Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture PDF
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Springer Series on Cultural Computing Jonathan P. Bowen Suzanne Keene Kia Ng Editors Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture Springer Series on Cultural Computing Editor-in-chief Ernest Edmonds University of Technology Sydney, Australia Editorial board Frieder Nake University of Bremen, Germany Nick Bryan-Kinns Queen Mary, University of London, UK Linda Candy University of Technology Sydney, Australia David England Liverpool John Moores University, UK Andrew Hugill De Montfort University, UK Shigeki Amitani Adobe Systems Inc. Tokyo, Japan Doug Riecken Columbia University, NY, USA For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/10481 Jonathan P. Bowen (cid:129) Suzanne Keene (cid:129) Kia Ng Editors Electronic Visualisation in Arts and Culture Editors Jonathan P. Bowen Suzanne Keene Department of Informatics Department of Archaeology London South Bank University University College London London , UK London , UK Kia Ng Interdisciplinary Centre for Scientifi c Research in Music (ICSRiM) School of Computing & School of Music University of Leeds Leeds , UK Corresponding e-mail for all editors: [email protected] ISSN 2195-9056 ISSN 2195-9064 (electronic) ISBN 978-1-4471-5405-1 ISBN 978-1-4471-5406-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-1-4471-5406-8 Springer London Heidelberg New York Dordrecht Library of Congress Control Number: 2013947737 © Springer-Verlag London 2013 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword The EVA conferences span the 20 years from the early 1990s until now. They began as part of the EU-funded VASARI collaborative research project, which included the National Gallery, London, and its peers in Munich and Paris as well as universities and industrial companies across Europe. EVA stands for E lectronic Visualisation and the Arts : ‘Electronic Visualisation’ because the aim of the VASARI project was to develop a digital camera with suffi cient resolution to do justice to the two thousand or so paintings in the National Gallery’s collection, as the leader of the VASARI project. James Hemsley led the project’s Dissemination Work Package and the progress and results were disseminated by organising the fi rst EVA conference to ‘exchange experiences, plans and dreams’ with participants in VASARI and other projects. For the fi rst few years, the conferences were held in London but subsequently in many other cities around the world (see Chap. 1 ). Initially funded by the EU, the meetings proved so popular that they continued afterwards on a self-supporting basis. Since 2008, the Computer Arts Society, a Specialist Group of the British Computer Society (BCS – the Chartered Institute for IT), has been hosting the EVA London conferences at the BCS London headquarters in Covent Garden. Historically, EVA spans momentous developments in technology and culture. The World Wide Web has revolutionised computing and information technology, the digi- tal camera has revolutionised the way we image ourselves and the world around us, social networks have revolutionised how we relate to each other, the mobile phone has revolutionised how we talk to each other and search technologies are revolution- ising our relationship to knowledge and its creation and preservation. Even those of us who lived through and took part in some of these developments wonder how on earth we managed in the bygone days without these tools. But the next generation of professionals and leaders will have grown up with them since early childhood. Generation Xbox , Facebook and Kinect will be completely adapted to these environ- ments as fi sh are to water. However , these developments have not escaped criticism; while these technologies have matured, the economies that spawned them have sunk into recession or at best undergone slow growth. Cause and effect – very doubtful! While the nineteenth-century technologies – railways, engines, sewers, telegraphy, v vi Foreword aircraft, etc. – had truly major economic and life-changing effects, there is an argu- ment that these late twentieth-century developments have had marginal, incremental effects on the economy rather than being fundamental game changers. But if the quantifi able economic benefi ts are rather less than the fanfares suggest, it may be that more people are doing more things which are not economically measurable or ‘pro- ductive’, for example talking to each other, helping each other and having fun, enjoy- ing immersion in the new open culture which these new technologies have seeded and exploring qualitative, human possibilities. And, being of its time, eclectic in its coverage, this is precisely what the EVA conferences have tried to achieve, with major success, as you will discover from the following chapters. Although EVA is of modern times, we now know that concerns with images, movement and interactions, in the sense of performances, were present from the very beginnings of H omo sapiens . That combination of language, tool making, empathy, socialisation, playfulness and inventiveness which distinguishes our species made its mark early. Recent analyses of cave paintings have suggested that the makers of these