Mixing realities for heritage and health: L'inframince between the real and the virtual

Conference paper presented at EVA 2020 Florence, video conference, 20th July, 2020.As an artist and practice-led researcher my work concerns the space between art, technology and consciousness studies, this has developed to include algorithms facilitating behavioural change and I am now the lead partner coordinator for the EU funded MinD project, designing for people with dementia. This paper presents two projects where tangible interfaces to mixed-reality installations have been created to enable the visitor to bridge the space between the real world and virtual states in order to better understand a complex situation

Shift-life interactive art: mixed-reality artificial ecosystem simulation

This article presents a detailed design, development and implementation of a Mixed Reality Art-Science collaboration project which was exhibited during Darwin’s bicentenary exhibition at Shrewsbury, England. As an artist-led project the concerns of the artist were paramount, and this article presents Shift-Life as part of an on-going exploration into the parallels between the non-linear human thinking process and computation using semantic association to link items into ideas, and ideas into holistic concepts. Our art explores perceptions and states of mind as we move our attention between the simulated world of the computer and the real-world we inhabit, which means that any viewer engagement is participatory rather than passive. From a Mixed Reality point of view, the lead author intends to explore the convergence of the physical and virtual, therefore the formalization of the Mixed Reality system, focusing on the integration of artificial life, ecology, physical sensors and participant interaction through an interface of physical props. It is common for digital media artists to allow viewers to activate a work either through a computer screen via direct keyboard or mouse manipulation, or through immersive means to activate their work, for “Shift-Life” the artist was concerned with a direct “relational” approach where viewers would intuitively engage with the installation’s everyday objects, and with each other, to fully experience the piece. The Mixed Reality system is mediated via physical environmental sensors, which affect the virtual environment and autonomous agents, which in turn reacts and is expressed as virtual pixels projected onto a physical surface. The tangible hands-on interface proved to be instinctive, attractive and informative on many levels, delivering a good example of collaboration between the Arts and Science

This is me: Evaluation of a boardgame to promote social engagement, wellbeing and agency in people with dementia through mindful life-storytelling

© 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaging.2021.100995Receiving a dementia diagnosis is a difficult experience for most people and often affects their wellbeing negatively. To support people's wellbeing, in a therapeutic context, life-storytelling, reminiscence and mindfulness are used with people with dementia. In an everyday context, traditional games are used as a resource for stimulating memory, cognition and social activity. While an increasing number of creative strategies are available to support people with dementia, the area of board games design and their effect on wellbeing is underexplored. This paper reports on the evaluation of the This is Me (TIM) mindful life-storytelling board game by the European project MinD. Using a co-design methodology, TIM was developed with and for people with mild to moderate dementia to support their wellbeing by enhancing self-empowerment and social engagement. A focus group methodology was used to evaluate TIM with 50 people with dementia and 19 carers across four countries. TIM was evaluated with regard to the usability and experience of the design as well as people's emotional wellbeing, social engagement and agency. The thematic analysis demonstrated that the combination of life-storytelling and mindfulness allowed players to engage in meaningful social interaction and, as a result, they reported enjoyment, learning, more acceptance of the past and present situation, and that they perceived looking forward into the future together with others as helpful. The study demonstrates that design can be a useful means to support people with dementia in aspects of emotional wellbeing, social engagement and a sense of agency.The ‘MinD - Designing for People with Dementia’ project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 691001.Accepted versio

Assessing the generalisability of a multicentre qualitative dementia research: the experience and challenges faced by the MinD project in Europe

