Abstracts

Anna Bentkowska

In The Last Dinosaur Book published in 1998, the art historian, W.J.T. Mitchell put forward an idea that images might live like a species. A year later Walking with Dinosaurs amazed its television audience by the photo-realistic image of life on earth in the Mesozoic era, which was created through a digital photo-montage of small-scale animatronic models and computer models of pre-historic giants, pasted into film shots of modern, South American habitats. The 'living' digital imagery of this 'documentary' has probably replaced, once and forever, the familiar, static image of dinosaurs as gigantic, petrified skeletons housed in natural history museums. The new, complete image of a walking dinosaur has not only reduced one's scope for imagination, but also filled gaps in this particular field with questionable data. Walking with Dinosaurs illustrates to the letter Mitchell's view of images being an extension to organic life. Images, and digital images in particular, can indeed be modified, tampered with, reproduced and cloned like living organisms. In another television programme produced in 1999, World War II was shown through the use of original black and white film footage from the 1940s, which had been edited digitally in colour. The manipulation of documentary material, in this particular case, resulted in an image 'truer' to the real events.

Whether in history, natural history or history of art, the increasing use of manipulated digital imagery has a direct effect on the interpretation of historic material. Although playing with images is as old as human creativity, the techniques of computer graphics seem to push the limits of what is possible beyond the control of the beholder; the criteria which he was able to rely upon in order to assess the authority of a visual record are no longer sufficient. With changing conventions and shifting notions can the digital image still be trusted? In the history of art in particular, a photographic reproduction used to enjoy an almost sacrosanct status comparable with the original work of art it represented. Despite its technical limitations, the reliability of an art reproduction as a true record was hardly ever questioned. Important interpretations and misinterpretations, based on the analysis of a photograph have been formulated. Digital reproductions can be seen as a natural extension of old photographs, but there is uncertainty in how to assess their reliability. This paper seeks to readdress some of the issues pertaining to the role of digital images as a form of knowledge.

Gina Cavallo Collins

It is rare for an entire art medium to become obsolete. Most forms have been used for centuries: painting, bronze sculpture, drawing, printmaking, even fresco is still occasionally employed. Video art may be the first "high art" to become what artist and science fiction author Bruce Sterling refers to as "dead media." A product of technology, video is being consumed by new technologies based on computers that promise more flexibility, better preservation and higher quality. The 1990s began the shift and the new millennium will undoubtedly be the critical juncture where video art's future is decided.

The purpose of this paper is to explore this juncture, define the issues surrounding the shift, and identify the artists and scholars who are involved in the future of the medium.

Digital technology is redefining the ubiquitously titled area of video art. Most of the artists placed in this category have fought to disassociate themselves from the stigma of television or even film. Early on, Nam June Paik placed television monitors in the position of Marcel Duchamp's urinal - raising an everyday object to the level of high art. Paik emphasized the machine itself, commenting on television and its place in American society. Later, in the 1980s, Bill Viola moved the medium into the realm of experiential art by slowly breaking away from the television set. His works attempted to bring the viewer into some type of contact with the people on the video, rather than distancing them through the inhuman qualities of the television box.

Polly Elkin

The photo survey project at the V&A arose from the desire to have images of all objects on display on the ground floor of the Museum, primarily for security purposes. It represents the first large-scale trial using a digital camera for object photography within the Museum, specifically monitoring the performance of the digital image against analogue equivalents. The project effectively falls into two main sections for discussion: image capture and subsequent object cataloguing.

Once the objects lacking an image had been identified (Ca. 2000 objects at part number level), work began out in the galleries with a V&A photographer, using a DC330 Fuji camera with Smartcard recording device. The digital camera had to function under the very exacting conditions of the public gallery space, with revealing implications for the use of digital photoraphy within this context.

