Add photos and or video from the final exhibition
Analysis of my my exhibition.
Thursday, November 04, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Exhibition Preparation
There are a few things that I want to do before the final exhibition. This includes taking some photography to support the 'slave to time' concept that inspired and informed our cinematic flaneur project and make a sound-scape that displayed our concept for aural terrains.
Aural Terrains Performance
On the right is the the DVD cover that Chris kindly designed for us from footage of our performance at the St. Paul Street Gallery.
The performance was difficult to judge from the viewpoint of a performer so I have decided to create a sound-scape so the performance can be judged from every point in the room for better analysis of the sounds situations that can be created.
All in all I am happy with how our performance concept, I felt that the St. Paul Street performance was not as effective as our first performance that we carried out in front of our class, I put this down to several things. Firstly there was a much larger number of people 'out of the loop' when we first performed, this gave us a much larger opportunity to affect different people in different ways. Secondly when we performed the first time we had only our team performing and this gave us a greater level of control of what the acoustics in the room where. One alteration that I am glad that we added was the composition in the end; I feel that because St. Paul Gallery's was so tall and had such a large level of reverb the building of the sound level was a lot more challenging than in the chromakey room so I felt having a rhythm to settle into in the last 15 seconds of the performance piece really aided in the understanding of our concept as a whole.
Below is the audio from our live performance at the St. Paul Street Gallery.
Pre-performace
On the right is the props that we will have set up to create to help Chris in creating an authentic looking performance.
There are lots of plugs for him to play with and several components that should all appear to be a semi-complex setup. The role of this 'fake performance' is essentially crowd control. We are working with the premise that the crowd will need to be quiet and respectful for our 'rude' sounds to have maximum effect. Chris will introduce our piece and inform the crowd that " it will be very quiet so can he please have a respectful audience"; after this we require him only to look authentic and provide a focal point for the audience that looks like he is doing enough for them to believe he is performing but that perhaps it is too quiet or not going quite right. We want the atmosphere to be as awkward as possible as this will promote annoyance, embarrassment and other negative feelings towards the perpetrators of the inappropriate noise in the crowd.
We are quite nervous about the upcoming performance as there is no way of knowing how the space will be set up when the whole class is setup there. We also are quite aware that we are relying on many individuals outside the group to make noise for us from all angles in a simultaneously subtle, annoying and natural manor. We earlier on decided that we wanted the sound to be authentic and live as we feel it is a lot more relevant to our concept to have real people producing real sound but in the lead up to the actual performance it is one less thing that we can control.
One thing that I find comforting about this though is that we are proposing that all sound is relevant, so no matter what our volunteers produce it can't really be wrong, it might only be less effective than hoped in aggravating the crowd.
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| 'Rude Awakening' Props |
We are quite nervous about the upcoming performance as there is no way of knowing how the space will be set up when the whole class is setup there. We also are quite aware that we are relying on many individuals outside the group to make noise for us from all angles in a simultaneously subtle, annoying and natural manor. We earlier on decided that we wanted the sound to be authentic and live as we feel it is a lot more relevant to our concept to have real people producing real sound but in the lead up to the actual performance it is one less thing that we can control.
One thing that I find comforting about this though is that we are proposing that all sound is relevant, so no matter what our volunteers produce it can't really be wrong, it might only be less effective than hoped in aggravating the crowd.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Annoying Composition
This piece is a response to what we thought might be a potential problem in the understanding of our performance. We do not want our performance to be too 'exclusive' as some art is; because the majority of the piece is actually performed at the expense of the audience (who were initially only going to find out if and when they realised what was going on) we did really want to let everyone who was still clueless at the end in on the gag.
We have done this by composing a few rhythmic bars that will be carried out after a cellphone going off in the crowd. (At which point the fact that members of the crowd are actually performing and not just being rude should become clear.)
We have also decided on some specifics for the final performance; this includes a name for the performance... we will call it ' A Rude Awakening'. This a nice play on words and will aid the audience in understanding our concept when it is reflected upon. We have also decided on having Chris C as our 'performer' at the front of the room; we will set him up with plenty of props and will choreograph his near-silent and intended very awkward performance slot at the front of the room.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Annoyance Performance Concept
On Friday we all presented our concepts to the class for critique and input from our peers. We performed with a much better response than we were expecting and that has boosted our team confidence going into the week of the final performance.
Our performance concept involves subverting the attention of the audience by staging a quiet 'performance gone wrong' on stage that we ask the audience to be particularly quiet for; unbeknown to the audience however is the real performance is going on in the crowd around them. We are going to have a number of actors infiltrate the audience and produce annoying sounds that will get progressively louder and more obnoxious.
In essence the real performance will be all around the people that are there to watch. The statement in this piece is that we need to re-tune our ears and mind to consider that the sound that we produce is as valid as that that we gather to watch be performed.
Our performance concept involves subverting the attention of the audience by staging a quiet 'performance gone wrong' on stage that we ask the audience to be particularly quiet for; unbeknown to the audience however is the real performance is going on in the crowd around them. We are going to have a number of actors infiltrate the audience and produce annoying sounds that will get progressively louder and more obnoxious.
In essence the real performance will be all around the people that are there to watch. The statement in this piece is that we need to re-tune our ears and mind to consider that the sound that we produce is as valid as that that we gather to watch be performed.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Performance Space
Today we formed our group to work with on the final project for the Aural Terrains brief. I will be working with Anneke and Chris C on our final project.
We also checked out the St. Paul Street Gallery where we will be performing if our work is not 'space specific'. We participated in some interesting tests performed by Rob and started to explore our performance space visually and with Rob's help, aurally as well.
There will be some interesting challenges with the space provided, the space is approximately 5 stories tall so there is a lot of reverberation to be taken into consideration. The area is also relatively small so the audience will be packed into quite a small space.
This trip has given us some aural considerations to discuss as a group so we can perform to optimally for the space.
We also checked out the St. Paul Street Gallery where we will be performing if our work is not 'space specific'. We participated in some interesting tests performed by Rob and started to explore our performance space visually and with Rob's help, aurally as well.
There will be some interesting challenges with the space provided, the space is approximately 5 stories tall so there is a lot of reverberation to be taken into consideration. The area is also relatively small so the audience will be packed into quite a small space.
This trip has given us some aural considerations to discuss as a group so we can perform to optimally for the space.
Week 3 Improvisation Workshop
To start the week we had an awesome improvisation workshop with Chris O Conner. I found this really useful and insightful as I has essentially no musical background (a feeling shared by many) and it really helped to have a workshop to get us starting to experiment with and enjoy sound.
There were some interesting observations I made from the workshop, on both a group dynamic level and on a personal note. I really enjoyed how people contributed a lot more when we turned out the lights, for someone who is new or lacks confidence this really seemed to produce an anonymity that allowed people to relax and experiment.
