Software Studies

Digital Formalism conference / Vienna / January 14-16

2010-01-04T09:23:00.000-08:00

Lev Manovich will present visualizations of patterns in two films by Dziga Vertov produced in collaboration with Digital Formalism project (Vienna) at the international conference Digital Formalism / Dziga Vertov. "Method left home" (January 12-14, Vienna)

The visualizations are being published on a new DVD edition of Vertov's "The Eleventh Year" and "A Sixth Part of the World" which will be presented at the conference. The DVD features new soundtracks for the films composed by Michael Nyman.

Visualizations set on Flickr

-------------------------------------
Digital Formalism / Dziga Vertov. "Method left home."

Jan 14-16, 2010, Vienna, Austria
Venues: The Austrian Film Museum and University of Vienna (Aula, Campus AAKH)

"Method has left home and started a life of its own," writes Russian formalist Viktor Shklovsky in his 'epistolary novel' Zoo or letters not about love (Berlin, 1923). The conference Digital Formalism / Dziga Vertov. "Method Has Left Home." marks the end of a three-year research project that sailed under this very flag: that formalism has started a new life in the digital age and, vice versa, that the digital claims the legacy of formalist paradigms.

In confronting Vertov’s method of film making with the procedures of current computing tools, the final project conference provokes new perspectives in the area of film scholarship, introducing digital tools for media archivists and generating another level for cultural players to reflect upon their productions. At last, the project’s findings leave their original habitat to continue life in other creative environments.

About the project:
The conference represents the final event of the research project Digital Formalism: The Vienna Vertov Collection (2007 - 2010), funded by WWTF (Vienna Science and Technology Fund). The aim of this interdisciplinary cooperation between TFM - Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies at Vienna University, the Austrian Film Museum and the Institute of Software Engineering and Interactive Systems at Vienna University of Technology was to expand film formalism historically and theoretically, open up archival Vertov material for the general public and develop novel methods and computer-based tools for formal film analysis. The researchers focused on the oeuvre of the Soviet avant-garde filmmaker Dziga Vertov (1896-1954), confronting ‘traditional’ perception-based with computer-aided methods of film analysis in order to explore the typical ‘Vertovian’ devices, unravelling the complex structures of his films.

DVD-presentation:
Besides scholarly papers, a brand-new DVD edition of "The Eleventh Year" and "A Sixth Part of the World" will be presented at the conference - and international media scholars will expand the scope of the project findings further.

Conference participants:
John MacKay (Yale University), Annette Michelson (New York University), Alexander Deriabin (Moscow), Barbara Wurm (Basel/Berlin/Vienna), Julia Kursell (Berlin), Vera Kropf (Vienna University), Michael Loebenstein (Vienna), Adelheid Heftberger (Vienna), Georg Wasner (Vienna), Stavros Alifragkis (Cambridge University), Ute Holl (University of Basel), Matthias Zeppelzauer (TU Vienna), Dalibor Mitrovic (TU Vienna), Maia Zaharieva (TU Vienna), Wolfgang Beilenhoff (Weimar/Bochum), Thomas Tode (Hamburg)

The Computational Turn / March 9, 2010

2010-01-02T18:28:00.000-08:00

The forthcoming workshop on The Computational Turn in humanities which will address many of themes central to Cultural Analytics paradigm.

CFP: The Computational Turn

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY
9TH MARCH 2010

Keynote: N. Katherine Hayles (Professor of Literature at Duke University).
Keynote: Lev Manovich (Professor, Visual Arts Department, UCSD).

The application of new computational techniques and visualisation technologies in the Arts & Humanities are resulting in new approaches and methodologies for the study of traditional and new corpora of Arts and Humanities materials. This new 'computational turn' takes the methods and techniques from computer science to create new ways of distant and close readings of texts (e.g. Moretti). This one-day workshop aims to discuss the implications and applications of what Lev Manovich has called 'Cultural Analytics' and the question of finding patterns using algorthmic techniques. Some of the most startling approaches transform understandings of texts by use of network analysis (e.g. graph theory), database/XML encodings (which flatten structures), or merely provide new quantitative techniques for looking at various media forms, such as media and film, and (re)presenting them visually, aurally or haptically. Within this field there are important debates about the contrast between narrative against database techniques, pattern-matching versus hermeneutic reading, and the statistical paradigm (using a sample) versus the data mining paradigm. Additionally, new forms of collaboration within the Arts and Humanities are emerging which use team-based approaches as opposed to the traditional lone-scholar. This requires the ability to create and manage modular Arts and Humanities research teams through the organisational structures provided by technology and digital communications (e.g. Big Humanities), together with techniques for collaborating in an interdisciplinary way with other disciplines such as computer science (e.g. hard interdisciplinarity versus soft interdisciplinarity).

Papers are encouraged in the following areas:

- Distant versus Close Reading
- Database Structure versus Argument
- Data mining/Text mining/Patterns
- Pattern as a new epistemological object
- Hermeneutics and the Data Stream
- Geospatial techniques
- Big Humanities
- Digital Humanities versus Traditional Humanities
- Tool Building
- Free Culture/Open Source Arts and Humanities
- Collaboration, Assemblages and Alliances
- Language and Code (software studies)
- Information visualization in the Humanities
- Philosophical and theoretical reflections on the computational turn

+ Participation Requirements +

Workshop participants are requested to submit a position paper (approx. 2000-5000 words) about the computational turn in Arts and Humanities, philosophical/theoretical reflections on the computational turn, research focus or research questions related to computational approaches, proposals for academic practice with algorithmic/visualisation techniques, proposals for new research methods with regard to Arts and Humanities or specific case studies (if applicable) and findings to date. Position papers will be published in a workshop PDF and website for discussion and some of the participants will be invited to present their paper at the workshop.