The next phase of the project followed when the edited digital images had been transferred from the Smartcard to the image arena. A minimum number of fields for data entry were selected from the V&A core, chose for their potential use in multiple information nominated by the relevant collection, a core Catalogue record is generated for each object on the Collections Information System. This forms a starter record that will be expanded in future by curatorial staff. The digital image can then be permanently linked in to the Catalogue record.

Although the minimum core data standard created for this project acts in itself as a trial for future retrospective cataloguing at the V&A, the key subject to be considered is the capture of the digital image and the successive application of visual documentation tot he core Catalogue record.

Charlie Gere

This paper looks at the development of a distinctive digital aesthetic that found expression across a number of fields. In music the possibilities of digital technology combined with the legacies of art school performance-oriented rock, disco and punk, produced 'techno' and its assorted variations. Punk was also one of the inspirations, along with 'postmodern' fiction for the science fiction genre known as 'cyberpunk'. The technological potential unleashed by desktop publishing and graphics software allied with the methodological potential offered by variously by Punk and French Deconstructionist philosophy produced a style of graphic design and typography known sometimes as 'Deconstructionist' graphic design. These developments share a fascination with contemporary technology and in both its utopian and dystopian possibilities, as well as employing strategies, of appropriation, juxtaposition, detournement, montage, collage, repetition, facilitated by or reflecting upon the extraordinary capabilities of that technology.

Michael Greenhalgh

[no abstract]
Over recent years, with the growing ability of the web to present ever-larger, ever-better still images, art historians amongst others have been focussing on the development of programmes able to construct a version of the world we see with our eyes - that is, in three dimensions, and also (sometimes) in stereo - which gives our students some knowledge of context, as some mitigation for the usual imaging method of presenting two flat images (the same dimensions no matter what their real sizes) in a darkened room. The Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML) holds out the possibility of using a computer to develop and elaborate such context; it is a language for constructing artificial worlds, with which we can interact by giving directions to the software to move, pan and zoom the scenes. Elements within the world can be hotspotted, so that a mouseclick will open a related HTML page or execute an action, giving access to still images, video, and sound. Apart from teaching students of art history who might not have visited the site being modelled, uses of VRML include education, process control, and training (e.g. for surgery, piloting, firefighting). It is no substitute for actually visiting a site, but might be a step up from the darkened-room approach to the discipline.

Debbie Kent

The Visual Arts Data Service (VADS) is currently running the PICTIVA project, which aims to promote the use of image collections in learning and teaching in the visual arts.

VADS is part of the Arts & Humanities Data Service funded by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB). Their aims are:

• To build a searchable on-line archive of digital resources for use by the visual arts community especially higher education for teaching, learning and research.
• To establish and promote good practice in the creation, management and preservation of digital resources through an advisory, training and publications programme.

The next eighteen months will show a large growth in the amount of collections that will be delivered online by VADS with the delivery of the JIDI and POSSE collections, as well as other independent collections.

Promoting the use of online image collections in learning and teaching in the visual arts

PICTIVA is a two-year project, funded by JISC as part of their programme to enhance JISC activities for learning and teaching. The project is targeted at the image collections offered by VADS, and it will be co-ordinated, delivered and promoted by VADS in partnership with the Institute for Image Data Retrieval (IIDR). PICTIVA will:

• Produce generic tools to promote ease of use of the image collections delivered by VADS
• Develop learning and teaching materials based on the use of specific collections
• Evaluate this process and produce case studies based on the final outcomes of the project

The generic tools will include online tutorials, making considerations about the format of the user interface with emphasis on the search and retrieval of images in the collections held by VADS as well as a trial of contents based image retrieval (CBIR). Learning and Teaching Materials The development of learning and teaching materials, based on the images included in specific collections, will be sub-contracted to academics with the relevant expertise. Evaluation The tools and materials will also be trialed by lecturers and students in participating organisations. Case studies reporting on usage or prospective usage will be included on the VADS site. Current status The project has four major stages: consultation, development, implementation and evaluation. The consultation phase will be completed by summer 2000 and the results of the user surveys will inform the specifications for the development of the generic tools and the learning and teaching materials.

