“Artivity”, a tool to document art and design creative practice

The Artivity Project aims to produce an open desktop logging framework for arts practice. It allows for capturing detailed data about the creation process of digital artwork and its context. This data can be used to study the techniques, workflow and sources of inspiration in the creation process of digital media. The project is executed as a cooperation with the University of the Arts London and Semiodesk GmbH. It has been funded by JISC.

The problem
Art is about the process not about the outcome

The solution
● Capture the process
– observation text →
– motion picture
● Making event
– but not the method / research

Potential answers
● One artist over time
– development of work
– development of technique
● Many artists
– overview of current trends
– in an organisation/studio/class/department
● Many artists over time
– Trends in digital arts over time
– Trends in methods and online research

Who cares?
● Artists
– self-archiving
● Researchers interested in art history
– data about context – mode of work
● Researchers interested in technique
– data about software tools and settings
● authenticity of digital art

Who else?
● Invoicing for freelancers / design studios
– time spent of projects – people involved – resources used
● Group design
– attribution – justification – annotation
● University administration
– provide data for REF
● Teaching / learning
– share instructions – automated assessment – evaluate
exercises
● Developers of creative software
– find out about the popularity / use of features

• Organisation
• Organisation