Navigating
media-rich information spaces using concept graphs - the abramovic dossier
Eliens A[1], van
Riel C a.and
Wang Y b.
a Vrije Universiteit, Intelligent
Multimedia Group, Faculty of Sciences ,
b
Navigating
media-rich information spaces usually involves switching back and forth between
categories and lists indexing the material and the actual media presentations.
In this paper, we describe a multidisciplinary case study of creating a digital
dossier to present a collection of artworks and related information in a more
immersive manner, using a concept graph for navigation. The case study is done
for the artworks of the Serbian-Dutch performance artist Marina Abramovic, in cooperation with the Dutch Institute for
Cultural heritage. In the paper, we describe the design requirements, as well
as the technical realization of the abramovic dossier. Based on an initial user evaluation, we
also indicate directions for future research, and discuss the style criteria
for the user interface of our digital dossier(s).
Keywords:
digital dossiers, concept graphs, relation visualization, contemporary art,
VRML.
1 Introduction
Navigating
media-rich information spaces usually involves switching back and forth between
categories and lists indexing the material and the actual media presentations.
To address this problem, we developed a concept graph navigation system in 3D
that allows the presentation of media material and navigation in a more
immersive manner, using a presentation gadget that is closely connected with
the navigation facilities offered by the concept graph.
In this
paper, we describe a multidisciplinary case study of creating a digital dossier
to present a collection of artworks of the Serbian-Dutch performance artist
Marina Abramovic, together with the art related
information for the preservation and re-installation of these artworks. For the
presentation of information we choose a 3D environment which facilitates the
presentation of text, pictures and video as well as 3D models of artwork
installations. For navigation we developed a concept graph that allows for
choosing inter-related concepts, artwork-related information and media
recordings of artworks in a unified intuitive fashion. When navigating, a
preview of the related material is shown in a semi-transparent way, to assist
the user in selecting the appropriate node.
The abramovic dossier[2] resulted
from a long-standing cooperation with ICN[3] (the
Dutch Institute for Cultural Heritage) and
The
structure of this paper is as follows. In section 2, we describe the design
requirements of the digital dossier. followed by an overview of the technical
realization of the abramovic
dossier in section 3. Based on an initial user evaluation, we indicate, in
section 4, directions for future research and discuss the style criteria for
the user interface of our digital dossier(s). Finally, in section 5, we will
draw our conclusions.
2 Design requirements
As material for the abramovic dossier there was an interview with Marina Abramovic from ICN, made in cooperation with the Dutch Foundation for the Visual Arts, and a great collection of videos from the Institute for Time-based Arts. In addition, a transcription of the contents of the interview made by Michela Negrini, a student of media art at the University of Amsterdam, who also provided an interpretation as well as a categorization of the works of art.
The digital dossier for
the artist Marina Abramovic had to satisfy the
following requirements:
- It must serve as an information source
for conservators and curators of contemporary art,
- It must present rich media recordings of
all artworks, and,
- In addition, it must provide background
information for the general public (non-expert users).
The abramovic dossier was developed
in 2004 as a collective student project (including students from Computer
Science,
Discussion – on the notion
of immersion
As indicated in
the introduction, the abramovic dossier was meant to complement the information available in other online
resources, by providing an alternative interface to the material. In particular
we wished to avoid the common menu and lists structure that forces the user to
switch back and forth between the media material and the information giving
access to that material.
For an understanding of the notion of immersiveness we
refer to [2].
In any medium, according to [2], there are two forces at work:
- immediacy
-- a tendency towards transparent immersion, and
- hypermediacy
-- the presence of referential context
Immediacy occurs
when the medium itself is forgotten, so to speak, as is (ideally) the case in
realistic painting, dramatic movies, and (perhaps in its most extreme form) in
virtual reality. Hypermediacy may be observed when
either the medium itself becomes the subject of our attention as in some genres
of modern painting, experimental literature and film making, or when there is
an explicit reference to other related sources of information or areas of
experience, as in conceptual art, many web sites, and also in CNN news, where
apart from live reports of ongoing action, running banners with a variety of
information keep the viewers up to date of other news facts.
