Computational Arts

Open Res ear c h is a publicly acces si bl e, curat e d repositor y for the pres e r v a ti on and diss e m i n a ti o n of scholarly and creativ e outp u t of the OCAD Univer sity com m u n i t y. Mat erial in Open Res earc h is open acces s and mad e available via the cons e n t of the author and/or rights holder on a non-exclusiv e basis.

The widespread use of urban software and information technology infrastructure systems now demand new levels of complexity in data generation and data application across interoperating domains. Given this context, and discoveries in visual analytics research that reveal knowledge is created, verified, refined and shared through the interactive manipulation of the visualization (Pike, Stasko, Chang, O'Connell, 2009), defining a taxonomy of visualizations can assist visualization system designers in understanding key visualization techniques that serve multiple linked user groups (Chengzhi, Chenghu, and Tao, 2013). It could also be meaningful to others working in sectors that are now in the process of interoperating through the pervasive nature of digital economies. Understanding the potential components of a taxonomy for these forms of data visualization demands the identification of interrelating and diverse user groups utilizing the same data for multiple tasks (Mahyar, Kim, and Kwon, 2015), the complexity of visualization processes, relevant task levels and interactions to supplement human insights. For example, a visualization displaying urban transit data might support the requirements of a wide array of users such as urban-designers, cityplanners, data-scientists, engineers, transit-managers, pedestrians and transit users. This paper discusses the taxonomy design and prototype creation process for a user-centered taxonomy for urban transportation applications developed by the Visual Analytics Lab at OCAD University, as part of the VAL's research and design contribution to the iCity research project, a collaboration between academic researchers, industry partners, city transportation planning departments and transit authorities that seeks to develop software support systems for transportation planning.

ICECUBE LED Display [ILDm^3] is a cubic-meter, 1/1000th scale model of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a novel telescope that looks for nearly invisible cosmic messengers, neutrinos, using a cubic-kilometer of instrumented ice starting 1450 meters below the surface at the South Pole. The display uses art methodologies as a means for expressing imperceptible astrophysical events as sound, light and colour in the domain of the human sensorium. The experience is as aesthetically critical as it is facilitatory to an intuitive understanding of subatomic astrophysical data, leading to new ways of knowing about our Universe and its processes. The objective of this project was to build a static volumetric display as a model of IceCube for visualization of spatio-temporal data recorded by the observatory. While the primary use of the display is as a model for artistic, educational, and outreach purposes, the display is also being explored as an instrument for the scientific analysis of IceCube data sets by human observers. The technical approach to designing the display was to place an emphasis on reproducibility so that it can be readily built and used by the researchers in the IceCube research community. Evaluation of the display is being used as a baseline for the development of future exhibits. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in visualization; Empirical studies in HCI ; Scientific visualization; • Applied computing → Media arts;

The OCAD University Visual Analytics Laboratory (VAL) has developed a taxonomy of end users, software systems, data types, tasks and interactivity within the domain of smart city transportation planning. This paper contributes to the taxonomy by creating Compara, an intuitive, interactive and searchable index that visualizes the attributes of software from a wide-range of applications and technologies. The taxonomy began as a spreadsheet that we transformed into a custom interactive data visualization that could help users find and understand existing tools and their attributes. The taxonomy and interactive index are a component of the iCity project which brings together academic, government, and industrial partners in order to improve the quality of life for urban residents and visitors through the development and integration of advanced IT infrastructure for the purpose of managing transit and transportation. The taxonomy and resulting tools discussed in this paper have expanded t...

The Culture Creates Bonds study defines key drivers, scenarios, and conditions that create natural human bonds, those of cultural activities and practices, in a residential or immediate neighbourhood. Historical and contemporary research indicates that cultural contexts, content, and activities act as mechanisms and factors that create a sense of identity, engagement, and relationships within and between communities. Research explores constraints as well as conditions that lead to successful bonding. The study applies a mixed methods approach that includes a literature review; interviews with stakeholders; an analysis of the data and results from the 2017 Culture Track Canada report, and a series of case studies.

ICECUBE LED Display [ILDm^3] is a cubic-meter, 1/1000th scale model of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, a novel telescope that looks for nearly invisible cosmic messengers, neutrinos, using a cubic-kilometer of instrumented ice starting 1450 meters below the surface at the South Pole. The display uses art methodologies as a means for expressing imperceptible astrophysical events as sound, light and colour in the domain of the human sensorium. The experience is as aesthetically critical as it is facilitatory to an intuitive understanding of subatomic astrophysical data, leading to new ways of knowing about our Universe and its processes. The objective of this project was to build a static volumetric display as a model of IceCube for visualization of spatio-temporal data recorded by the observatory. While the primary use of the display is as a model for artistic, educational, and outreach purposes, the display is also being explored as an instrument for the scientific analysis of IceCube data sets by human observers. The technical approach to designing the display was to place an emphasis on reproducibility so that it can be readily built and used by the researchers in the IceCube research community. Evaluation of the display is being used as a baseline for the development of future exhibits. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in visualization; Empirical studies in HCI ; Scientific visualization; • Applied computing → Media arts;

