Avatar actors

In this text I wish to discuss, as well as illustrate through pictorial examples, how the Live Visuals of three dimensional online virtual worlds may be leading us into participatory and collaborative Play states during which we appear to become the creators as well as the actors of what may also be described as our own real-time cinematic output. One of the most compelling of these stages may be three dimensional, online virtual worlds in which avatars create and enact their own tales and conceptions, effectively bringing forth live, participatory cinema through Play

Northern Lights Ceilidh:playful digital interventions in a Scottish tradition

Northern Lights Ceilidh (NLC) was a one-off event which added a modern twist to traditional Scottish dancing, music and performance and added a digital infusion of technology mediated interactions to proceedings. The event marked the end of an international games competition hosted in Dundee each year, Dare to be Digital (DtbD) inviting the participants in the games competition and the general public to attend. In total 208 people attended NLC, 75 of whom were participants in DtbD.It is not possible to determine how many of the participants were external to Abertay University. However, 50% of respondents to a survey relating to NLC1 (the survey was completed by 12% of the total attendees) cited they found out about the event through sources external to Dare to be Digital which could suggest that there were attendees who had no link to Dare to be Digital and Abertay University.The Ceilidh was part funded by the year of Homecoming Scotland, and thus sought to weave historical Scottish traditions with new traditions in Scotland (i.e. weaving ceilidh, poetry and dance with new forms of design including 3D printed jewellery and interactive technology). NLC was held in a high-tech marquee in Dundee City Square on the 8th of August 2014. The marquee had been used for four days as the site of the DtbD games showcase and was transformed into a dance hall for the event.NLC aimed to, through digital mediation, provide participants with agency commonly associated with digital media. Participants were able to contribute to the creation of a digital aesthetic which was layered upon the physical ceilidh experience through projection and real-time manipulation of live video feeds. The participants could alter and manipulate their movement to change what happened on screen, co-creating not only the dance elements of the ceilidh but also the digital spectacle.The ceilidh was designed Lynn Parker, and Clare Brennan. Ryan Locke provided imagery which was used as the setting for digital animation production by Lynn Parker. A jeweller, Elizabeth Armour, was commissioned to create custom jewellery for the event, a 3D printed brooch and two digital artists, Stuart MacBean and Yana Hristova were commissioned to create an animated ‘peep’ board with which attendees were encouraged to take photographs. During the event itself, the band Whiskey Kiss called the dances and provided the music whilst a performer recited poetry to open the event. Quartic Llama, an interactive media company were commissioned to create a digital app to promote the event, titled Lightstream (Quartic Llama, 2014).Lynn Parker led the design of interactive media interventions into the event, the creation of animation sequences and live visuals during the event, developed branding for the event, carried out client facing work with Quartic Llama and collaborated with her colleagues in the facilitation and organisation of the event.Northern Lights Ceilidh as practice-led-research work offers insight into design approaches to support and facilitate social interaction. The social nature of the ceilidh event provides a template for community creation and the layering of digital intervention provides a basis from which the mediation of interaction through both human and technology mediated play can be evaluated.The addition of a digital layer to the ceilidh setting provides an extra level of participation in the event, where the participants can not only make the event come to life through participating in the dances but also in their manipulation of their movement to shape the digital visualisations on screen. The experience of the participants of both the ceilidh setting and of digital mediation provides valuable underpinning for the evaluation of these factors through practice-led-research

A Doccumentary Narrative: The African-American Male

I went to New York with a couple of friends of mine. We’re all artists. It was a trip through the Kinetic Imaging department. We’re in New York and we’re these black males – we felt free to do anything we wanted. We recorded ourselves spitting poetry or dancing. The idea kind of came to me: You know, I want to do a film that has that freedom, that has that feeling of not caring about a specific plot line, but that shows the aspects of who we are out there in public performance. So when I came back to A Documentary Narrative: The African-American Male by Rebekah Rifareal, News & Noteworthy Co-Editor A U C T U S // VCU’s Journal of Undergraduate Research and Creativity // N+N // October2013 2 VCU, I got an email saying that UROP was having a summer grant application. I looked back at what I’ve done in the past and what I am as an artist. I love performance art. I love dancing. I love poetry. I love film. So how do you combine all those things together

