To be given at the Second TIIC International Symposium and Workshop on IT-enabled Textiles in Seoul, December 2012.
Tuesday, 20 November 2012
The New Games: How movement will extend our perceptions of the computing experience.
Most of the development and implementation of motion capture has focussed on camera-based systems that produce data-rich results for commercial applications. Whilst acknowledging the success of this way of working, Professor Sporton will discuss the shortcomings of video or scanning technologies in helping us understand and interpret movement. His own work is based on the premise that the best source of data about movement is the body itself, and to collect the data the source rather than through the eye of the camera. This, he will argue, opens up for us new possibilities of interaction with computers, the ability to extend our physical range and create new forms of meaning and expression through gesture. The potential to open up our perception of our physical selves will open new thresholds for competing and gaming, eventually leading to forms of symbiosis, augmenting and enhancing the expressive and communicative powers that makes us human.
Thursday, 27 October 2011
The Sporton Inaugural Lecture
Tuesday, November 1st 2011, at 7.15pm
Gregory Sporton is the new Professor of Digital Creativity at the School of Art, BIAD. As Director of the Visualisation Research Unit, he has been involved with the development of new technologies and their application in the Visual and Performing Arts for some years and has long-standing creative links with the Birmingham Conservatoire. His research interests are wide, and his views are often controversial and challenge accepted conventions.
To mark his elevation to the Professorship, Professor Sporton invites you to attend an evening lecture and performance in the Recital Hall at the Birmingham Conservatoire. The evening includes his Professorial Inaugural Lecture, ’From Things to Bits’, introduced by Fred Inglis, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick. Also in the programme will be a short performance of a new work ‘Never Talk to Strangers’, developed with VRU researchers and dancers from dna3d, that includes live electronics and the incorporation of body-based sound and visuals generating systems.
*The Lecture*
The lecture, ‘From Things to Bits’, will focus on the darker side of technology and what impact this has on the creative process and on artists themselves. How did digital technology become ubiquitous without us noticing? How does this change what we mean by creativity, intelligence or humanity? What are the obligations and contributions that artists can make in this environment?
Free to attend…but please book in advance if possible to avoid disappointment
Places can be secured by emailing Julia Burdett (julia.burdett@bcu.ac.uk) at the BIAD Research Office, or contacting her on 0121 331 7850.
*The Venue*
A map is located here. The Conservatoire is about 5 mins’ walk from Birmingham New Street railway station, and less from the School of Art (just walk under the Council House bridge, cross in front of the Old Central Library, go to the left of Paradise Forum Shopping Arcade and you can’t miss it).
Doors open at 6.30, when there will be a glass of wine on offer.
Gregory Sporton is the new Professor of Digital Creativity at the School of Art, BIAD. As Director of the Visualisation Research Unit, he has been involved with the development of new technologies and their application in the Visual and Performing Arts for some years and has long-standing creative links with the Birmingham Conservatoire. His research interests are wide, and his views are often controversial and challenge accepted conventions.
To mark his elevation to the Professorship, Professor Sporton invites you to attend an evening lecture and performance in the Recital Hall at the Birmingham Conservatoire. The evening includes his Professorial Inaugural Lecture, ’From Things to Bits’, introduced by Fred Inglis, Emeritus Professor of Cultural Studies at the University of Warwick. Also in the programme will be a short performance of a new work ‘Never Talk to Strangers’, developed with VRU researchers and dancers from dna3d, that includes live electronics and the incorporation of body-based sound and visuals generating systems.
*The Lecture*
The lecture, ‘From Things to Bits’, will focus on the darker side of technology and what impact this has on the creative process and on artists themselves. How did digital technology become ubiquitous without us noticing? How does this change what we mean by creativity, intelligence or humanity? What are the obligations and contributions that artists can make in this environment?
Free to attend…but please book in advance if possible to avoid disappointment
Places can be secured by emailing Julia Burdett (julia.burdett@bcu.ac.uk) at the BIAD Research Office, or contacting her on 0121 331 7850.