Deadline for Position papers: February 10, 2010
Submit papers to: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tct2010

Workshop funded by The Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict, Power, Empire, Swansea University. The Research Institute in the Arts and Humanities (RIAH) at Swansea University.

+ References +

Clement, Tanya E. (2008) ‘A thing not beginning and not ending’: using digital tools to distant-read Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans. Literary and Linguistic Computing. 23.3 (2008): 361.

Clement, Tanya, Steger, Sara, Unsworth, John, Uszkalo, Kirsten (2008) How Not to Read a Million Books. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/hownot2read.html

Council on Library and Information Resources and The National Endowment for the Humanities (2009) Working Together or Apart: Promoting the Next Generation of Digital Scholarship. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub145/pub145.pdf

Hayles, N. Katherine (2009) RFID: Human Agency and Meaning in Information-Intensive Environments. Theory, Culture and Society 26.2/3 (2009): 1-24.

Hayles, N. Katherine (2009) How We Think: The Transforming Power of Digital Technologies. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://hdl.handle.net/1853/27680

Kittler, Fredrich (1997) Literature, Media, Information Systems. London: Routledge.

Krakauer, David C. (2007) The Quest for Patterns in Meta-History. Santa Fe Institute Bulletin. Winter 2007. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.intelros.ru/pdf/SFI_Bulletin/Quest.pdf

Latour, Bruno (2007) Reassembling the Social. London: Oxford University Press.

Manovich, Lev (2002) The Language of New Media. MIT Press.

Manovich, Lev (2007) White paper: Cultural Analytics: Analysis and Visualizations of Large Cultural Data Sets, May 2007. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://softwarestudies.com/cultural_analytics/cultural_analytics_2008.doc

McLemee, Scott (2006) Literature to Infinity. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee193

Moretti, Franco (2005) Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History. London: Verso.

Robinson, Peter (2006) Electronic Textual Editing: The Canterbury Tales and other Medieval Texts. Electronic Textual Editing. Modern Language Association of America. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.tei-c.org/About/Archive_new/ETE/Preview/robinson.xml

Schreibman, Susan, Siemens, Ray & Unsworth, John (2007) A Companion to Digital Humanities. London: WileyBlackwell.

Organised by Dr David M. Berry, Department of Political and Cultural Studies, Swansea University. d.m.berry@swansea.ac.uk

A Virada Computacional nas Humanidades (The Computational Turn)

2010-01-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

O Workshop "A Virada Computacional nas Humanidades" analisará diversas questões relacionadas ao tema da Analítica Cultural.

A Virada Computacional nas Humanidades

Onde: SWANSEA UNIVERSITY
Quando: dia 09 de Março de 2010

Keynote: N. Katherine Hayles (Professora de Literatura na Duke University).
Keynote: Lev Manovich (Professor de Artes Visuais na UCSD).

A aplicação de novas técnicas e tecnologias de visualização nas Artes e nas Humanidades resultaram em novas aproximações e metodologias para o estudo dos materiais recentes e tradicionais nessas áreas. Essa nova "revolução ou virada computacional" utiliza técnicas e métodos da ciência da computação para criar novas formas distanciadas ou aproximadas de leitura de textos (por exemplo Moretti). O workshop de um dia tem como objetivo discutir as implicações e aplicações do que Lev Manovich denominou "Analítica Cultural" e a questão de buscar padrões utilizando técnicas algorítmicas. Algumas das abordagens mais surpreendentes transformam a compreensão de textos através da utilização de análise das redes (por exemplo a teoria dos grafos), codificação de bancos de dados/XML (que achata as estruturas), ou meramente provê novas técnicas quantitativas para a observar várias formas de mídias, como filmes, para representa-las visualmente, foneticamente ou hapticamente. Nesse campo existem importantes debates sobre a diferença entre narrativa versus as técnicas dos bancos de dados, as correspondências de padrões versus a leitura hermenêutica e o paradigma estatístico (utilizando amostras) versus o paradigma de mineração (análise) de dados.

Além disso, novas formas de colaboração no âmbito da Artes e Humanidades estão emergindo, formas essas que utilizam abordagens baseadas em equipes em oposição às formas tradicionais baseadas no pesquisador solitário. Essa nova forma de pesquisa requer a habilidade de criar e de administrar equipes modulares de pesquisadoresnas áreas das Artes e Humanidades através das estruturas organizacionais providas pelas tecnologias e comunicações digitais, em conjunto com técnicas para colaboração de forma interdisciplinar com outras disciplinas, como as da ciência da computação (por exemplo a interdisciplinaridade dura contra a leve - hard interdisciplinarity versus soft interdisciplinarity).

Esperam-se artigos nas seguintes áreas:

- Leitura aberta versus atenta
- Estrutura do Banco de Dados versus Argumento
- Análise (Mineração) de Dados (Data mining)/Análise de Texto/Padrões
- Padrão como novo objeto epistemológico
- Hermenêutica e Transmissão de Dados
- Técnicas Geoespaciais
- Grandes Humanidades
- Humanidades Digitais versus Tradicionais
- Construção de Ferramentas
- Cultura Livre/Open Source Artes e Humanidades
- Colaboração, Colagens e Alianças
- Linguagem e Código (software studies)
- Visualização da Informação nas Humanidades
- Reflexões Teóricas e Filosóficas sobre a Revolução Computacional nas Humanidades

+ Requisitos para participação +

Os participantes do workshop estão convidados a apresentar um artigo propositivo (cerca de 2.000-5.000 palavras) sobre a revolução/virada computacional nas Artes e Humanidades, reflexões filosófico / teóricas sobre a revolução/virada computacional, sobre focos de investigação ou questões de pesquisa relacionadas a abordagens computacionais, propostas para a prática acadêmica com técnicas de visualização algorítmica, propostas de novos métodos de investigação no que diz respeito às artes e humanidades ou estudos de casos específicos (se aplicável) e os resultados obtidos até o presente momento. Os artigos serão publicados em PDF no website do workshop e alguns dos participantes serão convidados a apresentar seu trabalho presencialmente.