On a personal level I really enjoyed the sound of everyone singing... I think this was an instrument that people had quite a good feeling of, where as the clapping game was largely about coordination rather than awareness.
Altogether I think the practice with instruments at the end was the most helpful as we tried out all the different ways to play including a 'scribble' or trying to hit the 'sweet spot' ... the best noise achievable from a particular instrument.
Chris definitely has provided some much needed food for thought before the upcoming final project.
There were some interesting observations I made from the workshop, on both a group dynamic level and on a personal note. I really enjoyed how people contributed a lot more when we turned out the lights, for someone who is new or lacks confidence this really seemed to produce an anonymity that allowed people to relax and experiment.
On a personal level I really enjoyed the sound of everyone singing... I think this was an instrument that people had quite a good feeling of, where as the clapping game was largely about coordination rather than awareness.
Altogether I think the practice with instruments at the end was the most helpful as we tried out all the different ways to play including a 'scribble' or trying to hit the 'sweet spot' ... the best noise achievable from a particular instrument.
Chris definitely has provided some much needed food for thought before the upcoming final project.
Audio Circuit Improvised Performances
The end of week two was celebrated with our group improvised performances, many thanks to Seb, Corey and Emma who performed with me.
I found the performance really interesting as our group had elected not to rehearse and instead to perform in front of the class in our first time together.
I think that this decision really forced us to listen and respond to each other instead of going through the motions as we might have if we had practiced prior to the performance.
One difference I really noticed between us and others was that we really wanted to make sure our piece wasn't too short as we felt that a lot of the previous performances had been cut short just as they were beginning to evolve into something that was really working well.
A regret of mine was that my circuit was hugely quieter than the others that I was performing with and thus was often drowned out during the performance. Although this was an interesting dynamic that was a point of difference in our performance and I continued playing past when the other instruments were stopped and this was very subtle and produced a more gradual fadeout towards the end of the piece.
Altogether I was really impressed with the week as I have very limited experience with electronics and it is very satisfying when you surpass your own expectations.
I found the performance really interesting as our group had elected not to rehearse and instead to perform in front of the class in our first time together.
I think that this decision really forced us to listen and respond to each other instead of going through the motions as we might have if we had practiced prior to the performance.
One difference I really noticed between us and others was that we really wanted to make sure our piece wasn't too short as we felt that a lot of the previous performances had been cut short just as they were beginning to evolve into something that was really working well.
A regret of mine was that my circuit was hugely quieter than the others that I was performing with and thus was often drowned out during the performance. Although this was an interesting dynamic that was a point of difference in our performance and I continued playing past when the other instruments were stopped and this was very subtle and produced a more gradual fadeout towards the end of the piece.
Altogether I was really impressed with the week as I have very limited experience with electronics and it is very satisfying when you surpass your own expectations.
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Circuit Bent Radio
I have found a portable radio at home so am having a go to see what sounds I can get out of it. I would like to hopefully distort what is playing live on the radio so that the same result will never be repeated twice.
This is an awesome example of some of the sounds that might come from the finished product click here.
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| My radio to be 'bent' |
This is an awesome example of some of the sounds that might come from the finished product click here.
Switching to the Prototype Board...
After bread-boarding up the circuits we then had to move them to a prototyping board. This proved to be a lot more challenging.
This is my successfully 'Champ' circuit (amplifier). I am very proud to say that it works and also that I have added an on/off switch, an inlet so that I can plug in multiple sound-making devices and a potentiometer (variable resistor) to control the volume.
Instead of creating one of the circuit diagrams we have been given for a 'noise making' device I am going to see if I can find some old electronics around home that can be circuit bent. I really like the idea of reusing and recycling components and also the potential for odd noises to come out of the shell of a toy that usually has a predictable sounds.
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| This is my 'Champ' with adjustments on a prototype board |
This is my successfully 'Champ' circuit (amplifier). I am very proud to say that it works and also that I have added an on/off switch, an inlet so that I can plug in multiple sound-making devices and a potentiometer (variable resistor) to control the volume.
Instead of creating one of the circuit diagrams we have been given for a 'noise making' device I am going to see if I can find some old electronics around home that can be circuit bent. I really like the idea of reusing and recycling components and also the potential for odd noises to come out of the shell of a toy that usually has a predictable sounds.
Circuit Bent Furby's
This to me is an interesting circuit bending project because as well as dealing with audio there is also a performative aspect as furby's are animated. There is a real eerie feel to these modified creatures but I do like the potential for customisation.
As an after note, I have found that I have thrown out my furby... this is good and bad, furby's seem quite a common electronic to circuit bend and that might reduce the challenge if I could simply follow a tutorial online. However I was really excited about the animation that a toy like a furby provides supplementary to the warped audio.
If you want to view a 'furby-bending' tutorial click here or here.
As an after note, I have found that I have thrown out my furby... this is good and bad, furby's seem quite a common electronic to circuit bend and that might reduce the challenge if I could simply follow a tutorial online. However I was really excited about the animation that a toy like a furby provides supplementary to the warped audio.
If you want to view a 'furby-bending' tutorial click here or here.
Circuit Bending
We have all started by making the same two circuits, one is a microphone and the other is an amplifier. Bread-boarding has been a really good introduction into the subject as it has been relatively achievable and all in all a really satisfying introduction, the challenge I think will be in creating a noise making circuit that is different from others in the class.
Friday, October 01, 2010
Sound Palette
I have included only the sounds that I have actually used in my composition as we took over 40 field recordings and displaying them all would be too much data.
Click here to get zip file of sounds used in my individual composition.
There was a wide variety of sounds that interested us and I think we did a good job of getting out there and satisfying our need for aural experimentation. Although the large number of recordings made their processing difficult in the limited time-frame I am glad that we followed the impulse through.
Click here to get zip file of sounds used in my individual composition.
There was a wide variety of sounds that interested us and I think we did a good job of getting out there and satisfying our need for aural experimentation. Although the large number of recordings made their processing difficult in the limited time-frame I am glad that we followed the impulse through.
Finished Audio Compositions
We were asked this week to create two compositions from our field recordings, one as a team composition and one as an individual composition.
Group Composition
Our Group composition has not been as effective as I might have hoped. We got quite enthusiastic with our recordings and have in effect recorded too much to process in such a short time. We have two major themes in our recordings; one is dark sounds, that we created in the structures at North Head while the other is a steep contrast and is domestic sounds captured from within our own homes.
To process this much information and to deal with the opinions of an entire group we decided to randomly select a number of recordings and combine these with the aim of working with exactly with what each recording contained and and not trying to control their content. This idea stemmed from the idea that all sounds are vibrations and thus cannot be right or wrong although conventional music would have us believe otherwise.
While I think it was a nice notion to combine different sound and allow their content to speak for themselves I do not think it produced a particularly effective result. There was a lot of pollution and accidental sounds that were used and this non selective process didn't really encourage cohesion within the piece.
