Department of Art and Design

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Work by the faculty and students of the Department of Art and Design

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  • Publication
    Cultural Tourism through the Lens of the Stereoscope: Underwood & Underwood’s Egypt, a 1905 Stereoview Boxed Set, Considered
    (Early Visual Media Lab CICANT, 2021) Thompson, Seth
    Using the framework of the tourist gaze to investigate Underwood & Underwood’s Egypt, a 1905 stereoview boxed set with an accompanying book by James Henry Breasted, which is part of a larger collection of stereoview boxed sets by the same company, this paper will define the tourist gaze, provide a brief overview of Underwood & Underwood’s stereoview boxed sets, and examine how Egypt and its cultural heritage are perceived through an outsider’s orientation and set of values as well as the ramifications of this perception. This will be accomplished by focusing on Breasted’s textual depictions of the contemporary Egyptian at the beginning of the twentieth century in the set’s accompanying book, Egypt through the Stereoscope, and included on some of the back sides of the stereoviews in the Egypt set.
  • Publication
    Where Islamic Visual Theory and Western Pictorial Tradition Meet: 360° Panoramic Photography’s Two-Dimensional Image Projections and Sacred Spaces
    (International Panorama Council, 2021) Thompson, Seth
    Using this author's ongoing project Sacred Spaces of New England and Hans Belting's book Florence and Baghdad: Renaissance Art and Arab Science as starting points, this paper compares and contrasts Islamic visual theory with Western pictorial tradition and examines Islamic pattern design to root this author's 360° panoramic photography's two-dimensional geometric image projections of sacred spaces into an artistic tradition.
  • Publication
    Sacred Spaces of New England: Artistic Research, Cultural Heritage, and Virtual Reality Panoramic Photography
    (International Panorama Council, 2020) Thompson, Seth
    Artistic research is a methodology that integrates artistic activities within either the research process or its outcomes. By using New England's sacred spaces as a case study for the documentation and interpretation of cultural heritage, this paper provides an overview of the author's ongoing Sacred Spaces of New England project, examines how New England's sacred spaces are increasingly becoming "at-risk" heritage sites, and considers the value of documenting and mapping them using virtual reality panoramic photography and associated technologies.
  • Publication
    Constructing National Identity through the Lens of the Painted Panorama: The Bourbaki Panorama in Lucerne, Switzerland
    (International Panorama Council, 2019) Thompson, Seth
    Using the Bourbaki Panorama, which depicts the French General Charles-Denis Bourbaki’s army crossing Switzerland’s border near Les Verrières in 1871, this paper examines the notion of identity narrative in nation-building and addresses the following questions: How does the Bourbaki Panorama reinforce Switzerland’s national identity? How can identity narratives strengthen or challenge a nation’s collective memory? How can these findings inform current and future practices in the development and interpretation of new and existing panorama projects?
  • Publication
    Real Product Eye Tracking
    (DESIGN Conference, 2012-05) Badni, Kevin
  • Publication
    Effects of immediacy on the perception of interactive art
    (Europia Productions, 2016) Badni, Kevin
    This study examined how the observed immediacy of an interactive artwork affects the perception of the art, and how participants' engagement impacts the personal perception of time. A new projected artwork was created by the author that could randomly assign participants different interactive latency times. The design of the installation from a conceptual and technical viewpoint is discussed with reference to the desired outcomes from a pragmatic and phenomenological standpoint. Beyond the hypothesis, other results that looked at the need for a high level of perceptive processing produced a number of behavioral patterns that maybe of additional interest to other media artists.
  • Publication
    Points of Identity
    (2016) Badni, Kevin
  • Publication
    Creating Observational 3D Sculptures
    (International Symposium on Electronic Art, 2015) Badni, Kevin
    Technology has been used to assist in communication and concept development by artists, designers/inventors, engineers, clients, manufacturers and others. [1-3] The use of technology to aid artists capture what they see has been used since the Renaissance with the introduction of the camera lucida and the camera obscura. A modern method to assist in capturing how people see is to use eye tracking technology. The data collected from eye tracking experiments is widely believed to reflect what within the viewing space is being assessed. The analysis of this data can be output in statistical form, or as 2D graphic overlays placed on top of flat images. The innovation described in this paper is the application of a new methodology developed to allow quantitative eye tracking data to be used as a basis to create 3D sculptural forms. This paper is structured with first a brief explanation of eye tracking, leading to the description of the new 3D eye tracking methodology. The results from the test and the final output are reviewed in the analysis including the lessons learned and the possible areas for improvement.