Immersiveness,
in other words, is accomplished when the application becomes in some sense
transparent, without the user becoming aware of its referential nature.
Although an impossible task as such, in creating the abramovic dossier we strived for developing an immersive application, that allows the user to experience the media
recordings of the artworks within the information space represented by the
application, as for example in a virtual museum.
However, given the complexity of the
concept space associated with the works of an artist like Marina Abramovic, the virtual museum solution did not seem
appropriate, and, as will be described in the next section, we decided to use a
concept graph as a navigation mechanism, with an associated presentation gadget
that is as much as possible embedded in the concept graph, and as it were pops
out of the graph when to user wants to focus on the media presentation of the
artwork. Additionally, when exploring the possible choices offered by a the
part of the concept graph presented, the user will also get a preview of the
material associated with the nodes.
3
Realization of the digital
dossier
The digital dossier was created with VRML (Virtual
Reality Modeling Language), which allows for creating virtual worlds and
present them on the web. As a user interface for navigating the digital
dossier, we created a concept graph that represents relational information
structures. The concept graph allows the user to detect relations and search
for information. Unlike a 3D cone tree, [3], where the complete hierarchical structure is presented,
only a subset of the relational structure is shown - three levels deep.
The presentation of the concept graph is dynamic and
actually determined by the user's choice. To compensate for the lack of an
instant overview, where all information is shown at once, the user can, as
already indicated in the previous section, also use keyword search instead of
navigation.
The digital dossier contains
different presentation facilities for 2D and 3D content. For 2D media content a
visualization facility is needed that is able to present video, images or
textual information. This facility is implemented as a content gadget with
three windows. In each of the three windows the user can view 2D media content.
These windows are positioned in such a way that the user can inspect the
information simultaneously. In our experience, three images can be presented at
the same time without much visual distortion.
Below the three windows a list of all
content related to the selected information object is displayed. By using
drag-and-drop the user can view content on a window of choice. If necessary,
the user can focus on a particular window with a zoom option, to avoid
distraction from the other windows.
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Fig 1. main node |
Fig.2 presentation gadget |
Since we adopted 3D technology, we
could easily accommodate a 3D model for one of the installation art works by
Marina Abramovic. We implemented a plain exhibition
room, providing a 3D perspective of the installation Terra Degli
Dea Madre that allows the user to manipulate the
position of the objects by a click-and-drag function. The 3D environment
demonstrates the interactive exploration of the installation of an artwork. By
manipulating position and/or angle of objects, museum curators can get insight
into how the artwork could be exhibited. At this point, we can only speculate
how useful such a reconstruction can be as a tool for the conservator
responsible for the re-installation, to play around with the presentation
parameters, the positioning in space, the overall size, light and ambient
effects.
For constructing the actual abramovic dossier, we developed a content
management tool, that allows the user to browse and edit existing nodes, and to
insert new nodes into the graph. On an implementation level, (VRML) node types
included nodes for video, pictures, artworks, and information. All nodes shared
a common set of attributes, such as their name, description, preview image and
display size. The top level of the concept graph was created using an
information node as the main node.
Drawing the concept graph
requires to calculate which nodes surround the node that is chosen as the
center node. Each of the surrounding nodes has a number of surrounding nodes
themselves. When the user selects a node, the new configuration is calculated,
and the new configuration appears with a fade-in, while the old configuration
disappears with a fade-out, animating the transition between the old and the
new configuration.
4 Issues for future research and development
An initial usability evaluation (with
staff members from ICN and
- what icons should be used to identify
the elements of the concept graph?
- what categories and relationships are
most appropriate?
- how should the information be
displayed, simultaneously or more focussed?
- how do we allow the user to choose
between multiple information items?
- how do we avoid visually disturbing
elements?
Obviously,
although the abramovic dossier was
very positively received, these issues must be dealt with to make it a success.
Having a first prototype, we needed to rethink our application, not only with
regard to its style of presentation but, as we will discuss in the next
section, also in terms of its underlying data representation.