North Head Composition (Individual)
For my individual recording I have used sounds exclusively from the North Head location. These sounds stood out to me for their dark quality as well as the fact that they seem to work together as they were either created or recorded while in one location, this helped me with the idea of a 'sound picture'.
There is quite a wide range of sounds in the clip, although I wanted to stay largely away from making it a musical piece I did decide to include a beat as it was the darkest and deepest sound in my palette and there was a large amount of resulting reverberation that really sets the mood of the piece.
I have also included voices captured from others touring the caves as they are usually of children and are high and thus give maximum contrast (as well as inspiring a level of concern in the listener in hearing children in such a dark setting.)
I have used the beat centrally in the composition while the voices play solely in the right ear and other sounds gravitating towards the left
My individual composition is quite different from our group composition in that with the group recordings we had such a range of contrasting recordings that we dealt with the composition by random selection. As a result the composition was made up almost entirely of domestic sounds and on reflection is a little lackluster, I think that a bit more critical reflection and educated selection could have produced a more conjusive piece of work.
Group Composition
Our Group composition has not been as effective as I might have hoped. We got quite enthusiastic with our recordings and have in effect recorded too much to process in such a short time. We have two major themes in our recordings; one is dark sounds, that we created in the structures at North Head while the other is a steep contrast and is domestic sounds captured from within our own homes.
To process this much information and to deal with the opinions of an entire group we decided to randomly select a number of recordings and combine these with the aim of working with exactly with what each recording contained and and not trying to control their content. This idea stemmed from the idea that all sounds are vibrations and thus cannot be right or wrong although conventional music would have us believe otherwise.
While I think it was a nice notion to combine different sound and allow their content to speak for themselves I do not think it produced a particularly effective result. There was a lot of pollution and accidental sounds that were used and this non selective process didn't really encourage cohesion within the piece.
North Head Composition (Individual)
For my individual recording I have used sounds exclusively from the North Head location. These sounds stood out to me for their dark quality as well as the fact that they seem to work together as they were either created or recorded while in one location, this helped me with the idea of a 'sound picture'.
There is quite a wide range of sounds in the clip, although I wanted to stay largely away from making it a musical piece I did decide to include a beat as it was the darkest and deepest sound in my palette and there was a large amount of resulting reverberation that really sets the mood of the piece.
I have also included voices captured from others touring the caves as they are usually of children and are high and thus give maximum contrast (as well as inspiring a level of concern in the listener in hearing children in such a dark setting.)
I have used the beat centrally in the composition while the voices play solely in the right ear and other sounds gravitating towards the left
My individual composition is quite different from our group composition in that with the group recordings we had such a range of contrasting recordings that we dealt with the composition by random selection. As a result the composition was made up almost entirely of domestic sounds and on reflection is a little lackluster, I think that a bit more critical reflection and educated selection could have produced a more conjusive piece of work.
Recording Adventures Day 2
On Day 2 Anneke and I returned to North Head to perform some further experimentation with using the decaying structures to produce sound.
What really drew me back to the tunnels was the eerie sounds that we got off the first day's recordings and the amount of natural resources that were there that could be used in the production of sound.
As I have progressed with this week's assignment I have become more interested in the production of sound rather than recording sounds at random. Initially we were trying to see what sounds we could observe without our own interference but now I'm looking as it more as each area is a type of instrument that has the ability to make sound but it requires a catalyst (ie. us) to bring out its potential. I find this quite a valid way to tackle the assignment and think that as our interaction level has increased with the production of sound so has our creativity and our engagement with the assignment.
I think the hardest part will be to refine the amount of audio we have recorded and chose just the key sounds to compose our pieces out of.
As shown on the map on the left we recorded at many locations over the 2 days that we went out. In hindsight we probably could have condensed the areas that we chose and got a similar results but we did enjoy the process and learned a lot over the course of the week.
For a quick run down:
At the pink location I recorded the beach from within a cave.
At the orange we recorded domestic sounds inside a home.
At the red location we recorded traffic on the harbour bridge.
On the purple we recorded inside the ruins at North Head.
And finally at the yellow we recorded inside a central city carpark.
What really drew me back to the tunnels was the eerie sounds that we got off the first day's recordings and the amount of natural resources that were there that could be used in the production of sound.
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| Creating Sound at North Head Tunnels |
As I have progressed with this week's assignment I have become more interested in the production of sound rather than recording sounds at random. Initially we were trying to see what sounds we could observe without our own interference but now I'm looking as it more as each area is a type of instrument that has the ability to make sound but it requires a catalyst (ie. us) to bring out its potential. I find this quite a valid way to tackle the assignment and think that as our interaction level has increased with the production of sound so has our creativity and our engagement with the assignment.
I think the hardest part will be to refine the amount of audio we have recorded and chose just the key sounds to compose our pieces out of.
As shown on the map on the left we recorded at many locations over the 2 days that we went out. In hindsight we probably could have condensed the areas that we chose and got a similar results but we did enjoy the process and learned a lot over the course of the week.
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| Sound Recordings Map |
At the pink location I recorded the beach from within a cave.
At the orange we recorded domestic sounds inside a home.
At the red location we recorded traffic on the harbour bridge.
On the purple we recorded inside the ruins at North Head.
And finally at the yellow we recorded inside a central city carpark.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Office Sounds
During this weeks experiments I began thinking about the sound effects used in this song, towards the end they cleverly use a selection of common office products to supplement the music (approx. 1:38 onwards).
The song itself isn't what we are trying to produce but it does really demonstrate the variety of sound that can be collected from day to day sources and manipulated to make it musical or in the least pleasant to listen to.
The song itself isn't what we are trying to produce but it does really demonstrate the variety of sound that can be collected from day to day sources and manipulated to make it musical or in the least pleasant to listen to.
Radio Aporee
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| My Radio Aporee contribution at red arrow |
This location is interesting to me because this particular area is constantly in flux, I have lived in the Torbay area for my whole life and the cave is constantly appearing or disappearing because of the effects of erosion on the cliffs.
I found the recording quite soothing as you can hear bird life, waves and dripping water. The tranquil nature in the recording really is quite characteristic of the area, you get a slight removal from the weather outside causing a muffled effect on all the outside elements.
Recording Adventures Day 1
Today we have been exploring the greater Auckland area in a quest to satisfy all our initial recording concepts. The below photographs were taken at North Head one of the locations that we visited over the course of the day. This day for us was about experimenting with gathering any recording that the group was curious about.
One big thing that I noticed change through experimentation was our practice, my initial idea of recording underground at North Head was quite popular with the group once we got started, something that developed from that was a level of creating our own sound.
North Head proved a great venue because of the many broken or wrecked elements that were around to be experimented with, there was also a nice acoustic quality that came from recording in combined spaces. We have tried to stay away from being too 'musical' a lot of the sounds are rhythmic but I feel this does act to create a dark mood that suits the recorded sounds.
