Personal tools
\\\\\\\\\
Toolbox /////////
KAREN wiki
KIWI ADVANCED RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK
Arts and Design
From KAREN wiki
Contents |
Arts and Design Case Studies
Amanda Yates
Case study: Mäori pä inspired home designs.
Amanda Yates. College of Design Massey University.
A.M.Yates@massey.ac.nz
Traditional Polynesian and Mäori-built environments, with a focus on Mäori pä, are behind the architecture of three houses designed by Massey Master of Design student Amanda Yates. The design work of the Coromandel, Whitby and Marlborough Sounds homes features in an exhibition alongside 10 other graduates of the College of Creative Arts in Wellington. Ms Yates (Ngäti Whakaue, Rongowhakaata) says the design techniques include digging into the ground to form recessed spaces found in Mäori pä sites. “Polynesian and Mäori building traditions also featured light-weight materials leading to an emphasis on temporary and transient buildings. The design addresses the needs of the people who will live there with a concern for linking the interior and exterior via moveable sliding doors and louvre walls that open to the environment.”
This design based research was enabled at different stages by digital technologies. Vectorworks, a digital documentation programme, was used in the design and documentation of the house Tokatea. The Master’s thesis that was developed in relation to the built work relied on access to digitized files - the New Zealand Electronic Text Centre was particularly useful in providing free online access to an archive of early New Zealand texts focusing on Maori spatial thought and practices. The images included in the Master’s thesis, and the large format (50 MB) photos of the 3 houses in the exhibition were transferred between photographer, photographic technician, printer and Massey using FTP sites.
Pä inspired home in the Marlborough Sounds, designed by Amanda Yates.
Erik Champion
Case Study: Otherness of Place: Game-based Interaction and Learning in Virtual Heritage Projects.
Erik Champion (supervisor of undergraduate and postgraduate game design projects, Interaction Design, ITEE, University of Queensland). Now Associate Professor, Director of Research and Graduate Studies at Massey University’s Auckland School of Design, Albany Village campus.
e.champion@massey.ac.nz
With real-world cultural heritage projects, one must consider how to preserve the fragile heritage site, yet allow public access, and disseminate the significance and value of the past to many different types of learners. One way of developing the public’s understanding is to allow them to interact with the heritage site through digital media. However, when digital places that represent the past are designed using media such as game engines, it is all too easy to be taken in by the lure of technology and forget to concentrate on enhancing the user experience. Attempting to answer these issues, this research explores the specific role gaming can play in designing successful learning environments. For games have many advantages over traditional virtual environment technology (often called virtual reality, or VR); and they have great potential in using thematic interaction to immerse and engage the public.
Figure 1: The Chinese Epic: Journey to the West as a game (Neverwinter nights, students: B. Weeks, P. Claire and W. Pu, 2006) A range of technologies were used in this research, including: surround projection, 3D joysticks, head mounted displays (HMDs), force-feedback seating, specialist car racing peripherals, custom displays, tangible computing interactive tables and biofeedback peripherals. Software used included Maya, 3D Studio Max, and virtual environment editors ranging from Quest 3D, Adobe Atmosphere and Unity 3D, to commercial games such as Neverwinter Nights, Wild Divine, Warcraft III, Elder Scrolls III and Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 2004, Torque, and Half-Life 2: Source. From these tools and new ideas of interacting with either past societies or distinctly different cultures, the prototypes and finished virtual environments have been exhibited around the world, including the 2004 Supercomputing conference in Boston, Panorama 2008 at RMIT Melbourne, and Interactive Entertainment 2008, in Brisbane. The source code for one project was adapted and used in the upcoming release of CAVE UT software by the USA-based publicVR organization. Evaluation criteria and design theory underpinning the projects have been used, cited and discussed, by academics in Australia, the Netherlands, USA, Great Britain, Italy, Greece, and Singapore. A summary of some of the projects, and how they attempted to involve a wider audience, can be read in the SIGGRAPH ASIA 2008 proceedings. There are also opportunities to study related themes at postgraduate level, or enroll in the new undergraduate creative game design course to be offered in the second semester of 2009 at the Auckland School of Design.
Jeremy Diggle
Case study 1: Apoll8.
Professor Jeremy Diggle. College of Fine Arts Massey University.
j.diggle@massey.ac.nz
Apoll8 is a developmental hypertext narrative and graphic novel that has been created online within a website. The work (Apoll8) is a historical, narrative and artistic account of the experiences of Howard Warnerford (a real fictional character?). Howards biography is told from two perspectives, Howard on one hand and Jeremy on the other. The exhibition presented and told on the site, brings together a range of visual artifacts and personal communications to create a biographical story. The story unfolds as a series of diary entries. Howard’s data entries capture his unique take on life and give insight into the inner workings of Howard’s thoughts; his conceptualizations of places, objects, people and life. Jeremy’s entries build a historical story around Howard partnered of course with images and artistic works. Jeremy identifies the events and artifacts that have contributed to shaping who Howard has become. Apollo artifacts and events provide a focus for the narratives. Each entry is an artistic creation that combines distinctive narrative text alongside visual and graphic representations. This form of Art is unique since it is created purely online and supported by a range of creative editing software. Online Fine Arts research and creations are a rapidly growing means of art presentation worldwide and the subject international dialogue in the Arts community.
Case Study 2: Beatl4 project.
Professor Jeremy Diggle. College of Fine Arts Massey University.
j.diggle@massey.ac.nz
The Be4tle project is an investigative, exploratory and developmental piece of research currently in progress. The Be4tle project documents and traces the identities and back stories of Beatles fans who were either Apple scruffs, or who graffitied the door at 3, Saville Row. The history surrounding the focal piece – the graffitied door at 3 Saville Row is re-constructed from a range of information and images. A multilayered approach is used including: • Photographic analysis of the Saville Road door and its layers of Graffiti. Graffiti Navigator is used to examine images of the door taken in 1977 (and from other years when images are made available). Each piece of graffiti is singled out and identified. • Stories, information and images provided by fans, Apple scruffs and graffitiests. The research is conducted entirely online and is supported by a range of Mac based software. The website operates two ways in the research process. Firstly it provides a forum for information about the Graffiti, artistic creations and the developmental information to be gathered and presented. Secondly it creates a space for contributors to communicate and have their histories shared.
