tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/audio-visual-19031/articlesaudio-visual – The Conversation2023-03-17T15:54:30Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2016882023-03-17T15:54:30Z2023-03-17T15:54:30ZWales Broadcast Archive: UK’s first national archive shows importance of preserving our audiovisual history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516021/original/file-20230317-2393-28331k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C0%2C5000%2C3308&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hundreds of thousands of hours of broadcasting history are available for the first time. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Wales</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month’s launch of the <a href="https://www.library.wales/national-broadcast-archive">Wales Broadcast Archive</a> marks a major step forward in the curation of our collective audiovisual heritage. Housed at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth, the archive features a cornucopia of material dating back to the early days of broadcasting in Wales, including film, radio and video. That it is the first of its kind in the UK, however, raises important questions about access to our audiovisual history. </p>
<p>As Unesco <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/days/audiovisual-heritage?TSPD_101_R0=080713870fab2000502fe465bc04f6b27c52c9a0193e80a672ab1f5e21b1a4c85415302e3aabbd9b0810cf430e143000feeb184c026bc21a1537bc94124a8c96ed03ccb6d0f06a7ece1443260cacbf0531925b304c6ee161f47d82620e01e8ca">remarked</a> on the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage last October:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Audiovisual archives tell us stories about people’s lives and cultures from all over the world. They represent a priceless heritage which is an affirmation of our collective memory and a valuable source of knowledge, since they reflect the cultural, social and linguistic diversity of our communities.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>More often than not, access to broadcast archives has been restricted to those working within the industry or academic researchers. Last year, though, the <a href="https://bbcrewind.co.uk/">BBC opened up</a> part of its digitised archive online, allowing the public to access some of its hidden gems.</p>
<p>However, the new Wales archive is unique in that it brings together the archives of its three major broadcasters - BBC, ITV and S4C. It contains material reflecting all aspects of life in both the English and Welsh languages. It is a unique source of information which will give historians and others an insight into the history of the nation.</p>
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<p>As well as preserving our broadcast heritage in its original and digitised form in Aberystwyth, people around Wales will be able to access around 500,000 hours of archive footage in dedicated “clip centres” housed across the nation. For the first time, members of the public will be able to see historical footage of their local areas and hear voices from years gone by.</p>
<p>Although the Wales Broadcast Archive is unique within the UK, there are similar institutions further afield. One such organisation is the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, <a href="https://www.beeldengeluid.nl/en">Beeld en Geluid</a>, which opened in 1997. It provided a useful model for the establishment of the Welsh archive. As a heritage institute, it preserves the audiovisual material of the Netherlands, with material from the country’s various broadcasters under one roof.</p>
<h2>Technology and storage challenges</h2>
<p>Of course, archives are not without their problems or their gaps. Very early television programmes, for example, are now lost forever. The technology simply didn’t exist to record in the pre-war and immediate post-war period. Nothing survives from the BBC’s pre-war television service at <a href="https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/100-voices/birth-of-tv/ally-pally/">Alexandra Palace</a> – apart, that is, from some fascinating film shot on a home movie camera by one of the corporation’s engineers, Desmond Campbell, which is held by the <a href="http://bufvc.ac.uk/archives/index.php/collection/857">Alexandra Palace Television Society</a>.</p>
<p>As Dick Fiddy, a consultant at the British Film Institute, <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/m6AMngEACAAJ?hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi3q4GL5t79AhWFRkEAHY32DVMQre8FegQIDRAD">noted</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The early technical difficulties associated with the recording of live television programmes, and the later injudicious wiping and junking policies of the major British broadcasters, has meant that hundreds of thousands of hours of precious television material is missing from the official UK television archives.</p>
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<p>Over the years, many broadcasters have had to dispense with their audiovisual material simply for storage reasons. Film and videotape can take up a lot of floor space, let alone audio recordings. When one considers the huge amount of broadcasting hours that are chewed up every week, it is easy to see how physical material can mount up over time.</p>