On review of the sounds we got I really like some of the starting elements, I do however feel that some of them are overdone as if we have tried to record too much at once and thus lost any purity of sound. I would be super keen to head back tomorrow with a bit more purpose and record some purer sounds as I think the location has some wonderful potential and a really dark ambient sound.
Interestingly the tunnels were also full of visiting families for the school holidays and we have found that a lot of high pitched children's voices have got into our recordings. Far from being a problem I actually really enjoyed the contrast between the high pitched child enthusiasm and the low pitch sounds created by us underground, I really want to experiment with combining these two when I come to editing my field recordings.
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| Underground |
One big thing that I noticed change through experimentation was our practice, my initial idea of recording underground at North Head was quite popular with the group once we got started, something that developed from that was a level of creating our own sound.
North Head proved a great venue because of the many broken or wrecked elements that were around to be experimented with, there was also a nice acoustic quality that came from recording in combined spaces. We have tried to stay away from being too 'musical' a lot of the sounds are rhythmic but I feel this does act to create a dark mood that suits the recorded sounds.
On review of the sounds we got I really like some of the starting elements, I do however feel that some of them are overdone as if we have tried to record too much at once and thus lost any purity of sound. I would be super keen to head back tomorrow with a bit more purpose and record some purer sounds as I think the location has some wonderful potential and a really dark ambient sound.
Interestingly the tunnels were also full of visiting families for the school holidays and we have found that a lot of high pitched children's voices have got into our recordings. Far from being a problem I actually really enjoyed the contrast between the high pitched child enthusiasm and the low pitch sounds created by us underground, I really want to experiment with combining these two when I come to editing my field recordings.
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| Our happy group (and Chris in a daisy chain!) |
Location Location
View Larger Map
I am really interested in going to record sound at North Head in Devonport, Auckland.
North Head is declared by the Department of Conservation to be "It is considered the most significant coastal defence site in the country because of the size and variety of its defence installations and the fact that it includes elements from all periods of New Zealand's coast defence history spanning nearly 120 years of military history. "
For me however the fascination is in the potential for echo, reverberation and the creation of sound from the variety of rough textures left behind in these deserted structures.
Aural Terrains
For the first week of working on the Aural Terrains Project I will be working as a team with Anneke, Dylan and Chris A to produce a set of field recordings to create compositions from.
There are several things that I'm really interested in. I want to go explore the underground structures at North Head, try recording some interesting everyday sounds from round the house.
My concept with this will be to try recording sounds that are quite dark and ominous in nature and contrast them with warm, homely sounds that we are quite familiar with and comforted by. I hope that by playing around with very different types of sound I will find something that appeals to me either in one genre or in a synthesis of two or more.
There are several things that I'm really interested in. I want to go explore the underground structures at North Head, try recording some interesting everyday sounds from round the house.
My concept with this will be to try recording sounds that are quite dark and ominous in nature and contrast them with warm, homely sounds that we are quite familiar with and comforted by. I hope that by playing around with very different types of sound I will find something that appeals to me either in one genre or in a synthesis of two or more.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
STOP/ GO
This is the final experimental film I have submitted, I feel that it still requires a lot of work before I am happy with the final result but I do feel that it is a step in the right direction.
Our group concept was exploring the role of time in the lives of 'city goers' and asking the question are they a slave to time? Expanding from that I have explored common city signs that control the flow of people through the environment
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Flaneur Rig CAD Animation
This is an animation I created in Solid Works to show our rig in action. Solid Works has been a good tool during this project and as the CAD operator for our team and has allowed me to create engineering drawings, 3d renders and this animation. Which in comparison to photographs of our rig are more similar than I expected.
Friday, August 20, 2010
Experimental Film Review 2 - Connected
Connected by Selina Shah has been featured in several exhibitions and festivals since being first presented in 2008, these include: SKIP INTRO, TRANSFORM, YIVF#4 Screening, Open Source Festival, Astronomical Frontiers, Selina.Shah:CONNECTED, the EYE_KEA project International Video Art Event and Video Art and Experimental Film Festival 2010.
The experimental film 'Connected' depicts a cyber-relationship between two parties and explores the paradox of "intimacy without being intimate". The visual content in the film is made up of several small screens that show a variety of seemingly trivial and irrelevant clips. The main focus however is made up of the sounds of typing and the conversation unfolding in text at the bottom of the screen, it is this text that serves as dialogue in this short narrative. Shah's use of audio and choice of video effectively disables the viewers senses and leaves them feeling somewhat helpless.
I think that the way that Shah has presented her theme is quite intelligent, she explores the ins and outs of cyber-relationships through the visual element of her film. The seemingly trivial video presents to us a challenge to rethink just how little we know about the stranger that we find ourselves sharing with.
The typed text that makes up the conversation is the driving force behind the film, it presents us with the would be first time cybersex relationship between two individuals. By letting us into this private affair Shah places the viewer in a uncomfortable place, this is accentuated by the audio made up of typing sounds and seems disjointed and inferior next to the intensity of the conversation.
Shah manages to create in the viewer a feeling of awkwardness and and a sense of disjointedness. To an outside observer there are many pointers in the film to risky or ill advised behaviour. This feeling is continuously built upon as Shah using a multitude of techniques, the one character by typing in caps immediately takes on the role of dominance in the mind of the viewer, even before the subject is broached in the text. Other warning signs include the reference to one person being seen on webcam while the other remains faceless, this coupled with a reference to the 'seen' character "look(ing) young" gives a distinctly predatory feel to the dialogue. The viewer cannot help but develop a sort of concern for the character that is unseen by us, this is even more disturbing because we know that this character is being observed by the dominant character that we are continuously more wary of.
By the way of experimental techniques I liked the way that Shah used sound effects to make up the audio for her film, I think it was somewhat spooky and allowed the viewer to fill in their own gaps. I was also a fan of the video content, and how the ideas of the director were conveyed without showing anything literal. The text acted as the only form of narrative and was justified as it drove the film from beginning to end.
Shah presents us with a branch of the popular world of social networking that most would still feel uncomfortable about. This pushing of our comfort in relation to online culture challenges our current thoughts on the virtual world. Shah aims to make us consider online interaction and if it is a constructive advancement in our society, proposing that this may be the age that we neglect our bodies. In her essay on cyber discourse Shah explains some of her theories and those of others on the virtual age and our activity around it. Shah claims that ‘Virtual culture is a culture of retreat from the world …the loss of the senses of the reality “out there”.'
The experimental film 'Connected' depicts a cyber-relationship between two parties and explores the paradox of "intimacy without being intimate". The visual content in the film is made up of several small screens that show a variety of seemingly trivial and irrelevant clips. The main focus however is made up of the sounds of typing and the conversation unfolding in text at the bottom of the screen, it is this text that serves as dialogue in this short narrative. Shah's use of audio and choice of video effectively disables the viewers senses and leaves them feeling somewhat helpless.