Deadline para envio dos artigos: 10 de Fevereiro de 2010
Envio dos artigos: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=tct2010

O Workshop tem o apoio do Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict, Power, Empire, Swansea University e do Research Institute in the Arts and Humanities (RIAH) at Swansea University.

+ Referências Bibliográficas +

Clement, Tanya E. (2008) ‘A thing not beginning and not ending’: using digital tools to distant-read Gertrude Stein’s The Making of Americans. Literary and Linguistic Computing. 23.3 (2008): 361.

Clement, Tanya, Steger, Sara, Unsworth, John, Uszkalo, Kirsten (2008) How Not to Read a Million Books. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www3.isrl.illinois.edu/~unsworth/hownot2read.html

Council on Library and Information Resources and The National Endowment for the Humanities (2009) Working Together or Apart: Promoting the Next Generation of Digital Scholarship. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub145/pub145.pdf

Hayles, N. Katherine (2009) RFID: Human Agency and Meaning in Information-Intensive Environments. Theory, Culture and Society 26.2/3 (2009): 1-24.

Hayles, N. Katherine (2009) How We Think: The Transforming Power of Digital Technologies. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://hdl.handle.net/1853/27680

Kittler, Fredrich (1997) Literature, Media, Information Systems. London: Routledge.

Krakauer, David C. (2007) The Quest for Patterns in Meta-History. Santa Fe Institute Bulletin. Winter 2007. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.intelros.ru/pdf/SFI_Bulletin/Quest.pdf

Latour, Bruno (2007) Reassembling the Social. London: Oxford University Press.

Manovich, Lev (2002) The Language of New Media. MIT Press.

Manovich, Lev (2007) White paper: Cultural Analytics: Analysis and Visualizations of Large Cultural Data Sets, May 2007. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://softwarestudies.com/cultural_analytics/cultural_analytics_2008.doc

McLemee, Scott (2006) Literature to Infinity. Inside Higher Ed. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.insidehighered.com/views/mclemee/mclemee193

Moretti, Franco (2005) Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History. London: Verso.

Robinson, Peter (2006) Electronic Textual Editing: The Canterbury Tales and other Medieval Texts. Electronic Textual Editing. Modern Language Association of America. Retrieved 10/11/09 from http://www.tei-c.org/About/Archive_new/ETE/Preview/robinson.xml

Schreibman, Susan, Siemens, Ray & Unsworth, John (2007) A Companion to Digital Humanities. London: WileyBlackwell.

Organizado pelo Dr. David M. Berry, Departamento de Estudos Políticos e Culturais da Swansea University. Contato: d.m.berry@swansea.ac.uk

Lithuanian translation of The Language of New Media published 12/29/2009

2009-12-29T08:40:00.000-08:00

Cultural Analytics seminar @Calit2: Software Studies, Calit2 +UCSD and University of Bergen, Dec 16-17, 2009

2009-11-30T11:42:00.000-08:00

what: cultural analytics is the use of data analysis and visualization for the study of cultural dynamics, flows, and patterns. More info

who: participants from Software studies Initiative, Calit2 (San Diego); Visual Arts Department, UCSD (San Diego); University of Bergen (Norway); Anyang University (Korea) , Mackenzie University (Sao Paulo)

where: the seminar will take place in San Diego on UCSD campus in Calit2 building.

when: December 16-17, 2009

Schedule (subject to change):

WED | DECEMBER 16, 2009
location: CALIT2 (Atkinson Hall building)

1pm-2pm: cultural analytics methods and techniques (Lev Manovich) (Calit2 conference room: 2006)
2pm - 2:30pm: HIPerSpace demo - visualization of cultural datasets (Calit2, second floor) (So Yamaoka, Manovich)
2:30pm-3:30pm: CRCA/Calit2 digital media labs tour by Todd Margolis
3:30pm-4:30pm: UCSD graduate students: Tara Zepel (via Skype), William Huber, Daniel Rehn (Calit2 conference room: 3006)
4:30pm - 6pm: software tools for cultural analytics (Manovich) (Calit2 conference room: 3006)

TH | DECEMBER 17, 2009
location: CALIT2 (Atkinson Hall building)

1pm - 1:15pm:Benjamin Bratton, UCSD+Calit2) (Calit2 conference room: 2006)
1:15pm - 2:00pm: University of Bergen grad students presentations (Calit2 conference room: 2006)
2pm -2:20pm: Kael Greco: Mapping++ (Center for Urban Ecology, Anyang University, Korea) (Calit2 conference room: 2006)
2:2:20 - 2:40pm: Eduardo Navas, UCSD (Calit2 conference room: 2006)
2:40pm - 3:00pm - 3:30pm: Jeremy Douglass (Software Studies Initiative, Calit2) (Calit2 conference room: 2006)
3:00pm - 4pm: HIPerSpace demo - visualization of cultural datasets (Jeremy Douglass, Cicero Inacio da Silva, Chanda Laine, So Yamaoka) (Calit2, second floor)
4:15pm - 6:00pm: University of Bergen grad students presentations continued (Calit2 conference room: 2004)

Take a look at the video streamed live from the seminar:

2 new powerpoints about Cultural Analytics and Software Studies

2009-11-23T23:00:00.000-08:00

Two new Powerpoint files about Cultural Analytics and Software Studies by Lev Manovich are now available:

Cultural Visualization Techniques (l0/2009). [key 10.3 MB]. [ppt 1.1 MB]

Learning from Software (11/2009). [key 1 MB]. [ppt 500 KB]

AUD $3,003,401 grant to support Cultural Analytics research

2009-11-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

Australian Research Council has awarded the grant for AUD $3,003,401 to an international group of researchers which includes Director of Software Studies Initiative Lev Manovich.