*The Venue*
A map is located here. The Conservatoire is about 5 mins’ walk from Birmingham New Street railway station, and less from the School of Art (just walk under the Council House bridge, cross in front of the Old Central Library, go to the left of Paradise Forum Shopping Arcade and you can’t miss it).
Doors open at 6.30, when there will be a glass of wine on offer.
Saturday, 22 January 2011
The Watertower: Gaming for Heritage
In September 2009 the Visualisation Research Unit at the School of Art, Birmingham City University were approached by the Selly Oak Hospital Trust with a view to developing a project for the decommissioning of the Hospital and the subsequent move to the new Queen Elizabeth II facility. Selly Oak was no ordinary hospital: commissioned during the Second World War, it had continued to treat war veterans up until its closure in June 2010, and had recently been unfairly lambasted in the media for mythical shortcomings in its treatment of veterans from Afghanistan. The decommissioning of the Hospital was certain to be a sensitive moment, a long history of innovative practice, especially in transplantation surgery and military medicine, a much loved building that had outlived its usefulness and a fragile media environment required a project that would be both sensitive and celebratory.
The Project Team set about the task by collecting an oral history from patients and staff across generations, and combining these in a 3D environment driven by a games engine and drawn from the architectural history of the Hospital’s famous Watertower. To realise the project, the Team knew that it would have to get a reluctant management to takes some risks, to engage with the contentious and to use the project as a route to the change management processes identified in the early data collection processes. This chapter will discuss the difficulties, processes and techniques used to create a memorable experience of collective memory.
The Project Team set about the task by collecting an oral history from patients and staff across generations, and combining these in a 3D environment driven by a games engine and drawn from the architectural history of the Hospital’s famous Watertower. To realise the project, the Team knew that it would have to get a reluctant management to takes some risks, to engage with the contentious and to use the project as a route to the change management processes identified in the early data collection processes. This chapter will discuss the difficulties, processes and techniques used to create a memorable experience of collective memory.
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Dance at the Interface: Issues and Solutions for Performing in the Techno-space
At first glance the potential relationship between dance and technology is not obvious.
From the apparent simplicity of human movement in an expressive range on the one hand to the brutal logic of the technological processes on the other, the sympathy and connection is not immediately obvious. Technological development in the dance space is about assessing the challenges posed by the data produced by the dancer, both technical and creative. This presentation is about the role technology can play in understanding and extending human movement beyond the body, its function in supporting and training dancers and the opportunities for using the substance of human movement as the basis for creative and scientific exploration. It includes examples of work conducted by the Visualisation Research Unit at the School of Art, Birmingham City University, including the role of dance in our technology development processes, and how this has changed the way we have approached dance as a part of our experimental processes.
From the apparent simplicity of human movement in an expressive range on the one hand to the brutal logic of the technological processes on the other, the sympathy and connection is not immediately obvious. Technological development in the dance space is about assessing the challenges posed by the data produced by the dancer, both technical and creative. This presentation is about the role technology can play in understanding and extending human movement beyond the body, its function in supporting and training dancers and the opportunities for using the substance of human movement as the basis for creative and scientific exploration. It includes examples of work conducted by the Visualisation Research Unit at the School of Art, Birmingham City University, including the role of dance in our technology development processes, and how this has changed the way we have approached dance as a part of our experimental processes.
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Creative Identity Theft: Issues for Artists in Collaborative Online Environments.
One of the most significant challenges to the development of a 'new media art' has been the question of ownership and its relationship to authority and authorship in online environments. Whilst this has been broadly true in relation to all areas of what we have come to call the 'cultural industries', the argument here is about how this differs and goes far more directly to the heart of the fine artist's conception of themselves and their work. Unlike music, where the rights of an artist to be rewarded for their work (often in reality a record company), or the breach of copyright through unauthorised distribution of music reflects the existing business models in these areas, the fine art experience opens new questions about what constitutes production, authorship and completion. This is especially true where the artist is seeking to use the 'new media' characteristics of the Internet, the potential for sharing and developing an art work through the participation of a user community.