Kalliopi S. Koundouri

This representation mainly consists of an array of questions rather than a set of answers. The pressing need for new 'criteria' of aesthetic judgement, specially conceived and constructed to address the specific features of a computer-generated art work, has led to an extensive discussion amongst scholars from many disciplines. One must bear in mind that computer-generated Art is yet to establish itself unequivocably as a form of artistic expression that, on the one hand emanates from principles and needs similar to any other kind of Art yet, on the other hand, claims that kind of autonomy that is related to its unique features, i.e. a computer program used as an artist medium. This paper will explore the problems inherent in this situation.

Matt Landrus

The Leonardo collectibles museum at http://leonardo-da-vinci.org addresses three principle problems of visual culture. First, how are Leonardo collectibles defined within the history of collecting? Secondly, how do these relatively ordinary objects indicate the postmodern reception of the idea of Leonardo and his work? And finally, how are the images of these objects, and other material at the site, free to everyone on the web? The site has been organized with regard to these specific concerns. Also, the content is almost entirely visual, as the subject is itself that of visual culture.

Patrick McNaughton

I want to present the development of a new 2 disk CD-ROM called Five Windows into Africa, created by five scholars (with me as project leader) in collaboration with Indiana University's Teaching and Learning Technologies Laboratory. Each of its five units explores a different topic and geographic area, by presenting an actual event and an extensive collection of themes that bring the event to artistic, cultural and social life. This massive project involved much experimentation with software development, content presentation, user-friendly units of information, screens and user interfaces, navigation, and variation and consistency across the five units. Two of the authors were art historians, and several lab members had strong art backgrounds. Thus aesthetics played a pronounced role in the project.

My presentation will focus on my unit, a dramatic bird masquerade by a virtuoso performer named Sidi Ballo. I saw him in 1978 at the height of his expertise, and his artistry was inspirational. Leaping benches, ascending high platforms, slamming into walls, dancing the masquerade upside down and demonstrating invisibility were key elements in his aesthetic strategy. I had not expected to witness this, so my documentation included still photographs but no video to demonstrate the motion. I wrote a vivid description, and interviewed the artist, other performers and bird masquerade enthusiasts, both in 1978 and on a return visit in 1998. Through carefully articulated presentation and a dynamic interplay between performance description and an elaborate constellation of themes, we capture the drama, intellectual dynamism and cultural significance of the masquerade.

Tessa Meijer and Oliver Vicars-Harris

[no abstract]
In the light of its recent expansion activities and in order to take the lead in applying cutting edge technologies to provide greater access to its collection, Tate has, as one of its digital activities, created a project to digitise the British Collection. The project has been given the title of British Art Information Project (BAIP) and it went into full production in Spring 2000. The images that BAIP creates are fed to the Tate website once a week, and will be available as part of the Collection Catalogue, with a fully searchable subject index. This paper gives a background to the project and tells what is involved in getting an activity of this sort up and running; there is a 'walkthrough' tour of the production processes, an examination of the means for delivery to end users, as well as a discussion of how the project fits into the wider Information Systems initiatives at Tate. The paper concludes with a summary of the key points covered, ensuring that the activities of the British Art Information Project are made clear.

Mike Pringle

In response to an ever developing Internet, and the novel technologies and approaches it introduces, the Heritage industry, like everyone else, is having to re-evaluate its own approach to data management and information output. The industry is now becoming more concerned with making data more widely available, and with the necessity to find practical, efficient and usable ways to do so. As an indirect consequence of new government initiatives (Modernising Government), English Heritage is making concerted efforts to make more of its own archival material available to much wider audiences than previously. The paper points out the importance of the end-user in this process, and identifies several differing groups to whom heritage data may be of value. It then outlines some of the current trends in various computer-based human computer interfaces (HCI) and demonstrates how these HCIs are developed in accordance with their intended user-base. The paper then introduces a novel, intuitive interface approach that is currently being explored by English Heritage with a view to making the accessing of heritage data more widely available and to a wider section of the community.

