Kirk Woolford

Kirk Woolford is a practicing photographer and programmer who works closely with digital and creative industries. Prior to joining the University of Sussex, he set up and directed web development and video games production companies in New York, London, and Amsterdam – working with partners including the Economist Group, BBC, Channel 4, FilmFour, Illuminations, Babel Media, and THQ to produce online education, and entertainment systems. He remains active in the creative industries through his role as a founding company director of The Storey, Lancaster’s Creative Industries Center opening in Dec 08. His research is practice-led and he continues to actively exhibit his work in international venues including Shanghai eArts, ARCO Madrid, Art Cologne, P.S.1. (MoMA), Venice Biennale, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Monaco Dance Forum, Ars Electronica, ISEA, and SIGGRAPH. He has collaborated on performances with igloo, Charleroi Danses, Diller+Scofidio, Susan Kozel, Frederique Flamand, Fabrizio Plessi, and others. As a student in Chicago he worked with Eastman Kodak, Adobe, and Quark to incorporate their new technologies, including the first version of Photoshop, into early desktop publishing studios. Between 1992 and 2005, Kirk held several research positions in Germany and the Netherlands as he moved between academy and industry.

Kirk is a technical reviewer on the AHRC Peer Review College and has served as a program commitee member/reviewer/judge for SIGGRAPH, SIGMM, ISEA, DRHA, Digitale, and TeDance.

Current Research:

My research can be roughly divided into two forms: practice-led research involving the creation of interactive installations, performances, photography, and video exploring concepts and experiences which defy textual representation; and more traditional scholarship exploring the role and value of the artist in collaboration with science and technology. The practice-led research focuses on the use of technical mediation to understand our own perception of our bodies and environments. This work began with an exploration of mediated and remote touch in the early 90s . Over the last six years, an exploration of gaze, body maps and mirror neuronal systems has led to projects exploring our ability to touch and move one another other through media (sound and image). More recent work explores manners in which we are touched and moved by our environments, and new business models allowing artists and micro-enterprises to be active partners in creative industries, science, and technology research.

Practice-Lead Methodologies:

I attempt to keep a separation between creative practice and practice-led research. Often the creative practice is initiated without clear research questions in mind. The research questions arise through the exploration and reflection on the creation of the work and lead to numerous technical and critical papers and presentations on process as the work is created and analysis after it is presented.

Sally Jane Norman

Sally Jane Norman’s research spans performing arts, cultural theory, and technology.Born in Aotearoa/ New Zealand in 1953, she studied music and dance there, and earned Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees from the University of Canterbury. She pursued her research into interdisciplinary arts and performance in Paris with a Doctorat de 3ème cycle (PhD) followed by a Doctorat d’état ès Lettres et Sciences humaines the Institut d’Etudes théâtrales, Université de Paris III.

Parallel to publications including studies for the Laboratoire des Arts du Spectacle of the French Centre national de la recherche scientifique, UNESCO and the French Ministry of Culture, Sally Jane has run live performance workshops with digital tools at the International Institute of Puppetry in Charleville-Mézières, Studio for Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM) in Amsterdam, Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, and European Festival of Digital Creation in Valenciennes. She organised the 1992 New Images and Museology Conference at the Louvre, and co-organised STEIM’s 1998 TOUCH Festival and Symposium in Amsterdam, and IRCAM’s Dance and Technology session at the 2003 Resonance Festival. Sally Jane worked on EU R&D projects at the ZKM before moving to the Ecole supérieure de l’image in France, where she served as Director General of both two sites (Angoulême/ Poitiers) of this unique arts education and research establishment, launching ESI’s pioneering Digital Arts Doctoral Programme with Poitiers University.

Sally Jane collaborates with many organisations dedicated to transdisciplinary research, including Hexagram and the Daniel Langlois Foundation in Montreal, the Telefonica Foundation in Madrid, and the International Symposium of Electronic Arts.