This paper firstly discusses the qualities of online activity in relation to what is 'new' in 'new media', and examines the continued use of the technologies by artists to simply redress long standing disputes with the distribution models and editorial practices of 'old media'. It then seeks to identify the features of new technologies that distinguishes them from 'old media', principally the opportunities for interaction in real time, for collaboration, of skill sharing, of a wider audience that encounters work for reasons other than the contemplation of artistic work and the nature of proprietary technologies in themselves. These latter have rarely been developed specifically for artists, and often reflect the values and aims of the companies that generate them, presenting ethical and creative problems for artists who use them.
The difficulty for the artist is how to respond to this 'new' environment, given that it often runs counter to the training and practice of fine art, with its overwhelming emphasis on individual expression for the interest of gallery visitors. The difficulties artists encounter when their will and vision is not the main source of content or interest clearly creates a struggle about their relevance to the work that is produced, and often bruising encounters with technologists and user communities result. Acceding control to potential users to develop or reconfigure the data is fraught with issues from security to censorship, and often strikes directly at the intentions of artists seeking to engage in this way, and yet this is part of the online experience. For artists who identify themselves with their work as personal statement, this becomes a critical tension.
This paper draws on research at the Visualisation Research Unit (VRU) at the School of Art, Birmingham City University, and its collaboration with Eastside Projects, a new gallery located in Birmingham, on the Arts Council funded project 'EP:VV' (Eastside Projects: Virtual & Visualized). The development of an online gallery that reflects and resembles the physical space at an avant-garde gallery like Eastside and consistent with the content produced in it has thrown up important questions about the way in which arts experiences can be reproduced in the online space. The issues over how to create and curate art works that use the nature of the technologies, or represent them without simply creating 3D copies have led to difficult issues about why artists create work and who it is for in the online context.
This paper firstly discusses the qualities of online activity in relation to what is 'new' in 'new media', and examines the continued use of the technologies by artists to simply redress long standing disputes with the distribution models and editorial practices of 'old media'. It then seeks to identify the features of new technologies that distinguishes them from 'old media', principally the opportunities for interaction in real time, for collaboration, of skill sharing, of a wider audience that encounters work for reasons other than the contemplation of artistic work and the nature of proprietary technologies in themselves. These latter have rarely been developed specifically for artists, and often reflect the values and aims of the companies that generate them, presenting ethical and creative problems for artists who use them.
The difficulty for the artist is how to respond to this 'new' environment, given that it often runs counter to the training and practice of fine art, with its overwhelming emphasis on individual expression for the interest of gallery visitors. The difficulties artists encounter when their will and vision is not the main source of content or interest clearly creates a struggle about their relevance to the work that is produced, and often bruising encounters with technologists and user communities result. Acceding control to potential users to develop or reconfigure the data is fraught with issues from security to censorship, and often strikes directly at the intentions of artists seeking to engage in this way, and yet this is part of the online experience. For artists who identify themselves with their work as personal statement, this becomes a critical tension.
This paper draws on research at the Visualisation Research Unit (VRU) at the School of Art, Birmingham City University, and its collaboration with Eastside Projects, a new gallery located in Birmingham, on the Arts Council funded project 'EP:VV' (Eastside Projects: Virtual & Visualized). The development of an online gallery that reflects and resembles the physical space at an avant-garde gallery like Eastside and consistent with the content produced in it has thrown up important questions about the way in which arts experiences can be reproduced in the online space. The issues over how to create and curate art works that use the nature of the technologies, or represent them without simply creating 3D copies have led to difficult issues about why artists create work and who it is for in the online context.