I think that the way that Shah has presented her theme is quite intelligent, she explores the ins and outs of cyber-relationships through the visual element of her film. The seemingly trivial video presents to us a challenge to rethink just how little we know about the stranger that we find ourselves sharing with.
The typed text that makes up the conversation is the driving force behind the film, it presents us with the would be first time cybersex relationship between two individuals. By letting us into this private affair Shah places the viewer in a uncomfortable place, this is accentuated by the audio made up of typing sounds and seems disjointed and inferior next to the intensity of the conversation.
Shah manages to create in the viewer a feeling of awkwardness and and a sense of disjointedness. To an outside observer there are many pointers in the film to risky or ill advised behaviour. This feeling is continuously built upon as Shah using a multitude of techniques, the one character by typing in caps immediately takes on the role of dominance in the mind of the viewer, even before the subject is broached in the text. Other warning signs include the reference to one person being seen on webcam while the other remains faceless, this coupled with a reference to the 'seen' character "look(ing) young" gives a distinctly predatory feel to the dialogue. The viewer cannot help but develop a sort of concern for the character that is unseen by us, this is even more disturbing because we know that this character is being observed by the dominant character that we are continuously more wary of.
By the way of experimental techniques I liked the way that Shah used sound effects to make up the audio for her film, I think it was somewhat spooky and allowed the viewer to fill in their own gaps. I was also a fan of the video content, and how the ideas of the director were conveyed without showing anything literal. The text acted as the only form of narrative and was justified as it drove the film from beginning to end.
Shah presents us with a branch of the popular world of social networking that most would still feel uncomfortable about. This pushing of our comfort in relation to online culture challenges our current thoughts on the virtual world. Shah aims to make us consider online interaction and if it is a constructive advancement in our society, proposing that this may be the age that we neglect our bodies. In her essay on cyber discourse Shah explains some of her theories and those of others on the virtual age and our activity around it. Shah claims that ‘Virtual culture is a culture of retreat from the world …the loss of the senses of the reality “out there”.'
Friday, August 13, 2010
Reviewing footage and the Editting Begins
We have collected all the footage together and distributed it to all members of the group to work on our individual films over the weekend.
We have all taken different sub categories that interest us based around the role of time in the city. Personally I am going to look at signs, signals and warnings; I find these things really interesting because of two factors, the interpreted meaning of a sign and the action we take when we register one. Signs are instructions and in the city they serve to govern the flow of people, vehicles and some types of information through a city.
I want to experiment with signs and challenge what makes an effective one; usually the obedience in the presence of a sign is instinctual, they are often there to keep us orderly or safe and we obey without much thought. My aim is to present signs in a way that may alter their meaning or make them in some way chaotic or different from the signs that rule us every day in our travels. I am quite fascinated by the concept of seeing how far and what elements of a design can be changed while leaving it still recognisable and able to be obeyed.
Initially when we presented our ideas to the class we didn't want to take to firm of a stance on whether we thought the clock controlled the average city-goer but I think I will for effect probably take a polar stance and suggest that we are ruled by the clock. A clock is a man made device that can cause relief, panic or a great number of other emotions from one glance and the recognition of the time that follows, this to me creates an order but a rather artificial one, with my movie I would like to encourage room for interpretation in the city's seldom considered fixtures.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
Experimental Filming Day 1
Today we began filming for our experimental film. We have all brain-stormed what we would like to explore with our individual films and I am taking the direction of looking at patterns within the city, specifically the STOP/ GO flow that seems to be present in many assumed systems within the city.
We have been filming as a team of 4 but are keeping our footage separate so that we will have a greater amount of variation between our 4 group films. We have however been discussing using a certain sample of universal footage to increase the ties between our four sub-themes.
Filming has been interesting so far, we have had a multitude of problems on this first day including webcam brightness issues, overwriting footage and an increasing unsteadiness in the rotating camera on the pivot. Being in the experimental genre these things haven't been too badly hindering we have just adapted and continued and are happy with the certain level of randomness that has been achieved by this.
I would however like to encourage an increase in public interaction and participation so I am planning to create a sign or some props that make it clearer to the public that we are open to their participation in our film making process. Currently we have a lot of people staring but a lot very few interacting. I have noticed though that when you do manage to get one person engaged then the people around increases exponentially.
Tomorrow I want to do a lot more planned filming at locations and timings of prior choosing. This way the film will have a little more continuity than today's wandering.
We have been filming as a team of 4 but are keeping our footage separate so that we will have a greater amount of variation between our 4 group films. We have however been discussing using a certain sample of universal footage to increase the ties between our four sub-themes.
Filming has been interesting so far, we have had a multitude of problems on this first day including webcam brightness issues, overwriting footage and an increasing unsteadiness in the rotating camera on the pivot. Being in the experimental genre these things haven't been too badly hindering we have just adapted and continued and are happy with the certain level of randomness that has been achieved by this.
I would however like to encourage an increase in public interaction and participation so I am planning to create a sign or some props that make it clearer to the public that we are open to their participation in our film making process. Currently we have a lot of people staring but a lot very few interacting. I have noticed though that when you do manage to get one person engaged then the people around increases exponentially.
Tomorrow I want to do a lot more planned filming at locations and timings of prior choosing. This way the film will have a little more continuity than today's wandering.
Monday, August 09, 2010
SlitScan Experiments Berchem from zerolmzero on Vimeo.
This particular film is the one we have decided to share with the class when we do our presentation, it is the most exciting film and it hasn't been edited, it does however have some fabulous natural colours coming through in the footage and it is an excellent example of how the slit scanning technique can be used to full advantage.
Slit Scanning is something that Charlotte has been researching into during the past week and we are planning to set the top camera on our rig to run the code for the slit scan as it films so that we will produce the effect as we film as opposed to recreating it later in an editing program which is far less experimental because we are controlling the outcome in that case.
I like slit scanning for its potential to monitor one pixels width at constant intervals and update it to create a time graph of sorts of the city that is highly visual. When the slit scan is run from a stationary observation point there will be coloured lines that wipe horizontally across the screen from where is observes other stationary objects, however when an object moves past the slit it will create a new component to the image as long as they are in the range of the slit. This is really good for creating time visualisations as the bigger the object and the slower it goes/ closer to the camera it is bigger change will be perceived and vice versus. I am excited about using this in my film and seeing the different patterns in the city that I may be able to expose with it.
Rig Test Run
The below video was created during the making process by Christine and Theresa, it shows the footage as it will appear from the rotating on-board camera. I am quite impressed by the different effects that can be created such as a spin, a sway and a rotate. I feel that the rotate is much more noticeable when it is in close proximity to what it is filming and therefore for maximum effect I think it would be best used close to what it is filming.
