KAPTUR seeks to investigate the nature of visual arts research data, making recommendations for its effective management; develop a model of best practice applicable to both specialist arts institutions and arts departments in multidisciplinary institutions; and apply, test and refine the model with its four institutional partners.

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.

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

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.

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.

The Life Project explores issues of psychological projection into technology by diving into the convoluted relationship between practical purpose and emotional attachment, through both the creative act of designing and making robot entities with artificial emotions, and the social act of engaging with them. This process explores the concept of body representation through a multiidentity in virtual and physical blended space. In a lesser sense, it also suggests a future world of collaboration between physical and virtual forms, enabled by new forms of representation in blended worlds.

Advanced dissection and analysis of sound is often used to aid technology’s understanding of its environment (e.g. in robotics and telecommunications). The aim of this project is to utilise sound information technology to enhance our understanding of sound and how we process it.

My general theme is the centuries old quest for an illusionistic space that appears bigger than the confines of the theatre stage, yet can contain live actors and be animated. Computers have in the last 15 years, significantly enhanced the possibilities of theatrical spacial illusion, movement and atmosphere, thus allowing theatre practitioners immense freedom in storytelling for a visually sophisticated public.

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.

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.