<p>So, broadcasters have had to adopt selection policies, making decisions on what material or programmes might be historically important in the future. As you can imagine, this has not been an easy task. Often, entertainment programmes such as quiz shows, variety or local chat shows were deemed to have no intrinsic value and were overlooked for archival purposes. </p>
<p>Archivists are also faced with an ongoing dilemma. They need to be preserving material for future generations while also ensuring that the producers of current programmes have the necessary audiovisual archives at their disposal. </p>
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<img alt="A man in a wheelchair and a man standing wear sets of headphones. Both are in a large room and are looking at a screen." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516023/original/file-20230317-1658-1a8ot7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The public can also access the new archive in dedicated ‘clip centres’ throughout Wales.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">National Library of Wales</span></span>
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<p>The question now is whether the other UK nations should follow suit. While a similar model could be adopted in Scotland, in England the issue of whether the archives should house an English or British archive would need to be overcome.</p>
<p>Our collective audiovisual heritage provides a key to understanding ourselves as a society. It provides an additional access route into our past which complements that provided by the written record. </p>
<p>After all, archives are witnesses to history. They allow us to see how we lived, how we dressed, how we talked, how we were entertained, and how and when we watched or listened together. They also allow us to reflect and to learn. The Wales Broadcast Archive will do this and I, for one, am celebrating its arrival.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/201688/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jamie Medhurst has received funding from the AHRC, The Leverhulme Trust, and the British Academy in the past</span></em></p>The Wales Broadcast Archive in Aberystwyth brings together the archives of the BBC, ITV and S4C under one roof.Jamie Medhurst, Professor of Media and Communication, Aberystwyth UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/834782017-10-17T14:51:48Z2017-10-17T14:51:48ZWhat happened when we showed a film about ‘lover boy’ sex trafficking to a group of teenagers<p>How does it feel to be trafficked for sex? Dehumanised, broken and invisible: that’s what people who’ve been through it have told me. And it’s what I wanted to convey when I began creating a digital project called <a href="https://vimeo.com/229111705">The Crossing</a> in 2015, in collaboration with the producer Colin Burrows and patron Emma Thompson. </p>
<p>The Crossing tells the story of a trafficked girl told from a first person point of view, a fictionalised account based on a composite of girls’ experiences drawn from case study research for the project. It has been adapted to be displayed on multiple types of platform, from a single screen to a film with surround sound, and an interactive version. </p>
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<p>The girl in the film hopes to make a better life for herself and ultimately make her family proud. Once trafficked, she is caught in a spiral of violence and abuse. Even when she escapes, she cannot go home because of the shame she feels she’s brought to her family. As one survivor described it during our research, it is like the “body being separated from the soul”. </p>
<p>The film gradually unfurls into an exploration of the trust created by some men’s use of the <a href="https://www.highspeedtraining.co.uk/hub/methods-of-human-trafficking/">“lover boy”</a> technique. These men use a number of tactics to isolate a victim from their families and communities, often using romance and the promise of a better life – often abroad. Once their victim is isolated, the men use violence, blackmail and threaten the girl’s <a href="https://www.government.nl/topics/human-trafficking/romeo-pimps-loverboys">family</a>.</p>
<p>“Lover boys” exploit the hope, frustration and dreams of young people to fuel a <a href="http://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_243201/lang--en/index.htm">multi-billion dollar</a> trafficking industry. The technique – also known as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-boyfriend-model-of-abuse-is-not-restricted-to-grooming-gangs-82599">“boyfriend model”</a> – was highlighted by police after a recent child sex exploitation trial in Newcastle. </p>
<h2>‘Completely engulfed’</h2>
<p>Though created for a wide audience, we have begun showing The Crossing to under 18-year-olds – <a href="http://www.nationalcrimeagency.gov.uk/publications/national-referral-mechanism-statistics/2017-nrm-statistics/824-modern-slavery-and-human-trafficking-national-referral-mechanism-statistics-april-to-june-2017/file">those</a> most vulnerable to the “lover-boy” <a href="https://www.government.nl/topics/human-trafficking/romeo-pimps-loverboys">techniques</a>. </p>