  • Publication
    Re-Presenting Cultural Heritage with VR Panoramic Photography: Lessons Drawn from Media Art History
    (International Panorama Council, 2018) Thompson, Seth
    Developing a history of virtual reality (VR) panoramic photography not only in relation to the development of illusion and immersion, but also its content, will allow for a more robust history, so that those who are working within VR panoramic photography are not "reinventing the wheel" and a greater critical discourse may take place as this medium develops. Within a media art history context, past disruptive immersive deliverables include the vue d'optique, panorama and stereoview. Nevertheless, a recurring theme, which ties the content used in these deliverables with VR panoramic photography, is the re-presentation of cultural heritage. Using examples of the re-presentation of Middle Eastern cultural heritage from media art history, this essay explores the following questions: how has the re-presentation of Middle Eastern cultural heritage changed or shifted as these technological disruptors have been introduced and used, and how can one use these past innovations to inform contemporary best practices in cultural heritage preservation, interpretation, and dissemination using VR panoramic photography? The paper will conclude with practical, useful recommendations to inform current and future initiatives in developing artistic projects that use VR panoramic photography for the preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of cultural heritage.
  • Publication
    An Introduction to the Development of a Product Brand: An Evidence-Based Template for Use with First Year Undergraduate Industrial Designers
    (Engineering Design Graphics Division, 2015) Torrens, George Edward; Badni, Kevin; Hurn, Karl; Storer, Ian James
    The aim of this paper is to provide education practitioners with a template to facilitate the introduction of brand construction to first year undergraduate industrial design students through the visual and physical embodiment of a product. The ongoing pedagogic development has been refined over the last fifteen years alongside research into the professional practice of Industrial Design (ID). The objectives of this paper are to: provide signposting to the underpinning theories of the template; describe the template; show an example of student work that demonstrate the outcomes of template application; and, highlight where students have used the template within a brand related design competition to produce a successful design outcome.
  • Publication
    The Jazeera Al Hamra Digital Heritage Project: A Model for Digitally Preserving the Heritage of the Arabian Peninsula
    (Common Ground Publishing, 2015) Thompson, Seth
    The digital environment offers an opportunity to establish a museum model that supports contemporary museum thought in regard to collective memory strategies, inclusivity, and equity of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Al Jazeera Al Hamra, a former coastal village in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, was abandoned at the time of the formation of the country in the late 1960s and 1970s. It is considered one of the last traditional fishing and pearl diving villages in the nation. As the buildings are now only remnants of a time past, not only does the architecture need to be documented and mapped, but also the stories and traditions of the people who once lived there need to be recorded. Creating a web-based virtual environment that documents both the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Al Jazeera Al Hamra can provide a cohesive physical and social record for future generations after the buildings and the people who had inhabited the town are gone. Focusing on Al Jazeera Al Hamra, an at-risk site, this paper presents a model for digitally preserving and re-presenting tangible and intangible cultural heritage of the Arabian Peninsula and beyond.
  • Publication
    VR Panoramic Photography and Hypermedia: Drawing from the Panorama's Past
    (International Symposium on Electronic Art, 2015) Thompson, Seth
    Since the 1787 patent of the immersive 360-degree painted panorama by Robert Barker, the panorama has been used as a narrative storytelling tool. With VR (virtual reality) panoramic photography in tandem with the notion of hypermedia, the VR panorama can further advance the idea of storytelling as both an object and an interface. Using the principles of Robert Barker's patent of the panorama as a point of departure to explore the conceptual relationship between painted and screen-based panoramas, this paper will explore: how the potential for a hypermedia system can be found in the painted panorama; the unique qualities of the computer-based panorama; and discuss related hardware advances for the digital panorama, which appear to bring us closer to Robert Barker's original intent as an immersive image space for the masses.
  • Publication
    A conversation for now and later
    (Tashkeel Gallery Dubai, 2017) Pilkington, Mark
  • Publication
    Cultural Heritage and Spectacle: Painted and Digital Panoramic Re-Presentations of Versailles
    (University of California, 2016) Thompson, Seth
    By comparing and contrasting two panoramic projects of Versailles, one being a painted panorama by John Vanderlyn (1775-1852) completed in 1819 and the other, part of Google's World Wonders Project launched in 2012, this paper will examine the notion of heritage as a tangible entity, experiential consumable, and identity maker, and show how heritage sites and the panorama (both painted and digital) act as a spectacle that seeks to fulfill the needs and desires of its visitors to consume past and present cultural landscapes.