Current Research
ACTLab TV:
ACTLab TV is a research/open source initiative between the
Foundation for Decentralization Research and the ACTLab. ACTLab
TV uses Alluvium Media Player, an open source peer to peer
project, to broadcast video content developed by students as well
as other material under the Creative Commons license. A large
part of the effort involves documenting how to use the software,
as well as how to create individual broadcasting stations. For
more information on ACTLab TV Click
Here.
Anonymous Computing: Brandon
Wilely is currently researching Anonymous Computing as part of his
Master's thesis. Brandon has extensive experience in Anonymous
computing, not only through research, but through his involvement
in the developement of FreeNet.
Peer To Peer
Gaming Engine: In 2003 Brandon Wiley began development of
a peer to peer gaming engine which allows Massive Multiplayer
Online Role Playing Gaming (MMORPG) that does not rely on a single
centralized server model. Rather, each user is a peer, and each
peer shares its bandwidth to relay game information. More
information on this project will be available shortly.
Multimedia Discourse Research: This project
began with Joseph Lopez's Masters Project/Report, where he
explores human intereaction in multimedia production. This
project and report can be viewed in part here.
Future Research Projects
The ACTLab's
New Media group is always looking for new avenues of research. A
sample of the proposed future research projects includes:
3D Virtual World Research: Interaction
research in online virtual worlds dates back to the early '90s in
the XXth Century, with work at MIT, Xerox PARC, and the ACTLab
leading the way. Back then, 3D Virtual World technologies were
extremely resource hungry, and required expensive hardware and
fragile, bleeding-edge software in order to work properly. Now
that we can combine hugely improved hardware architecture with
stabler software, increased CPU speed, and wide-bandwidth
connectivity, 3D virtual worlds become practical on the consumer
scale; but the actual fine structure, psychology, and aesthetics
of online human interaction are still poorly understood. This is
an exciting and promising field for future study. In the near
future we hope to begin more investigation/design of
next-generation 3D Virtual World engines and advanced in-world
enviroments.
Music Reproduction Theory: In
an age where we have been taught that digital sound is
"perfect forever", the ACTLab New Media group plans to
critically examine music reproduction theory in terms of how
current discourses of music reproduction emerge in interaction
with technologies and practices of recording and political
discourses of class and power, and what this means for the
development of future high-end music reproduction systems.
Past
Research |
| Drew Davidson-
Narrative and Multimedia Research |
| | Drew's work during his time with the
ACTLab included his dissertation on narrative
strategies in multimedia, close examination of
the construction of subjectivity, desire, and
humor in hypertext storytelling, and exploring
other emerging technologies in relation to
narrative construction such as interactive
CD-ROM and other optical media. To view his
dissertation, click
here. |
| |
| Vernon Reed-
Art, Communication, and Subjectivity
Research |
| | As a graduate student Vernon
centered his research on the complex
interrelations between social and technological
aspects of virtual worlds. Under his direction
the ACTLab hosted several cutting-edge research
virtual worlds. Notable among these was ACTLab
Traveler, in which avatars spoke to each other
in real time using actual voices, not text. In
this world Vernon studied ways in which the
human voice (and other sounds) affected
communication and subjectivity. Vernon was also
the author of the Pirate Utopias web
site, one of the very first online experiments
to address the vexing political, legal, and
social problems created when traditional analog
media become digital. Vernon also created a
series of wearable sculptures incorporating
integrated circuits and LED displays which he
designed and fabricated himself in a chip
foundry he built for this purpose; some of these
pieces were purchased by museums for permanent
exhibition. In his spare time, Vernon designed
and built custom lighting fixtures for the
ACTLab. These are particularly notable because
he fabricated them from Titanium, a problematic
metal which is normally found only in such
exotic applications as NASA's Space
Shuttle. Vernon was also an ACTLab instructor,
and taught courses that reflected his bouyant
approach to tough technological problems. For
more information about his ACTLab research, click
here |
| |
| Honoria
Starbuck- Online Collaboration,
Performativity and Mail Art Research |
| |
Honoria's
research while an ACTLab graduate student
included creating the Electronic Museum of Mail
Art (EMMA), an internationally renowned
collection which can be viewed here.
She also created the world's first cyberspace
opera, Honoria in Ciberspazio, a
collaborative online project which received
international acclaim for its groundbreaking use
of digital media. Honoria and her work have
received awards from SXSW Interactive and the
Global Stockholm Challenge, and the opera was
presented at the International Shakespeare
Festival by the performance group La Fura Dels
Baus. for more information click
here. |
| |
| Heather Kelly- Gender and Cyberspace Research |
| | Heather's
research at the ACTLab focused on the
intersections of discourses of Feminism and
Cyberspace. Her work led her into the video game
industry, and she has been actively involved in
issues of women and gaming at companies such as
Girl Games, Ion Storm, and Electronic Arts. To
view an excerpt from her Master's thesis, click
here. |
| |
| Alan Alford-
Virtual Community Research |
| |
Alan's research was
technologically grounded in the foundational MOO
virtual community platform written by Pavel
Curtis at Xerox PARC, and theoretically grounded
in Amy Bruckman's research on educational MOOs
at MIT and Carnegie Mellon. In a MOO
(Multiple-user Object-Oriented virtual world),
objects and resources the player creates persist
after the player has logged out, and are
available at next login. Alan and his team
created a detailed virtual model of the city of
Austin, Texas, named PointMOOt. The original
virtual world was lost in a malicious online
attack during that wild frontier time before the
ACTLab server had backup capability, but its
unique legacy has inspired generations of
virtual world builders and forged lasting
alliances among virtual world researchers. To
view a description of PointMOOt from the UT
Creative Writing Research Laboratory archives,
click
here. |
| |
| Scott Webel-
Visual Narrative and Interior Space
Research |
| | Scott's research focused on the
interface between narrative and power, the
consequent slippage of history, and the
interface between political power and historical
storytelling. In his work he examined how
institutions such as museums mobilize common
narrative tropes, including narratives expressed
as interior space (architecture) and
institutionalized shapes, such as specimen cases
and vitrines (design) in order to construct the
viewer as subject within a field of political
power. His work, which was theoretically
grounded in Donna Haraway's pioneering study of
the famous primate diorama at the American
Museum of Natural History, and practically
grounded in the foundational work of MacArthur
Fellow David Wilson, extended to large practical
installations in which Scott used irony and
humor to underscore his points. As part of this
work Scott founded the Austin Museum of
Ephemerata, which deconstructs the traditional
museum narrative in whimsical and edgy ways. To
view more about Scott's work, click
here. |
|
(please note, this text was modified and
mangled from www.sandystone.com, old acltab sites and unkown
sources that showed up late one night.)
