Creative Reuse Research Articles

Linked (open) data at web scale: research, social and engineering challenges in the digital humanities

The amount of data available in the linked data cloud has grown enormously in the last years in several domains, including cultural heritage and digital humanities. However creative reuse of data both within the scholarly community and within the cultural industry is still very limited. It depends on a mixture of technical and social problems that needs to be addressed in research and within the industry. The paper will explores some of these challenges with a focus on the digital humanities.

Linguistic Readymades and Creative Reuse

Creativity often arises from a process of appropriation, in which something is wrenched from its normative context of use and given new meaning in a new setting. In this vein, Marcel Duchamp popularized the notion of an artistic ready-made when his Fountain – a signed urinal – was presented with some controversy at a Dada exhibition in 1917. We normally think of readymades as physical objects whose artistic merit derives wholly from their selection by an artist, but language is also rich in linguistic readymades. Just think of how many movies, songs, novels and poems allusively borrow utterances and phrases from each other. The movie The Usual Suspects, for example, takes its name from a famous quote from the movie Casablanca, while the novel All The King's Men takes it title from a famous nursery rhyme; this title, in turn, inspired the title of Woodward and Bernstein's book All The President's Men. Large lexical resources, such as corpora and databases of Web n-grams, are a rich source of readymade phrases that can be reused in many different contexts. However, one must be careful in how these resources are used, and noted writers such as George Orwell have argued that the use of canned phrases encourages sloppy thinking and results in poor communication. Nonetheless, while Orwell prized home-made phrases over the readymade variety, Duchamp created a vibrant movement in modern art which shifted the emphasis of artistic creation from the production of novel artifacts to the clever reuse of readymades or objets trouv's. We describe here a system that makes creative reuse of the linguistic readymades in the Google n-grams. Our computational systems thus owe more to Duchamp than to Orwell, and harvest readymades on a large scale to support linguistic creativity.

OpenART: Open metadata for art research at the tate

AbstractEditor's SummaryThe short‐term OpenART project was geared to exposing linked open data for the research dataset, “The London Artworld 1660‐1735,” of the Tate Britain art gallery, enabling viewers to learn about activities in the art world of the times. Work for the project required decisions and choices about using open data, starting with considering use cases and identifying entities and relationships. The dataset was modeled and expressed in the Resource Description Framework, using an event – art sales – as the central component of the model. An OpenART ontology was developed to provide domain‐specific descriptors and integrated with existing ontologies to provide semantic interoperability. The resulting event‐based ontology supported reciprocal statements about entities revolving around an event, as well as references back to other types of information for greater detail. Data was transformed from spreadsheets to RDF documents, served to a data repository and provided with persistent URLs. The OpenART project demonstrated practical approaches to exposing linked open data while enabling sharing and creative reuse of the research data.

Tolerance is Law: Remixing Homage, Parodying Plagiarism

Three centuries have passed since copyright law was developed to stimulate creativity and promote learning. The fundamental principles still apply, despite radical developments in the technology of production and distribution of cultural material. In particular the last decades’ developments and adoption of ICTs have drastically lowered barriers, which previously prevented entry into the production and distribution side of the cultural marketplace, and led to a widening of the base at which cultural production occurs and is disseminated. Additionally, digitalisation has made it economically and technically feasible for users to appropriate and manipulate earlier works as method of production. The renegotiation of barriers and the increasing number of creators who publish their works has led to an increase in copyright violations and a pressure on copyright legislation. Many of these potential violations are tolerated, in some cases have become common practice, and created social norms. Others have not been so fortunate and the law has been rigidly enforced. This arbitrary application decreases the predictability of law and creates a situation where creation relies on the tolerance of the other copyright holders. This article analyses different cases of reuse that test the boundaries of copyright. Some of these are tolerated, others not. When regulation fails to capture the rich variation of creative reuse, it becomes difficult to predict which works will be tolerated. The analysis suggests that as copyright becomes prohibitive, social norms, power and the values of the copyright holder dominate and not law.

