Abstract

Abstract
By rethinking how digital information and media have evolved, we intend to discuss how Information Visualization is performing an essential role in the field of newspapers, and how it can evolve with particular emphasis on content archiving for future access. The presence of new visual structures used in fields such as digital archiving, have questioned digital methods of preservation and how the interrelation between information and access to knowledge is revealed. In digital newspapers, the development of access and information retrieval processes has become an essential part of their duties, but it is still in it’s infancy and dependent on text search rather then content awareness. By outlining the links between Visual Archives and Information Visualization, with focus on online press, we venture in a path of trial and error. This is present by the recognition of lack of efficient articulation between different types of contents, as well as between the user interaction and the contents outcomes. Thus proposing a visual lexicon that can adjust to the constraints of technology, different user devices, and the promptitude of publication that a Web context demands it is utmost relevant. A combination of fields, with attention to visual perception and arbitrary conventions in relation to image and content awareness, grants the association of concepts such as big data and thick data description, being part of the outcomes of this research a proposal to a theoretical model grounded on prototyping testing in a newsroom office.      This empirical methodological approach is supported by a low-fidelity prototype, for iterative formative evaluations, fostering field’s observations with potential users in order to identify the best visual components of a digital visual archive for online newspapers. The challenge is to develop visual structures that preserve and present the interconnections of news, information and knowledge to be seen, accessed and linked. By making use of a lo-fi prototype of a visual digital archive we aimed, to test, re-test, and find responses in dialogue, failure and retrial. The body of work shown here presents the practical outcomes of the theoretical model.

Abstract

Abstract
In an increasingly aged society, with unmeasurable cultural richness kept by its elder elements for their vast life experience, it is urgent to preserve this cultural knowledge before it disappears. The capacity of the computational space to accommodate a virtualization of reality is evident, alongside with the possibility to preserve perspectives of reality with spontaneous and very easy to sort creations thanks to the web tools that now support content production by any common user. Despite all the relevant problematics brought by this context where the common user is simultaneously consumer and producer of information, the opportunities for the present and future of cultural identity maintenance are numerous. This paper approaches the idea of supporting the participatory maintenance of cultural identity through intergenerational storytelling and the dynamization of digital affinity spaces. Our contribution aims to grow the understanding of the role that interactive narratives can have in the real world and in the specific context of cultural identity maintenance, by developing new usage strategies to enhance cultural mediation with the tools we have available and with the help of social, ubiquitous and mobile storytelling strategies.

Abstract
The possibility to preserve perspectives of reality with spontaneous creations allowed by the web tools that now empower common users with content production skills highlights the numerous opportunities for the present and future of cultural identity maintenance. Our research approaches digital storytelling during intergenerational dynamics as a stage for a participatory contribution to the maintenance of cultural identity. With an ethnographic approach and with partnerships with existing senior movements, we seek to (a) understand the storytelling processes during intergenerational dynamics, (b) develop a framework for the participative creation of narratives in the context of intergenerational cultural identity maintenance, (c) support the participatory maintenance of cultural identity through a set of workshops for intergenerational storytelling, (d) understand the challenges and opportunities promoted by digital affinity spaces for the maintenance of cultural identity. Our contribution proposes to develop the understanding of the role that interactive narratives can have in the context of cultural identity maintenance, by developing new usage strategies to enhance cultural mediation through social and ubiquitous storytelling strategies.

Abstract