History of Art and Screen Media

Levelling Up: Towards Best Practice in Evaluating Museum Games

by Danny Birchall

Co-authored with Martha Henson Wellcome Trust; Alexandra Burch and Daniel Evans, Science Museum, UK; Kate Haley Goldman, National Center for Interactive Learning at the Space Science Center, USA

Museums make games because games can provide compelling educational engagement with museum themes and content, and the... more Museums make games because games can provide compelling educational engagement with museum themes and content, and the market for games is enormous. Truly understanding whether games are achieving your goals requires evaluation. In this paper, we identify the kind of games that museums make and use case studies of our own casual games to look at the benefits and means of evaluation. Beginning by identifying different kinds of evaluation within the broad framework of formative and summative practices, we suggest ways to plan an evaluation strategy and set objectives for your game. We then look in detail at evaluation methods: paper and wireframe testing, play-testing, soft launching, Google Analytics, surveys, and analysing responses “in the wild.” While we draw on our own experience for examples of best practice, we recognize that this is an area in which everyone has a lot to learn, and we conclude by suggesting some tactics for sharing knowledge across the museums’ sector.

Constructed Authorship in Television and the Case of Game of Thrones

by Tobias Steiner

"FlashForward": an experiment in Collective Memory Studies

by Tobias Steiner

BA thesis, submitted to the University of Hamburg's Institute of English and American Studies in January 2011

The thesis investigates the case of the modern Television drama series FlashForward and sets out to chart the... more The thesis investigates the case of the modern Television drama series FlashForward and sets out to chart the employment of concepts of Collective Memory Studies in the narrative in order to reflect upon the ways of how social perceptions of the past and Collective Memory are remediated in the course of the narrative.
To achieve that goal, the thesis provides a selection of concepts and theories concerned with Collective Memory and its medial presentation. Then the series is set into context of a classification of ‘megamovies’ in order to identify characteristics inherent in complex narratives of series such as ‘Battlestar Galactica’, ‘Breaking Bad’, ‘Lost’,’ Fringe’,’ V’ and ‘FlashForward’. As a means of illustrating the complexity of the series’narration, an appendix provides additional information such as the first episode’s mise-en-scène, a chronological sequencing of this episode and an overview of the social relations evolving during the whole season of the show.
Subsequently, the characteristics are compared to the discourse of Collective Memory and relations such as the series as ‘fiction of memory’ and ‘fiction of meta-memory’, the presence of intra- and extradiegetic remediations, and the specific role of the narrator in such a fiction of memory are revealed.
Finally, the thesis concludes that this television series plays with multiple concepts of Media of Collective Memory and adds a new dimension to the larger discussion about individual and collective memories. What is found in particular is a narration that adds a twist to the definition of memory, because it turns the temporal directionality of memories around.

Mark Morrisroe's Self-Portraits and Jacques Derrida's 'Ruin'

by Fiona Johnstone

published in Third Text, Vol. 25, Issue 6, 2011, pp. 799-809.

The work of the American photographer Mark Morrisroe (1959–1989) has been the object of a recent resurgence of... more The work of the American photographer Mark Morrisroe (1959–1989) has been the object of a recent resurgence of interest. Morrisroe's work might be said to constitute an extended practice of self-portraiture, from the early images documenting his involvement in the 1980s Boston punk scene to his final works exploring the effects of AIDS on his body. This article brings together Morrisroe's photographic practice of self-representation with Jacques Derrida's reading of the self-portrait as ‘ruin’. It outlines the moral, physical and aesthetic implications of ‘ruin’ in relation to Morrisroe's work, and explores the way in which both Morrisroe's images and Derrida's text evoke the physical deterioration of the body. It then suggests ways in which Derrida's ruin fulfils a similar function to the notion of performativity or masquerade, raising questions about issues of identity, authenticity and the possibility of self-representation.

