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Science presented as an app
News Unique app for research
At a conference in early May, two University of Gothenburg researchers participated with a presentation, scientifically reviewed just like any other research, but still unusual: the presentation was in the form of an app with material in virtual reality. - The app is, as far as we know, the first of its kind. But it is also an example of a larger international trend where researchers are using new technologies and media to publish their results, explained the app’s creators, Gunnar Almevik and Jonathan Westin.
THE GATE TO the medieval stave church in Hemse on Gotland is 3.5 metres high but only 85 centimetres wide. When we have stepped over the church’s high threshold, we are in a dark interior where the flickering candle creates shadows on the walls. Suddenly we notice the baptismal font further into the church and the decorated tapestry that runs along the top of the walls.
However, we are not in a real church, but in a digital reconstruction, experienced from a computer screen. More specifically, it is an app that focuses on the sensual experience; the visitor should be able to stand in the sunlight outside, open the creaking door, walk around the dark corners of the interior and click on different objects to find out more. The app also contains an introduction to the research questions, a 3D presentation of the archive material and a so-called anastylosis where the remains have been set up and arranged as a reconstruction. Through a simple command in the app, the visitor can produce a digital lens to see the authentic source material behind the interpretation.
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
Gunnar Almevik has, together with Jonathan Westin, made a unique app for research within craft sciences.
GUNNAR ALMEVIK, Professor of Conservation, and Jonathan Westin, Associate Professor in Conservation and Research Coordinator at the Centre for Digital Humanities, are the researchers who created the app. It was presented on the fourth of May at the digital conference the Biennial International Conference for the Craft Sciences, a conference that focuses on alternative ways of publishing research. – It is called NTRO, Non-Traditional Research Outputs, and, so far, it is most common in the artistic field, Gunnar Almevik explains. Instead of mainly publishing text-based articles, they try to find alternatives that better suit the research, such as documented exhibitions and demonstrations based on films, 3D models or animations.
JONATHAN WESTIN ALTERNATIVE WAYS of communicating research have of course long been used in various public contexts to increase public interest. But this is not what NTRO is primarily about, instead it involves scientific publications that are as carefully reviewed as traditional articles, but where the main medium is something other than text.
And there are many benefits to visual publishing, says Jonathan Westin. – In a piece of text, a laboratory can be described in words, but in a video you can show exactly what you do in each step, which also makes it easier for anyone who wants to repeat the experiment. In particular within craft sciences, it is important to be able to show, for example, what an object looked like, how a certain tool was used or how different artifacts interacted.
– IN OUR APP, we combine a number of different media such as film, text, 3D models and interactive scenes. We also use a narrator’s voice, as we believe the reviewer needs some guidance. The fact that the app also contains source material in 3D gives researchers the opportunity to find out more about the remains we investigated and form their own opinion on the interpretation, something that does not work in a traditional text-based article.
The point of NTRO, however, is
not to replace scientific text with more exciting and startling media. – Researchers will always need to write text, which of course also has many advantages: it is easy to share and does not require advanced technology. Furthermore, there are developed conventions for different genres of text and how to cite, reference and critique. And even written material can of course have visual elements, such as drawings, diagrams and photos. Of course, it is also an advantage to be able to discuss something on a general level; the visuals often become very specific and sometimes too informative. In a piece of text, the researcher is forced to delimit and focus on what is important, but in a video of a complex research process, it can be more difficult to know what to focus on.
At the same time, it would be strange if researchers, who should be one step ahead when it comes to development, do not use the multifaceted technology that exists today for communication, Gunnar Almevik points out. – However, a visual presentation requires discipline in order to achieve scientific quality. For example, there must be a limit to how long a video can be, how elements from different sources are referenced and how the peer review should take place. Since alternative media do not yet have a scientific tradition to fall back on, all this is still quite unclear, but of course accuracy, i.e. scientific accuracy, is just as important regardless of the form of publication. The peer review system, which the entire scientific community relies on, refers to the quality of the content regardless of the medium.
Publications that require technical expertise will of course place new demands on researchers, Jonathan Westin points out.
The pictures are made by Gunnar Almevik and Jonathan Westin. – WITHIN SCIENTIFIC research, the technical experts are often part of the research team and in a similar way, it may also need to be the case in the humanities and social sciences. The management of higher education institutions also need to pay more attention to the fact that publications today can involve much more than articles and books. Not even us researchers at the Centre for Digital Humanities get points for digital publications, even though that is what we mainly do, but it is articles that count.
Participants at the conference the Biennal International Conference for the Craft Sciences were not only researchers in crafts, but also artists, archaeologists, educators and representatives of restaurant schools, says Gunnar Almevik.
– The University of Gothenburg could do more to make it easier for researchers, in a large number of disciplines, who are interested in alternative ways of publishing. We would need the appropriate infrastructure for the scientific publication of 3D models, and also interfaces for interactive programmes. Our app must be downloaded and installed as a programme on a single computer. One example is GU Play, which is currently a channel for information and popular science communication. With a little bit of work, it could become an important platform in science publishing as well.
Eva Lundgren
FACTS
NTRO (Non-Traditional Research Outputs) is a collective term for non-traditional ways of publishing scientific research. It is common in the artistic field, and can involve documented exhibitions, performances or demonstrations and portfolios of documented works. The use of video and 3D models as integrated elements in publications is also becoming more common in more traditional science and has been made easier through on-line publications. JAR is an artistic journal where different media are arranged in a digital showroom. The conference, the Biennal International Conference for the Craft Sciences on 4–6 May, is an example of a conference for alternative ways of presenting research. During the conference, the app created by Gunnar Almevik and Jonathan Westin, Crafting research communication in building history, presented a digital reconstruction of a medieval church on Gotland. The app has also been published in the journal FormAkademisk Journal. In addition, it will be part of Vikingarnas värld (The World of the Vikings), the world’s largest exhibition about Vikings, which opens on June 24 at the Swedish History Museum in Stockholm.
