Visualizing Empire: Africa, Europe, and the Politics of Representation

Review of Visualizing Empire: Africa, Europe, and the Politics of Representation , Reviewed May 2021 by Amy Lazet, Digital Scholarship Librarian, College for Creative Studies, [email protected]

Art for an Undivided Earth: The American Indian Movement Generation

Review of Art for an Undivided Earth: The American Indian Movement Generation, Reviewed September 2017 by Amy Lazet, Visual Resources Specialist, College for Creative Studies, [email protected]

Assessing the effectiveness of direct gesture interaction for a safety critical maritime application

Multi-touch interaction, in particular multi-touch gesture interaction, is widely believed to give a more natural interaction style. We investigated the utility of multi-touch interaction in the safety critical domain of maritime dynamic positioning (DP) vessels. We conducted initial paper prototyping with domain experts to gain an insight into natural gestures; we then conducted observational studies aboard a DP vessel during operational duties and two rounds of formal evaluation of prototypes - the second on a motion platform ship simulator. Despite following a careful user-centred design process, the final results show that traditional touch-screen button and menu interaction was quicker and less erroneous than gestures. Furthermore, the moving environment accentuated this difference and we observed initial use problems and handedness asymmetries on some multi-touch gestures. On the positive side, our results showed that users were able to suspend gestural interaction more naturally, thus improving situational awareness

The Unexplored Ethics of Copywork Image Manipulation

Although copywork is a common practice in the field of visual resources, there is little information on the ethical considerations of altering images digitized from books or articles. What state of the original should the final digital surrogate replicate – how the artwork appears in person or how the image in the publication appears? Does this change when the purpose of the image is documentary rather than artistic? Using as a basis Franziska Frey and James Reilly’s four stages of digitizing and restoring photographs, I explore the ethical implications inherent in digitizing and altering images without possessing the original artifact or artwork, as well as discuss the importance of considering one’s audience and their level of visual literacy. Acknowledgements: Amy would like to thank Lael J. Ensor-Bennett for her work on the issue of copywork and suggesting the idea that turned into this paper, as well as Marian Lambers for her discussion of this topic with the author

Seeing Surrogacy: Digital Image Quality & Student Visual Literacy

This paper expands upon a survey administered to undergraduate art students at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. The survey sought to ascertain if students notice digitization artifacts within digital images and if they can discern whether the flaws are part of the digitization process or inherent in the original. Results from this study indicate that students do not have the training or skills to be able to discern this, and those working within visual resources would benefit from replacing poor quality images with more accurate surrogates of the original. The results of this survey were discussed in a presentation at the Visual Resources Association’s 2019 Annual Conference in Los Angeles

Intellectual Property Rights: Film, Pedagogy, and United States Code Title 17

This article provides an overview of the United States Code Title 17, Sections 107, 108, and 110 as it relates to copyright and films in learning environments. By providing a summary of only the points that are relevant to pedagogy and the viewing of films, the author seeks to help readers understand what is acceptable according to Title 17 without readers having to wade through the Code themselves. The paper also includes relevant information on the 10% rule and interpretations of Title 17 by such institutions as the American Library Association, and concludes with a brief list of best practices for viewing films in a pedagogical setting