Web-Based support for creative collaboration

This paper considers web-based systems in support of distributed communities involving creative work. It is concerned with the sharing of knowledge that might otherwise remain unspoken, or tacit, amongst those engaged in design tasks. Drawing on the results of the evaluation of a prototype system, pointers for future systems are presented

Shared Visualizations In Support of Distributed Creative Communities

The paper is concerned with support for distributed groups of creative knowledge workers: in this case designers. We consider requirements that designers have regarding internalisation and externalisation of ideas and concepts as well as requirements relating to collaboration. We review an online system whose facilities for the graphical representation of data were found to be popular. The evaluation was in the context of a group task and the results, including instances of tacit knowledge sharing, have led us to formulate a number of recommendations as to how such systems might be made still more effective for collaborative working

Towards a Supportive Technological Environment for Digital Art

This paper presents the case for extending programming languages to support digital artists engaged in technologically-innovative work. The anticipated result is an "environment for building environments", which will need to satisfy certain technological requirements according to the areas in which digital artists most need creative support. A review of these areas is undertaken, and a proposal is made to capture the specific areas in which digital artists most need technological support

Directed and Emergent Play

We describe a case study of the audience experience of an interactive artwork titled Just a Bit of Spin. This study was part of practice-based research project that aimed to develop strategies for designing for a play experience. In this paper, we focus on results relating to the two play characteristics of difficulty and competition. These results lead us to reflect on the importance of creating a balance between directing the play experience and providing opportunities for play to emerge through the creative activities of the player

Touch as the act of signification: Naming as a key design concept for gesturally intuitive interactive space

The act of naming, where sign and the signified are coupled as an act of touching, establishes the foundations for the meaningful use of language. The computer, a language machine, possesses the capacity to input sensory data from the physical environment where signification occurs. To design a computationally extended sensory environment with intuitive gestural interaction will necessarily then have touch as a foundational factor. The universal element in such systems is language; the specific is the context of place, a space where the significating action of touch occurs

Resolving Ambiguity of Scope in Remote Collaboration: A Study in Film Scoring

In this paper we report on a qualitative study aiming to support online and asynchronous collaboration between stakeholders of the film scoring industry. We first describe the low-fidelity prototype we designed to facilitate the establishment of a clear scope for creative discussions. We then present evaluations conducted with two composers and a filmmaker to test the prototype's design principles. Outcomes from these evaluations stressed the need for resolving the ambiguity that occurs in remote collaboration. Feedback from participants also depicted the complex nature of the composer-filmmaker relationship and confirmed the virtues of asynchronous means of communication to support that relationship

'Spheres of Influence' : An Interactive Musical Work

In this paper we describe the development of an interactive artwork which incorporates both a musical composition and software which provides a visual and aural accompaniment. The system uses physical modeling to implement a type of virtual 'sonic sculpture' which responds to musical input in a way which appears naturalistic. This work forms part of a larger project to use art to explore the potential of computers to develop interactive tools which support the development of creative musical skills

Designing for Conversational Interaction

In this paper we describe an interaction framework which classifies musicians interactions with virtual musical instruments into three modes: instrumental, ornamental and conversational. We argue that conversational interactions are the most difficult to design for, but also the most interesting. To illustrate our approach to designing for conversational interactions we describe the performance work Partial Reflections 3 for two clarinets and interactive software. This software uses simulated physical models to create a virtual sound sculpture which both responds to and produces sounds and visuals