Browsing by Author "Szabo, Victoria"

Increased consumption of virtual museum content today has fueled the development of new ways of improving the ‘museum experience.’ The sophisticated needs and expectations of the modern visitor in the pursuit of education, leisure, and adventure within museums, can be fulfilled through the application of modern-day solutions. The objective of this study is to improve the experience of paintings through providing audiences three-dimensional immersive virtual experiences. In order to achieve this goal, a case study was created to explore in depth the idea that three-dimensional interventions with interactive elements will improve experience and enhance museum engagement. A practice-based methodology was used to develop a three-dimensional virtual environment of the painting of The Goddess of the Luo by Gu Kazhi. The expertise and knowledge of the researcher concerning photo-editing software and three-dimensional game engine were instrumental in the design and implementation of the virtual environment. The results indicated that through the combination of two-dimensional and three-dimensional elements, the design of instrumental interaction and interpretive materials based on the original painting, various techniques and strategies could be applied to improve the experience of the three-dimensional animated painting. The approach described in this case study could be applied to the physical museums as a supplement to interpret the original painting, as well as being displayed on the official website of the museums.

During WWII, Japan forced women from China, Korea, and other countries in Asia to become military sex slaves. They were called ianfu (慰安婦) in Japanese, or comfort women. The comfort women's history was neglected in post-war society until the early 1990s; with support from scholars, feminist groups, and human rights groups, the public began to know more about comfort women. The shared stories of comfort women's history are constructed in a representation of the past by the relevant testimonies, historical studies, and coverage, where the media narrative has contributed to the public awareness and collective memories of comfort women. This project investigates the interaction between news media coverage and the word "comfort women": how does Mainland China news media cover comfort women? The research corpus developed for this project contains 3173 newspaper articles in Mainland China from 2016 to 2021. This period starts with a Japan–South Korea Comfort Women Agreement announced at the end of 2015, which sparks coverage of this agreement and Japan-South Korea relations in Chinese news media. Building on previous work on the topic of Chinese news media representations of comfort women, this project explores the news in the following six years, points out the changes from the previous years. It also furthers research comparing central state media and local media. The method of this project incorporates content analysis and textual analysis of the corpus, diction, and relevant news events. The technological intervention includes data crawling, data visualization, and web development. The research finds that the coverage uses the word "comfort women" in both political and humanities contexts; the former means that comfort women can refer to the barrier to Japan-South Korea relations and the war crime, and the latter means comfort women are considered the victims in a documentary and the victims themselves. Although Mainland China media in this period had a particular focus on the Japan-South Korea relation, the fundamental goal was to criticize Japan's right-wing stance on the comfort women issue, demonstrating China's national discourse. Meanwhile, the national discourse has also contributed to the widespread dissemination of comfort women's stories and the success of relevant documentaries. Additionally, the lack of humanistic focus in the coverage may be due to the limited social activities about comfort women in China's society. Regarding the comparison between central state media and local media, this study reveals some similarities, but local media tend to focus more on the domestic news that has the potential to attract the public. The study predicts that the political factor may continue to dominate the comfort women topic in future coverage.

In 2018-2019, over 1 million international students from all over the world come to the United States to seek higher education. Along with their hope for quality education, they bring their own cultures. The clash of the United States (US) culture and the foreign culture produces “culture shock”, the progress of learning and adjusting to new environments. This process of working through culture shock, which can take from days to months, exposes the foreign students to loneliness, depression, and lack of belonging. International students also face challenges from language barriers, identity crises, and mental distress. To cope with the stress, they might choose to remain in their comfort zone and isolate themselves from other cultures, but this prevents them from taking full advantage of their new environment and communities. Many institutions offer programs to help students from different backgrounds to embrace diversity by hosting student groups, culture fest, and seminars. They have tried to solve this problem, but for many individuals, it is still difficult to encounter culture shock.This thesis analyzes the effects of culture shocks, the usage of games in empathy building, and aid in the understanding of cultural barriers. It first explores the challenges international students face and their coping strategies. It then surveys research into existing empathy-building games that have shown a positive impact on the targeted audience. Finally, the thesis introduces a digital card game, Cultivated, which was developed to act upon these research findings and to create an experience that helps to address the issue of cultural shock. The game is designed for domestic students to discover cultural differences. The players are asked to develop a new culture of communication together, to experience “culture shock”, and most importantly learn about each other’s culture in real life by exploring the following five aspects of the phenomenon: language, value, symbol, norm, and ritual. The paper argues that a gamified approach to the problem, a digital card game thematized around addressing culture shock, can help tell the story of international students to others and themselves and that playing the game can help break down cultural barriers.