As indicated in the previous section,
for constructing the actual abramovic dossier, we
developed a content management tool, that allows the user to browse and edit
existing nodes, and to insert new nodes into the graph. However, to preserve
the information stored in the digital dossier for future use, we must
reconsider the data representation i.e. how the information is stored and
structured. To use the information presented by the digital dossier, taking
into account future developments in 3D technology or other application
contexts, it has to be independent of formatting information. This means that
the same information instance can be used for other presentations in a
relatively easy way. In particular, in case of the digital dossier the
presented information has to be VRML independent.
In re-thinking the abramovic dossier, we needed to re-establish what were our goals in developing this
application and what our primary data sources. The primary goal, after all, is
to support conservators in their task of preserving contemporary art, and to
assist them with the re-installation of such artworks.
For the next generation of digital dossiers,
we stated the following requirements:
- adaptation of representation to Dublin Core
- XML-based content management, with php
forms
- develop multiple ways to present the information
- provide stylesheets to accomodate user preferences wrt
style
Dublin Core[8] is the standard used in
the INCCA initiative, to record meta-information about existing information
sources. For the abramovic dossier, a
collection of record-like structures was developed, together with a simple
content-management tool, written in PHP. This content-management system must be
adapted to be compatible with the Dublin Core-based resource descriptions,
augmented with annotations needed for presentation.
Further, we decided that, along with the 3D
presentation of the dossier, it would be worthwhile to develop a conversion
tool that produces standard web-technology based presentations as well. This
approach allows us to assess the usability merits of the 3D dossiers in a
comparative way.
Finally, as indicated
before, an important issue that must be resolved concerns the proper
presentation parameters. What do we present to the user? And how do we allow
the user to interact with the material presented?
Discussion – 2D versus 3D
As a follow-up on the abramovic dossier, the 2005 Casus group developed
a digital dossier for the artist Jeffrey Shaw[9]. One interesting aspect of
the dossier for Shaw is the availability of a tool environment to learn about
the construction and de-construction of the Revolution
installation and to experiment with the exhibition space parameters of the
artwork, such as the lighting conditions, and the color and texture of the
walls and the floor. See also [4].
With the Casus
2005 group there was, however, a strong resistance against using 3D for the
concept graph navigation mechanism. So we explored a mixed approach, using 2D
for the concept graph, and 3D only for the representation of the Revolution
installation, in the tool environment mentioned above.
Nevertheless,
although the dossier for Shaw does realize many of the goals set for the next generation dossier, indicated in
section 4, it did fail in providing an immersive application, in the sense
explained in section 2. A further analysis of this failure is given in [5]. At
this point, we may remark that it did not achieve a natural transition between
browsing the concept space and inspecting/experiencing the media recordings of
the artwork, thus disrupting the natural flow
of attention, as we may call it of the user of the dossier. Nevertheless,
as we observed in [6] with regard to the visualization of business processes, the
effective use of 3D visualizations does require a certain degree of literacy,
that is visual literacy, from the side of the user. In future applications, we
must pay more attention to providing
adequate instructions to that effect.
5 Conclusions
We have argued that a
dynamically presented concept graph, as used in the digital dossier, may
provide intuitive navigation when dealing with highly inter-related information
structures in 3D space. Instead of presenting a complete view of the hierarchy,
the concept graph shows only a subset of the information. Presentation of
content is separated from navigation but the digital dossier indicates a strong
relation between them.
So far, the results of the initial evaluation
look very promising for using the concept graph as a navigation paradigm.
Evaluation indicates that it is relatively easy to use and that it supports
exploratory tasks rather well. As such, the digital dossier can be a solution
for dealing with presenting highly interrelated information structures in 3D
space. However, to get a more accurate view of the usability of the digital
dossier, and in particular concept graphs as a navigation paradigm, we wish to
explore more real world applications in the domain of cultural heritage, that
may reveal new issues for further development.
AcknowledgementS
We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of the following people to
the development of the digital dossier:
- Vrije Universiteit
- Technische Universiteit
- The Netherlands Institute for Cultural
Heritage: Tatja Scholte, Ijsbrand Hummelen
- Montevideo: Bart Rutten,
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