Informed character pose and proportion design

The use of pose and proportion to represent character traits is well established in art and psychology literature. However, there are no golden rules that quantify a generic design template for stylized character figure drawing. Given the wide variety of drawing styles and a large feature dimension space, it is a significant challenge to extract this information automatically from existing cartoon art. This paper outlines a game-inspired methodology for systematically collecting layman perception feedback, given a set of carefully chosen trait labels and character silhouette images. The rated labels were clustered and then mapped to the pose and proportion parameters of characters in the dataset. The trained model can be used to classify new drawings, providing valuable insight to artists who want to experiment with different poses and proportions in the draft stage. The proposed methodology was implemented as follows: (1) Over 200 full-body, front-facing character images were manually annotated to calculate pose and proportion; (2) A simplified silhouette was generated from the annotations to avoid copyright infringements and prevent users from identifying the source of our experimental figures; (3) An online casual role-playing puzzle game was developed to let players choose meaningful tags (role, physicality, and personality) for characters, where tags and silhouettes received equitable exposure; (4) Analysis on the generated data was done both in stereotype label space as well as character shape space; (5) Label filtering and clustering enabled dimension reduction of the large description space, and subsequently, a select set of design features were mapped to these clusters to train a neural network classifier; (6) Bayesian graphs were also mined to allow informed tweaks to the input feature set, in order to push the character toward a different label stereotype class. The mapping between the collected perception and shape data give us quantitative and qualitative insight into character design. It opens up applications for creative reuse of (and deviation from) existing character designs.

Maiensäss – Swiss Alpine summer farms – an element of cultural heritage between conservation and further development: a qualitative case study

Farm buildings that have become redundant due to agricultural change often find themselves in an area of conflict between conservation and further development. The Swiss Maiensäss, Alpine farms traditionally used at the intermediate altitude from spring to fall, are a prominent example of such a landscape element. The qualitative case study on which this paper is based focuses on different users’ perceptions of the Maiensäss and their development. Our results show that the Maiensäss are a particularly lively element in Swiss cultural heritage. These small farms are often reused and thus have to satisfy the needs of different resident and non‐resident users. Users attribute a multitude of meanings to the Maiensäss referring to both their present and past functions. For non‐residents the Maiensäss are mainly a symbol of shared roots and national identity which should be protected, whereas for residents they stand stands for the continuity of their local culture and creative possibilities. The main challenge regarding the management of redundant farm buildings seems to be to strike a balance between conservation and creative reuse. The recently introduced building regulations for these farms allow some scope for creative innovation and appear to be well accepted by users. This successful regulation measure might serve as a precursor for managing the development of other traditional landscapes.

