martial functionality to signify loss of innocence and life; in so doing, they took on their own subjectivity. Chapter 2: Banjos, Rifles, and Razors: Picturing American Blackness investigates the transition from black-face minstrel songs to the "coon song craze" of the 1880s and 1890s, arguing that the stock character's razor, a weapon frequently figured in the songs, was not only a symbol of violence but of white fears of black social mobility. Chapter 3: Hoopskirts and Handlebars: Gender Construction and Transgression in Victorian America offers two case studies, one of cross-dressing pictures after the Civil War, the other of gendered bicycle images, arguing that the American public between the war and the turn of the century enjoyed contemplating the flexibility of gender roles and boundaries. Chapter 4: "There Were Giants in the Earth": Monsters of the First World War argues that popular pictures of American giants and monstrous war machines engaged in symbolic battle with monstrous Huns, who symbolized German atrocity for a Euro-American public uncomfortable with the idea of war with European peoples. At the same time, giants represented the common belief of America's special role in international peace, as neutrality gave way to declared war. Sheet music illustration was a vibrant part of American visual culture. By assessing the layered meanings of these often ignored pictures, my dissertation seeks to recover and restore lost memories of America's usual but fraught visual romance with popular song

The Natural Power of Intuition: Exploring the Formative Dimensions of Intuition in the Practices of Three Visual Artists and Three Business Executives

Both artists and business executives state the importance of intuition in their professional practice. Current research suggests that intuition plays a significant role in cognition, decision-making, and creativity. Intuitive perception is beneficial to management, entrepreneurship, learning, medical diagnosis, healing, spiritual growth, and overall well-being, and is furthermore, more accurate than deliberative thought under complex conditions. Accordingly, acquiring intuitive faculties seems indispensable amid present day’s fast-paced multifaceted society and growing complexity. Today, there is an overall rising interest in intuition and an existing pool of research on intuition in management, but interestingly an absence of research on intuition in the field of art. This qualitative-phenomenological study explores the experience of intuition in both professional practices in order to show comparability and extend the base of intuition, while at the same time revealing what is unique about its emergence in art practice. Data gathered from semi-structured interviews and online-journals provided the participants’ experience of intuition and are presented through individual portraits, including an introduction to their work, their worldview, and the experiences of intuition in their lives and professional practice. Framing outcomes through concepts of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, theology, noetic sciences, quantum physics, metaphysics, and art theory, resulted in the emergence of five themes that offered perspectives on the purpose of intuition, optimum conditions for intuiting, spiritual aspects of intuition, conduits for intuitive knowledge, and suggested connections between art and intuition. The findings of the study suggest that the artists experienced heightened levels of intuition that the business executives did not. Data indicate that experiences of intuition are enhanced through methods of quieting the mind, which can be found in Eastern practices and that show similarities to processes in art practice, such as transcendence, focus, non-attachment, visualization, a body-mind-spirit connection, and intention. The findings suggest that distinct qualities of art practice allow for alternative knowledge-making methods that can create preferable conditions for intuition to flourish in art education, such as generating inclusive dialog, increasing self-awareness, processing emotions, developing focus, refining the senses, and fostering ethicality, all of which may awaken and strengthen abilities of intuition

cii Student Papers - 2022

In this collection of papers, we, the Research Group Critical Information Infrastructures (cii) from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, present eight selected student research articles contributing to the design, development, and evaluation of critical information infrastructures. During our courses, students mostly work in groups and deal with problems and issues related to sociotechnical challenges in the realm of (critical) information systems. Student papers came from five different cii courses, namely Emerging Trends in Internet Technologies, Emerging Trends in Digital Health, Digital Health, Critical Information Infrastructures, and Selected Issues on Critical Information Infrastructures: Collaborative Development of Innovative Teaching Concepts in summer term of 2021 and the winter term of 2021/2022

An aesthetic for sustainable interactions in product-service systems?

Copyright @ 2012 Greenleaf PublishingEco-efficient Product-Service System (PSS) innovations represent a promising approach to sustainability. However the application of this concept is still very limited because its implementation and diffusion is hindered by several barriers (cultural, corporate and regulative ones). The paper investigates the barriers that affect the attractiveness and acceptation of eco-efficient PSS alternatives, and opens the debate on the aesthetic of eco-efficient PSS, and the way in which aesthetic could enhance some specific inner qualities of this kinds of innovations. Integrating insights from semiotics, the paper outlines some first research hypothesis on how the aesthetic elements of an eco-efficient PSS could facilitate user attraction, acceptation and satisfaction