The project investigates the navigation, editing and recombination of large-scale media bases in interactive environments for industrial application in the artistic and cultural sectors. For its industrial application it will develop a prototype for the digital presentation of ZKM's seminal new media archive and museum collection and for Museum Victoria's cultural heritage collection.

Project period: 2010-2012.

Project Chief Investigators and Partner Investigators:

Professor Jeffrey Shaw (CI)
Director, iCinema Centre, UNSW

Associate Professor Dennis Del Favero (CI)
Chair, iCinema Centre, UNSW

Emeritus Professor Neil Brown (CI)
Honorary Professorial Fellow and Co-Director, iCinema Centre, UNSW

Professor Paul Compton (CI)
Head, School of Computer Science and Engineering, UNSW

Ms Sarah Kenderdine (PI)
Special Projects, Information Multimedia and Technology, Museum Victoria

Mr Timothy Hart (PI)
Director, Information Multimedia Technology, Museum Victoria

Professor Lev Manovich (PI)
Visual Arts Department, University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Professor Peter Weibel (PI)
Chairman and CEO, ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe

Professor Horus Ip (PI)
Chair Professor of Computer Science, City University of Hong Kong

Emeritus Professor Lewis Lancaster (PI)
Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures UC Berkley,

Industry Partners
Museum Victoria, ZKM Centre for Art and Media, Australia Council for the Arts

Cultural Analytics @ Society of the Query conference in Amsterdam

2009-11-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

Lev Manovich wil lecture on Cultural Analytics at Society of the Query conference organized by Institute of Network Cultures in Amsterdam on November 13-14, 2009:

http://networkcultures.org/wpmu/query/

details of the presentation:

title: LEARNING FROM GOOGLE: A SEARCH ENGINE AS A METHOD FOR CULTURAL ANALYSIS

abstract: Can we translate the principles of search engine algorithms and large scale data analysis in general into a new methodology for cultural theory? In my talk I will discuss what such a methodology would look like, and also demonstrate practical examples drawn from Cultural Analytics research conducted in the Software Studies Lab at the University of California, San Diego.

new 2 year post-doc position with Software Studies / University of Bergen

2009-10-12T20:49:00.000-07:00

University of Bergen announced a 2 year Post-doc position in
collaboration with my Software Studies group at UCSD:

The post-doc will divide her/his time between Bergen and San Diego and
will work closely with me and others in my lab on Cultural Analytics
projects.
Cultural Analytics is a new methodology for cultural / media research
which uses information visualization and quantitative data analysis:

lab.softwarestudies.com/2008/09/cultural-analytics.html
www.flickr.com/photos/culturevis/

Both technical people who understand cultural issues and cultural
types who can do tech are welcome to apply.

Information and application:

https://secure.jobbnorge.no/Job.aspx?jobid=61657

Note: if you get a page in Norwegian, click on "English" at the bottom
of the page to switch to English version

Startup

2009-10-05T22:43:00.001-07:00

High resolution versions of images included in the NEH Digital Startup Fall 2009 grant application "Interactive Visualization of Image Collections for Humanities Research" (Dr. Lev Manovich, UCSD).

Examples of visualizations produced using software tools developed by Software Studies initiative:

Interactive exploration of image collection on a HIPerSpace tiled display using our software prototype - zooming into an image.

4553 covers of Time magazine, 1923-2008.

Shot lengths in five reels of the film "The Eleventh Year" (Dziga Vertov, 1928).

153 paintings by Mark Rothko, organized by brightness and saturation.

Changes in Rothko's paintings average brightness over his career.

Tracing branching pathways through the 116 pages of a "Choose Your Own Adventure" gamebook.

Mapping connections between pages in Mark Danielewski's novel House of Leaves.

“Mapping the Song-Dance Sequences of Telugu Cinema”
Research poster visualizing 52 video of song-dance sequences
taken from 13 movies over the course of six decades (1950s-2000s).

Comparing interactivity in ten video games over two decades:
"Seeing How We Play" poster for the SIGGRAPH 2009 Info-Aesthetics exhibition.

Posters at Calit2 Summer Undergraduate Poster Session

2009-09-22T15:10:00.000-07:00

Colin Wheelock and Kedar Reddy just presenter their final posters at the Calit2 Summer Undergraduate poster session.

Kedar Reddy presented the poster "Mapping the Song-Dance Sequences of Telugu Cinema." The poster summarized his application of cultural analytic techniques to a collection of 52 video of song-dance sequences taken from 13 movies over the course of six decades (1950s-2000s). His visualizations included image scatterplots, dissimilarity matrices, audio classification bargraphs, hue sparklines, and other forms of information visualization. Kedar's work identified three periods of similar work, a trend towards greater diversity of form over time, and a few key outlier scenes that were highly dissimilar from the others.

Colin Wheelock presented the poster "Understanding the Game: using image processing techniques to study video game play session." The poster summaries his analysis of 10 video games over the course of three decades, focusing how extracting basic feature metrics such as motion and color from gameplay, segmenting gameplay sequences by scene or shot, classifying shots by "interactive / non-interactive" modality, and summarizing and characterizing the variability and differences of interactivity in gampeplay over genre and time.

Seminar in Brazil about Lev Manovich's theory

2009-09-21T06:26:00.000-07:00

The Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Unisinos) promoted a Special Seminar (Aula Aberta) about the work of Professor Lev Manovich. Three keynote speakers talked about Manovich's theories on New Media, Software Studies and Cultural Analytics and introduced majors ideas about his work and projects.

