Language of the Interface
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Kent
Department Name: Sch of Arts
Abstract
We know moving image technologies evolve and proliferate. In technologically advanced societies moving images convey ideas and tell stories. But are we aware of the extent to which technological interfaces participate in shaping the language of moving images?
This interdisciplinary project draws cinema studies, science and technology studies and software studies. Increasingly pervasive, animation is embedded in cinema, digital games, commercial and educational web sites. Animation's widespread and diverse impact makes it ideal to study the following questions:
Q. 1: What does it mean to claim that technology participates or has agency in making images?
Q. 2: Can a technological interface generate an audio-visual language?
Q. 3: Does the language of an interface inform us about how our view of the world is evolving?
The project will be undertaken in four stages. Stages One and Three develop the theoretical ideas underlying the project: situated action and language of the interface. Stages Two and Four involve working with animations, games and websites to expand and reflect on these theoretical insights.
Stages One and Three: Defining Situated Action and the Language of the Interface
Science and technology studies offer a framework to define the key terms of this project. Bruno Latour argues that technologies have the potential to transform or mediate the ideas of image-makers. In a limited way technology can be understood to participate in the making of images. Lucy Suchman's work on situated action examines the hybrid agency that emerges in interactions between humans and technological interfaces. I use these two approaches to develop and introduce the 'language of the interface' as an analytic tool to explore how technological interfaces influence our understandings of the world.
Stage Two and Four: Analysis of moving images and contextual materials
The theoretical frameworks will be used to explore moving image interfaces. These are divided into four categories: manipulation, play, proliferation, exploration. Each represents different situations. Manipulation focuses on creative work relying manipulations of imagery, play addresses digital games, proliferation web sites and exploration science-based animations.
My research method combines analysis of both moving images and contextual materials - published interviews and software manuals. Published interviews often unintentionally reveal information about complex interactions between practitioners and technology. Software manuals give insights into how interfaces are presented to practitioners.
Moving images studied include Wall-E, experimental works by UK-based animators SemiConductor. Games include Assassin's Creed and F.E.A.R. (Playstation 3), Echochrome (PSP), Flow (Playstation 3 on-line) and touchPhysics (iPod touch devices). Educational web sites to be accessed include science visualization web pages at Cold Spring Harbor and NASA.
My research will also be carried out through observation and interviews with image-makers. I am interested in learning how practitioners negotiate their way around the limits and possibilities of software packages. The material will be used as case studies to reflect on my theoretical ideas.
The participants have been selected on the basis that they cross the boundaries of entertainment and experimental animation, educational games and web sites, and as well as science visualizations. Potential contacts include Interactive Game Studio (Sweden), Institute of Play (US), and Wonky (UK).
Dissemination:
The research will be written up as 4 journal articles and presented at 3 conferences, including the Society of the Social Studies of Science, the Society for Animation Studies and Society for Cinema and Media Studies in 2011. A network for continuing dialogue with the animators will be established.
This interdisciplinary project draws cinema studies, science and technology studies and software studies. Increasingly pervasive, animation is embedded in cinema, digital games, commercial and educational web sites. Animation's widespread and diverse impact makes it ideal to study the following questions:
Q. 1: What does it mean to claim that technology participates or has agency in making images?
Q. 2: Can a technological interface generate an audio-visual language?
Q. 3: Does the language of an interface inform us about how our view of the world is evolving?
The project will be undertaken in four stages. Stages One and Three develop the theoretical ideas underlying the project: situated action and language of the interface. Stages Two and Four involve working with animations, games and websites to expand and reflect on these theoretical insights.
Stages One and Three: Defining Situated Action and the Language of the Interface
Science and technology studies offer a framework to define the key terms of this project. Bruno Latour argues that technologies have the potential to transform or mediate the ideas of image-makers. In a limited way technology can be understood to participate in the making of images. Lucy Suchman's work on situated action examines the hybrid agency that emerges in interactions between humans and technological interfaces. I use these two approaches to develop and introduce the 'language of the interface' as an analytic tool to explore how technological interfaces influence our understandings of the world.
Stage Two and Four: Analysis of moving images and contextual materials
The theoretical frameworks will be used to explore moving image interfaces. These are divided into four categories: manipulation, play, proliferation, exploration. Each represents different situations. Manipulation focuses on creative work relying manipulations of imagery, play addresses digital games, proliferation web sites and exploration science-based animations.
My research method combines analysis of both moving images and contextual materials - published interviews and software manuals. Published interviews often unintentionally reveal information about complex interactions between practitioners and technology. Software manuals give insights into how interfaces are presented to practitioners.