Leben in Zwei Welten: Der Begriff des Transnationalismus am Beispiel Mexiko

by Tobias Steiner

Fundraising? Yes we can!

by Tobias Steiner

Expanding the Definiton of Grammaticalization: A Short Survey of the Current State of Research Regarding Lexicalization/Degrammaticalization in …

by Tobias Steiner

Projective Verse Revised: Charles Olson's Approach to Visionary Poetry in the Tradition of Walt Whitman

by Tobias Steiner

From the dome of heaven to a cupola in space: Re-engaging with imagery and symbolism through 3D digital art installations.

by Nick Lambert

Fulldome artwork and its history. Presented at EVA London 2011

This paper looks at the possibilities of re-engaging with imagery and symbolism from earlier cultures through the... more This paper looks at the possibilities of re-engaging with imagery and symbolism from earlier cultures through the medium of 3D digital environments. It examines three of the author's digital artworks - Oculus, Lux Nova and Music of the Spheres - as vehicles for this process, and the means by which this engagement with the past can also generate new ideas within the area of art and technology. The recreation of an architectural sense of space and position is of particular importance, as is the development of particular approach to 3D software.

Making the Spheres Sing: Exploring the Technological Terrain of a New Digital Artwork

by Nick Lambert

Co-authored with Jeff Rees, Independent artist

The development of the fulldome installation Music of the Spheres has followed an unusual route. It started as a... more The development of the fulldome installation Music of the Spheres has followed an unusual route. It started as a proposal for a huge physical structure and has progressed to a virtual environment. Along the way, several different immersive visualisation technologies have been investigated in terms of their suitability for large audiences and considered in the context of the overall art work. This paper explores the relation between an artist’s expectations and the current state of immersive visualisation devices.

THE COMPUTER AS A DYNAMIC MEDIUM

by Nick Lambert

Part of the 2010 Computer Art and Technocultures Symposium

Cat 2010 Symposium

by Nick Lambert

CAT 2010: Ideas before their time : Connecting the past and present in computer art

Computer Art and Technocultures AHRC Project

3 February 2010, London

Computer Art and Technocultures AHRC Project

3 February 2010, London

The symposium 'Ideas Before... more Computer Art and Technocultures AHRC Project

3 February 2010, London

The symposium 'Ideas Before Their Time: Connecting the Past and Present in Computer Art' examines the ideas and technologies of computer-based art. Many intriguing concepts have emerged in computer art over the past 50 years. Some have been brought to light in the archives examined by the Computer Art and Technocultures Project at Birkbeck and the Victoria & Albert Museum. With the current exhibitions of computer art, 'Decode' and 'Digital Pioneers' ongoing at the V&A, this is a timely look at the area. Speakers from all areas of computer art, including practitioners, curators and historians, discuss the past, present and future of this area.

From Imaginal to Digital: Mental imagery and the computer image space

by Nick Lambert

Published in LEONARDO JOURNAL Vol 44, issue 5, 2011

The author suggests that the intangible characteristics of computer graphics bear some resemblance to the brain's... more The author suggests that the intangible characteristics of computer graphics bear some resemblance to the brain's ability to construct mental images, as outlined by veteran researcher Stephen M. Kosslyn. An analogy might also be drawn with the Imaginal World of the Sufis, as described by Henri Corbin, which exists in a space of its own. As computer graphics have emerged as an artistic medium, one may consider how this internalized ability influences the artist's response to the computer, especially as new display technologies emerge.

Timothy Murray (2008) Digital Baroque: New Media Art and Cinematic Folds

by John A. Riley

Ms. Parker and the Vicious Circle: Female Narrative and Humour in Sex and the City

by Janet McCabe

Beyond the Bada Bing!: negotiating female narrative authority in The Sopranos

by Janet McCabe

Quality TV: contemporary American television and beyond

by Janet McCabe

Reading Sex and the City

by Janet McCabe

'Things': a case study in getting from accession to online display in 60 minutes

by Danny Birchall

Proceedings:
Electronic Visualisation and the Arts (EVA 2011)
London, UK, 6 - 8 July 11

This paper looks at the online presence of the exhibition ‘Things’ by artist Keith Wilson that took place at Wellcome... more This paper looks at the online presence of the exhibition ‘Things’ by artist Keith Wilson that took place at Wellcome Collection in October 2010. It examines the process by which objects were temporarily acquired from members of the public for an exhibition, and the way in which those images were digitised and managed to form the online element of the exhibition, using the photo sharing website Flickr. It looks at the role of student volunteers and their reaction to the use of technology, as well as the reactions of the public to the use of images online to represent their donated objects, and some alternatives to the conventional ‘object’ photography that museums employ. It draws the conclusion that images, and digital images in particular, form an increasingly important part of the museum paradigm at all levels.

Review: Catherine Mason, A Computer in the Art Room: The Origins of British Computer Arts 1950—1980. London: Quiller Press, 2008. 250 pp. ISBN 1899163891

by Nick Lambert