The Seminar was opened by Cicero Silva, coordinator of the Software Studies group in Brazil.

Video of the seminar and website:

http://aulaaberta.comdigital.info/ao-vivo/

Images

2009-09-11T19:05:00.001-07:00

Exemplary images from recent and ongoing projects.

SIGGRAPPH09 Info-aesthetics exhibition posters

2009-09-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

We completed two posters for SIGGRAPH 2009 Info-Aesthetics exhibition. The posters show some of the analytical and visualization techniques we have been developing in Software Studies lab as part of our work on Cultural Analytics. Each poster was printed at 100x60 inches.

GAMES POSTER ("HOW WE PLAY"):
design: Sergie Magdalin (UCSD undergraduate student)
data collection, analysis, visualization:
Colin Wheelock (UCSD undergraduate student; Calit2 summer 2009 undergraduate researcher)
Jeremy Douglass (Post-doctoral researcher, Software Studies Initiative, Calit2 + UCSD)

VIDEO POSTER ("MEDIA SPECIES"):
design: Sergie Magdalin (UCSD undergraduate student)
data collection, analysis, visualization:
Tara Zepel (UCSD Visual Arts PhD student)
Kedar Reddy (UCSD undergraduate student; Calit2 summer 2009 undergraduate researcher)
Lev Manovich (Director, Software Studies Initiative, Calit2 + UCSD)

Para Lev Manovich, falar em "Cibercultura" é negar a realidade

2009-08-25T12:15:00.000-07:00

"Para os acadêmicos que ainda usam o termo 'cibercultura' para falar da atualidade, eu recomendo que acordem e olhem para o que existe em volta deles".

Um dos mais importantes teóricos das novas mídias, o professor russo Lev Manovich esteve no Brasil nas últimas semanas para participar de palestras no Festival Internacional de Linguagem Eletrônica (FILE) e na Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie. Confira os melhores trechos da entrevista que ele deu ao Link:

A interatividade é um mito?

Você deve estar se referindo a declaração que eu fiz no meu livro The Language of New Media, publicado em 1999. Eu falei isso como uma reação às discussões sobre novas mídias, que na época giravam exclusivamente em torno da tal “interatividade” e se limitavam a isso. Todas as experiências culturais, no fundo, podem ser definidas como uma forma de interação. O que eu quis dizer é que toda comunicação intermediada por um computador é interativa, por isso precisávamos desenvolver termos diferentes para os diversos tipos de interatividade.

Por exemplo?

No meu livro Software Takes Command (licenciado em Creative Commons e disponível para download), eu proponho uma alternativa. Para simplificar: nós não temos que analisar os objetos concretos, e sim as interações. Devemos seguir os internautas enquanto eles navegam por um site e analisar os caminhos pelos quais andam, em vez de apenas analisar o conteúdo do site. Devemos seguir os jogadores enquanto eles estão ligados em um game. Com isso, poderemos usar a tecnologia para captar traços de personalidade e emoções das pessoas enquanto elas lêem um livro, assistem a um filme e interagem com as novas mídias.

Qual a peculiaridade da interatividade digital?

A interatividade digital, intermediada por um software, é um novo capítulo da história da cultura humana. Alguém que lê um texto não-interativo pode também construir sua própria versão dele, mentalmente. Mas isso pode ser feito de forma real nos meios digitais. Um videogame que você joga é totalmente diferente do videogame que eu jogo. A probabilidade de nos movermos pelos mesmos caminhos, passarmos pelos mesmos desafios exatamente na mesma sequência, é próxima do zero.

Você vê algum tipo de narrativa participativa que já integre totalmente seus usuários?

A dos games. Os primeiros videogames usavam o que eu chamo de “interatividade fechada”, na qual os usuários podem acessar alguns dados e outros não. A partir dos anos 90, vários artistas mudaram para uma forma diferente, a “interatividade aberta”, em que o software ou site responde diretamente às ações dos jogadores. Em jogos em 3D, por exemplo, o jogador é livre para se mover em qualquer direção no seu mundo 3D. Eles foram extremamente bem sucedidos e dominaram a indústria na década passada. Cada jogo é único.

Online e offline se tornaram a mesma coisa?

Sim. Nos anos 90, só se falava de “virtual”, “ciberespaço” e “cibercultura”. Éramos fascinados pelas possibilidades que os espaços digitais ofereciam. O “virtual”, que existe à parte do “real”, dominou a década. Agora, a web é uma realidade para milhões, e a dose diária de ‘ciberespaço’ é tão grande na vida de uma pessoa que o termo não faz mais muito sentido. O mundo alternativo tão falado na ficção cyberpunk, nos anos 80, foi perdido. O “virtual” agora é doméstico. Controlado por grandes marcas, tornou-se inofensivo. Nossas vidas online e offline são hoje a mesma coisa. Para os acadêmicos que ainda usam o termo ‘cibercultura’ para falar da atualidade, eu recomendo que acordem e olhem para o que existe em volta deles.

Entrevista publicada no jornal O Estado de S. Paulo em 21/08/2009, por Rafael Cabral.

Expressive Processing by Noah Wardrip-Fruin

2009-08-12T09:59:00.000-07:00

Noah Wardrip-Fruin has just published his first monograph, Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies. As the subtitle suggests, his book is a software studies take on the past and future of digital fictions and games. As of today it's available in bookstores as well as online -- and a PDF of the introduction can be downloaded from the MIT Press site.

Expressive Processing also marks the launch of the new Software Studies series from MIT Press, which Wardrip-Fruin is editing with Lev Manovich and Matthew Fuller. This book particularly develops a software studies for digital media, interpreting the computational processes of games and fictions (the ideas they embody, their histories, their potentials and limits) and connecting the specifics of these processes to the resulting audience experiences. Now that the series is launched, we encourage potential authors to contact the series editors and/or Doug Sery at MIT Press with proposals.