<p>In 2016, we showed the multiscreen project via 13 interconnecting screens to a group of 20 teenagers in the <a href="https://www.anglia.ac.uk/arts-law-and-social-sciences/ruskin-gallery">Ruskin Digital Gallery</a> in <a href="https://www.anglia.ac.uk/arts-law-and-social-sciences/ruskin-gallery/the-crossing">Cambridge</a>. The group, aged 14 and 15, were asked if they could identify with any elements of this story. One girl said: “I feel like it would be tempting to follow the ‘lover boy’”, while another said she could understand “wanting more to do and risking things for a chance at something better.” </p>
<p>The visual images in the film represent narrative elements or fragments of the girl’s story – depicting her invisibility in a city where life carried on around her. It was filmed using slow motion techniques, drones and projections to create a sense of heightened reality that places the viewer within the girl’s body. The students were given bluetooth headphones to personalise their experience within the gallery – listening to a soundscape underpinned by the girl’s breathing. This created an intense and at times disturbing response from the teenagers. </p>
<p>“What struck me was the impact of the sound, putting somebody in the mind and body of someone who is trafficked,” one boy said. “I felt as if her heartbeat was mine. I felt completely engulfed,” said one girl, while another described it as feeling “very personal, like she was talking to me.” </p>
<h2>Beware of ‘lover boys’</h2>
<p>It can be very difficult to know the impact of films such as these, but some of the responses we got showed how it had it opened the mind of these teenagers mind to the dangers of trafficking and exploitation. “I didn’t think people went willingly,” one girl explained, “and I thought it was all people getting shoved into unmarked vans and sold off.” Another girl said: “The film made me feel extremely angry, frustrated, sad and disgusted. Also a small sense of relief that this issue is being recognised and there are people to help. But annoyed that it goes under the radar so easily.”</p>
<p>One of the most striking responses from these young people to the audiovisual experience came from a boy of 15:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The most powerful elements for me were the images of the girl with her clothes off. It made me uncomfortable as usually it would be attractive but given the circumstances, it was just wrong.</p>
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<p>The film was <a href="http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/research/readwatchlisten/features/research-in-film-awards-2016-best-research-film-of-the-year/">shortlisted</a> for AHRC Best Research Film of the Year 2016, and an interactive version is now being developed to help show young people how and why it was made. We’re also working with local schools in Cambridge to deliver the project as part of their studies in the coming months.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/83478/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shreepali Patel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Crossing tells the story of a girl who had been trafficked using the ‘lover boy’ technique.Shreepali Patel, Director, StoryLab Research Institute, Anglia Ruskin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/540592016-02-05T13:39:10Z2016-02-05T13:39:10ZThe future of TV? How feely-vision could tickle all our senses<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/110430/original/image-20160205-18264-spjjy4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/downloading_tips.mhtml?code=&id=264429647&size=huge&image_format=jpg&method=download&super_url=http%3A%2F%2Fdownload.shutterstock.com%2Fgatekeeper%2FW3siZSI6MTQ1NDcwMTY4NSwiYyI6Il9waG90b19zZXNzaW9uX2lkIiwiZGMiOiJpZGxfMjY0NDI5NjQ3IiwiayI6InBob3RvLzI2NDQyOTY0Ny9odWdlLmpwZyIsIm0iOiIxIiwiZCI6InNodXR0ZXJzdG9jay1tZWRpYSJ9LCJTQmdFNDRMZ3ZNQUZRdHo4MWVURFg4WTdmcjAiXQ%2Fshutterstock_264429647.jpg&racksite_id=ny&chosen_subscription=1&license=standard&src=-q7yoWLFd0FRzBr6RHpeVA-1-42">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Imagine a party on a warm summer’s evening. You can see the beautiful greenery and the dipping sun, you can smell the freshly cut grass and taste the cool drinks on offer. You hear someone walk up behind you and feel them tap you on the shoulder. Now imagine you’re not really at the party – but sat at home and the scene and all these sensations are coming from your TV. </p>
<p>Working out how television programmes could one day stimulate all our senses is an interesting question for researchers like myself, who are exploring the future of TV. But the bigger, more exciting challenge is how we can not only imitate what is happening on the screen, but also use smell, taste and touch in a way that’s not a novelty and enhances the emotional experience of a show, just as a soundtrack does.</p>
