Dans le present travail de recherche notre équipe s'est interessé à l'étude de la composition chimique -au niveau moléculaire- d'un groupe d'échantillons résineuses provenant d'objects Aztecs et Mayas. Le but ultime de cette étude a été d'établir l'origin botanique de ces résines et d'avoir une vue d'ensemble des formulations utilisées dans les adhésifs ou les figurines, afin de mieux comprendre leurs propriétes physiques.Pour aboutir à cet objectif une stratégie analytique très spécifique a été créeé et mise en oeuvre. Cette stratégie a inclus l'analyse d'échantillons des résines archéologiques mais aussi de résines d'origine botanique certifiée et de résines commerciales, achetées dans des marchés traditionels au Mexique dans une région qui correspond a la one géographique occupée autre fois par l'empire aztèque.L'étude des matériaux a fait appel à des techniques tels que l'observation a l'échelle microscopique, la spectroscopie infrarouge (IRTF), la chromatographie liquide-DAD (HPLC-UV/Vis) et la chromatographie en phase gazeuse couplée à la spéctroscopie de masse (CPG-SM).L'étude moléculaire de ces échantillons, et plus précisement, l'étude leur fraction tritérpenique a permis de : Établir un profil moléculaire des résines pour chaque origine botanique étudiée Idéntifier précisement certain composées tritérpeniques présents dans toutes les échantillons Réperer les molécules tritérpeniques susceptibles d'être utilisées dans l'avenir comme des marqueurs moléculaires d'origine botanique pour les résines frais des espèces étudiées Suggèrer une origine botanique pour les échantillons archéologiques Aztèques Écarter des origines botaniques possibles pour l'échantillon Maya Avoir une vue d'ensemble de l'origine botanique des résines commercialisées au territoire mexicain sous le nom de "copal" Créer un protocole d'analyse simple pour permettre aux professionnels de la conservation et des biomatériaux d'établir l'origine botanique et un profil moléculaire des résines utilisées dans des expériences diverses Caractériser le comportement du copal lors du vieillisement naturel et artificiel Établir des molécules susceptibles de devenir marqueurs moléculairs pour les deux types de vieillisement Établir que l'origine botanique d'un échantillon résineux peut être retrouvée malgré son âge (archéologique)

Ambitionen och målet med mitt projekt var att visualisera delar av en berättelse med hjälp av den senaste datortekniken. Detta tog sin form av en 3d-animation. Målet var inte att producera en färdig kortfilm utan att arbeta med utvalda delar. Projektet var indelat i tre block; en planerings- och researchfas, en produktionsfas och en reflektionsfas. Stora delar av magisterarbetet har bestått av att producera innehåll som sedan ska analyseras. Med arbetet vill jag att folk ska få mer förståelse för 3d-tekniken som ett flexibelt och intressant konstverktyg. I denna reflektion som är beroende av produktresultatet försöker jag i ord beskriva den tekniska och estetiska vägen från koncept till produktion. För att få förståelse för mina resonemang i denna reflektion kommer jag att använda mig av bilder från min produktion. Resultatet av magistern är en del av en arbetsprocess som kan analyseras och reflekteras. Med projektet har jag lärt mig att 3d inte är ett likriktat grafiskt verktyg utan en fascinerande konstform som är mer flexibel och personlig än vad man kan tro. Jag har funderat mycket kring det konstnärliga värdet i det jag har skapat och funderat mycket kring vad digital konst egentligen är och hur jag ser på det. / Detta är en reflektionsdel till en digital medieproduktion. cload@evilemail.com www.cloaddust.com

Rapid prototyping is a relativity new technology and is based on layered manufacturing which has similarities to the method an ordinary desktop paper printer works. This research is to obtain a better understanding on how to use computer graphics software, in this particular case Autodesk Maya, to create a model. The goal is to understand how to create a suitable mesh of a 3D model for use with a 3D printer and produce a printed model that is equivalent to the CAD software 3D model. This specific topic has not been scientifically documented which has resulted in an actual 3D model.