Lev Manovich @ Mackenzie University (Brazil)

2009-08-12T05:01:00.000-07:00

Lecture about Software Studies and Cultural Analytics, August 12, 2009, São Paulo, Brazil.
Aula Magna com Lev Manovich no Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação, Arte e História da Cultura, Universidade Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brasil.

Aula Magna com Lev Manovich (Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação, Arte e História da Cultura) from walkingtools on Vimeo.

Lev Manovich 's workshop @ FILE Labo 2009

2009-07-31T14:07:00.000-07:00

FILE Labo 2009 hosted Lev Manovich 's Cultural Analytics workshop on July 30th.
Take a look at the videos.
O FILE Labo recebeu no dia 30 de julho de 2009 o workshop do Professor e Pesquisador Lev Manovich, da Universidade da Califórnia em San Diego (UCSD), considerado um dos mais importantes pensadores da cultura e das mídias digitais na atualidade. Sua obra "The Language of New Media" (MIT Press, 2001), foi considerada a mais importante análise da história da mídia depois de Marshall McLuhan. Manovich apresentou o seu novo conceito de análise da cultura contemporânea denominado de Analítica Cultural (Cultural Analytics). Assista ao vídeo completo do workshop:

new video of Cultural Analytics software @HIPerSpace (287 megapixels)

2009-07-09T22:04:00.000-07:00

We have created a new video which showcases some of the capabilities of Cultural Analytics software running on HIPerSpace (a supervisualization system with the resolution of 35,840 x 8,000 pixels; 286,720,000 pixels total.)

The software is being developed by Software Studies Initiative and GRAVITY lab (Graphics, Visualization and Virtual Reality Laboratory) at Calit2. The development is supported by Interdisciplinary Collaboratory Grant from UCSD Chancellor office (2008-2010).

At present software allows a user to load up to 4000 images of ANY size on the HIPerSpace wall along with accompanying metadata (which can include manually entered annotations, automatic measurements of visual properties, and other information). The metadata format is a simple tab-delimited text file (so it can be prepared in Excel etc.) Using our interactive software, a user can sort image set and also make X, Y plots of any sets of metadata types. The plots can include the actual images placed over the plotted points; the size of these images can be changed at any time interactively by a user.

Because HIPerSpace is powered by a cluster of PCs, it allows for interactive performance impossible with current desktop computers or the web. Thousands of images can be scaled and graphed instantly. Therefore, HIPerSpace is a perfect platform to develop techniques for software-supported cultural analysis of large media sets.

NURBS Theory | Teoria dos NURBS (FILE 2009)

2009-07-04T20:47:00.000-07:00

FILE 2009 catalog opens with Lev Manovich's text NURBS theory about Cultural Analytics.

The N^3 Report

2009-06-30T10:12:00.000-07:00

Researchers:
Andrew Wilson | PhD student, Art History, UCSD
Andy Rice | PhD student, Communication, UCSD
Lara Bullock | PhD student, Art History, UCSD
Chris Head | MMFA student, Visual Art, UCSD
Tara Zepel | PhD student, Art History, UCSD

The NBC Nightly News is an American institution that has been broadcast nightly in its current format since August 1, 1970. Arguably, the Nightly News, alongside newspapers, has served as America's primary source of information dissemination over the past 50 years. Over this time, changes in technology, visual culture, and the market dynamics for news shows have led certain aspects of nightly news production to evolve in subtle ways.

The N^3 Report presents a meta-broadcast of the NBC Nightly News (1980-2008) unpacked by cultural analytics. Through techniques examining visual characteristics and technological shifts that both are and are not obvious to the human eye, the N^3 Report performs what could be called "producer measurement systems"* in search of visual patterns, trends, or variations and asks what defines the "look" of the news institution over the past 50 years. How and when did aesthetic changes take place? And what might be the "look" of the future?

* a reverse of audience measure systems such as Nielson Ratings

Introductory segments from each year within the specified range were collected from Vanderbilt's Television News Archive. Each segment, beginning with the program's opening and ending with the first stationary shot of the anchor, was analyzed for intensity, color distribution, graphic content and temporal patterns. We report the following:

1) An increase in intensity and brightness by year.

AVG Intensity Mean Brightness (NBC 1980-2008): This graph presents the average measurement of brightness for all shots in each of the NBC Nightly News segments measured. The data reveals a trend of increasing brightness over time.

AVG Mean/Median Gray Value (NBC 1980-2008); An average composite image, which essentially merges the moving images footage into a single frame, was created for each of the introductory segments from NBC Nightly News episodes ranging from 1980 to 2008. This graph presents the mean and median gray values in these composite images. The data indicates an increase in average brightness (on a 0-255 scale) over time.

2) A graphic inundation throughout the nineties and into the millennium that appears to have subsided in the last two years in favor of a renewed and stable focus on the anchor.

Each image in this visualization is created by adding all frames in a given news video on top of each other. Each image on the top row represents one year of the 1980s, the middle row corresponds to the 1990s, and the bottom the 2000s. Note how in the middle of the 1990s row, the visage of the anchorman is replaced by an image dominated by graphics and motion. The focus on the anchorman returns in 2007 and 2008.

3) A visualization of temporal patterns using montages of segmented frames.

Hi-Res Image (7MB)
Each block within the larger montage is an introductory segment montage sampled at 30 frames per
second. Each row shows a 5 year span with two shows per year.

Row 1+2 = 1980s
Row 3+4 = 1990s
Row 5+6 = 2000s

4) A high speed video montage of NBC Nightly News introductions over the past 30 years.

