New Media Initiative: ACTLab Research

Current Research

ACTLab TV: ACTLab TV is a research/open source innitiative between the Foundation for Decentralization and the ACTLab. ACTLab TV uses Alluvium Media Player, an open source peer to peer media player, to broadcast various video content developed by students and other creative commons material. A big part of the effort is documenting who to use the software, as well how to create broadcasting stations. For more information on ACTLab TV Click Here.

Annonmous Computing: Brandon Wilely is currently researching Annonomus Computing is his masters thesis. Mr. Wiley has previous expierence in Annoymous computing, not only through research, but by hisinvolvement inthe developement of FreeNet.

Peer To Peer Gaming Engine: In 2003 Brandon Wiley began development of apeer to peer gaming engine thatallows MMORPG with no reliance on a server, rather each peer shares their bandwidth to relay game information. More information on this project will soon be provided.

Multimedia Discourse Research: This project began with Joseph Lopez's Masters Project/Report, where he explores the human intereaction with multimedia production. For more information you can see his project and report here.

Future Research Projects

The New Media group is always looking for new avenues in which to pursue research, here are just a couple of proposed future research projects:

3D Vitural World Research: New Media's expierence with virtual worlds dates back to the mid 90's when the ACTLab started a virtual community based out of it's own servers. Back then 3D Virtual World technologies were very resource hungry and required high-end hardware and software in order to use. Since that time, the growth of 3D hardware architecture has been huge. Put together with increased CPU speed and bandwidth, 3D virtural worlds are now a reality. In the near future we hope to begin investigation/design of new 3D Virtual Wolrd engines, as well as enviroments.

Music Reproduction Theory: In an age where we have been taught that digital sound is "perfect forever", the New Media groups plans to take a look at music reproduction theory in terms of how the discourse for current music reproduction has come to be and what this means for future high-end development of 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.)