Dr Martin White (Reader in Computer Science)

He holds an HNC in Electronic Engineering from Bournemouth University (formally Dorset Institute of Higher Education), a BSc (Hons) in Computer Systems Engineering, and a PhD in Computer Science (Computer Graphics)—both from the University of Sussex.  After working as a contract researcher on several EU research projects focused on computer graphics in the early 90’s, he started as a lecturer in Electronic Engineering at the University of Sussex in 1995.  He is currently leads a research team on digital heritage and motion capture applications in the Interactive Systems group (Computer Graphics Centre) at Sussex.  Martin has authored or co-authored 162 scientific papers on computer graphics, virtual and augmented reality and e-Learning, many focused on hardware and software design of graphics and ICT systems for digital heritage.  He has project managed and coordinated on several successful EU funded projects since 1990, and is currently working on three projects related to digital heritage and motion capture.

Research Interests

3D graphics; virtual, augmented and mixed reality, animation, motion sensing, visualisation, interaction applied to:

• Online motion sensing and animation systems — gaming, theme parks, entertainment;
• Heritage Science—particularly the design and implementation of digital heritage systems including content creation, management, presentation and interaction components focused on virtual museums and digital repatriation of cultural heritage
• Virtual (3D) reconstruction of heritage sites, monuments and objects

Stuart Dunn

Stuart is Research Fellow at KCL’s Centre for e-Research (CeRch), and received a PhD in Aegean Bronze Age Archaeology from the University of Durham in 2002. Before joining CeRch he worked for the AHRC’s ICT in Arts and Humanities Research Programme. He has published on topics in e-science, on e-science methods in archaeology, and in the fields of Minoan environmental archaeology and geospatial archaeological computing. Currently his main research interests are geospatial technologies, services and resources and academic Spatial Data Infrastructures and the integration and management of cultural heritage data. He is a co-convenor of the Digital Classicst project, and is Principle Editor of the proceedings of the Electronic Visualization and the Arts conference. At CeRch, Stuart works on various projects in the areas of cultural heritage and spatial analysis, and coordinates CeRch’s community engagement activities. As well as his involvement with the MiPP project, he is co-investigator of the JISC funded project CHALICE (Connection Historical Authorities with Linked data, Indices, Contexts and Entities), and a researcher on the SAWS (Sharing Ancient Wisdoms) project.

Mark Hedges

Mark Hedges is Deputy Director of the Centre for e-Research (CeRch) at King’s College London, and prior to this was Technical Manager at the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS). Mark took the lead in the planning, design and development of the repository-based infrastructure to support the curation, preservation and delivery of the diverse and complex digital resources managed by the AHDS, and since October 2007 he has been extending the scope of the work to providing a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary research infrastructure for King’s.

Mark is Principal Investigator on the following projects:

Mark has managed a number of research and development projects in the fields of:

• digital repositories;
• information modelling;
• data grids.

Prior to becoming involved in the fields of digital repositories and research infrastructures, Mark worked for 17 years in the software industry, taking the technical lead on a number of large-scale development projects for industrial and commercial clients. Thus, as well as his research interests, he has extensive experience of turning ideas and technologies into production systems that fulfil real world requirements in demanding environments.

Helen Bailey

Helen’s interests range between choreography, dance-theatre performance, and the integration of dance and contemporary media.

She has an international record in cross-disciplinary research in dance and new technologies and has collaborated with academics and researchers from University of Manchester, University of Bristol, Leeds University, the Open University and Nihon University, Japan.

She has been invited to present at University of California, San Diego, University of Bristol, the Laban Centre, London and the Amsterdam School for New Dance in Holland.

In the professional context she has established international links as a choreographer and director with Volcano Theatre Company and has been the Artistic Director and Choreographer of Ersatz Dance since 1998, attracting significant levels of professional funding and touring both live and screen-based dance works nationally and internationally.

In 2006 she was invited and funded by the Arts Council England as part of an artists delegation to ISEA:2006 (International Symposium of Electronic Arts)/ZeroOne Festival, San Jose, USA.

Leon Barker

Leon has recently completed his PhD at the SCIRIA Research Unit (Sensory Computer Interface Research & Innovation in the Arts), University of the Arts London. His project explored pervasive interfaces, computer vision and gestural interaction.

Abstract
Recent developments in computer vision technologies within fields as diverse as surveillance, bio-informatics and the film industry, together with advanced image processing algorithms, present opportunities for the development of gestural computer interfaces allowing physical gesture (e.g. a ‘thumbs-up’ signal with the hand) to be interpreted by the computer.This research is applying such technologies, together with the results of recent research on human biomechanics and neurobiology, in the development of an ergonomic computer interface that uses hand gestures distinguishable and interpretable by a computer vision system. Integral to this work is the development of a formal gestural syntax and an associated classification system.