Thursday, August 05, 2010
time from Rebecca Glasmacher on Vimeo.
Some videos that I came across in the search for an experimental film on time. I found most films quite literal in their portrayal of time but I did really like some of the soundtracks that were created from clock sounds as I thought it really drove the film forward and could be sped up/ slowed down to create the effect desired by the filmmaker.Time and Texture from Zeno Films on Vimeo.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Sunday, August 01, 2010
CAD Drawings
These are the first CAD drawings I have produced for our experimental camera rig. I am quite happy with my drawings as these are my first attempt with Solid Works. After they are evaluated by my team members and the lecturers/ 3d lab staff I will possibly redo them to incorporate any suggestions.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Slit Scan (The Last Clock)
Slit Scan photos from a project from 'The Last CLock' at www.lastclock.co.uk, the different rings depicted are created by changing the scan speed to represent hours, minutes and seconds. "Last is a clock that is a record of its own history." The images show a history of what has been in front of the clock in the last 12 hours. Personally I really like the contrast in what is achieved in each different ring, I like that you can achieve such varied levels of distortion using the same technique. I also think this will be a very effective way for us to record time as well as to play with peoples perceptions of it.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Auckland International Film Festival - Homegrown: Quirky Tales
Homegrown - Quirky Tales was an event held at the Academy Cinema in Auckland, it was described as a "spicy mix of funny and imaginative stories that span animation, documentary and experimental genres."This event was made up of a series of short films so I will tackle this review by talking about my favourite from the selection entitled "Fruitless Journey". Written by Jeremy Herbert and directed by Jodie Stack this 12 minute film told about the journey of a banana who was proudly taken to the South Pole as food for the expedition of Captain Robert Falcon Scott.
What makes this film interesting is that it actually retells the fateful journey that had Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his expedition crew try to be the first team to reach the South Pole but instead saw them die in the attempt. In 'Fruitless Journey' however this tragic story is told with such spunk and good humour that it is truly captivating and the unlikely character (the banana) wins the hearts of all in the audience.
Set in the fruit crate of the expedition and narrated by 'banana' the story is told from an interesting perspective quite unlike that of any other film I have seen, the narrative includes the proud destiny of banana to be consumed by Captain Robert Falcon Scott, his love affair with 'navel' and his intense disappointment as he ages without being consumed.
This film is incredibly clever as it utilises a truly unique perspective, it also manages to be accessible to all because of the clever nature of the story telling. I especially enjoyed the fruit orientated humour and judging by the laughter from the audience I was not the only one. The ending of the film in my opinion did leave something to be desired however, in the last minutes of the film the aesthetic changed somewhat and there was replacement of Captain Robert Falcon Scott with an animal that represented an ape, this change in the narrative was quite confusing and jolting for the audience however I accept that as an experimental film it is safe to expect the unexpected.
This film works on the level of simply challenging what we consider as a character, the level of rapport and emotional connection we formed with banana through this film was quite extraordinary as a piece of fruit wouldn't frequently be considered a character let alone one that we are attached to. This experimental film was well worth watching as a piece of home grown cinema and a film from a fresh perspective.
Reflections Experiment
Our initial fascinations have been with the vast number of different, and largely unnoticed reflections present in a city. I think a reflection can be very symbolic and produce some good and really simple footage where effects can be created through the contrast between the real world and the reflected image, I also like text that is shown mirror image that can turn any image from plausible 'real' life to a 'reflection'.
This experiment was quite fruitful, it really helped us to consider the city in a new light and made us think more in depth about what footage could include for our experimental film. It did however make us realise that at this point the concepts for our apparatus are somewhat lagging in comparisson to the actual subject matter of the film. We all really appreciated the different types of reflections we found but at the same time we felt that the footage should largely be reflected/ distorted by the actual camera rig we are to construct rather than elements of city scenery.
Nevertheless I think we all have the feeling that we are getting close to deciding on a direction to take this assignment and that is exciting.
This experiment was quite fruitful, it really helped us to consider the city in a new light and made us think more in depth about what footage could include for our experimental film. It did however make us realise that at this point the concepts for our apparatus are somewhat lagging in comparisson to the actual subject matter of the film. We all really appreciated the different types of reflections we found but at the same time we felt that the footage should largely be reflected/ distorted by the actual camera rig we are to construct rather than elements of city scenery.
Nevertheless I think we all have the feeling that we are getting close to deciding on a direction to take this assignment and that is exciting.
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Cinematic Flaneur Project
Our first studio project for the semester is to "invent and make video equipment that allows you to explore the city in new ways. That allows us to see the previously inaccessible/ unnoticed, or reveals something new about the every day city to us."
For this project I have the pleasure of working with Christine, Charlotte A and Theresa.
Together we will be designing and fabricating a rig that will carry two cameras and will be used by all of us individually to make an experimental film 2 -3 minutes long.
We also have to contend with the idea of the Flaneur and work some of the perspective of this character into our projects. I feel this will help challenge us to look at the city in a new light and hopefully inspire us to make films with the same intention.
For this project I have the pleasure of working with Christine, Charlotte A and Theresa.
Together we will be designing and fabricating a rig that will carry two cameras and will be used by all of us individually to make an experimental film 2 -3 minutes long.
We also have to contend with the idea of the Flaneur and work some of the perspective of this character into our projects. I feel this will help challenge us to look at the city in a new light and hopefully inspire us to make films with the same intention.
Bullet Effect
The first day back in studio we tried our collective hand at 'the Bullet Effect'. This is a technique that is most famous from the movie 'The Matrix' and we achieved it by getting into large groups and setting up our laptop cameras in an arc and taking photos in close succession so they could later be turned into video by playing them at 12 frames per second.
This is the resulting film
This is the resulting film
Friday, June 18, 2010
Review Day
For my review week presentation I showed my Serious Fun project 'The City' to a small group. This was one of the most productive type of critiques we have had so far, with a small group and a designated time slot we got a lot of feedback and a lot of questions and challenges that really make you consider your work and develop your ideas so that you might think more critically in our next assignments.
My actual display was okay but I do wish when comparing it to others that I had the other assignments represented as well. I was much happier with my poster when it was in onscreen size but this is perhaps because it is my first time making an image with Photo Shop and therefore I didn't have any experience in how the reproduction would look. I used a cardboard box beneath my poster to hold all my journals for viewing but this would require the viewer being interested enough to pursue my work further before these would be viewed, instead I think it would be much better if there was as much work as possible on display without overcrowding the space. This would show the scope of my work and there would be a higher chance of one of the projects interesting the viewer.
With this first experience I have learned a lot that I would like to apply next time I have a presentation week. Although I was not unhappy with my own display, viewing it I think there is quite a bit more I could have done to really make my own work standout.
