Creative Informatics Small Research Grants Showcase In April 2020, Creative Informatics funded five ’Small Research Grants’ for Early Career Researchers, to explore innovative uses or applications of data in creative and cultural sectors. Over the summer, they’ve developed exciting research on topics ranging from the experiences of creative freelancers during Covid, through to new accessible interfaces for gestural controls. Join us via Zoom to hear these projects share their findings, and discuss new opportunities for Creative Informatics research. (Image credit: Elspeth Murray, Beyond Research Symposium 2019) Speakers and Projects Creatives in Crisis: How freelance creatives mobilise online communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Holly Patrick) Despite the economic importance of the UK’s creative industries, much of the work undertaken in the sector is characterised as low paid, and sometimes even exploitative. The often individualised and freelance nature of creative work, and the power imbalance between these workers and those who purchase their labour or products led to falling wage rates and insecure employment across many creative occupations, even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. As a largely non-unionised group of workers, freelance creatives have often found it challenging to resist these power imbalances and achieve fairer pay for all. This research used a netnographic approach, supplemented by online video interviews, to consider how freelance creative workers are affected by the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and explore how they are mobilising online communities to respond. By uncovering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on these workers, this research will better enable the government, professional associations and the third sector (where relevant) to support freelance creatives, in addition to developing academic knowledge on how macro social events impact on labour relations in the creative industries. Creating a grammar for gesture creation with limited sensors and computing power (Josh Hosking) Current schemes for gesture recognition are prohibitive for many uses either by cost, portability or the range of possible gestures. Solutions using cameras are very good at detecting a range of hand or movement based gestures. These however require a static camera and a high level of computation, both of which are expensive. Simpler options are heavily reliant on context. A Nintendo ‘Wiimote’ can be used for gestural inputs, however the relationship between the input to the remote and the in game output is dictated by the expected input to the game and so a gesture is more easily derived. A structured approach, drawing on transformational grammars for translating sensor data into recognised gestures, would facilitate users to create custom gestures using simple sensors with limited computing power. The ability for user customisation and the development of novel gesture signatures provides new opportunities for HCI, particularly in the ability to exchange and disseminate gesture signatures and packages across existing platforms, allowing for collaborative creative output in art, design, music and in accessibility contexts. To open these possibilities, I propose to create a gesture grammar where several pieces of sensor data are used to recognise gesture signatures. Tidesong (Victoria Evans) Tidesong is a website and mobile app being developed by Victoria Evans, with Sam Healy and Brendan McCarthy at Ray Interactive, that allows users to interact with tidal information to create ambient music. This practice-based research project asks how far an online installation might be able to offer an embodied and situated art experience, especially in a time of social distancing. The mobile app will use orientation sensors, and a process of data sonification (the use of non-speech audio to perceptualise information) to allow audience members to generate a unique tidal ‘song’ specific to their own time and place. The sound works will then form part of a growing, audio-visual map connecting audiences poetically to the natural rhythms of the tidal landscape. String Figures – Collective value mapping of a distributed feminist currency network based on principles of social justice and mutual care (Bettina Nissen & Ailie Rutherford) String Figures is a continuation of the collaborative Crypto-Knitting-Circles project between researcher Bettina Nissen and artist Ailie Rutherford co-developing ideas for possible use of new technologies in feminist community currency. Working with local organisations in Glasgow as well as international networks with similar ethos and aims, this project will explore new forms of shared, online tools for mapping community value exchanges, hidden labour practices, shared skills and knowledge throughout a distributed network. Taking a community-centred approach to empower and enable communities and creatives we will collectively design a system for shared experiential learning across feminist and social justice groups moving from a local to a trans-local network of mutual care, solidarity and fair labour practices. The term String Figures by Donna Haraway acts as a metaphor for the inextricable threads that connect us all which have become more visible and essential in the current global crisis. Shifts in language towards solidarity economies, mutual aid and online collaboration highlight the need for new tools and visions of future alternative models of distributed power and labour practices to challenge the increasingly visible issues of the current economic model and the digital gig-economy. This is part of a larger Creative Scotland funded project. Mapping Digital Film Production and Distribution Strategies in Times of Covid-19 (Ita Jansen) Covid-19 has a severe impact on both the production and distribution of Cinema. Film practice is intrinsically collaborative and requires face to face contact, hence social distancing measures are forcing productions around the world to halt. For the same reason cinemas have closed, film festivals and international film markets have been cancelled or postponed, including the Cannes International Film Festival. In response to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, broadcasters, funding bodies and film festivals have taken a variety of measures and approaches to continue production and / or distribution. Different film festivals, markets and commissioning events have opted for online streaming editions. This project maps diverse innovative (online and digital) film production and distribution strategies that were developed as a response to Covid-19 crisis. About Creative Informatics Funded by the Creative Industries Clusters Programme managed by the Arts & Humanities Research Council as part of the Industrial Strategy, with additional support from the Scottish Funding Council. The programme is part of the City Region Deal Data Driven Innovation initiative. Data Protection In providing your completed registration response you are giving explicit consent for us to use this data in our programme monitoring and reporting processes. The data is managed confidentially. Your data will be held and used by the Creative Informatics delivery team based at the University of Edinburgh with some data shared with our funders the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Policy and Evidence Centre based at Nesta. Your data will only be reported in anonymous aggregated forms and will always be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and therefore also in accordance with the General Data Protection Act 2018 and therefore also in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Nov 18 2020 16.00 - 18.00 Creative Informatics Small Research Grants Showcase Join Creative Informatics to find out about the exciting projects our CI small grant holders have been working on! Online Register