Las elecciones presidenciales de Estados Unidos desde la perspectiva de la prensa europea

Public relations strategies based on dramatization are key tools to achieving success in electoral campaigns. Press offices play a fundamental role as theatre directors, turning their leaders into great actors. What at first glance would look like a theatrical performance is, more than ever, what happened in the US presidential elections. Newspapers are intensifying the use of visual elements to reinforce the news. This research paper analyses 2,463 articles from eight digital newspapers in four countries to learn about the impact of visuals and dramatization on the European press. It seems paradoxical that the progressive newspapers devoted more articles to Trump than the conservative newspapers. A lack of time on the part of the journalists? What is certain is that the visuals prepared by Trump’s press office and his perfectly designed public appearances, were reproduced by the media. The study shows that the progressive newspapers analysed have contributed to giving Trump greater visibility in Europe

Duality, the Methodology of Shooting a Documentary as a One-Man Crew

This thesis will discuss Duality, a long-form documentary about artistic nude models who also create art involving the nude female form. This thesis will discuss the inspiration for the film, as well as the deciding factors that made me choose this as the topic for my thesis documentary. This thesis will also cover the process and methodology of shooting a documentary as a one-man crew, beginning with the process of preproduction, then the principal photography of the documentary, followed by the editing and postproduction process, and finally premiering the final film

Visual representation of concepts : exploring users’ and designers’ concepts of everyday products

To address the question on how to enhance the design of user-artefact interaction at the initial stages of the design process, this study focuses on exploring the differences between designers and users in regard to their concepts of an artefact usage. It also considers that human experience determines people’s knowledge and concepts of the artefacts they interact with, and broadens or limits their concept of context of use. In this exploratory study visual representation of concepts is used to elicit information from designers and users, and to explore how these concepts are influenced by their individual experience. Observation, concurrent verbal and retrospective protocols and thematic interviews are employed to access more in depth information about users’ and designers’ concepts. The experiment was conducted with designers and users who were asked about their concepts of an everyday product. Three types of data were produced in each session: sketches, transcriptions from retrospectives verbal reports and observations. Through an iterative process, references about context, use and experience were identified in the data collected; this led to the definition of a coding system of categories that was applied for the interpretation of visuals and texts. The methodology was tested through preliminary studies. Their initial outcomes indicate that the main differences between designers’ and users’ concepts come from their knowledge domain, while main similarities are related to human experience as source that drives concept formulation. Cultural background has been found to influence concepts about product usability and its context of use. The use of visual representation of concepts with retrospective reports and interviews allowed access to insightful information on how human experience influence people’s knowledge about product usability and its context of use. It is expected that this knowledge contributes to the enhancement of the design of product usability

Exhale - Learning to Be Okay

Undergraduate Graphic Desig

Using the Co-design Process to Build Non-designer Ability in Making Visual Thinking Tools

This research is a case study of using co-design as a way of assisting the capacity building process for an Indianapolis-based community organizer. The community organizer seeks to develop a visual thinking tool for enhancing her engagement with community participants. Community organizers face a wide array of complicated challenges, addressing these kinds of challenges and social issues calls for innovative and inclusive approaches to community problem solving. The author hopes this case study will showcase itself as an example of leveraging design thinking and visual thinking to support and equip more first-line workers who are non-designers to do their community jobs with a more creative problem-solving approach

Learning virtually or virtually learning? : a survey to gauge students’ use and perception of Blackboard and VLEs

This report presents the findings of a survey of students’ use and perception of Blackboard and VLEs as part of their learning in art and design higher education. In November 2007 a consultative process began through which the scope and design of the survey were decided. An on-line questionnaire was designed and piloted, and eventually responded to by 256 students across UAL during spring of 2008. This data was supplemented by data from a focus group interview held in June 2008