Like a lot of creatives I do a lot of different things.

The visual and the audio feed each other. My approach is the same whether I'm finding innovative solutions to a client's needs or building a friend's website. It's all about initiative and imagination, opening up new possibilities in art, design and communication.

Be creative.

The use of virtual spaces as a way of contextualising student access to learning materials lies at the cutting edge of international developments in the study of learning spaces. The Virtual Clinic project consisted of a comprehensive evaluation of four key technological platforms, or strategies, for the building of a web-based virtual space.

The aim was to create an engaging exploratory environment for teaching and learning incorporating multimedia assets (text, images, audio and video elements) as well as interactive activities (animations, simple quizzes, software simulations) and making them available in such a way as to motivate access.

Three prototypes were built, each demonstrating different possible approaches. All three share a common technical framework based on a rooms/views/hotspots/assets model. This collection of Rooms, Views and Resources is stored in a relational database allowing for the easy addition, or removal, of any of these viewpoints or hotspots - all without the need to re-author any of the web application's multimedia files. Having centralised our multimedia assets in this way, we had essentially created a repository of learning materials, a VLE, and the virtual clinic became a project about designing a new Graphic User Interface to mediate access to existing resources.

After extensive user testing with both students and teaching staff, one of these prototypes stood out as the most engaging. Leveraging the impact of photo realistic scenes, the Panorama Prototype uses panoramic images that are rendered to provide the illusion of a 360° world view. As with QuickTimeVR, hotspots are used to link between multiple panoramas, giving the impression of moving through an immersive environment. Although the images used in this demo version are only roughly stitched together it is apparent from the feedback we have gathered that the game-like immersion into the virtual space is not only compelling but also lends itself to location-based SBL activities.

[ open latest demo ]

[ browse the project website ]

"You're only as good as your last job", as the saying goes - so I'm delighted to be able to showcase the work I've recently completed at the Open Polytechnic of New Zealand on the NZ-OER project.

A culmination of the many design and e-learning strategies I have developed over the years, it's also a perfect example of my passion for creating engaging, immersive online environments.

[read full case study] 

[view Moodle course page]
[view office environment]
[view video activity]

Difficult to know just what to showcase from such varied output over the past few years. I think that the one piece of work I'm still most proud of is the How Long is Too Long video produced for the charity 'The Future Trust'.

Following on from Dodgy's involvement with War Child and the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, Bosnia, I was delighted to be able to help once more in highlighting the plight of all the innocents whose lives are destroyed by war. Unfortunately still as relevant today as when it was commissioned at the turn of the millennium.

[more]

There are ways in which you too can help. Amnesty International, IANSA and Oxfam have just launched a global campaign aiming to stop gun running and control the arms trade - and they need your support now. Simply go to:

http://www.controlarms.org/million_faces/en/index.php/register