Conventional ergonomics analysis involves building physical mockups and conducting simulated operations, such that the constraints experienced by the human subjects can be directly observed. The limitations of this approach are that, they are resource intensive, less flexible for testing design variability and difficult to involve large number of subjects to account for population variability and thus, it is a reactive approach. With the advent of computer aided techniques, efforts are on to support ergonomics analysis processes for proactive design approaches. To achieve this, real scenarios are being simulated in virtual environments which include induction of representative human subjects into such envi-ronments and are termed as Digital Human Models (DHMs). The main challenge in the simulation of humans is to obtain the naturalness that is perceived in human interaction with the environment. This naturalness can be achieved by synergetically modeling the physical performance and cognitive aspects of humans in such a way that one aspect caters the requirements posed from the other. But in current DHMs, the various elements in the physical performance aspect are not in line with the requirements of higher level behav¬ioral/cogntive aspects. Towards meeting this objective, the influence of physical performance aspects of humans on achieving naturalness when DHM interacts with the virtual environment has been studied. In this work, the task of ’reach’ has been chosen for studying the influence of kinematic structure, posture modeling and stability aspects on achieving naturalness for both discrete and statistical humans. Also, a framework has been developed to give instructions based on relations between the segments of the body and objects in the environment. Kinematic structure is modeled to simulate the humans with varied dimensions taking care of the change of link fixations necessary for various tasks. The conventional techniques used to define kinematic structures have limitations in resolving the issues that arise due to change in link fixations. In this work a new scheme is developed to effectively handle precedence relationship sand change of configuration of the existing posture whenever link fixations change. The advantage with this new approach is that complex maneuvers which involve different link fixations and multiple fixations at a time can be managed automati¬cally without the user’s intervention. Posture prediction involves estimation of the whole body posture which a human operator is likely to assume while performing a task. It involves finding a configuration satisfy¬ing the constraints like placing the body-segments in preferred locations of the task space and satisfying the relations specified between body segments. There are two main chal¬lenges in this regard; one is achieving naturalness in the predicted postures and the other is minimizing the mathematical complexity involved in finding the real time solutions. A human-specific posture prediction framework is developed which can handle a variety of constraints and realize the natural behavior. The approach is completely geometry based and unlike numerical methods, the solutions involve no matrix inversions. Digital human models (DHMs), both as avatars and agents, need to be controlled to make them manipulate the objects in the virtual world. A relations based description scheme is developed to instruct the DHM to perform the tasks. The descriptions as a set of relations and postures involve simple triplets and quadruplets. As the descriptions constitute only the relations between actors, incorporating different behavior models while executing the relations is feasible through this framework. Static balancing is one of the crucial factors influencing the posture of humans. The stim¬ulus for the static balancing is the body’s self weight and is governed by the location of its point of application, namely the center of mass (COM). The main focus is on determin¬ing suitable locations for COM to infer about the mobility of the segments which supports the human structure in slow motion scenarios. Various geometric conditions necessary for support retaining, altering are deduced and developed strategies for posture transitions for effective task performance while maintaining stability. These conditions are useful in de¬termining the posture transition required to shift the COM from one region to the other and thus the behaviors realized while accomplishing the tasks are realistic. These behaviors are simulated through statically stable walking and sit to stand posture transition. One of the advantages of employing DHMs in virtual simulations is the feasibility of creat¬ing human models with varied dimensions. A comparative study is conducted on different methods based on probabilistic and statistic theory as an alternative to the percentile based approach with a view to answer the questions like ’what percentage of people can success-fully accomplish a certain task’ and ’how well can people perform when they reach a point in the operational space’. The case study is done assuming upper and lower arms of hu¬mans as a two link planar manipulator and their link lengths as random variables. Making use of statistical DHMs, the concept of task dependent boundary manikins is introduced to geometrically characterize the extreme individuals in the given population who would ac-complish the task. Simulations with these manikins would help designers to visualize how differently the extreme individuals would perform the task. All these different aspects of DHM discussed are incorporated in our native DHM developed named ’MAYAMANAV’. Finally this thesis will end with conclusions and future work discussing how these different aspects of DHM discussed can be combined with behavioral models to simulate the human error.