Although an integral part of art historical studies, authentic experiences of architecture have been excluded from the cathedrals of cultural objects, art museums. The built forms can seldomly fit into the doors of museums like art objects in a collection, due to their physical sizes and inseparable links with their surrounding environment. When architecture is presented under traditional museum setting, the visitor experience is often mediated and created by photos, videos, and scaled models. When architectures are converted into public spaces like tourists’ sites, onsite experiences in these spaces are typically biased for a particular duration of time and weather. Interaction with the space is limited due to preservation concerns. This project aims to provide an alternative architectural experience in response to these above limitations using digital methods, instead of trying to substitute the traditional museum experience or the authentic onsite experience. The digital component of this project curates a virtual space using the early access version of Unreal Engine 5, as an exploration of the state-of-the-art technologies in rendering virtual spaces. The project contains three example scenes: Church of the Light, Glass House, and Dom-Ino House. Instead of merely promoting a virtual or a physical experience of architecture, this study takes a critical stance towards the growing attention around digitization and discusses the possibilities of experiencing architecture in a virtual setting.

As the largest cave of Buddhist art with thousands of murals spanning ten dynasties, the Dunhuang Mogao cave has been described as a “peerless cave” because of its fabulous frescos and handcrafted delicate sculptures. However, tourism and in-cave human activities had damaged the frescos; only a few caves are now open with limited accessibility for global visitors and the public. In addition, Dunhuang Cave authorities set strict rules to exclude some people, such as people in wheelchairs, to protect the murals and sculptures from possible damage. This thesis project aims to address this problem by modeling how digital environments might provide universal access to the cave by marginalized and excluded groups. The thesis project includes two separate digital sections: a Unity VR (Virtual Reality) immersive experience and a web-based Story Map with a three-dimensional view of selected murals. The thesis project not only provides an immersive experience for worldwide visitors but also unlocks the door for the possibilities of preserving cultural heritage by using innovative digital methods. Through the use of Maya and Steam, the Unity game engine can be used to curate a virtual space by placing the audience into well-textured 3D cave models, while the web-based story map can be used to contextualize basic background knowledge and provides a comprehensive text explanation of the Silk Road and Buddhist culture to inform the user’s understanding of what they are seeing. Overall, this thesis demonstrates endeavors to discover more possibilities and opportunities for historical and cultural heritage protection while not losing access.

This thesis explores the integration of User Experience (UX) Design in digital humanities, with a focus on Augmented Reality (AR) at Bennett Place. It draws on Brennan's public digital humanity concept, emphasizing the need for public-oriented approaches in digital humanities. The research employs UX design methods, adhering to a workflow comprising research, ideation, design, and user testing.In the research stage, Bennett Place's historical context and visitor personas are analyzed to inform design objectives and user expectations. The ideation stage addresses content design and AR technology selection, aiming for effective information delivery and inclusive user experiences. The design stage details the digital project's implementation. The final delivery of this thesis is an iOS AR app the final stage involves user testing to evaluate the application of AR in enhancing on-site visiting experience at Bennett Place. Although the testing results are not definitive, they provide valuable insights for future digital humanities projects, particularly in public engagement. This thesis demonstrates the effectiveness of AR in enhancing on-site visiting experience at Bennett Place and highlights the potential for incorporating UX methodologies in digital humanities, advocating for more user-focused, engaging, and informative experiences.

This project offers an introduction to the Japanese art auction market, analysis into insights for auction house specialization and segmentation, insights on the top 100 artists in terms of median hammer prices (unfiltered and filtered with at least ten works sold) and volume, the prominence of Avant-Garde artists in the Japanese art auction market from the years 2008 to 2017, and a new provenance model initiated through digital images in artist analysis. The goal of the project is to draw a general scope of view on Japanese art auction market through data visualization, as well as to offer rudimentary digital models for novel methodologies to approach art market research.