Moving images studied include Wall-E, experimental works by UK-based animators SemiConductor. Games include Assassin's Creed and F.E.A.R. (Playstation 3), Echochrome (PSP), Flow (Playstation 3 on-line) and touchPhysics (iPod touch devices). Educational web sites to be accessed include science visualization web pages at Cold Spring Harbor and NASA.
My research will also be carried out through observation and interviews with image-makers. I am interested in learning how practitioners negotiate their way around the limits and possibilities of software packages. The material will be used as case studies to reflect on my theoretical ideas.
The participants have been selected on the basis that they cross the boundaries of entertainment and experimental animation, educational games and web sites, and as well as science visualizations. Potential contacts include Interactive Game Studio (Sweden), Institute of Play (US), and Wonky (UK).
Dissemination:
The research will be written up as 4 journal articles and presented at 3 conferences, including the Society of the Social Studies of Science, the Society for Animation Studies and Society for Cinema and Media Studies in 2011. A network for continuing dialogue with the animators will be established.
Planned Impact
Impact Summary
The research method of the project generates two potential sites of impact. The first is academic beneficiaries in cinema, animation, games, and software studies. The second is a wider network of animators, and also a more public audience.
---The dissemination of my results to academic beneficiaries will occur through 3 conference papers and 4 research articles as detailed in my impact plan.
---I will attend the Society for Animation Studies and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies to engage with scholars in the fields of cinema, animation, and games. My research is relevant science and technology studies. To reach this audience I will attend the Society of the Social Studies of Science.
---Short versions of the key theoretical arguments (situated action and language of the interface) will be submitted to journals. Potential journals for submission include Body and Society and Convergence.
---Complete 2 journal articles bringing together case studies with theoretical models. Potential publishers for submission include Journal for Visual Arts and Journal of Media Practice
---I will establish further connections with computer science and imaging labs. I already have begun the process within the University of Kent.
The second site of impact will be through a network of animators. My research methodology includes a plan to interview animators, web and game designers. Animators will include Semiconductor (Brighton) and the artists Thomson and Craighead (London). Three of the proposed interviewees are research-oriented groups engaged in experimental and educational game design: Interactive Studio (Sweden); Institute of Play (USA); and Wonky (UK). The animation-based science visualizations units for NASA and Cold Spring Harbor also educate and inform.
---Interviews will be undertaken with image-makers in the domains of animation, web site design and educational web sites. Establishing the ground for these interviews will involve an element of informal knowledge transfer as I will share the themes of my research.
---The potential for developing an extended network of communication with these different will be exploited. As the research develops I will follow up by disseminating my research findings to the individuals and companies interviewed. Through this I will establish a network that crosses the boundaries of the culture industries, science and the arts.
Further possibilities for extending the impact of this research include directly accessing a more public audience:
---Animation is frequently used in explanations of ideas to museum audiences. The impact of by research will be explored by developing contacts with the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and also the Wellcome Trust Gallery.
---The web-based psci-com is a forum for science educators across both the secondary education and public engagement of science sectors, mainly within the UK. The forum provides a route through which I will be able to disseminate my research.
The research method of the project generates two potential sites of impact. The first is academic beneficiaries in cinema, animation, games, and software studies. The second is a wider network of animators, and also a more public audience.
---The dissemination of my results to academic beneficiaries will occur through 3 conference papers and 4 research articles as detailed in my impact plan.
---I will attend the Society for Animation Studies and the Society for Cinema and Media Studies to engage with scholars in the fields of cinema, animation, and games. My research is relevant science and technology studies. To reach this audience I will attend the Society of the Social Studies of Science.
---Short versions of the key theoretical arguments (situated action and language of the interface) will be submitted to journals. Potential journals for submission include Body and Society and Convergence.
---Complete 2 journal articles bringing together case studies with theoretical models. Potential publishers for submission include Journal for Visual Arts and Journal of Media Practice
---I will establish further connections with computer science and imaging labs. I already have begun the process within the University of Kent.
The second site of impact will be through a network of animators. My research methodology includes a plan to interview animators, web and game designers. Animators will include Semiconductor (Brighton) and the artists Thomson and Craighead (London). Three of the proposed interviewees are research-oriented groups engaged in experimental and educational game design: Interactive Studio (Sweden); Institute of Play (USA); and Wonky (UK). The animation-based science visualizations units for NASA and Cold Spring Harbor also educate and inform.
---Interviews will be undertaken with image-makers in the domains of animation, web site design and educational web sites. Establishing the ground for these interviews will involve an element of informal knowledge transfer as I will share the themes of my research.
---The potential for developing an extended network of communication with these different will be exploited. As the research develops I will follow up by disseminating my research findings to the individuals and companies interviewed. Through this I will establish a network that crosses the boundaries of the culture industries, science and the arts.