Le site d’Ucanal, dans le Petén au Guatemala près de la frontière avec le Bélize, est un site maya avec une très forte occupation et un grand centre cérémoniel actif durant le Classique terminal, une période où de nombreuses autres cités mayas étaient en ébullition politique ou en train d’être abandonnés. Les jeux de balle faisant partie des centres civiques ont très souvent été fouillés dans des optiques reliées aux activités cérémonielles et à l’élite. Ce mémoire propose d’étudier les déchets provenant des dépotoirs situés en périphérie du jeu de balle afin d’étudier les activités pratiquées par les spectateurs et non juste celles des officiants. Pour ce faire, une analyse globale de tous les artefacts (lithiques, céramiques et fauniques) du jeu de balle #1 du groupe A d’Ucanal a été réalisée. Des analyses de la distribution des artefacts entre les différentes zones du terrain de jeu et entre le terrain de jeu et d'autres contextes du site ont été entreprises afin d'identifier l'éventail possible d'activités associées au terrain de jeu d'Ucanal. Les résultats démontrent qu’en plus des activités rituelles généralement documentées en contexte de jeu de balle, le jeu de balle d’Ucanal est associé à des activités de festins qui impliquent une grande consommation de coquillages possiblement accompagnée de musique et de paris. / The archaeological site of Ucanal, located in the Petén region of Guatemala near the border with Belize, is a Maya site with a large population and active ceremonial centre during the Terminal Classic, a period in which other sites were wrought with political turmoil or were in the process of being abandoned. The ballcourts located in civic centers have often been researched from the perspective of formal ceremonial activities and the elite. This thesis proposes to study the debris from middens located on the outskirts of the Ucanal site ballcourt in order to study the activities practiced by spectators instead of focusing solely on the formal activities within the court itself. To do so, a holistic documentation of all the artifacts (lithic, ceramic and fauna) was conducted from excavations of ballcourt #1 of group A of Ucanal. Artifact distribution analyses between different zones of the ballcourt and between the ballcourt and other areas of the site were undertaken to identify the possible range of activities associated with Ucanal’s ballcourt. The results show that in addition to the ritual activities generally documented in the context of ball games, Ucanal's ballcourt was associated with feasting activities which involved freshwater shells and possibly the accompaniment of music and gambling.

L'ancienne cité maya d'Ucanal se situe à la frontière des grandes capitales et de leurs influences stylistiques pendant la majeure partie de son histoire. De plus, sa localisation sur la rivière Mopan en fait un lieu décisif pour les réseaux d'échanges puisqu'elle relie la mer des Caraïbes au golfe du Mexique. A ce titre, la ville fut convoitée par les grands centres afin de maîtriser les grands axes de communication. Cependant, ces centres n'ont jamais été assez forts pour contrôler complètement la ville d’Ucanal. Cette étude examine ces relations politiques et sociales et leurs changements du point de vue des céramiques d'Ucanal durant la période du Classique Récent (environ 600-810 DNÈ) au Classique Terminal (environ 810-950/1000 DNÈ). Nous avons établi un nouveau protocole méthodologique pour l'analyse chimique des pâtes céramiques à l'aide d’un instrument portable de Fluorescence par Rayons X (pXRF) et comparé les résultats sur les mêmes échantillons à l'aide de l’Analyse Instrumentale par Activation Neutronique (INAA), une méthode plus conventionnelle et plus précise pour les études de provenance chimique. Les résultats de ces comparaisons révèlent que le pXRF pourrait fournir des désignations de provenance préliminaires pour identifier les céramiques locales et non locales (article 1). Une analyse de la répartition des céramiques décorées et importées sur le site d'Ucanal comparant les maisonnées d'élite, de statut intermédiaire et non élite, a indiqué que les maisonnées de statut intermédiaire ont obtenu un accès croissant aux céramiques fines et importées durant le Classique Récent et le Classique Terminal, et que cette dernière était une période de grande mobilité sociale (article 2). À son tour, une analyse du point de vue des communautés de pratique des céramiques moulées de la période du Classique Terminal a révélé qu'Ucanal et sa région se trouvaient à un noeud important des réseaux de production et d'échange de céramique, ce qui a aidé à créer un paysage politique décentralisé mais fortement interconnecté (article 3). / The ancient Maya city of Ucanal sat at the frontier of larger political capitals and their stylistic influences throughout most of its history. Moreover, its localization alongside the Mopan River placed it in a decisive location for exchange networks between the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. As such, the city was coveted by major centers in their attempted control of this major communication axis. However, these centers were never strong enough to completely control the city of Ucanal. This research project examines these social and political relationships from the perspective of Late Classic (ca. 600-810 CE) and Terminal Classic (ca. 810-950/1000 CE) period ceramics from Ucanal. It establishes a new methodological protocol for the chemical analysis of ceramics using a portable X-ray fluorescence instrument (pXRF) and comparing the same samples with Instrumental Neutron activation Analysis (INAA), a more established and precise chemical analysis method. The results indicate that pXRF analyses can provide preliminary provenience identifications of local and non-local ceramics (article 1). A distribution analysis of decorated and imported ceramics from Ucanal that compares elite, middle-status, and non-elite household contexts reveals that middle-status households had increasing access to decorated and imported ceramics between the Late Classic and Terminal Classic periods, and that the latter was a period of substantial social mobility (article 2). In turn, an analysis of molded Terminal Classic ceramics from the theoretical perspective of communities of practice demonstrates that Ucanal and its surrounding region were situated at an important nexus of ceramic production and exchange and helped forge a decentralized but highly interconnected political landscape (article 3).