Copyright, Preservation, and Archives: An Interview with Eric Schwartz

Copyright, Preservation, and ArchivesAn Interview with Eric Schwartz David Pierce (bio) Copyright influences and controls preservation and access for archives, corporations, and private collectors. This legal concept benefits creators and rights-holders, as exclusive control over works is the economic basis for the creative industries. The evolution of copyright from protection of authors to an instrument of international trade has tightened the control of owners and placed archives and archivists in an uncomfortable position. And a nearly open-ended copyright term undermines the role of archives in long-term preservation and public access to their collections. The survival of older works may depend on happenstance, but their availability is often due to the vicissitudes of copyright. Copyright—literally ownership of the exclusive right to control the making of copies—is as much an underpinning of the film and television industries as 35mm film. And under current law, many copyrights have outlasted the works they were created to protect. Eric Schwartz has been a leader on these issues in the worlds of Congress, the Copyright Office, higher education, nonprofit archives, and studios. Eric is familiar to many Association of Moving Image Archivists members through his work with AMIA–and the Library of Congress–sponsored National Film Preservation Board and the National Film Preservation Foundation. From his early career on Capitol Hill and the Copyright Office to private practice, Eric has continued his association with the Library of Congress, playing a pivotal role in the establishment of the National Film Preservation Board, the National Recording Preservation Board, and the National Film Preservation Foundation. These have promoted the preservation activities of the Library of Congress and routed Federal funding to small archives across the country. This Federal funding has helped legitimize the activities of many small institutions to conserve and preserve their collections. These have given him a unique perspective on the commercial and archival worlds, each of which faces challenges of financial solvency in a world of constant technological change, rapid obsolescence of electronic formats, widespread piracy, and a risk of irrelevance if unable to keep pace with new patterns of distribution, use, and creative reuse. question: How did you develop your interest in movies, film archives, and copyright? My love of movies started as a child, thanks, in large part, to my father. My father (and mom) loved films and books, as well as the performing arts. My dad had relatives who worked in Jewish theater and vaudeville in New York; a few even tried their hand at [End Page 106] getting film work in Hollywood, but they were unsuccessful. My father's great uncle, Nathan Goldberg, had been a fairly well-known player in Jewish theater on the lower East side of Manhattan; his stage partner for a time was Billy Gilbert. Click for larger view View full resolution Shemp Howard and Billy Gilbert in Three of a Kind (1944). Courtesy Monogram. I do recall watching films—Laurel and Hardy or something like that—and seeing someone sneezing, and my dad saying, "That's Billy Gilbert—he was Nathan's stage partner." Another of my relatives worked backstage in legit theater, and my dad spent a summer with him in New York as a stage manager, including one play with Tallulah Bankhead. So my dad was the personal connection that sparked my interest. My dad loved the "trivia" of naming film actors as they walked on screen, and the writers and directors as well, and telling me something about them, and that helped to develop my interest in and knowledge of film, especially older films (at least the ones shown on television). I remember as a kid being taken by my parents into New York City (we lived on Long Island) to see films that were only being shown there—like the first few Woody Allen films, and also foreign films and "art house" pictures. One of my vivid memories is being about eleven or twelve—probably too young—and seeing a double bill of Bullitt and Bonnie and Clyde with my dad, and loving both films. Another recollection is of him taking me to see Gone with the Wind in the Syosset theater [on Long Island]; and another...

Redefining the performing arts archive

This paper investigates representations of performance and the role of the archive. Notions of record and archive are critically investigated, raising questions about applying traditional archival definitions to the performing arts. Defining the nature of performances is at the root of all difficulties regarding their representation. Performances are live events, so for many people the idea of recording them for posterity is inappropriate. The challenge of creating and curating representations of an ephemeral art form are explored and performance-specific concepts of record and archive are posited. An open model of archives, encouraging multiple representations and allowing for creative reuse and reinterpretation to keep the spirit of the performance alive, is envisaged as the future of the performing arts archive.

Greening the Profession

In 1993 Elizabeth Hoffman and I published an article in this journal tided Toward an Art Education of Place. We theorized that an art education of place is possible by infusing community-based art education with a bioregional perspective. Our thinking in this regard was partly influenced through our association with colleagues in the School of Architecture and Allied Arts at the University of Oregon who were preparing architects, landscape architects, and community planners. Emphasis within the school was, and continues to be, routinely placed on environmental design and education. The school's stated mission promotes faulty, student and staff accountability for their actions on environmental, social, and cultural systems. The school's systemically oriented mission is in keeping with a bioregionalism emphasizing natural, cultural, and social environments toward a shared identity in the bioregion known as Cascadia.The architects, landscape architects, and community planners with whom I work are noted in their fields for their leadership in research and teaching around sustainability. Sustainability has become frequendy and possibly overused in public discourse about the environment. As a concept it seems generally undertheorized in its application. The literature associated with Architecture can be helpful in this regard. For example, Guy and Farmer (200 1 ) oudine six competing logics associated with sustainable architecture. Each of the six logics is considered in relationship to space, the source of environmental knowledge, building image, technologies, and concept of place. Guy and Farmer discuss the implications of these logics on architectural education, practice, and research. PyIa (2009) , in response to the growing enthusiasm for sustainable Architecture, cautions that the profession must seek a nuanced understanding of the concept's history because such an understanding offers the critical tools to help architects detect the blind spots, anticipate the drawbacks or discern the subtexts of emerging strategies (pp. 1-2).In the midst of this critical discourse, the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) proposes a set of standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), these standards address building sites, water systems, energy/ atmosphere, materials, indoor environmental quality, and the design process (USGBC, 2009c). There are LEED projects in all 50 states of the US as well as 91 countries (USGBC, 2009b). Building projects seeking LEED certification are judged by specific criteria related to the above and awarded points for meeting or surpassing the standards. Points can be earned for providing educational programs and interpretive materials to the public about sustainable design. Based on the number of points earned, buildings are certified silver, gold, or platinum. LEED is now being routinely applied to new construction as well as creative re-use of building associated with schools and cultural organizations among others. The USGBC hosts a specific website dedicated to building green schools (USGBC, 2009a) and educational institutions are identified as one the top three sectors for the construction of green building (USGBC, 2009b). The USGBC also publishes resources for both K- 12 and higher education (USGBC, 2009d). Notable recent examples of LEED certified buildings that I have experienced first-hand in Portland, Oregon are the University of Oregon White Stag Block (Gold) and the Pordand Center Stage Armory (Platinum). Both of these buildings are historical structures that demonstrate that sustainable design can enhance form and does not compromise function or historical significance. Among cultural institutions internationally, the building that is currently garnering a great deal of attention is the California Academy of Sciences Museum (Platinum) located in San Francisco. Designed by Lorenzo Piano, this museum includes a living roof along with other attributes demonstrating how buildings and the programs that they house promote sustainability. …