Our investigation explores potential correlations, which may then be further developed through further research. The goal of this project was to take a mainstream source of information, the NBC Nightly News, and analyze the aesthetic techniques used in tandem with the message and reputation that is attached to this specific news program. It is also useful for viewing cultural shifts in the news over time. We focused on introductions to the Nightly News broadcasts because of the relative level of producer control and the concise presentation of what is to follow. By using visualizations of the visual aspects of introductory segments from 1980-2008, we hope to broaden the understanding of this cultural mainstay in American culture and open new questions that, without such techniques, may be overlooked or not realized, but that could contribute greatly to the growth of visual humanities and cultural studies.

Cultural Analytics

2009-06-20T18:00:00.000-07:00

The explosive growth of cultural content on the web including social media since 2004 and the digitization efforts by museums, libraries, and companies since the 1990s make possible fundamentally new paradigm for the study of both contemporary and historical cultures. We can use computer-based techniques for quantitative analysis and interactive visualization already commonly employed in sciences to begin analyzing patterns in massive cultural data sets. To make an analogy with "visual analytics," "business analytics," and "web analytics," we call this new paradigm cultural analytics.

We believe that a systematic use of large-scale computational analysis and interactive visualization of cultural data sets and data streams will become a major trend in cultural criticism and culture industries in the coming decades. What will happen when humanists start using interactive visualizations as a standard tool in their work, the way many scientists do already? If slides made possible art history, and if a movie projector and video recorder enabled film studies, what new cultural disciplines may emerge out of the use of interactive visualization and data analysis of large cultural data sets?

The idea of Cultural Analytics was first presented by Lev Manovich in 2005. Software Studies Initiative founded at Calit2 in 2007 made possible to turn this vision into a research program. By drawing on the cutting-edge cyberinfrastructure and visualization research at Calit2 as well as world reputation of UCSD in digital arts and theory, we are able to develop a unique research agenda which complements other projects in digital humanities and "cyberscholarship":

while most projects in digital humanities deal with text, we focus on automatic analysis of visual and media cultures and artifacts: video games, visual art, media design, cinema, animation, AMV, machinema, photography, etc.;
in developing techniques particularly suited for cultural visualization, we draw both from visualization fields (information visualization, scientific visualization, visual analytics) and from media and digital art;
we are also developing techniques for analysis and visualization of born digital content such as video games, web sites and social media.

Case studies and visualizations:

cultural analytics projects (currently being updated)

our visualizations on Flickr

Powerpoint presentations:

Cultural Visualization Techniques (l0/2009). [key 10.3 MB]. [ppt 1.1 MB]

Learning from Software (11/2009). [key 1 MB]. [ppt 500 KB]

Cultural Analytics: vision (last update: 10/2009). [key 26.3 MB] [ppt 12.8 MB]

Cultural Analytics: case studies (last update: 06/2009). [key 32.4 MB]. [ppt 8.2 MB]

White papers:

Lev Manovich (with contribution by Noah Wardrip-Fruin). Cultural Analytics: white paper (5/2007; latest update 11/2008): [doc 2.4 MB]

Articles:

Lev Manovich. "Cultural Analytics: Visualing Cultural Patterns in the Era of “More Media.”(published in DOMUS, spring 2009.) [doc 44KB]

Lev Manovich. "How to Follow Global Digital Cultures, or Cultural Analytics for Beginners." Deep Search, ed. Felix Stalder and Konrad Becker. Transaction Publishers ( English version) and Studienverlag (German version), 2009. [ doc 92 KB]

So Yamaoka, Lev Manovich, Jeremy Douglass, Falko Kuester. "Cultural Analytics on Ultra High-Resolution Displays." Paper submitted to ACM Multimedia 2009 conference.

Lev Manovich and Jeremy Douglass. "Visualizing Change." Forthcoming in Visualising the 21st Century, ed. Oliver Grau. MIT Press. [pdf 5 MB]

PUBLICATIONS

2009-06-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

Books

Lev Manovich. Software Takes Command. Forthcoming from The MIT Press in 2010 in Software Studies Series. Italian translation forthcoming in 2009.

Noah Wardrip-Fruin. Expressive Processing: Digital Fictions, Computer Games, and Software Studies. The MIT Press (Software Studies Series): 2009.

Articles, book chapters and white papers

Jeremy Douglass. “Computer Visions of Computer Games: analysis and visualization of play recordings.” Workshop on Media Arts, Science, and Technology (MAST) 2009: The Future of Interactive Media. UC Santa Barbara, January 2009. [slides]

Jeremy Douglass. "Playpower: Radically Affordable Computer-Aided Learning with $12 TV-Computers.” co-authored with Derek Lomas and Daniel Rehn. Meaningful Play 2008. Michigan State U., October 2008.

William Huber. "Epic spatialities: the production of space in Final Fantasy games." Book chapter in Wardrip-Fruin and Harrigan (eds.) Third Person: Authoring and Exploring Vast Narratives. MIT Press, 2009

Lev Manovich. "Cultural Analytics: Visualising Cultural Patterns in the Era of “More Media,” Domus, (Milan), March 2009

Lev Manovich. "How to Follow Global Digital Cultures, or Cultural Analytics for Beginners," Deep Search, ed. Felix Stalder and Konrad Becker. Transaction Publishers ( English version) and Studienverlag (German version), in press.

Lev Manovich. White paper: Cultural Analytics: Analysis and Visualizations of Large Cultural Data Sets, May 2007. With contributions from Noah Wardrip-Fruin.

Lev Manovich and Jeremy Douglass. "Visualizing Temporal Patterns in Visual and Interactive Media." Forthcoming in Visualising the 21st Century, ed. Oliver Grau. MIT Press.

Lev Manovich, Jeremy Douglass, and William Huber(In preparation) "Cultural Analytics: Methods and Techniques." For submission to Digital Humanities Quarterly.