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With a lineage originating in the days of silent films, visual music, in its current incarnation, is a relatively recent phenomenon when compared to an historically broad field of creative expression. Today it is a time-based audio/visual territory explored and mined by a handful of visual and musical artists. However, an extensive examination of the literature indicates that few of these composers have delved into the associable areas of merging virtual holography and holophony toward visual music composition. It is posited here that such an approach is extremely rich with novel expressive potential and simultaneously with numerous novel challenges. The goal of this study is, through praxis, to instantiate and document an initial exploration into the implementation of holochory toward the creation of visual music compositions. Obviously, engaging holochoric visual music as a means of artistic expression requires an interdisciplinary pipeline. Certainly, this is demonstrated in merging music and visual art into a cohesive form, which is the basis of visual music composition. However, in this study is revealed another form of interdisciplinarity. A major challenge resides with the development of the means to efficiently render the high-resolution stereoscopic images intrinsic to the animation of virtual holograms. Though rendering is a challenge consistent with creating digital animations in general, here the challenge is further exacerbated by the extensive use of multiple reflections and refractions to create complexity from relatively simple geometric objects. This reveals that, with the level of computational technology currently available, the implementation of high-performance computing is the optimal approach. Unifying such diverse areas as music, visual art, and computer science toward a common artistic medium necessitates a methodological approach in which the interdependency between each facet is recognized and engaged. Ultimately, a quadrilateral reciprocative feedback loop, involving the composer's sensibilities in addition to each of the other facets of the compositional process, must be realized in order to facilitate a cohesive methodology leading toward viability. This dissertation provides documentation of methodologies and ideologies undertaken in an initial foray into creating holochoric visual music compositions. Interlaced matrices of contextualization are intended to disseminate the processes involved in deference to composers who will inevitably follow in the wake of this research. Accomplishing such a goal is a quintessential aspect of practice-based research, through which new knowledge is gained during the act of creating. Rather than formulating theoretical perspectives, it is through the praxis of composing holochoric visual music that the constantly arising challenges are recognized, analyzed, and subsequently addressed and resolved in order to ensure progression in the compositional process. Though measuring the success of the resultant compositions is indeed a subjective endeavor, as is the case with all art, the means by which they are achieved is not. The development of such pipelines and processes, and their implementation in practice, are the basic building blocks of further exploration, discovery, and artistic expression. This is the impetus for this document and for my constantly evolving and progressing trajectory as a scholar, artist, composer, and computer scientist. / Doctor of Philosophy / In this paper the author explores the idea that, owing to their shared three-dimensional nature, holophons and holograms are well suited as mediums for visual music composition. This union is ripe with creative opportunity and fraught with challenges in the areas of aesthetics and technical implementation. Squarely situated upon the bleeding edge of phenomenological research and creative practice, this novel medium is nonetheless within reach. Here, one methodological pipeline is delineated that employs the convergence of holography, holophony, and super-computing toward the creation of visual music compositions intended for head mounted displays or large scale 3D/360 projection screens and high-density loudspeaker arrays.

Im Zentrum eines guten und effektiven Social Media-Konzepts steht zunächst immer ein interessanter und relevanter Inhalt, der eine Institution repräsentiert und den Nutzern Anlass gibt, mit ihr in Dialog zu treten. Unter den während der Dresden Summer School 2012 vorgestellten Kulturschätzen genoss ein Exponat besondere Aufmerksamkeit und bot viele inhaltliche und mediale Anknüpfungspunkte für die Entwicklung eines Social Media-Projekts: (...)