CloudPad - a cloud-based documentation and archiving tool for mixed reality artworks

publication-status: AcceptedThis paper reflects on the process of designing and building a documentation and archiving tool named CloudPad on the basis of its first evaluation at Stanford Libraries and the San Francisco Art Institute in September 2010. The paper explores the value of CloudPad and its ability to document individual users’ replay of an artwork within the context of performance documentation and new media archiving, speculating on its possible use within a number of curatorial, educational and creative contexts that are relevant to digital humanities

Documenting mixed reality performance: the case of CloudPad

This article introduces an original documentation and archiving tool, CloudPad, that integrates 'cloud computing' into the annotation and synchronisation of mixed media resources. Through CloudPad users are able to view a documentation, edit a version of it, and record their own comments in response to it. Whether users may have created and/or experienced a particular work, or whether they may simply wish to consult a work's documentation, their journey through these records and annotations are subsumed into the work's documentation, thus augmenting the 'original' artwork's field of social engagement. Before discussing CloudPad in detail, we proceed to explain how recent debates in performance documentation influenced our methodology and development, and the general challenges of mixed reality documentation that CloudPad aims to address. © 2012 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Animated war

Two DIY (do-it-yourself) film projects are examined from perspectives of resemosis (transformations in meaning-making) and the textual production practices of contemporary multimedia authorship. These practices are considered as evolving in a complex media ecology. The two films are currently in production: Gzim Rewind (Sweden, 2011) by Knutte Wester, and In-World War (USA, expected 2011) by DJ Bad Vegan. These films have themes of war and include film scenes that are ‘machinima’ (real-time animation made in 3D graphic environments) within live action film scenes. Machinima harnesses the possibilities of re-appropriating digital software, game engines, and other tools available in digital media. The machinima film scenes demonstrate how war-related stories resemiotize, such as how meaning-making transforms from a story in a war game context to a film context. Thereby, machinima exemplifies how DIY multimedia storytellers explore new ways to tell and to ‘animate’ stories. The article contains four parts: introduction to machinima and the notions of resemiosis and authorial practice, presentation of DIY filmmaking as a practice that intertwines with new networked economics, analysis of the two DIY film projects, and discussion of the implications. Issues include IP (intellectual property) and copyrights when re-appropriating digital assets from commercial media platforms.Two DIY (do-it-yourself) film projects are examined from perspectives of resemosis (transformations in meaning-making) and the textual production practices of contemporary multimedia authorship. These practices are considered as evolving in a complex media ecology. The two films are currently in production: Gzim Rewind (Sweden, 2011) by Knutte Wester, and In-World War (USA, expected 2011) by DJ Bad Vegan. These films have themes of war and include film scenes that are ‘machinima’ (real-time animation made in 3D graphic environments) within live action film scenes. Machinima harnesses the possibilities of re-appropriating digital software, game engines, and other tools available in digital media. The machinima film scenes demonstrate how war-related stories resemiotize, such as how meaning-making transforms from a story in a war game context to a film context. Thereby, machinima exemplifies how DIY multimedia storytellers explore new ways to tell and to ‘animate’ stories. The article contains four parts: introduction to machinima and the notions of resemiosis and authorial practice, presentation of DIY filmmaking as a practice that intertwines with new networked economics, analysis of the two DIY film projects, and discussion of the implications. Issues include IP (intellectual property) and copyrights when re-appropriating digital assets from commercial media platforms.<br/