So Yamaoka, Lev Manovich, Jeremy Douglass, and Falko Kuester. "Cultural Analytics on Ultra High-Resolution Displays." Paper submitted to ACM Multimedia 2009 conference (pending.)

Conference Presentations

Lev Manovich

April 2008 | London Schol of Economics, | London
April 2008 | Royal College of Art (RCA) | London | Lecture
April 2008 | Goldsmiths College | London
April 2008 | London Schol of Economics, Social Study of ICT Workshop (SSIT8) | London | lecture
May 2008 | Department of Design / Media Arts, UCLA | Los Angeles | lecture
May 2008 | “Software Studies” international workshop | University of California – San Diego, | San Diego, California | presentation
May 2008 | “Software Studies” panel, HASTAC II conference, University of California – Irvine | Irvine, California | lecture with Jeremy Douglass using HIperWall
May 2008 | “Software Studies” panel, HASTAC II conference, University of California – Irvine | Irvine, California | Panel organizer, moderator, and speaker
June 2008 | Software Cultures” lecture seriies, University of California – Irvine, June 4 | Irvine, California | lecture
August 2008 | ISEA 2008 (the International Symposium on Electronic Arts | Singapore | Lecture (satellite event at LASALLE College of the Arts)
August 2008 | FILE (Electronic Language International Festival) 2008 | www.file.org.br | Sao Paolo, Brazil via Skype from San Diego | lecture (video)
September 2008 | Ciantec (Annual conference on art and technology, Mackenzie University) | Sao Paolo, Brazil via Skype from San Diego | lecture (video)

Jeremy Douglass

May 2008 | Jeremy Douglass, “Programming Literary Flow.” Panel on Mapping Process in New Media Landscapes. ELO 2008: Visionary Landscapes. | Vancouver Washington | presentation
May 2008 | “Implied Code as Mental Geography.” Panel on ReVisioning Electronic Literature - Origins and Influences. ELO 2008: Visionary Landscapes. | Vancouver, Washington | panelist
May 2008 | Jeremy Douglass, “The LA Flood Project” presented with lead Mark Marino, collaborators Dena, Gutierrez, Hight, and Tao. HASTAC II: Techno-Travels. UC Irvine | poster
May 2008 | Jeremy Douglass, with Lev Manovich. “HIPerWall Demo: Cultural Analytics” HASTAC II. UC Irvine | presentation
May 2008 | Jeremy Douglass, “Visual Rhetoric for Large Displays.” Transcriptions Research Slam. UCSB | presentation
May 2008 | HASTAC II: Techno-Travels | “What is Software Studies?” Panel at HASTAC II: Techno-Travels, UCLA | Los Angeles | panelist
May 2008 | SoftWhere 2008| Software Studies Initiative at Calit2, UC San Diego | San Diego | co-chaired with Lev Manovich and Noah Wardrip-Fruin
May 2008 | “#Include Genre.” | SoftWhere: Software Studies 2008 | Calit2, UC San Diego | presentation
September 2008 | “Topics in Software Studies.” | CIANTEC 2008. Mackenzie University, Brazil | presentation with Cícero Silva (video)
March 2009 | Jeremy Douglass, with Derek Lomas and Daniel Rehn. “Playpower: Designing 8-bit Learning Games for Radically Affordable Computers.” O’Reilly ETech Emerging Technology Conference 2009: Living, Reinvented | San Jose, California | presentation
December 2009 | Digital Arts and Culture 2009 | "Software/Platform Studies" | Irvine, California | track chair

William Huber

May 2008 | Softwhere: Software Studies 2008 | "Soft authorship" | Calit2, UC San Diego | presentation
April 2009 | Thinking after Dark: Horror Videogames | "Catch and release: the ludological dynamics of horror videogames" | University of Montreal | presentation
September 2009 | DIGRA 2009 | Panel on game criticism | London | panelist
April 2010 | SCMS Conference 2010 | "Fatal Frames" | Tokyo/Los Angeles | panel chair

Visual Analysis Toolkit

2009-06-18T12:54:00.000-07:00

[Tools and source code can be downloaded from the Software Studies Initiative Google Code site. We will document these tools more exhaustively in the near future.]

CAmacros: ImageJ macros for the analysis of images and video

CAjava: Java programs for image and video feature recognition

CAscript: Python script for a single project

CAbatch: workflow management tools for very large and mixed data sets

HIPerSpace visualizer: software for interactive exploration and analysis of collections of images and videos on HIPerSpace

ELogger: custom keylogger application for recording high-speed keyboard events running in emulation.

FSorter: sorting of very large image data using image statistics and metadata (UNIX script / OS X Finder Plugin).

Vilinx: automated image processing for video game play (UNIX script)

Toolkit para Análise Visual

2009-06-17T14:32:00.000-07:00

[Ferramentas e código fonte podem ser baixados do Software Studies Initiative Google Code Site. Iniciaremos uma documentação mais exaustiva dessas ferramentas em breve.]

CAmacros: ImageJ macros para análise de imagens e vídeo

CAjava: programas em Java para reconhecimento de imagem e vídeo

CAscript: Script Python para desenvolvimento de projeto

CAbatch: ferramenta de administração do fluxo de trabalho para grandes conjuntos e dados mixados.

HIPerSpace visualizer: software para exploração interativa e análise de conjuntos de dados e vídeos em HIPerSpaces

ELogger: aplicação simples de keylogger para gravação de eventos de alta velocidade do teclado que rodem emulados.

FSorter: classificação de grandes quantidades de dados de imagens utilizando estatística de imagen e metadados (UNIX script / OS X Finder Plugin).

Vilinx: processamento de imagem automatizado para jogos de videogame (UNIX script).