The project is assessing the possibilities of constructing a public access interface, on the World Wide Web, using familiar, real-world metaphors to represent sets of data. The metaphors, representing sets such as monument types or geographical areas, are placed in a virtual reality (VR), three-dimensional space where the user may explore them at will. This approach allows a user to 'fly' through; for example, a town composed of generic monument types of a specified time period. Once a particular model has been selected the choice may be changed, or refined by geographical and temporal constraints, and a list of corresponding monuments then requested. Furthermore, every choice made by the user is answered with prompts from the interface to assist him/her in the next level of the decision making process.

In essence the models are filtering mechanisms designed to illustrate certain sets or sub-sets of data. The depiction of these filters as easily recognisable models, with clear labelling, presents a contextual picture of the underlying data that imparts a high-level of information value at the interface. The user, even with little or no specialist knowledge, is able to navigate information in a quick, friendly, and productive manner.

Karen Wallis

The established method of mounting a gallery exhibition no longer fits the demands of digital art. Developing technology opens up new possibilities for presentation on the one hand, while complicating the issues of interpretation on the other.

This paper looks at the breadth of digital art forms and methods of presentation evident in three digital bursaries at Watershed, Bristol and examines the issues that have arisen to date.

The first bursary was a Hi-tech / Lo-Tech installation - a gallery based exhibition based on research gathered through an interactive web site. The second was the development of software as an art form - a free programme to download from the Internet, demonstrated in the gallery by artwork created by artists. The third, a series of interventions, currently being developed, will be revealed over the next year.

The experience of these bursaries has revealed issues, both practical and theoretical, for curation, presentation, and the relationship between the audience and the artwork. The nature of a bursary, rather than a commission or a grant, recognizes the need for artists to develop their technological skills at the same time as developing a body of work.

However in this situation the role of the curator shifts. Careful support and monitoring is required in a situation where artists are usually left to manage a project for themselves.

Practical problems are not restricted to keeping up with technology. The assembly and presentation of digital art requires a different and more time-consuming approach than the hanging of an exhibition of.

Reinhold Weinmann, Iris Flechtner, Nicolai Freiwald and Bernhard Vogel

Employing the technology of geographical information-systems we develop a tourist information system for the city of Heidelberg. A geo-coded database linking its content to objects and persons allows the user to access multimedia-information such as explanations, maps, photographs, historic views, short videos and 3D-models. Next to the 3 dimensional geo-coding all data are time-coded as well, supplying each object, event or person with time-specific data. Therefore, the user can ask the system about historic events and periods related to persons or objects. The user will also be able to experience changes of single buildings as well as the whole townscape through time, by means of a 3D-model. Various sources are available for the reconstruction of the townscape and the buildings of distinct periods. In most cases these sources, such as old engravings, are not sufficient to reconstruct complete objects. Therefore, a database containing elements of buildings from different periods is being developed.

Elements of this database are e.g. windows, doors or roof parts, related to their historical, geographical and functional role. These architectural 'building blocks' can then, in turn, be used to complete models of buildings where no detailed information is available. These elements themselves are reconstructed after the model of still existing buildings, which can be found in Heidelberg and in towns nearby. The fusion of information gathered from historic views, old ground plans and the architecture base will allow the 3D-modelling of Heidelberg in different centuries and thus provides the user with a 4D-information-system for virtual travels in space and Time.

John Wyver

Inhabited Television combines 3D collaborative virtual environments with the linear forms of broadcast media. "The combination of participation and narrative", John Wyver argues "offers unique opportunities for creating experiences of presence with many applications in cultural contexts." Here he outlines the lessons from five years research into Inhabited Television including the recent participatory drama "Avatar Farm" He also introduces plans for the latest inhabited television project - "2nd Pompeii", just before the eruption of Vesuvius.