<p>There’s good reason to think about how the TV industry can innovate in this way. Despite the rise of online video, millions if not billions of people still watch <a href="http://qz.com/233451/chart-how-much-of-the-world-watches-tv-vs-internet-video/">traditional broadcast media</a> through television sets. TV remains a powerful format for programme making and watching that follows specific restrictions and guidelines. </p>
<p>But more people are watching TV programmes online <a href="http://www.barb.co.uk/trendspotting/analysis/catch-up-viewing?_s=4">after their original broadcast</a>, on other devices such as <a href="http://media.ofcom.org.uk/news/2015/cmr-uk-2015/">tablets and phones</a>, are even using <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/multi-screen-viewing-feature/">multiple screens</a> to engage with more than one piece of content at once. Broadcasters need to create new ways of experiencing TV that capture the audience’s full attention and immerse them in a multisensory world.</p>
<h2>Experimenting with the senses</h2>
<p>Creating truly compelling TV that stimulates all our senses is not an easy task. Programme makers and technology manufacturers know how to design their products so you can see depth and distance on the screen. But sound and vision <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2783433">aren’t always enough</a>. Being able to <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2557008">smell the odours</a> that a character on screen would smell, or feel the objects or atmosphere they would feel, can create anticipation and build suspense in the same way as sound currently does.</p>
<p>Cinema is already experimenting with these extra senses. Films with touch and smell sensations can be experienced in newly equipped <a href="http://www1.cineworld.co.uk/4dx/">4DX cinemas</a>, such as the one in Milton Keynes. The sense of taste seems a final frontier for technology development, but the interest in <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2557007">taste experiences</a> has started to take off. For example, audience members at <a href="http://ediblecinema.co.uk">Edible Cinema</a> each receive a package of food and drinks to match what characters on screen experience.</p>
<p>The question for the TV industry is what multisensory experiences should it design for – and how. My Sussex Computer Human Interaction lab is trying to better understand how we use our senses so that designers and developers can help us interact with their technology in the most compelling way possible.</p>
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<p>Our latest work focuses on cutting edge technology such as the mid-air touch feedback or “haptic” device <a href="http://ultrahaptics.com">developed by Ultrahaptics</a>, a start-up in Bristol. We’re looking at how this technology could evoke emotions in the audience by allowing them to feel physical sensations without touching actual objects.</p>
<p>For example, projecting a pattern of ultrasound beams onto your hand can create different <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2466220">tactile sensations</a>, such as a feeling of raindrops on your palm (without the water), or a flow of air as if you were holding your hand out of the window of a moving car. When carefully designed, this haptic feedback can produce even more specific patterns that allow you to feel different shapes, that change in size or that quickly move around.</p>
<h2>Emotional feedback</h2>
<p>By experimenting with different shapes, <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2702361">we’ve studied</a> how this kind of haptic feedback can produce different emotions. We found that short, sharp bursts of air to the area around the thumb, index finger and middle part of the palm generate excitement. Slow and moderate stimulation of the outer palm and the area around the little finger create sad feelings.</p>
<p>This gives us a starting point to find out how mid-air touch sensations could be meaningfully integrated into other experiences, such as watching a movie. One challenge will be to make haptic feedback enhance the viewing experience without seeming intrusive or creepy, as suggested by “the feelies” cinema experience portrayed in the dystopian novel Brave New World. </p>
<p>We’ve recently began a five-year project to expand the research into taste and smell, as well as touch. The SenseX project will aim to provide guidelines and tools on how to design and integrate sensory stimuli for inventors and innovators to create richer interactive experiences. Relatively soon, we may be able to realise truly compelling and multi-faceted media experiences, such as 9-dimensional TV (adding tastes on top of 4DX), that evoke emotions through all our senses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marianna Obrist receives funding from the EC within the Horizon2020 programme through the ERC (Starting Grant Agreement 638605).</span></em></p>New technology could allow you to “feel” a TV show by transmitting touch feedback through the air.Marianna Obrist, Reader in interaction design, University of SussexLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/452512015-07-30T04:12:14Z2015-07-30T04:12:14ZClassrooms of the e-future will be virtual with life-like reality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89966/original/image-20150728-9853-1tvflh2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Holograms offer the promise of transforming electronic modes of teaching</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Groundbreaking 3D hologram <a href="http://proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2010/InSITE10p693-704Ghuloum751.pdf">technology</a> will create a virtual classroom. The new hologram is a creative innovation that will transform electronic modes of teaching. It will give lecturers and students a semblance of the classroom when they may be at home or anywhere else. </p>