Speech Privacy Options for the Open Ceiling Office Environment

The popularity of the open ceiling and loft office environment continues to grow. The design and effectiveness of sound masking systems in an open office environment are well established for traditional office spaces with acoustically absorptive ceilings systems. Aesthetic preferences for open ceilings with minimal ceiling treatment popular in the creative reuse of older buildings and more minimalist industrial spaces limit the sound masking options available to achieve an acceptable level of speech privacy in an open office environment. Traditional sound masking systems are often subjectively viewed as harsh, unpleasant or visually inappropriate. Several options for alternative designs are evaluated as to the evenness of coverage, effectiveness in achieving an appropriate level of speech privacy, aesthetic integration into the environment and subjective impression of the occupants.

Over-Cladding of Aluminum Framed Curtainwalls and Skylights

Abstract The need to upgrade the performance of existing building façade systems provides many opportunities for innovation and the creative reuse of existing building components. As many mid-20th century building enclosure systems age, they exhibit performance deficiencies, both in the form of deteriorating performance and in lagging performance as weighed against newer technologies. The installation of replacement exterior envelope systems on existing facilities provides many challenges, especially in fully occupied buildings. Over-cladding of existing metal and glass curtainwall and skylight systems, wherein portions of the pre-existing systems are integrated into the new construction, provides significant opportunities to resolve construction phase issues while providing improved functionality to the completed building envelope. This paper will address two case studies in which contemporary aluminum and glass elements were combined with pre-existing mid-1900s aluminum framed cladding elements to provide two wholly new enclosure systems with significantly improved performance characteristics. The case studies deal with two very different sets of project objectives, site constraints and project solutions, but share common approaches and eventual solutions. The paper presents the problems posed by the pre-existing systems, the site investigations conducted to confirm existing conditions and site restrictions, reasons for considering the specific replacement cladding approaches, specific project constraints, the approaches used in development of the new over-clad solutions, and considerations in the design, development, and construction phase delivery of these projects. Applicability of these approaches to other types of contemporary building enclosure types is explored as well.

Evolution of Cognitive Function via Redeployment of Brain Areas

The creative reuse of existing neural components may have played a significant role in the evolutionary development of cognition. There are obvious evolutionary advantages to such redeployment, and the data presented here confirm three important empirical predictions of this account of the development of cognition: 1) A typical brain area will be used by many cognitive functions in diverse task categories, (2) evolutionarily older brain areas will be deployed in more cognitive functions, and (3) more recent cognitive functions will use more, and more widely scattered, brain areas. These findings have implications not just for our understanding of the evolutionary origins of cognitive function but also for the practice of both clinical and experimental neuroscience.