Further possibilities for extending the impact of this research include directly accessing a more public audience:
---Animation is frequently used in explanations of ideas to museum audiences. The impact of by research will be explored by developing contacts with the Science Museum, the Natural History Museum and also the Wellcome Trust Gallery.
---The web-based psci-com is a forum for science educators across both the secondary education and public engagement of science sectors, mainly within the UK. The forum provides a route through which I will be able to disseminate my research.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Aylish Wood (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Aylish Wood
The Magic of Special Effects (tbc)
Wood A
(2014)
Behind the Scenes: A Study of Autodesk Maya
in Animation
Wood A.
(2014)
Software, Animation and the Moving Image: What's in the Box?
Wood, Aylish
Software and Visual Effects
in The Magic of Special Effects, Montreal November 2013
Wood, Aylish
(2012)
Software and Visual Effects
Wood, Aylish
(2013)
Visualizing Maya: Bridging the Gap Between Software and Image
Wood, Aylish
Software, Animation and the Moving Image
in Digital in Depth, University of Warwick, May 2014
Wood, Aylish
A Study of Autodesk Maya
in Code, Melbourne, November 2012
Wood, Aylish
(2012)
Visualizing Maya
in Electronic Visualization and the Arts
Wood, Aylish
(2012)
Visualizing Maya
| Description | A key achievement of this project is a methodology for studying software aimed at people without knowledge of programming or expert use of software. My methodology combined interviews with users (animators), a study of associated materials (marketing materials and on-line training videos, blog sites), as well as analysis of the software's user interface. These materials were analysed through a framework informed by software studies and games studies. After presenting this material at conferences, and sharing my ideas at invited research seminars, academics from a range of disciplines have responded very positively to the openness of my approach. It is a methodology with the potential to be more widely used to think carefully about how software influences its users and how users exploit the software. Based on this methodology I have explored two sets of ideas: how animators work with software and what knowing more about software tells us about computer-generated moving images. 1. Focusing on the 3D animation software Autodesk Maya, I give greater insight into what animators do when working with software. There is often an assumption that automated processes reduce the skills of animators, but I have been able to argue that the skills of animators using computers relies on their creative skills and their capacity to negotiate with and influence the opportunities given by software. By taking a historical view of the development of timing algorithms, I have looked at how computer-generated animation combines not just the technical and creative skills of its users, but also draws together a set of historical influences emerging during the development of software, and the demands of the context (in terms of animation style, film genre, game conventions, or accuracy of data visualization). In the case of Autodesk Maya, a very strong thread running through contemporary use of software and its history is an engagement with concerns around creativity in the context of automation. These concerns are very useful in thinking through the ways agency is bundled through both software and its users. This is a point that can be more widely thought through for software more generally. 2. The second outcome of using this methodology has been to think through what knowing more about software has enabled us to say about moving images. This part of the project drew on film and animation studies to look at the images created using the software in visual effects sequences, games, animations and data visualizations. My study of 3D animation software added a further dimension to our ways of understanding these images. Rather than focussing on the capacity of software to simulate physical reality or the dimensions of real world space, I developed the idea of 'digital contours' to explore how movements and proximities in moving images map out the possibility space of software. They are contours of digital spaces rather than physical spaces. Digital contours are not only about moving images but also gesture to the profound difference digital technologies make to our experience of time and space. |
| Exploitation Route | The methodology of approaching software through a combination of interviews, paratextual materials and an analysis of the user interface offers a widely applicable means of studying software. It would be useful to people wishing to gain greater understanding of the extent to which software may or may not influence its users. It is likely to be useful in an educational context, though might also be of use to software developers. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education |
| URL | http://www.aylishwood.com/talking-about-maya/ |
| Title | Talking about Maya |
| Description | Talking about Maya is a downloadable document created from a synthesis of my interviews with animators. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2014 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The document has been widely downloaded from both the website below and also via University of Kent's research repository. The range of countries from which the site is being accessed indicates an international engagement. |
| URL | http://aylishwood.com/talking-about-maya/ |
| Description | C.A.K.E conference |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | Yes |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | 50+ audience members including practioner students and staff attending from China. The paper was translated and questions arose from both Chinese and UK-based audience members. None. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| Description | Festival workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A public audience, and also students, attended the screening of new animations at Canterbury Anifest. I chaired the Q&A session that followed. The viewing sparked a number of questions about the films, including thoughts and questions about computer animation. n/a |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://us9.campaign-archive2.com/?u=3aeffc8dbb326ff672249f86a&id=8384a197ed&e=37add4e3db |
| Description | blog on algorithms |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Participants in your research and patient groups |
| Results and Impact | To soon to say. Too early to say. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://blog.animationstudies.org/?p=945 |