Adaptations and New Media Symposium

A
 Symposium
 on
 Adaptation
 for
 New 
Media

January
 25,
 2011
 Hugh
 Aston 
Building
 De
 Montfort 
University

The Department of English's Adaptation studies and the IOCT have joined forces to co-host a one day symposium on the changing nature of adaptation in relation to new media forms. The symposium brings together academics from across the UK and Europe to focus on the new problems associated with adaptation for such diverse platforms as gaming and the Web.It 
features 
papers 
ranging
 from

computer
games,
 mash‐ups, 
interactive 
narratives 
and 
interactive 
film,
 technological 
innovations,
 representations
 of 
technology 
and 
new 
media.


The
 conference 
is open 
to 
anyone 
interested 
in 
how
 the 
entertainment

industry is 
constantly
 adapting 
to 
new
 technologies.


The 
conference
 will

be 
introduced 
by 
award 
winning
 writer,
 Kate
Pullinger,
 who 
will 
talk
 on

Nothing 
New 
Here:
Books 
as
 Apps,
Enchanced
 e‐Books,
 and 
Digital

Stories’,
 relating 
her 
own
 experience 
with 
the
‘enhanced 
abridged 
audio

ebook’ 
adaptation
 of 
her
 2009
 novel,
 The
 Mistress
 of 
Nothing.

The

conference 
will
 close 
with 
a
 screening of
 Martin
Rieser’s
 The Third

Woman interactive film for mobiles based on The Third Man

We 
intend
 to 
publish 
the 
three
 best 
papers 
in 
a 
special
 edition
 of

Adaptions 
Journal
 and
 the
 remainder 
can 
be
 published 
online
 on 
a

dedicated
 website


Ernest Edmonds Talk

The Institute of Creative Technologies and the Computer Arts Society jointly hosted  a well-attended talk by Ernest Edmonds at 5pm on 19th January at the IOCT Lab at De Montfort University
 

Biography

Ernest Edmonds was born in London and studied Mathematics and Philosophy at Leicester University. He has a PhD in logic from Nottingham University, is a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology and a Charted Engineer. He is a practicing artist.

He lives and works in Sydney Australia. His art is in the constructivist tradition and he first used computers in his art practice in 1968. He first showed an interactive work with Stroud Cornock in 1970. He first showed a generative time-based computer work in London in 1985. He has exhibited throughout the world, from Moscow to LA. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, is collecting his archives within the National Archive of Computer Based Art and Design.

He has over 200 refereed publications in the fields of human-computer interaction, creativity and art. Artists Bookworks (UK) has recently published his book "On New Constructs in Art". Ernest Edmonds is Professor of Computation and Creative Media at the University of Technology, Sydney where he runs a multi-disciplinary practice-based art and technology research group, the Creativity and Cognition Studios. In Sydney, he is represented by the Conny Dietzschold Gallery.

Ernest Edmonds has held the position of University Dean, has sat on many funding and conference committees and was a pioneer in the development of practice-based PhD programmes. He founded the ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference series and was part of the founding team for the ACM Intelligent User Interface conference series. He has been an invited speaker in, for example, the UK, France, the USA, Australia, Japan and Malaysia.

Director Creativity and Cognition Studios, UTS

Editor-in-Chief Leonardo Transactions

Founding Editor Knowledge-Based Systems

Visiting Professor Sussex University

Visiting Research Fellow Goldsmiths College

SKTP for DH Lawrence Trail

About Empedia

Empedia is a growing collection of online maps, audio tours, picture trails,video and interactive guides. It's designed for curators of cultural venues, organisations and attractions and for visitors and residents within the East Midlands region. The Empedia Platform is being developed by Cuttlefish Multimedia as part of the Renaissance East Midlands MLA Programme and is part funded by an sKTP Knowledge Transfer partnership with DMU

One of the first commissions on which IOCT is collaborating is a DH Lawrence trail around Lawrence's birthplace in Eastwood near Nottingham-due to be launched in June 2011

Guides are available via the Empedia website, iPhone App and the Empedia Player which can be embedded in other websites.

Plan, Assemble, Edit, Publish...

Planning Your Trail or Exhibition

Firstly, plot a route for your cultural guide on a map or plan of your venue, identifying key points of interest. Points can form a linear trail or be completely random. In some cases, multiple trails may be necessary, each having its own interpretation or narrative. If you have existing Google Maps, Empedia can also import trail data in standard KML format.

Gathering Content

The next task involves collecting existing media or generating new content for each of the points of interest. In its simplest form this can involve repurposing the content of a leaflet as the basis of your Empedia guide. All content is digitised to the required formats and uploaded to the Empedia website via a password-protected login area. The Cuttlefish team can assist with this process. Empedia supports text, images, audio and video in a variety of formats. You can also include existing media from Flickr and YouTube.

Content Editing and Management

Each media resource (picture, text, audio clip, etc) can be positioned on a guide map or plan using simple 'drag-and-drop' techniques. For pin-point accuracy, Latitude/Longitude co-ordinates can also be input if required.

In the desktop version of Empedia, all of the media resources for an individual guide are displayed in a sequential list at the bottom of the player. Changing the position of media resources in the sequential list is achieved via a simple drop down box. (Drag-and-drop editing coming soon). Media resources can also be stacked together in one location (an image might be combined with several audio clips, for example).

One-click Publishing

All editing operations are conducted 'behind-the-scenes' in draft mode prior to public release. Empedia's one-click publishing updates the public-facing website, embedded players and iPhone App simultaneously.

User Interface

Media resources are activated (narration, pictures, descriptions, etc) by clicking icons on the map or clicking thumbnail images in a sequential list. The Empedia iPhone App has additional 'locative' methods of activating resources, utilising mobile GPS and QR-code scanning technology.