Old mills, new condos; sound isolation in mill building conversion projects

Up and down the New England Coast, century-old mill buildings are being converted into condominium and apartment buildings amidst one of the biggest housing booms in recent memory. While the inherent acoustical conflicts in multi-family dwelling are not new (oft-cited HUD guidelines are approaching their 40th birthday), the flood of mill conversions is bringing to light a number of new constructions that architects use to chop former factories into discrete living spaces. This paper will present field-collected data and case studies that illustrate some of the problems and common pitfalls associated with mill building conversion projects. Among the construction details discussed include exposed timber ceilings that run continuously across gypsum board partitions, the creative reuse of existing brick walls, and some acoustical properties of wood deck construction common to many mill buildings.

Evolution of Cognitive Function Via Redeployment of Brain Areas

The creative re-use of existing cognitive capacities may have played a significant role in the evolutionary development of the brain. There are obvious evolutionary advantages to such redeployment, and the data presented here confirm three important empirical predictions of this account of the development of cognition: (1) a typical brain area will be utilized by many cognitive functions in diverse task categories, (2) evolutionarily older brain areas will be deployed in more cognitive functions and (3) more recent cognitive functions will utilize more, and more widely scattered brain areas. These findings have implications not just for our understanding of the evolutionary origins of cognitive function, but also for the practice of both clinical and experimental neuroscience.

Editors' Introduction

Editors' Introduction Stephanie Y. Mitchem, Melanie Johnson-DeBaufre, and Elisabeth Schïssler Fiorenza Envisioning the future always includes critically revisiting the past and taking careful stock of the present. The contributors to this issue demonstrate this ongoing process of imagining the future of global feminisms and feminist studies in religion through their rich analyses of the past and present. The first three articles discuss the implications of feminist interpretation in three different textual traditions—the Christian Testament, the Qur'an, and Pali Buddhist literature. They explore possibilities for the practice of feminist biblical interpretation, understanding feminism in Iran, and exploring Indian Buddhist women's history, based on an analysis of current intersections and divergences or on a critical look at the work of the past. The participants of the Native/First Nation roundtable lay out a diverse agenda for future conversation and activism through their response to the lead article's strategic reclaiming of the category "liberation theology" and its creative reuse of the image of the master's house and the master's tools. In a Different Voice, Penelope Scambly Schott's poem, "Caring for the World," focuses attention on the immediacy and the beauty the daily realities of bodies, particularly aging and ailing ones. In the Living It Out section, the issue concludes with the story of the production and afterlife of Period Piece, an early feminist film claiming menstruation as a site of feminist reflection and creativity. The responses in this section are a testament to the wide array of personal, theoretical, and artistic fruits of this groundbreaking feminist work. In order to continue to empower the future of feminist work, the Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion annually recognizes new scholars in the field for the individual accomplishments of their early work. Cutting across disciplines, these new feminist scholars demonstrate the vibrancy of feminist studies in religion. We thank Professors Margaret Miles, Kathleen Sands, and Mary Churchill for their willingness to serve as judges for this year's award and their tireless commitment to the work of JFSR. Joseph Marchal's article is the recipient of this year's New Scholar Award. His article interrogates the connections and gaps among three strands of biblical interpretation: postcolonial theory, feminist hermeneutics, and the study of Roman imperialism. By examining the rhetoric of Philippians in light of categories [End Page 1] of travel, the view of outsiders, and gender, Marchal demonstrates the value of articulating a postcolonial, feminist framework of interpretation that takes seriously both the politics of interpretation and the intersections of hierarchies of domination in the context of empire. Fereshteh Ahmadi receives honorable mention from the New Scholar Award panel of judges. Her article contributes to a detailed and complex picture of the Middle East with her insider analysis of Iranian feminism. Ahmadi describes how "a new generation of feminists has emerged during the past two decades, as women's issues became an integral part of the modern Islamic discourses." Initially, feminist responses were developed by secular Iranian women, but Ahmadi discusses Iranian women who work within an Islamic framework and have entered the conversations about feminist reinterpretations of the Qur'an and Shari´a. Amidst a flourishing of feminist journals, and emerging feminist leaders, a solidarity has emerged between secular and religious Iranian feminists, even as they have begun new dialogues with feminists across the globe. In her article, Alice Collett crosses centuries as she explores the ways in which the discussion of Buddhism and gender has been shaped by the work of three early-twentieth-century female scholars: Caroline Rhys Davids, Mabel Bode, and Isaline Blew (I. B.) Horner. Identifying how Orientalism shaped these interpreters' approaches to Buddhism and resulted in the valuing of Pali literature over other texts, Collett proposes expanding the corpus of literature considered relevant and useful for studying women and gender in ancient Indian Buddhism. She argues for a contextual-historical approach to the texts and an emphasis on the plurality of voices within and across texts. The roundtable discussion similarly traces old paths in order to forge new trails. Andrea Smith draws on her work in Native American feminist intellectual ethnography in order to theorize Native liberation theology. Although recognizing...