Background: Generalisation of findings is an important aspect of research and essential for evidence-based practice. While generalisation is common in quantitative research, there is a lack of generalisability in qualitative research. This paper presents the experience and challenges faced by the Designing for People with Dementia (MinD) project in meeting the requirements to strengthen the generalisation of findings on the lived experience of people living with dementia and their engagement to co-create designs to empower their everyday living. Methods: Polit and Beck (2010)’s strategies to generalise qualitative findings were applied: (1) replication in sampling; (2) replication of studies; (3) meta-synthesis of findings; (4) reflexivity and conceptualization; (5) immersion with the data; and (6) thick description. Results: While it is possible to increase the generabilisabilty of qualitative evidence through the replication of the sampling to attain a large, heterogeneous sample in different and multiple contexts and environments; implementation of sound and robust research; conducting in-depth analysis and interpretation collaboratively for emergent themes; and meeting the thick description requirement, there are challenges that the project team faced in implementing some of the Polit and Beck’s strategies because of the condition, namely dementia, that our participants are having. Other challenges faced were: the language and cultural diversity in the team; diverse work and organisational procedures; and the inter-disciplinary differences relating to the methods of enquiry, approaches and techniques to conduct research. These challenges will need to be identified and addressed at the start of the project with a strong leadership to ensure a seamless journey to complete the project successfully. Trust between the researchers and participants, and time to build this trust are critical to recruitment and participation in the study; these factors are of utmost important in research involving participants with condition such as dementia

Proceedings, CHArt 2005, "Theory and Practice"

The paper explores the activity of archiving within the field of fine art and museum studies with particular emphasis on the digital archive and new media database. Harrison identifies and develops new forms of digital archiving within curatorial projects, art-based collaborations, and Conceptual Art works. These archival forms are not constructed by information scientists or museum professionals, but by artists

Exploring the liminal between the virtual and the real

The creative application of digital technologies is accelerating as artists, designers and technologists continue to experiment and explore ways to create new aesthetic fields, semantically enhanced communication and innovative relations between people and machines. Our virtual worlds meet the real material world through the interdisciplinary research of computer scientists, digital media technologists, artists, designers and culture theorists. This chapter explores ways of bringing the virtual to the real through a range of differing conceptual positions and research approaches while demonstrating the creative interplay of variable media and online platforms for producing liminal works which cross the boundary between the analogue and the digital. The intent is to provide insights and examples of creative practice employing new technologies in innovative and unusual ways to generate exciting new work and offer new pathways for digital media research and development. The chapter presents relevant theoretical frameworks and examples of current practice in the area of digitally enabled transitional spaces for artists, theorists and curators, as well as researchers working both in the field and beyond to those working with new technologies, social media platforms, and digital/ material culture

Handbook of Research on Digital Media and Creative Technologies

Description Emerging technologies enable a wide variety of creative expression, from music and video to innovations in visual art. These aesthetics, when properly explored, can enable enhanced communication between all kinds of people and cultures. The Handbook of Research on Digital Media and Creative Technologies considers the latest research in education, communication, and creative social expression using digital technologies. By exploring advances in art and culture across national and sociological borders, this handbook serves to provide artists, theorists, information communication specialists, and researchers with the tools they need to effectively disseminate their ideas across the digital plane. Topics Covered Animation Art and Technology Communication Technologies Computer Games Digital Self Identity Education in Creative Spaces Spatial Reasoning and Creative Design Urban Management Video Processing Technologies Virtual Realit

New forms for 21st century conceptualism

Concerns the synthesis of new media art theory, digital technology and conceptual art in practice-based research. Harrison questions the validity of (and offers alternatives to) lens and screen-based media as the basis for teaching digital media theory to new practitioners

Curating Between Worlds: How Digital Collaborations Become Curative Projects

Digital technologies support social networking offering platforms through which artists can collaborate to create online exhibitions of their work. As an artist pursuing a computer-mediated practice I have found that my working methods have frequently become indistinguishable from that of curation. Technologies have developed and practice evolved, and my interest has moved accordingly towards cross-curation, where artists in physical spaces converge with those online in real-time events. This chapter will evidence the understanding of digital online artist collaborations as a necessary form of curation, from examples of experienced practice. Artists continue to experiment with new media forms and push boundaries of code to materialize the virtual, and curatorial methods will be challenged to support their evolving practices. Findings from a panel discussion on virtual curation will be proffered to support the view that it is the artists themselves driving this exploratory approach to curation, as part of their discursive collaborative methods for creating digital work