Langevin dynamics simulations of the capture of polymers by a nanopore and the subsequent translocation through the nanopore are performed. These simulations are conducted for several polymer lengths at two different values for the Péclet number, which quantifies the drift-diffusion balance of the system. The capture-translocation process is divided into several stages, and the dynamics of translocation are characterized by measuring the average time for each stage and also the average conformation of the polymer at each stage. Comparison to the standard simulation approach of simulating only the translocation process reveals several important differences. While in the standard protocol, the polymer is essentially equilibrated at the start of translocation, simulations of the capture process reveal a polymer that is elongated when it approaches the pore and either remains elongated or becomes compressed at the start of translocation depending on the drift-diffusion balance. These results demonstrate that translocation is a non-equilibrium process at all stages and that simulations assuming equilibration could yield improper results, even at a qualitative level. The scaling of the translocation time with polymer length is found to be significantly different between the two simulation protocols thus demonstrating that the capture step is an essential part of modeling the translocation process. Published by AIP Publishing. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4964630]

The EVA London Research Workshop is one of the more unique elements of our Conference that we have been keen to develop over many years. Often Postgraduate Students, at Masters or PhD level, or Unaffiliated Early Career Artists may feel excluded from prestigious conferences until their research is completed and they can submit a full paper proposal. However, over many years, EVA London has recognised the importance of offering an almost unique opportunity to submit projects that can be truly described as 'Work in Progress'. With an audience of International Academics and acknowledged experts in a field, the Research Workshop presentations have often lead to very positive interest and support, and sometimes to future collaborations. Others return to EVA London a year or two later with a completed piece of Research and a successful Full Conference Proposal. In previous years the presentations have been very popular with all of our delegates and we are delighted to include all of the presentations as part of our mainstream July 2021 Online conference. Although we will once again miss some of the informal networking opportunities, we have, as always, selected an exciting, ground breaking and quite eclectic group of RW delegates. We hope that by publishing their papers here, either grouped together, or individually published, some of you will be keen to contact our RW authors, to discuss and develop their ideas further.

declare that this thesis titled, "Polymer Translocation: a Nonequilibrium Process" and the work presented in it are my own. I confirm that: • This work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University. • Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated. • Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed. • Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work. • I have acknowledged all main sources of help. • Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself.

This paper presents BeHAVE, a web-based audiovisual piece that explores a way to represent personal behavioral data in a multimodal approach, by visualizing and sonify-ing this data based on the form of a heatmap visualization. As a way of typical visualization, it shows the location and time records of the author's mobile phone use as clustered circles on an interactive map. In order to explore all of the data sequentially in a short period, it also transforms a year of data into sound and visuals based on a microsound timescale. By suggesting this multimodal data representation as a means of revealing one's personality or behavior in an audiovisual form, BeHAVE attempts not only to improve the perception and understanding of self-tracking data but also to arouse aesthetic enjoyment.

This paper presents BeHAVE, a web-based audiovisual piece that explores a way to reveal my mobile phone use behavior through multimodal data representation, considering the concept of indexicality in data visualization and sonification. It visualizes the spatiality and overall trend of the records of my mobile phone use as a geographical heatmap visualization and a heatmap chart. On top of that, BeHAVE presents a mode for temporal data exploration to make a year of data perceivable in a short period and represent the temporality of data. Based on a microsound synthesis technique, it also sonifies data to simultaneously evoke visual and auditory perception in this mode. As a way of indexical visualization, BeHAVE also suggests an approach that represents data through mobile phones simultaneously by using WebSocket. Ultimately, BeHAVE attempts to not only improve the perception of self-tracking data but also arouse aesthetic enjoyment through a multimodal data portrait as a means of self-representation.

This paper introduces ARLooper, an AR-based iOS application for multiuser sound recording and performance, that aims to explore the possibility of actively using mobile AR technology in creating novel musical interfaces and collaborative audiovisual experience. ARLooper allows the user to record sound through microphones in mobile devices and, at the same time, visualizes and places recorded sounds as 3D waveforms in an AR space. The user can play, modify, and loop the recorded sounds with several audio filters attached to each sound. Since ARLooper generates the world map information through iOS ARkit's tracking technique called visual-inertial odometry which tracks the real world and a correspondence between real and AR spaces, it enables multiple users to connect to the same AR space by sharing and synchronize the world map data. In this shared AR space, the user can see each other's 3D waveforms and activities, such as selection and manipulation of them, as a result, having a potential of collaborative AR performance.

The Machinic Sublime (BCMC) emulated an academic roundtable discussion with the authors and 3 machinic/more-than-human guests. Part performance, part intervention within the context of an academic conference, BCMC introduces a novel and explicitly visible strategy of co-dependency for an array of diverse intelligences through a connected loop of human, machine, and animal agencies. The meteoric rise of AI in the last years can be seen as a part of a larger tendency towards deeper, more opaque data collection and analysis techniques that form the dense substratum beneath the proliferation of human-computer interfaces today. As a human developer, the most striking qualities of generative AI are its vastness, non-determinism, and infinitude-explicit themes and qualities of a machinic 'sublime'. How can a human artist/programmer sensibly navigate this multi-dimensional space of latent meaning? This intervention is an experimental roundtable discussion/performance via web conferencing, a new kind of Turing Test where success in the testing is not found in the plausible simulation of human consciousness through speech, but rather in expressing diverse intelligences through new forms of language. In this multi-agent exchange, human interlocutors and non-human partners argue the possibility of a machinic sublime. Together, these interlinked discussions become an emergent system. In this roundtable format, audience interventions are welcome.