The Projection Augmented Relief Model (PARM) technique is presented, which aims to combine the affordances of digital mapping and physical landscape models. The technique is designed to provide an engaging and informative situated display, offering an intuitive frame of reference for placing objects, activities or events into their spatial context. It also has potential to act as an integrative framework through which visitors might learn about connections between themes being displayed elsewhere in the gallery space. We describe our experiences of creating and displaying a prototype model and the specific context in which it is being deployed. We also offer a research agenda for further exploration of this technique, including ongoing work to define the measurable benefits in relation to spatial knowledge acquisition.

Carefully designed rigorous experimental protocols run in controlled settings are necessary for certain types of empirical scientific research. However there are cheaper, faster, more lightweight approaches that are good enough to fit the grubby pragmatics of iterative engineering design - trying to make things a bit better one step at a time. This usability lab aims to show how user tests can be designed to fit this particular need.

Whilst many excellent examples of digital 3D reconstruction of heritage sites exist (for example the Digital Roman Forum project) most, if not all, of these are characterized by a drive to establish a photorealistic re-creation of physical features. This paper will discuss possibilities that lie beyond straightforward positivist recreation of heritage sites, in the experimental reconstruction of intangible heritage.

The aim of this initial project is to provide objective relevant measurements of key facial features from the two ancient Roman portrait statue three-dimensional scans, which will allow the delineation of relationships between individual portraits including formal and stylistics aspects.

This paper explores Autodesk® Maya® through a methodology based in visual studies, production culture studies, and science technology studies. The primary materials are moving images (games, films, animations, web sites), production culture materials, training manual and on-line tutorials, and interviews with software users.

This paper takes Wellcome Collection’s casual Flash game Axon as the starting point for an investigation of the representation of the human brain in scientific and popular visual culture. It looks at the re-emergence of the neuron as a dominant image of the brain, against a historical background of brain-mapping technologies, from phrenology to fMRI. It then considers the representation of the brain in videogames in particular, in both entertainment and educational contexts. The role of rules in both games and brain development is explored, as is the idea that videogame interaction may be related to humans’ unique spatial understanding of the world. The paper concludes that while Axon suggests some of the possibilities of videogames in communicating neuroscience, games offer a larger potential for helping us to understand the brain than has currently been exploited.

Unlike a conventional lecture, where interaction and delivery behaviour is generally predictable, this paper presents suggestions for alternative and innovative delivery methods using different forms of visual and auditory modes to create a ‘performance lecture’. A performance lecture is distinct from a conventional lecture in several ways. Its primary purpose is not simply to impart knowledge didactically, but to find ways of making spectatorship emotionally engaging. This paper first discusses the constituent parts of our evolving framework for performance lectures. We then provide a review of some initial visually-based demonstrator work, a 12 minute ‘triptych’ demonstrator video, followed by some preliminary analysis of a user evaluation study. Suggestions for further work conclude this paper.

This paper will explore how Wittgenstein’s Tractatus relates to Tufte’s theories of envisioning information and could contribute to understanding the principles underlying three-dimensional visualisation.

This paper outlines the technological requirements and the steps necessary to create a virtual tour for a virtual museum exhibit using QR Codes. This system was developed for the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma and was tested in two separate exhibits

Today, archives are at the centre of a fascinating turning point in museography. This paper examines how archival materials were first brought within the sphere of exhibition design. It then explores the particularities of archival documents and considers the new perspective which the digital age has lent to their treatment, with the shift that has occurred in the past decade or so in the role of museums leading to the integration of interactive displays. With three practical examples, the paper looks at case studies carried out by ARTCHIVIUMlab, a media design studio working exclusively with archives, and reflects on the historically-based, but innovative approach that has been applied to each project in an effort to present archive material in a way which speaks to the contemporary public.