Folks -
Any of you interested in this?
Best Regards, Ishtiaque
Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed Assistant Professor Department of Computer Science University of Toronto, ON, CA Ph: +1 647 220 3482 Skype: syed.ishtiaque.ahmed web: https://www.ishtiaque.net/ My Availability: Google Calendar Link https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=ishtiaque.uoft%40gmail.com&ctz=America%2FToronto
---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Steve Easterbrook sme@cs.toronto.edu Date: Sun, Feb 9, 2020 at 5:11 PM Subject: Indigenous story-telling research project To: Tovi Grossman tovi@dgp.toronto.edu, Ishtiaque Ahmed < ishtiaque@cs.toronto.edu>
Tovi, Ishtiaque,
I'm preparing a proposal for funding to renovate space in the Earth Sciences complex to create an open study space for undergraduates. As part of the project, we're working with an indigenous artist, and the idea is to cover the walls with his images of animals and plants that play an important role in First Nations culture - see attached photos to give you a sense of what these look like.
We'd like to include a digitally enhanced element to this project, so that students hanging out the space can learn more about indigenous languages (e.g starting by exploring names for the animals and plants in the various indigenous languages) and indigenous mythology (e.g. by exploring the stories behind the iconography incorporated into the artwork - see for example this video: http://www.connectednorth.org/ourfirstfamily/). So what I have in mind is a mobile app that would act as the starting point for exploring more about the images, and adding a story-telling element. This could be very simple - e.g. a catalogue of the images in digital form with more info about each, or could be very ambitious, using image recognition to detect which image on the wall someone wants to learn about, or an augmented reality element to provide enhanced ways of viewing and learning about the art.
A second and related element to the project is a living wall that incorporates a closed-loop ecosystems of rainforest plants and aquatic animals, so I could also imagine a mobile app to act as a portal to learning about this ecosystem and how it works.
The timeline is that we're bidding for funding this month (from the University's student study space enhancement fund), and assuming we get it, we'll be renovating the space in the summer and fall of this year.
Anyway, I wondered if you might have a grad student or two who might be interested in this project, and/or an interest in recruiting such a student. Alternatively, it might make an interesting course project for an upper level design course.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks Steve