Linda (and list)
Thanks for the rebuke if it was one. :-)
There is a problem here with communities of practice and the words they use which may seem like pointless jargon to others. I made a (wrong?) assumption that MCGers would be familiar with these concepts. Here is an attempt to clarify...
+++ Physical Computing +++
Computing has for long been associated with display screens and simple forms of control such as mice, keyboards, trackballs etc, but increasingly computer systems employ richer forms of communication. For example, a system in a gallery may respond to the proximity of visitors, or to visitors engaging through whole body movement (as Kinect is doing in the consumer market). The 'display' may take the form of moving, tactile, physical responses rather than just changing what appears on a screen.
For example, Ralf Nuhn's Bubblelabub (http://www.telesymbiosis.com/movies/bubblelabub_hi.mov) is one of a set of interactives exhibited at the V&A Museum of Childhood in 2004 (some since purchased by ZKM the Centre for Art and Media Karlsruhe).
+++ Multimodal Interaction +++
This is interaction where users employ more than one channel of communication with the system - typically voice and gesture.
There is actually a long history of such physical engagement of the public with electronic systems. Early examples include Ihnatowicz's Sound Activated Mobile (http://www.senster.com/ihnatowicz/SAM/sam.htm) and Senster (http://www.senster.com/ihnatowicz/senster/index.htm). These works from 1968 and 1970 responded to the sound (and in the case of the Senster also to the movement) of visitors.
+++ Gallery Beyond the Walls +++
Increasingly, museums, galleries and arts organisations engage with their 'users' in ordinary places that the public naturally go, in addition to within the institutional walls. This takes many forms, including the use of location-sensitive mobiles to extend the museum experience to the streets. For a further example, a dance/art experience embedded in the banal environment of a shopping centre, see ByPasser by Nic Sandiland, an artist and choreographer at the Lansdown Centre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVXC0xA-72I
Why do these developments matter? - they enable the public to be engaged in news ways and in new places.
I hope that clarifies what I was talking about. Or at least interests some on the list.
Stephen
_____________________________________________________________
Stephen Boyd Davis
Reader in Interactive Media
Head, Art and Design Research Institute
Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT
United Kingdom
Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072
.............................................................
The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/
On 09/03/2011 08:41, "Linda Ellis" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Stephen
>
> If you are aiming this at clients principally in management and policy
> roles, writing it in plain English would be a good idea.
>
> What do you mean by:
>
> The course would focus on 'physical computing' and multimodal kinds of
> interaction. It would include 'gallery beyond the walls' concepts such
> as interactive works in public spaces.
>
> Linda Ellis
> Project Manager Online Collections
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
> Stephen Boyd Davis
> Sent: 08 March 2011 11:25
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: A short course in Interacting beyond the screen? - seeking your
> views
>
> Dear colleagues
>
> I wonder if you can advise me? We (the Lansdown Centre at Middlesex
> University) are planning a short postgraduate-level course aimed at
> museum and gallery professionals - more specifically, those responsible
> for the digital aspects of their institutions. The working title is
> "Interacting beyond the screen: extending museum and gallery
> interaction".
>
> Here are our thoughts on the nature of what we would provide. You
> reaction to any or all of this would be much appreciated.
>
> - Clients would principally be in management and policy roles,
> specifying and commissioning interactives, but others would be building
> systems themselves. Education, outreach and public engagement officers
> of institutions might be clients too.
>
> - The specialist expertise we offer combines technical knowledge,
> conceptual and artistic objectives and an awareness of new kinds of
> public engagement with art and media.
>
> - The course would focus on 'physical computing' and multimodal kinds of
> interaction. It would include 'gallery beyond the walls' concepts such
> as interactive works in public spaces. It is not about the uses of
> social media (which we plan to cover in a different context).
>
> - Parts of the course would be didactic in style. Much of it would be
> based on discussion of case studies and example technologies. There
> would be a small hands-on element to the course, partly because clients
> might find it fun, partly so they can feel the potential and the
> complexities. Several technologies could also be
> demonstrated/illustrated and their actual and potential uses explained.
>
> - Key contributors would be two or three university staff who are
> practising arts-technology people, plus one or two visitors from
> companies specialising in beyond-screen interactivity.
>
> - In order to complete the course, clients attending would complete at
> least one assignment. This would be customisable to the role,
> institution etc. of the individual and have a strong work-based element
> for those who wanted it.
>
> - It would be worth one ninth of a modular MA, where other modules could
> be taken from elsewhere in the Build Your Own MA scheme run by Skillset.
>
> I realise these are skeletal details only, but would be very keen to
> hear on or off-list if you would come on such a course, send staff on
> it, recommend it, etc and above all what you would expect to get out of
> it.
>
> Many thanks in anticipation,
>
> Stephen
> --
> _____________________________________________________________
> Stephen Boyd Davis
> Reader in Interactive Media
> Head, Art and Design Research Institute
> Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts Middlesex University, Cat
> Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT United Kingdom Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072
> .............................................................
> The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/
>
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--
_____________________________________________________________
Stephen Boyd Davis
Reader in Interactive Media
Head, Art and Design Research Institute
Head, Lansdown Centre for Electronic Arts
Middlesex University, Cat Hill, Barnet, Herts EN4 8HT
United Kingdom
Tel 44 (0)20 8411 5072
.............................................................
The Lansdown Centre's Web Pages are at http://www.cea.mdx.ac.uk/
****************************************************************
website: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ukmcg
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/museumscomputergroup
[un]subscribe: http://museumscomputergroup.org.uk/email-list/
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