Tuesday, 30 June 2009
Visualisation for the dancer: image-based technologies as support to dancer training
Imagery in dance training has generally been a relationship between the teacher's suggestion and the dancer's imagination. With the development of technology-enabled visualisation techniques, dancers can acquire a more objective view of the movements and position of their bodies, without being distracted by extraneous information. Visualisation technologies have become accepted and standardised practice in various sporting activities, and is accepted as a method of preparing for physical activity. 1 In dance and sport there is a powerful relationship between mental and physical performance. 2 The concept of visualisation as described in many classical texts and academic papers leads the performer through an internal journey of performing the act with a view to enhancing the exterior performance which is about to be delivered. If it were possible to complement this accepted method of dancer training by creating 3 dimensional models of movement from which dancers could learn and teachers could assess training needs, visualisation as a psychological construct could potentially be made more powerful. This paper discusses the possibilities for using existing visualisation technologies to support dancer training, in particular their suitability in complementing existing visualisation techniques and teacher interaction, based on practical experiments with student dancers performing arabesques.
The arabesque position was selected for analysis as the classic movement of ballet, and one that has sufficient complexity and detail for dancers to misinterpret body positions. In addition, the temporal frame is short enough for the technologies utilised to capture the essential body movements in sufficient repetition to gauge progress. By focussing on the Arabesque, the researchers were aware that most of the action takes place outside of the line of sight, potentially giving clear results of the effectiveness or otherwise of the combination of instruction and visual feedback.
The arabesque position was selected for analysis as the classic movement of ballet, and one that has sufficient complexity and detail for dancers to misinterpret body positions. In addition, the temporal frame is short enough for the technologies utilised to capture the essential body movements in sufficient repetition to gauge progress. By focussing on the Arabesque, the researchers were aware that most of the action takes place outside of the line of sight, potentially giving clear results of the effectiveness or otherwise of the combination of instruction and visual feedback.
Monday, 15 December 2008
Putting Your Foot Down: the Aesthetics of Latency
Paper presentation proposal, Dr. Gregory Sporton & Tychonas Michailidis, Visualisation Research Unit, Department of Art, Birmingham City University.
Traditionally, latency is considered as a problem in performance contexts, and nowhere has this been more apparent than in the use of the Internet for networked-based performance. The absence of latency in stand-alone computers contrasts with the experience of networked performance, creating ambivalence about the role the network can play in computer-based sonic and visual art.
This paper suggest that rather than being a problem for the digital artist, latency is an inherent property of the network, and as such is one of the determining features of the creative space. This demands that creative practitioners account in their work for latency as a creative and aesthetic aspect of digital arts practice.
The opportunities are more apparent when it comes to live performances or interactive installation using technology. Hardware communication, long cables and networking produce significant latency that does not respond instantly to the performance or installation situation. We discuss, through practical demonstration, not how to reduce latency to the minimum but rather how to use latency as a creative and aesthetic property within the presentation structure. Creativity through latency is exploited by suspending the expectations of what we experience visually, aurally and sensually.
We approach the aesthetics of latency in two ways. Firstly we examine the effect of different latencies by delaying the audio from the visual and vice versa. Secondly, we look at the effects of latency in audio-haptic domain. By examining the areas above we present some alternative approaches in digital creativity practice, experiencing latency from an audience perspective as well as the challenges for the performer.
Traditionally, latency is considered as a problem in performance contexts, and nowhere has this been more apparent than in the use of the Internet for networked-based performance. The absence of latency in stand-alone computers contrasts with the experience of networked performance, creating ambivalence about the role the network can play in computer-based sonic and visual art.
This paper suggest that rather than being a problem for the digital artist, latency is an inherent property of the network, and as such is one of the determining features of the creative space. This demands that creative practitioners account in their work for latency as a creative and aesthetic aspect of digital arts practice.
The opportunities are more apparent when it comes to live performances or interactive installation using technology. Hardware communication, long cables and networking produce significant latency that does not respond instantly to the performance or installation situation. We discuss, through practical demonstration, not how to reduce latency to the minimum but rather how to use latency as a creative and aesthetic property within the presentation structure. Creativity through latency is exploited by suspending the expectations of what we experience visually, aurally and sensually.
We approach the aesthetics of latency in two ways. Firstly we examine the effect of different latencies by delaying the audio from the visual and vice versa. Secondly, we look at the effects of latency in audio-haptic domain. By examining the areas above we present some alternative approaches in digital creativity practice, experiencing latency from an audience perspective as well as the challenges for the performer.
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