were using animation techniques at least 30,000 years ago. Flickering light and subtle use of line and 3D features of the cave wall could give a sense of movement. It is tempting to speculate that these early efforts at animations, if such they are, are a manifestation of the brain’s capability for prediction – to consider what might happen next and to act accordingly – so vital to our evolution and survival (so far). But as we edge nervously into the twenty-fi rst century, our scientifi c understanding of the problems of climate, water, food and disease does raise the spectre that our governance systems are not up to acting on the sombre predictions from the knowledge base. What then of the playful inventiveness from the interdisciplinary arts and technologies described by EVA contributors? The message that I take from these chapters is one of hope; although the outputs from these are not yet quantifi able in economic metrics, they are hugely important in helping create new modes of social interaction that will encourage people in joint efforts to overcome the poverty of the dispiriting hierarchies of power which do seem to be failing us in the face of gloomy predictions. My optimism is that the kinds of innovations and developments described in the EVA conferences are steps towards new ways of articulating and sharing knowledge, which in turn will feed into more open and responsive forms of governance. The EVA London conferences from 2009 to 2012 have produced around 400– 500 contributions, papers, demonstrations and workshops. To distil from this an essence which also projects a sense of what the overall programme has been about and might do has been a challenge to which, as you will see, the editors have risen with great insight and skill. For me, these EVA chapters are a real contribution to twenty-fi rst-century arts and culture, and Springer is to be congratulated for publishing them. London, 2013 George Mallen Pref ace To accomplish great things we must fi rst dream, then visualize, then plan… believe… act! – Alfred A. Montapert In this book, we present selected revised and extended papers from the EVA London Conference on Electronic Visualisation and the Arts held between 2009 and 2012. These conferences provide an interdisciplinary forum for people with a wide range of backgrounds, ranging from visual artists to computer scientists. The initial selection of chapters was largely by the audience during ‘best presentation’ competitions at these conferences, with some additions by the editors for a more rounded overall selection. Each chapter was then peer-reviewed by experts. George Mallen has provided a summing up at recent EVA London conferences and provides a thoughtful foreword for this book. James Hemsley is the progenitor of the EVA conferences, which began in London, but are now held annually in a number of other venues around the world, including Berlin, Florence and Moscow. In Chap. 1 , he provides a history of EVA by way of background to this book. T he rest of the book is divided into themed parts. Each has been shepherded by an editor during the reviewing and revision process and includes a short introduction summarising the theme and the rest of the chapters in that part, together with some suggested reading where appropriate. The annual EVA London conferences are held on behalf of the Computer Arts Society, a British Computer Society (BCS) Specialist Group of the Chartered Institute for IT. We gratefully acknowledge the assistance and support of both organisations. The editors thank the EVA London organising and programme committees for the years 2009–2012, especially the organising chairs and proceedings editors (for the proceedings for these conferences, see http://www.eva-london.org). vii viii Preface James Hemsley and George Mallen have been stalwarts of the EVA London Conference series for many years. Finally, thank you to all the participants at EVA London conferences for making them such exciting and successful events. London, 2013 Jonathan P. Bowen Suzanne Keene Kia Ng Contents 1 The EVA London Conference 1990–2012: Personal Refl ections ................................................................................ 1 James Hemsley Part I Imaging and Culture Suzanne Keene 2 From Descriptions to Duplicates to Data .............................................. 9 Michael Lesk 3 Quantifying Culture: Four Types of Value in Visualisation ............... 25 Chris Alen Sula 4 Embodied Airborne Imagery: Low-Altitude Cinematic Urban Topography .................................................................................. 39 Amir Soltani 5 Back to Paper? An Alternative Approach to Conserving Digital Images into the Twenty-Third Century .................................... 57 Graham Diprose and Mike Seaborne Part II New Art Practice Jonathan P. Bowen 6 Light Years: Jurassic Coast: An Immersive 3D Landscape Project ............................................................................. 75 Jeremy Gardiner and Anthony Head 7 Photography as a Tool of Alienation: A ura ........................................... 91 Murat Germen 8 Fugue and Variations on Some Themes in Art and Science ............... 105 Gordana Novakovic ix
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