<p>The 3D technology operates by creating the illusion of three-dimensional imagery. A light source is projected onto the surface of an object and scattered. A second light illuminates the object to create interference between both sources. Essentially, the two light sources interact with each other and cause diffraction, which appears as a 3D image. </p>
<p>This form of mobile-learning has been hailed as an effective teaching tool of the future. It allows teachers to provide instruction from home with holographic images of students via an electronic multimedia device.</p>
<p>The 3D hologram provides a lifelike experience. Students will also be able to see the teacher and fellow learners using mobile devices. This will give teachers and students the impression that they are in the same physical space.</p>
<p>The main <a href="http://proceedings.informingscience.org/InSITE2010/InSITE10p693-704Ghuloum751.pdf">barriers</a> to integrating the technology into learning environments are the high costs of setting it up and the lack of fast internet connection.</p>
<h2>How the world is changing</h2>
<p>Since the start of the 20th <a href="http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=149560">century</a> major progress has been made in how electronic media is used.</p>
<p>The advantages offered by this media have persuaded most educational institutions to integrate e-learning in their teaching.</p>
<p>At the same time, advancements in technology have enabled teachers, academics and students to move from traditional chalkboards and opt for interactive white boards or <a href="http://www.cloquet.k12.mn.us/curriculum.cfm?subpage=511729">smart</a> boards.</p>
<p>Various network–based methods are used to complement classroom education to reduce the effects of <a href="http://firstmonday.org/article/view/2178/2033">distance</a>, making it independent of time and physical location.</p>
<p>Now, the 3D hologram technology promises to be able to group all parties for an even more lifelike experience.</p>
<p>Future e-learning will use technology that will deliver a course in the same way as happens in a physical classroom. The inherent characteristics of the lesson sequence in a face-to-face classroom which would be reproduced in the e-learning framework will be so accurately replicated so that the learner will feel physically in the presence of both his or her teacher and fellow students.</p>
<p>The student will be consequently unaware of the distance and the technical device that separates him or her from the teacher and other students.</p>
<h2>Drivers of change</h2>
<p>Technological developments tend to spawn new working methods that, in turn, require new skills. This will spur workers to embrace distance learning as it would allow them to continue their education while pursuing their professional activities. They will not need to take time off from work to attend evening classes - the class can take place at home or their place of work. </p>
<p>Telecommunications networks will become dense and easily available at lower prices.</p>
<p>E-Learning as practised today emphasises written communication – messaging, chat, forum, and wiki - to the detriment of audio-visual communication. But the arrival of smartphones and tablets, given their popularity within the student community, will boost audio-visual communication.</p>
<p>Although smartphone and tablet screens might appear inadequate for audio-visual communication, with the extension of the projection of holographic images in three dimensions a great revolution is being ushered-in. It is now possible to project the image of a smartphone or tablet as a 3D holographic image.</p>
<p>The virtual world gives a greater sense of presence than discussion boards. The result is that the students get a better feel for the teacher and subject matter. Studies have indicated that this style of learning results in better retention and understanding of a given topic.</p>
<p>This will unquestionably make a pre-eminent contribution to the field of e-learning.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Holograms could make science and technology accessible as part of a new way of teaching.Sheryl Buckley, Director of the School of Computing, University of South AfricaMoses J. Strydom, Professor in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of South AfricaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.