All in all I have been very happy with my work over semester 1. As with most things in life there are things I would like to have improved had I had the extra time but I am on the whole happy. It doesn't feel like we have been in the BCT long but looking at all the work presented this week it shows how far we have come and how much of our studio practice has developed throughout the year so far.
I can't wait to see what is in store for semester 2.
My actual display was okay but I do wish when comparing it to others that I had the other assignments represented as well. I was much happier with my poster when it was in onscreen size but this is perhaps because it is my first time making an image with Photo Shop and therefore I didn't have any experience in how the reproduction would look. I used a cardboard box beneath my poster to hold all my journals for viewing but this would require the viewer being interested enough to pursue my work further before these would be viewed, instead I think it would be much better if there was as much work as possible on display without overcrowding the space. This would show the scope of my work and there would be a higher chance of one of the projects interesting the viewer.
With this first experience I have learned a lot that I would like to apply next time I have a presentation week. Although I was not unhappy with my own display, viewing it I think there is quite a bit more I could have done to really make my own work standout.
All in all I have been very happy with my work over semester 1. As with most things in life there are things I would like to have improved had I had the extra time but I am on the whole happy. It doesn't feel like we have been in the BCT long but looking at all the work presented this week it shows how far we have come and how much of our studio practice has developed throughout the year so far.
I can't wait to see what is in store for semester 2.
Study Week
Study week is an opportunity to redo or improve upon anything that needed further work as well as to create a display of our years work focusing on one main project that we consider our strongest. Part of the presentation requirements is to create an A1 poster promoting one of our works so I intend to present my 'Serious Fun' assignment so I really want to get the building growth and decay working as well as learning to use an illustrating program to make the poster as of yet I'm not overly familiar with any.
Editting and the Popcorn Premier
The saying whatever can go wrong will go wrong is at times very true! Editing day was a little like that. To speed up the initial editing we split it 3 ways and worked on Final Cut Pro on our 3 laptops, that worked really well until we tried to move the sequences between computers and would you know it all the clips were going offline. This caused major problems and a lot of wasted time for our team that we couldn't afford so close to the premier. This unfortunately was one indication that it might have been wiser to stick to our assigned jobs.
With the premier coming up fast we had to sacrifice some quality and get the movie showable so we exported the sequences as quick time movies and used them in turn as clips in a new sequence that made up the whole movie. This was a disappointing day for us as we felt the time that we lost in complications could of instead been used to bring our movie up to a much higher quality.
We did however with a team effort manage to scrape together all the remaining factors we needed to present the final movie and were very happy that we did have a finished product to show on the day.
Our movie will be re-edited and named in the study week so we can hand in a finished product that we are all happy with.
Filming Days 1 and 2
The last two days have been quite hectic in getting with the filming. We have managed to keep the filming locations all within a 3km span so that has been quite a time saver for us but on the whole everything has taken a lot longer than we would of liked, the full two days in fact. Hold ups tend to be caused by the things that you aren't pinning as a problem, waiting for minor cast members left us with questions about how best to order our filming, we found makeup quite a problem as we wanted Dorothy to look continuously sicker the longer the shoes were influencing her and this amount of dark makeup made it hard to do things out of sequence if her face was to be seen. For next time it will be a big priority to find cast members that are flexible with their time. Now for the race to edit before 4pm tomorrow.
Filming Tomorrow
Today has been a day for working out all the little things, we have had Anneke researching makeup, I have been raiding our infinite dress up box to put together some costumes while Charlotte is going to be liaising with her friend who is to be our lead actor and will be organising the bathtub for the climax. We have all been going over our script and making decisions on how we want things to look, we have a voice over written that will be spoken by Almira Gulch (the same person Dorothy will get the shoes off at the beginning of the film. I think this will prove to be quite cryptic and give the viewer the feeling of inevitability about the possession of the shoes.
Tomorrow we all meet bright and early to see how we are going to pull this thing off.
Tomorrow we all meet bright and early to see how we are going to pull this thing off.
Organising
Today is the day that we are trying to get things organised, which for me as Producer means a busy day. Anneke and I came up with a fantastic idea on how to get a filming location after we decided that the ones we have easily available to us don't really fit our chosen aesthetic. So book-a-batch is now one of my best friends, we sent a very well worded emails to people with holiday rental houses that were local and we liked the look of asking if they would please consider allowing us to use their house for filming free of charge. Surprisingly to us we got several positive replies and we have ended up with a small, creepy house in Long Bay that we will be using as Dorothy's house and the setting for the majority of the plot.
We also worked today on the story board and script, our script so far is less to do with dialogue as I think of conventional scripts having and a lot more to do with the who, what and where of each new scene and discussing how might be the best way to shoot it. This is because as a horror with only one character present for most of the screen time we found it more constructive to focus on how we were going to create the right mood and excite tension in the audience when they are watching the film.
We also worked today on the story board and script, our script so far is less to do with dialogue as I think of conventional scripts having and a lot more to do with the who, what and where of each new scene and discussing how might be the best way to shoot it. This is because as a horror with only one character present for most of the screen time we found it more constructive to focus on how we were going to create the right mood and excite tension in the audience when they are watching the film.
We now after the weekend and a day of discussion have a basic plot worked out for our short film, the main things we have to focus on now is finding actors to play all our roles, a bathtub and a location for Dorothy’s house.
Our basic story line will include Dorothy and Toto finding the shoes somehow, perhaps in an attic or at a garage sale ect. We want Dorothy to have a very pure, (undeserving of curse) appearance, we want her to appear genuinely kind and likable so that when things go bad for her the viewer will have formed an attachment and feel sad or otherwise emotional about Dorothy's plight. The main action in the story will be Dorothy's transition from normal to possessed which will be shown by an afterwards unaware Dorothy surveying the damage. We have a couple of ideas about slightly about disturbing things that could happen but I'm not yet ready to publish our intentions. The end is also very important in the horror genre, we need to make sure that evil succeeds and we see the it set to move on to the next person and repeat the cycle. ie. the shoes will find a new, undisclosed owner (by not knowing who this increases the 'could be me' sense).
Our basic story line will include Dorothy and Toto finding the shoes somehow, perhaps in an attic or at a garage sale ect. We want Dorothy to have a very pure, (undeserving of curse) appearance, we want her to appear genuinely kind and likable so that when things go bad for her the viewer will have formed an attachment and feel sad or otherwise emotional about Dorothy's plight. The main action in the story will be Dorothy's transition from normal to possessed which will be shown by an afterwards unaware Dorothy surveying the damage. We have a couple of ideas about slightly about disturbing things that could happen but I'm not yet ready to publish our intentions. The end is also very important in the horror genre, we need to make sure that evil succeeds and we see the it set to move on to the next person and repeat the cycle. ie. the shoes will find a new, undisclosed owner (by not knowing who this increases the 'could be me' sense).