Japanese art auction houses have history back to the 1970s. In this project, six different auction houses were examined (Shinwa, Est-Ouest, Mainichi, SBI Art, The Mallet, and The Market). This range of auction houses reflects the segmentation in the Japanese art auction market, with Shinwa dominating the upper-end of sales, and Mainichi the lower-end. After analyzing the top 100 artists sorted by hammer price, median hammer price and volume and looking at sample works, it is concluded that the Japanese buyers favor relatively cheap art by Japanese paintings whose styles are reminiscent of more expensive Western artists. Among the top 100 by hammer price and median hammer price, many artists belong to the Avant-Garde movement, suggesting that the Japanese art auction market has a strong preference towards Avant-Garde artists.

It is generally considered that the art market is too complicated to be explained within a specific digital framework as there are too many social variables that are too difficult to recognize, yet it is still possible to address questions of market performances and characteristics, with sales prices as the primary information indicating values and relative scarcities. Also, by creating data matrices for pre-set art movements, historical periods and specific artists, the distinct roles that a movement or an artist played can be drawn into the big picture of the contemporary Japanese art market.

Given the growing digitization of cultural heritage, there is an opportunity to leverage digital technologies in order to better serve visitors, against the limitations of people’s traditional approaches to heritage in museums and sites. Digitalizing heritage has become part of the national agenda of many countries, including China. This thesis aims to improve the experience of Chinese heritage for online visitors, by investigating how online three-dimensional representations can support and enhance the experience of viewing heritage for a wider audience. The thesis is comprised of a paper and a digital project. It focuses on Qilou, a kind of Chinese architectural heritage distributed in southeast Asia and southeast China, as a case study practice and develops a prototype for its online 3D presentation, in an effort to develop a real-life application as well as to seek ideas for a future exhibition possibilities. With an emphasis of expressing the historical context of Qilou’s distribution, the digital project used the methodology of online 3D models with virtual reality space as well as story map to assemble and visualize Qilou’s spread from different regions. Through the design of interactivity, ambience, and navigation, the online 3D models can generate an immersive and compelling experience for visitors.

This purpose of this thesis is to investigate the most significant issues and concerns confronting the Chinese immigrant community in the U.S. through a quantitative analysis of the current states of Chinese America and a qualitative inquiry with Chinese immigrants themselves. Data for this thesis were mainly collected from U.S. Census Bureau and the Immigration Naturalization Services, which served as part of a broad overview of the current states of Chinese society in the U.S. To answer questions that the data alone cannot elaborate on, I inquired into the everyday experience and struggles of immigrant Chinese by conducting oral history interviews.

Based on a careful examination of government records and oral histories, this thesis has recognized that Chinese immigrants’ affluence, high education and cultural identity have positioned Chinese as a “model minority.” However complimentary that term may sound, it represents a stereotype that homogenizes the Chinese community as a successful community and further obscure issues facing the community such as glass ceiling and assimilation. This thesis further examines the complex relationship between Chinese immigrant perceptions regarding model minority as a myth and their expectation to live up to it in the next generation.

This thesis discusses the subject and media of Dmitri Karamazov an interactive graphic novel with Augmented Reality component. Dmitri Karamazov is adapted from Dostoevsky’s novel the Brothers Karamazov. The author uses a fannish, feminine reading strategy to interpret Dostoevsky's character Mitya, transforms the original narrative and retells the story with the assistance of AR technology. The use of AR in Dmitri Karamazov highlights the fanfiction nature of this interactive graphic novel. It shows how a reader can actively participate in literary interpretation, criticism, writing, rewriting, adapting and creating in a new layer of reality. In terms of literature appreciation and consumption, AR encourages people to break away from their traditional passive-reader roles, and provides a virtual space for people to assume authorship of the materials they encounter.

