Kaptur poster for JISCMRD and IDCC11

Kaptur Poster/Banner

The full-size poster has a visible link to full image credits: http://vads.ac.uk/kaptur/publicity/

Simon Hodson, JISC MRD Programme Manager has asked all projects to produce a poster for the Start Up Programme meeting taking place in Nottingham, 1st-2nd December. We have also been invited to present these at the 7th International Digital Curation Conference next week in Bristol, our 1-minute-madness PowerPoint slide (SlideShare) is available here:

It was decided to produce the poster in the form of a roller banner as we hope this is something that can be re-used at more than one event. The design is aimed to generate discussion with the questions; this is also the reason why the image credits do not appear directly on the poster itself (image credits are available here: http://vads.ac.uk/kaptur/publicity/).

Questions:

What is Kaptur?

• Kaptur is a highly collaborative research project with four institutional partners: Glasgow School of Art; Goldsmiths, University of London; University for the Creative Arts (UCA); and University of the Arts London. Kaptur is led by the Visual Arts Data Service, a Research Centre of UCA, and funded by the JISC Managing Research Data Programme from Monday 3rd October 2011 to Friday 29th March 2013.

Specifically, we are one of 17 projects funded by JISC, described on the Managing Research Data Programme 2011-13 Web page as:

17 large institutional projects will help universities pilot or further develop and extend infrastructures for research data management as part of an institutional mission to provide high quality support for research. They will also be developing institutional or departmental research data management policies and guidance materials.

Why Kaptur?
The answer to ‘why Kaptur?’ is something addressed in detail through the project proposal, written by Leigh Garrett, VADS Director. In very basic terms (but we are happy to elaborate!):

• to investigate the nature of visual arts research data building on the work of previous JISC MRD projects and the work of the DCC
• to support visual arts researchers through institutional infrastructure, focusing on the four institutional partners but also producing outputs that can be re-used and re-purposed by other UK institutions

How are we going to achieve this?

• user engagement – this will be ongoing throughout the project, but also specifically relates to the first phase of environmental assessment which will inform the implementation plan
• modelling – drafting institutional data management policies
• technical structure – producing pilot research data management systems
• training and support for visual arts researchers
• sustainability – business and sustainability plans to continue the work of Kaptur at the four institutions, after the end of the project and beyond

The images on the poster/banner show:

• some concrete examples of visual arts research data
• examples of research data generated through our own Kaptur project
• the sheer volume of some research data e.g. contact prints for photographs – selection and storage issues
• the blurring of boundaries between visual arts research data and visual arts research outputs
• the space in which research data is generated