With experience producing high quality interfaces and media for corporate clients we have a proven track record of providing robust IT solutions for online industries. Research is an essential driver of innovation. Through our research we have produced completely novel interfaces that enhance and improve the current model of interaction.

He is also director of GV Interactive.

Company Press Release
Combining expertise in computer-vision and user experience design allows us to develop innovative gesture interfaces for a wide range of machines. Our expertise with electronics, software development and interaction design equip us to identify the main challenges facing HCI and design robust solutions.

J Milo Taylor

Keywords: sound art, immersive environments, relational aesthetics, London Sound Artist Working Group, digital media, site-responsive installation, suborg.net, improvisation, performance, locative media, iPhone, composition, virtual reality, database art, net art, arduino, contemporary movement, open frameworks, collaboration, beyond text, intermedia, critical theory, critical practice, CRiSAP.

PhD Project (completed Spring 2009)
ImMApp: An Immersive Database of Sound Art
My research involves a study of historical and contemporary sound art discourse from a digitized postmodern perspective. Our contemporary society offers new opportunities for interaction, involvement and immersion. Sound, as a natural phenomenon, and medium of artistic practice, remains immersive, sensual, and elusive to capture by language. Conceptual modalities established by post-convergent and post-structuralist paradigms suggest innovative methods of organizing and presenting an archive of sound art in the early 2st century..

My work proposes that in a post-literate society, possibilities suggested by immersive digital technologies offer up an alternative understandings of creative practices and associated discourse.

The focus of the work is the development of an interactive and immersive digital research methodology. At its core the project is a dynamic audio-visual-textual database allowing rich semantic manipulations of digitised cultural objects, a methodology that allows a researcher the chance to deconstruct, compare and contrast previously unconnected practice in an enriched multisensory, real-time audio-visual environment.

Selected Publications
David Toop’s Laptop Orchestra: A View from the Guitarist’s Chair. Published in Playing With Words: The Spoken Word In Artistic Practice (Ed. Dr Cathy Lane) in Autumn 2008.
An Immersive Database of Sound Art: Towards a Minor History. Graduate School of Culture Technology (GSCT) at KAIST, Daejeon, Korea. August 2008.
The ImmApp: A Digital Application for Immersive Interaction with Sound Art Archives. CCMR Sense of Sound Post Proceedings.(Computer Music Modelling and Retrieval 2007). Published by Springer Verlag 2008. Germany / Denmark. ISBN: 978-3-540-85034-2
Immersion: An Immersive Digital Application for Creative Interaction with Sound Art Archives. ICMC Proceedings. Published by ICMC and Re:New. Denmark. ISBN 0-9713192-5-1. August 2007.

Recent Projects
An Auditory History of Sound Art
Sound Composition/installation detailing the fluxes in historical and contemporary sound art. (85mins stereo)
UK National Tour – Newcastle (Baltic), Bangor (Gwynedd Museum), Oxford, Brighton (Phoenix Gallery) and London (Whitechapel Art Gallery)

Associate at Modus Arts Lab
Project development of an immersive environment in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust, The Synaesthesia Research Unit, University of East London and the V&A Museum.

Project in Process: OPEN SOUND – European Sound Network. £120,000 project bid with 6 European Organisations

Performance at Roehampton Performance Phd Cluster
Sound, light and movement performance with Mariella Greil and Werner Moebius.

Multimedia Performance at Incounter Image Music Text @ Campbell Works, London.
Sound, Light and Movement Peformance and Mariella griel, Werner Moebius and perpetual snd<>mvt (Bilwa Costas and Emily Sweeney)

Organiser of London Sound Artists Working Group
An artist-led led independent and open forum for creative auditory practices. A grass-roots organisation providing a supportive environment for sound artists, theorists, audiences and academics to engage with
soundworks.
Course Tutor. M.A. Sound Arts and Design, London College of Communication
Course Tutor. Sound Culture and Critical Methodologies. B.A. Sound Arts and Design, London College of Communication
Guest Lecturer at School of Audio Engineering, London.
Sound Art, Digital Media and Post-structural Critical Theory. B.A. Audio Production Course