The public sphere as defined by the philosopher Jurgen Habermas is a discursive space, yet scholars also typically make mention of physical spaces tied to the public sphere. Sites such as the Grecian agora, the 18th century coffee house, or the New England meeting house, are often used as examples of public sphere space. These physical spaces are also evoked when theorizing the digital public sphere and online communication. The “digital town hall,” for example, was mentioned by Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, when discussing his vision for his social media platform. However, what is absent from these physical comparisons is a definition for public sphere space. What is the architecture of the public sphere? The need to define space of the public sphere has become more pressing than ever. As made evident by the 2016 United States presidential election, Zuckerberg’s social media tool did not provide a true public sphere. The public sphere is meant to bolster democracy by providing a space for citizens to discuss politics freely, but Facebook negatively impacted American democracy by allowing a foreign party to target Facebook users with politically focused advertisements. The contrast between the supposed design of this “digital town square” and it's impact demonstrates the need to define public sphere space. This thesis explores the architecture of various public sphere sites in order to materialize the public sphere and ground the communications model in the physical world. It will then focus on a virtual example of the public sphere in order to demonstrate how material boundaries of the public sphere can be translated to digital boundaries through information architecture and user experience design. This analysis will help to contextualize the social media tool Facebook and clarify why the design of Facebook prohibits it from becoming a “digital town square” or an effective public sphere space. The comparison between Facebook and other examples of spaces of the public sphere will point to solutions for designing virtual public sphere spaces in the contemporary digital age.

As the role of Internet Connected Technologies (ICTs) increases exponentially, and as all student populations (highly motivated or not) become increasingly composed of digital natives, it is imperative that the academy adapt to these new challenges. A university is obligated to ensure its students are adequately prepared for the Digital Age. This paper seeks to examine and evaluate the current scholarship of coding pedagogy, digital learning, and information science education, to leverage these evaluations towards the construction of a course of study which is informed by critical thought and current scholarship. It is the author’s hope to provide methods and approaches through which students who may lack an academic background in Computer Science can develop critical and analytic thinking skills alongside essential understandings of the technologies underpinning their daily lives.

The Durham Belt Line, created in the 1800s, has since evolved in the 21st century into an adaptive reuse project. This thesis uses the trail as a model of adaptive reuse to highlight the value of incorporating GIS to understand a community in its historical context. This thesis first reviews and summarizes the evolution of urban redevelopment theory and practice, then presents relevant studies of adaptive reuse including New York City’s High Line and Greensboro’s Downtown Greenway. Following the cases studies, this thesis briefly explores the history of Durham and then discusses a digital trail of the Durham Belt Line Trail that reflects a comprehensive narrative of the past, present, and future of the city with the use of ESRI’s ArcGIS and StoryMap to present qualitative and quantitative socio-cultural information about Durham. This parallel digital trail offers the opportunity to explore the trail online and will assist users in making connections that are not visible when experiencing the physical space of the trail.

The Durham Belt Line Trail is an adaptive reuse project with advantages and disadvantages. Thorough understanding of adaptive reuse as an urban development strategy is necessary to address the threats of abandoning Durham’s history and losing or fragmenting its well-established community in the process of physical transformation. Thus, Durham’s historical ties to tobacco and the present interests of the Durham community are investigated here, and Durham’s future is envisioned as one that can integrate awareness of the past and present communities into a vision for the future. By spatially integrating historical and contemporary narratives spatially, the GIS project of this thesis visualizes Durham’s transition into a digital city.

The technology necessary for hands-free video gaming is available, especially for head-gesture-centric controls. However, remapping controls to head gestures ranges from frustratingly tedious to impossible. I propose a common language of gestures and game actions that categorizes the controls by their use frequency. My suggested categories are primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. The most preferred gestures and more frequently used controls are classified as primary while the least preferred gestures and least frequently used controls classified as quaternary. I also propose constructing an interface software and API to gather data from game designers, hardware designers, and users to suggest optimized game controls for users requiring accessibility. I created a demo for one branch of this for my technical project -- a game to help players determine which gestures they can perform the most accurately so that these gestures may be paired with controls most vital to successful gameplay.

Why are there no female art forgers? This paradoxical mystery can be attributed not only to prevailing patriarchal conceptions of art production and artists, but also to the very conceptual foundation of art forgery itself. In considering the conceptual framework that has developed in order to give way to our contemporary notion of art forgery and analyzing case studies where such conceptions are present, we can begin to understand the ways in which notions of authorship and authenticity affect artwork. These notions become apparent when addressing artwork and art products associated with technical and digital reproduction, as the conceptual framework begins to breakdown when art is facilitated by these means. As this work addresses topics concerning the digital, a website will be used in order to disseminate the scholarly work and engage the wider public in the topic of art forgery.