IT Strategies for Art & Design
Colin Beardon from the University of Plymouth has produced a report on
"Strategies for the Effective use of Computers and Communications in
Art and Design" (AGOCG Report 31). It consists of an assessment of
the current situation for departments and individuals in those departments
and discusses strategic options for the next three to five years. This report
is available from me.
Computers in Art & Design Education (CADE)
AGOCG supported the CADE organisation in pump priming its newsletter
and in using the organisation as a means to contact and inform the art and
design community about the activities of JISC in general and AGOCG in particular.
CADE is now well established and has just held its second conference. A
new journal "Digital Creativity" has been launched and the CTI
Centre for Art and Design provides a newsletter which complements this.
VRML 2.0
AGOCG are putting in place a survey of VRML tools. This will update the
report of Neil Ashdown from Manchester Metropolitan University which reported
on VRML 1.0. The survey will take place over the summer. Any experiences,
both good and bad would be useful - please contact me with any information.
Software Evaluation
We are commissioning a comparison of the UNIRAS, IDL and PV Wave software
packages as we know a number of sites are currently looking at the packages
they support in this area.
Digital Capture of Images
Building on the two SIMA reports on digital capture of images, AGOCG
has commissioned the University of Bristol to provide guidance and materials
for use in locally delivered workshops on image preparation and incorporation
of these into multimedia materials. A pilot workshop will also be run and
will be promoted through AGOCG e-mail lists. This ties in with the service Bristol are running to provide JISC with a Technical Advisory Service for Images (TASI).
On-line Support
AGOCG have been keen to promote the JISC funded Mailbase service and
to use this as a means of exchanging information and also for supporting
people in their use of graphics, visualization, multimedia and VR. In this
we have had people acting as monitors of mailbase lists and web pages who
are asked to input information and answer questions. We have had some success
and will be discussing this issue at a future meeting and to plan for next
year. I would welcome input about your needs for on-line support and information
within the areas of interest to AGOCG. How can we help?
Anne Mumford
a.m.mumford@lboro.ac.uk
