INFORMATION LITERACY IN A RESEARCHER'S LEARNING LIFE: THE SEVEN AGES OF RESEARCH

This article uses data from research conducted in the course of writing a book on the needs, wants and characteristics of researchers to examine how researchers view themselves and the research process. As a result of this, the Seven Ages of Research model was developed which categorises a researcher's learning life into a series of discrete stages. The article explores learning needs relevant to each age in the learning life and links them to the development of information literacy. The authors explore the polarisation that exists between what researchers think research is about and what they believe the library can offer them, and suggest that information literacy needs to be seen as involving a change in understanding of, and attitude to, the world of information, as well as the nature of those information needs. Finally, they explore the librarian's role in an e-environment which has changed the way researchers work and identify some of the challenges facing library and information services professionals in the future in supporting researchers throughout their learning lives.     

An Investigation of Information Systems Interoperability in UK Universities: Findings and Recommendations

This article reports on the key findings and implications of the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded Online Catalogue and Repository Interoperability Study (OCRIS), a 3-month project which investigated the interoperability of Online Public Access Catalogues (OPACs) and Institutional Repositories (IRs) within UK universities. A series of detailed recommendations enumerate some of the ways in which they might begin to develop and support an interoperable systems landscape to the benefit of all key stakeholders.

The project combined quantitative and qualitative research methods including an online questionnaire distributed to staff within 85 universities, desk research, and two case studies conducted at the Universities of Cambridge and Glasgow.     

Towards computer game studies

It is relatively stress-free to write about computer games as nothing too much has been said yet, and almost anything goes. The situation is pretty much the same when it comes to writing about games and gaming in general. The sad fact with alarming cumulative consequences is that they are under-theorized; there are Huizinga, Caillois and Ehrmann of course, and libraries full of board game studies,in addition to game theory and bits and pieces of philosophy – most notably those of Wittgenstein – but they won't get us very far with computer games. So if there already is or soon will be a legitimate field for computer game studies, this field is also very open to intrusions and colonisations from the already organized scholarly tribes. Resisting and beating them is the goal of our first survival game in this paper, as what these emerging studies need is independence, or at least relative independence.     

Twenty years of artificial life art

This essay begins with discussion of four relatively recent works which are representative of major themes and preoccupations in Artificial Life Art: ‘Propagaciones’ by Leo Nuñez; ‘Sniff’ by Karolina Sobecka and Jim George; ‘Universal Whistling Machine’ by Marc Boehlen; and ‘Performative Ecologies’ by Ruari Glynn. This essay is an attempt to contextualise these works by providing an overview of the history and forms of Artificial Life Art as it has developed over two decades, along with some background in the ideas of the Artificial Life movement of the late 1980s and 1990s.1 A more extensive study of the theoretical history of Artificial Life can be found in my paper ‘Artificial Life Art—A Primer’, in the Proceedings of DAC09 and also at http://www.ace.uci.edu/Penny. Excerpts from that essay are included here.      

What chess games and chess problems tell us about digital games and art

This article examines the relationship between chess games and chess problems (‘compositions’) in order to describe the chess problem as art. Arguing that the chess problem is a manipulation of game form guided by human aesthetic principles (e.g. Schiller's ‘beauty’ and Wimsatt's ‘human condition’), the article draws a parallel between art derived from games and art derived from nature. This parallel has important implications in circumstances where a natural world is replaced by a virtual world and nature is, in some sense, ‘lost’ to the artist. The article argues that, in such circumstances, the interactive and ‘concreative’ nature of digital media – particularly digital games – allows for unabated aesthetic production.     

Digital creativity and transdisciplinarity at postgraduate level: the design and implementation of a transdisciplinary masters programme and its implications for creative practice

This article investigates how transdisciplinary approaches to curriculum design on a taught masters programme in creative technologies enhance digital creativity in students. Drawing on the experience of developing and running the Masters in Creative Technologies (MA/MSc) at the Institute of Creative Technologies at De Montfort University, Leicester, we explore a number of areas relating to transdisciplinary teaching and learning in higher education, including: how digital technologies enable students to work in a transdisciplinary manner; how working creatively with technology enables transdisciplinary modes of working; and the ways in which transdisciplinarity, enabled by digital technologies, has affected the creative practice of learners. The article discusses how the programme has developed a climate for creativity, and outlines how the knowledge and skills gained during a creative technologies-related transdisciplinary programme meet the needs of a changing workplace.     

Cognitive evaluation for conceptual design: cognitive role of a 3D sculpture tool in the design thinking process

ABSTRACT

This study focuses on the decisive role played by the digital design environment in the cognitive design process and design thinking. To analyse the cognitive role of digital design tools, we carried out a protocol analysis of conventional design sketching and a 3D sculpture tool. Cognitive evaluation was a differentiating factor when considering the contextual role of the 3D sculpture tool in subsequent evaluations, non-sequential evaluations for conversion, and passive approaches within the design process. Cognitive evaluation played the following roles: validation, extension, navigation, exploration, and confirmation. The navigation, exploration, and extension roles played by non-sequential evaluation were mainly related to inductive design thinking. Finally, the types of cognitive evaluation and their roles when using the 3D sculpture tool were different, according to the design thinking type. This study explored the multidimensional roles of cognitive evaluation using a 3D sculpture tool and its relationship with design thinking types.     

Trailfinders—curating an interactive city promenade experience with mobile phones

Abstract

With a growing number of embedded digital experiences in arts and heritage settings, creating a broad global field, this article focuses on the use of mobile phones in the engagement of humans with the cultural heritage of public spaces, specifically those that require a promenade from one outdoor space to another. This article discusses findings from a recent promenade initiative, commissioned for a UK arts festival, along with a review of literature, to critically engage with growing evidence of the diverse ways in which technology is integrated at direct user level. Concepts of ‘hybrid spaces’ and ‘user agency’ are discussed, along with the ‘performativity’ of spaces. Central to the discussion is the function of narrative in engaging the participant to construct new perspectives, which are facilitated by the mediating role of personal media devices between subject, narrative, space and community.     

Digital design and time on device; how aesthetic experience can help to illuminate the psychological impact of living in a digital culture

ABSTRACT

Aesthetic techniques are increasingly used by marketeers to create enticing digital products. In this paper, I work with the aesthetic experiences of one audience group to consider the psychological impact of living in a culture where digital devices are deliberately designed to influence behaviour. I argue that aesthetic encounters can help with understanding the impact of the interplay between visual stimulus, affect and digital culture, in ways that may support situated understandings of mental distress in a digital age. I show how audiences respond to the artist-led research project Are We All Addicts Now? arguing that they generate ideas connected to submersion and being overwhelmed as a means of reporting on their own personal experiences of living in a digital culture that seeks to influence behaviour. The findings may have value for designers, curators and artists invested in understanding the experiential impact of digital devices.