The validation of a use innovativeness scale

PurposeTo validate a measure of use innovativeness, or how existing products are used in a novel and innovative manner. The measure has practical significance for innovation research as it consists of only nine items as opposed to the original 44. The use innovativeness measure derived from research predicts acceptance of new technology (in this case computer technology) and could be adapted to other fields of innovation research.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted and structural equation modelling techniques were used to analyse the data.FindingsEvidence for a unidimensional measure of use innovativeness is provided by structural equation modelling. The nine‐item measure has fewer items than the original 44‐item measure developed by Price and Ridgway (1983) Price and Ridgway and consists of the items of multiple use and creative reuse. The measure was found to be positively correlated with innovativeness and opinion leadership and the acceptance of new information technology. The construct of use innovativeness is thus a practical measurement for use in innovation research.Research limitations/implicationsSome limitations regarding the nature of the sample are discussed. Implications for future research in the diffusion of innovations are also addressed.Originality/valueThe only paper which validates a measure of use innovativeness, so that it has practical and theoretical use in innovation practice and research.

Linux on a small satellite

If you need to get a satellite launched in a year, think standard parts, creative reuse and shell scripts.

Degrees Of Physical Adaptation: Current Uses OfHistoric Naval Building Types

Historic naval buildings in dockyards across Europe, now redundant for defence purposes, present particular opportunities and challenges to appropriate reuse. Their specialised shapes and dimensions are important factors to what futures they can expect, as are location, funding policy, the surrounding land uses and the historic value placed on them. Adaptation proposals also need to be measured against various conservation criteria and degrees of intervention. In this paper the outcomes of the interaction between cultural and physical constraints on reuse of generic dockyard building types in different European countries are examined. Their varying fortunes are set out according to their history, characteristics and degrees of permissable adaptation. Roperies, storehouses, sail lofts, boathouses, covered slips and wet docks, dry docks and basins are considered. There are of course difficulties of comparing like with like, buildings of different dates and dimensions, but analysis of adaptation of these typical dockyard types offers some general lessons and examples of different countries' responses to the challenge. In Venice Arsenale, some important monuments have been restored for their own sake, reflecting local political culture, although many others await creative reuse. In Sweden historic naval monuments are excellently restored and kept in good condition, whether they have a current use or not, while Skeppsholmen in Stockholm and Karlskrona offer exemplary reuses of whole historic naval sites. In the UK navy buildings have usually been treated as utilitarian structures, to be radically altered to new uses, left empty or demolished. The advent of conservation in the 1970s perhaps prevented further demolition. Low key uses of storehouses, for example for archives, may mean minimum intervention, while intensive human use exposes them to the full rigour of modern building and safety legislation. A high degree of design skill is needed to conserve robust original structure in combination with clarity of insertions for new services and uses. Transactions on the Built Environment vol 55, © 2001 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

Creative Re-Use of Buildings

Addresses the advantages and practicalities involved in the issue of the creative re-use of existing buildings.

Creative Re-Use: Working with the Building

The re-use of existing biddings is an essential element of current urban design philosophy, and yet the skills required to use buildings creatively are misunderstood and poorly practised.This paper, drawn in part from a forthcoming book by the author, identifies the need for a ‘plan of action’ and addresses some of the techniques that can be applied to the process.1 A real project has been used as a case study to examine the various factors that have enabled re-use.