Creative Informatics Small Research Grants Showcase In April 2020, Creative Informatics funded five ’Small Research Grants’ for Early Career Researchers, to explore innovative uses or applications of data in creative and cultural sectors. Over the summer, they’ve developed exciting research on topics ranging from the experiences of creative freelancers during Covid, through to new accessible interfaces for gestural controls. Join us via Zoom to hear these projects share their findings, and discuss new opportunities for Creative Informatics research. (Image credit: Elspeth Murray, Beyond Research Symposium 2019) Speakers and Projects Creatives in Crisis: How freelance creatives mobilise online communities in response to the COVID-19 pandemic (Holly Patrick) Despite the economic importance of the UK’s creative industries, much of the work undertaken in the sector is characterised as low paid, and sometimes even exploitative. The often individualised and freelance nature of creative work, and the power imbalance between these workers and those who purchase their labour or products led to falling wage rates and insecure employment across many creative occupations, even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck. As a largely non-unionised group of workers, freelance creatives have often found it challenging to resist these power imbalances and achieve fairer pay for all. This research used a netnographic approach, supplemented by online video interviews, to consider how freelance creative workers are affected by the unprecedented Covid-19 pandemic and explore how they are mobilising online communities to respond. By uncovering the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on these workers, this research will better enable the government, professional associations and the third sector (where relevant) to support freelance creatives, in addition to developing academic knowledge on how macro social events impact on labour relations in the creative industries. Creating a grammar for gesture creation with limited sensors and computing power (Josh Hosking) Current schemes for gesture recognition are prohibitive for many uses either by cost, portability or the range of possible gestures. Solutions using cameras are very good at detecting a range of hand or movement based gestures. These however require a static camera and a high level of computation, both of which are expensive. Simpler options are heavily reliant on context. A Nintendo ‘Wiimote’ can be used for gestural inputs, however the relationship between the input to the remote and the in game output is dictated by the expected input to the game and so a gesture is more easily derived. A structured approach, drawing on transformational grammars for translating sensor data into recognised gestures, would facilitate users to create custom gestures using simple sensors with limited computing power. The ability for user customisation and the development of novel gesture signatures provides new opportunities for HCI, particularly in the ability to exchange and disseminate gesture signatures and packages across existing platforms, allowing for collaborative creative output in art, design, music and in accessibility contexts. To open these possibilities, I propose to create a gesture grammar where several pieces of sensor data are used to recognise gesture signatures. Tidesong (Victoria Evans) Tidesong is a website and mobile app being developed by Victoria Evans, with Sam Healy and Brendan McCarthy at Ray Interactive, that allows users to interact with tidal information to create ambient music. This practice-based research project asks how far an online installation might be able to offer an embodied and situated art experience, especially in a time of social distancing. The mobile app will use orientation sensors, and a process of data sonification (the use of non-speech audio to perceptualise information) to allow audience members to generate a unique tidal ‘song’ specific to their own time and place. The sound works will then form part of a growing, audio-visual map connecting audiences poetically to the natural rhythms of the tidal landscape. String Figures – Collective value mapping of a distributed feminist currency network based on principles of social justice and mutual care (Bettina Nissen & Ailie Rutherford) String Figures is a continuation of the collaborative Crypto-Knitting-Circles project between researcher Bettina Nissen and artist Ailie Rutherford co-developing ideas for possible use of new technologies in feminist community currency. Working with local organisations in Glasgow as well as international networks with similar ethos and aims, this project will explore new forms of shared, online tools for mapping community value exchanges, hidden labour practices, shared skills and knowledge throughout a distributed network. Taking a community-centred approach to empower and enable communities and creatives we will collectively design a system for shared experiential learning across feminist and social justice groups moving from a local to a trans-local network of mutual care, solidarity and fair labour practices. The term String Figures by Donna Haraway acts as a metaphor for the inextricable threads that connect us all which have become more visible and essential in the current global crisis. Shifts in language towards solidarity economies, mutual aid and online collaboration highlight the need for new tools and visions of future alternative models of distributed power and labour practices to challenge the increasingly visible issues of the current economic model and the digital gig-economy. This is part of a larger Creative Scotland funded project. Mapping Digital Film Production and Distribution Strategies in Times of Covid-19 (Ita Jansen) Covid-19 has a severe impact on both the production and distribution of Cinema. Film practice is intrinsically collaborative and requires face to face contact, hence social distancing measures are forcing productions around the world to halt. For the same reason cinemas have closed, film festivals and international film markets have been cancelled or postponed, including the Cannes International Film Festival. In response to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, broadcasters, funding bodies and film festivals have taken a variety of measures and approaches to continue production and / or distribution. Different film festivals, markets and commissioning events have opted for online streaming editions. This project maps diverse innovative (online and digital) film production and distribution strategies that were developed as a response to Covid-19 crisis. About Creative Informatics Funded by the Creative Industries Clusters Programme managed by the Arts & Humanities Research Council as part of the Industrial Strategy, with additional support from the Scottish Funding Council. The programme is part of the City Region Deal Data Driven Innovation initiative. Data Protection In providing your completed registration response you are giving explicit consent for us to use this data in our programme monitoring and reporting processes. The data is managed confidentially. Your data will be held and used by the Creative Informatics delivery team based at the University of Edinburgh with some data shared with our funders the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Policy and Evidence Centre based at Nesta. Your data will only be reported in anonymous aggregated forms and will always be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and therefore also in accordance with the General Data Protection Act 2018 and therefore also in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Nov 18 2020 16.00 - 18.00 Creative Informatics Small Research Grants Showcase Join Creative Informatics to find out about the exciting projects our CI small grant holders have been working on! Online Register
Nov 18 2020 16.00 - 18.00 Creative Informatics Small Research Grants Showcase Join Creative Informatics to find out about the exciting projects our CI small grant holders have been working on!