Reverse Cinema
Today we were given our final brief for Reverse Cinema, we have been instructed to film and edit a short film based on the Wizard of Oz and to make it in the genre of horror. My group for this task is Anneke Crouse and Charlotte Couttie. (insert links to their blogs.)
We have assigned each of ourselves a job title, my assigned role is that of Producer although there will be a lot of work and its more important to provide help where it is needed, the role will foremost give us an indication of what our personal responsibilities will be and anything extra will be taken care of by whoever it proves most convenient for. Seeing that we have such a tight time limit there will be a lot of work to fit in to a short amount of time and we will need to be very flexible to make sure it all gets done. Our initial ideas for the plot are to create a curse of the ruby slippers, similar in concept to the mix up of scenes from the original movie that we did prior to this.
We have assigned each of ourselves a job title, my assigned role is that of Producer although there will be a lot of work and its more important to provide help where it is needed, the role will foremost give us an indication of what our personal responsibilities will be and anything extra will be taken care of by whoever it proves most convenient for. Seeing that we have such a tight time limit there will be a lot of work to fit in to a short amount of time and we will need to be very flexible to make sure it all gets done. Our initial ideas for the plot are to create a curse of the ruby slippers, similar in concept to the mix up of scenes from the original movie that we did prior to this.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
The Finished Product
Come presentation day this is a demonstration of how our finished Max Patch and Unity model work in conjunction to give a fun playful experience that encourages both experimentation and a greater appreciation of the control and character we give the environments around us by adding our personality to everyday life.
We worked on the principle that no two people are the same, we monitored the colours they wore ( the way they present themself ), the amount of noise they made and the amount of movement they produced. There were two ways you could look at our work; One it was simply god fun, it was colourful and set up in a non-linear arrangement, because it displays a variation of the participants own colour scheme back at them they are sure to recognise themselves in the installation and this encourages them to experiment to uncover what corresponds to what in the city and what what is causing the changes they can observe. On a deeper level this installation challenges the participant, asking questions like 'what are you contributing or what effect are you having on your environment?' Because each new participant will bring a new set of variables to the environment it is unlikely to look the same twice; this to me symbolises the perspective of an individual, we all see the world through different eyes, having different backgrounds, morals and circumstances the big question really is do we like what we see? Are we having our desired impact on the world? Set in a human made environment when we have the power to make all the decisions do we like what we contribute and in return what we see?
Our installation gives us the ability to explore these questions and more through manipulating the world you are given to preside over, I really enjoyed both creating and testing this work and I really think it is a pity I didn't take video footage of it being used by others at the critique because it was clear that they were making the most of and enjoying the situation just as we had intended.
The Model and the Patch
Below are some screen shots of the 3d model we are going to use for this assignment. I have only covered 28 blocks to correspond with the 28 mini screens we have split the webcam footage into. We like that the city is quite contained as we only want the participant to control the immediate, urban environment. This is kind of like a statement on nature but instead getting the participant to engage and consider man-made environments, their aesthetics and our role in giving them character and life.
Below is a plan view of our city, we used a map to give the blocks of the city a realistic and diverse set of shapes. I really liked how simple the starting aesthetic is, I think this will make a very good contrast for when the buildings are brought to life by the participant.
There are a few things we have accomplished on our Max Patch already and a few more that we will need to complete before we have this installation all up and running. We've downloaded Macam that allows Max MSP to use an external USB webcam with the grab component, this will make the installation a lot more professional and adaptable as we will not need to use the built on webcam in our laptops. We also have with the use of jit.scissors and jit.3m have the RGB values of the average colour detected in each of the 28 mini screens, this is also affected by the ezadc~ object which lets us monitor the amount of audio it receives and outputs a value, we have used this value to set a number of volume thresholds that will change the level of saturation of onscreen colours, from greyscale for no volume to technicolour with a lot of perceived noise.
Still to achieve is getting the Max Patch to increase the value of the height for buildings on each block when movement is perceived within the corresponding screen, then decrease again when no movement has occurred for a certain length of time. I also need to get Max to send the specified values to Unity via netsend and change the colour and scale of buildings.
Below is a plan view of our city, we used a map to give the blocks of the city a realistic and diverse set of shapes. I really liked how simple the starting aesthetic is, I think this will make a very good contrast for when the buildings are brought to life by the participant.
There are a few things we have accomplished on our Max Patch already and a few more that we will need to complete before we have this installation all up and running. We've downloaded Macam that allows Max MSP to use an external USB webcam with the grab component, this will make the installation a lot more professional and adaptable as we will not need to use the built on webcam in our laptops. We also have with the use of jit.scissors and jit.3m have the RGB values of the average colour detected in each of the 28 mini screens, this is also affected by the ezadc~ object which lets us monitor the amount of audio it receives and outputs a value, we have used this value to set a number of volume thresholds that will change the level of saturation of onscreen colours, from greyscale for no volume to technicolour with a lot of perceived noise.
Still to achieve is getting the Max Patch to increase the value of the height for buildings on each block when movement is perceived within the corresponding screen, then decrease again when no movement has occurred for a certain length of time. I also need to get Max to send the specified values to Unity via netsend and change the colour and scale of buildings.
The Beginnings of the Max Patch and the Modelling...
Tasks are to be divided as follows... Anneke is going to start work on our Max Patch and I'm going to try to master Unity 3D and model our city.
There is a bit of research to do with both but we have the first concept of what we want to create.
Max Patch
Our basic ideas of how the two might work is that we will use the jit.scissors object in Max to split the screen into a large number of smaller screens, from each of these we will take the main colour and send the RGB values from this and send them to Unity to colour a corresponding block of buildings. We don't want to be too linear with this so the buildings will be built upon a city map to give a random and realistic set up, when we colour the blocks they will not be left to right and top to bottom as with the screen but instead will be randomly distributed to encourage experimentation and a more abstract aesthetic.
There is a bit of research to do with both but we have the first concept of what we want to create.
Max Patch
- We want to register the amount and location of motion for one or more participants
- We want to register the colours worn by the participant and use the changing values in our visualisation
- We want to monitor the level of sound
Our basic ideas of how the two might work is that we will use the jit.scissors object in Max to split the screen into a large number of smaller screens, from each of these we will take the main colour and send the RGB values from this and send them to Unity to colour a corresponding block of buildings. We don't want to be too linear with this so the buildings will be built upon a city map to give a random and realistic set up, when we colour the blocks they will not be left to right and top to bottom as with the screen but instead will be randomly distributed to encourage experimentation and a more abstract aesthetic.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Theme, Character and Interactive Art
We had a bunch of things we that we wanted to start with; a discussion on what we were going to use as our character, research on existing interactive art and a discussion on which theme we could tackle with this assignment.
Right from the beginning we decided our existing characters were quite limiting considering the potential scope of this assignment. We were also quite reluctant to use a traditional character as the interaction would be quite predictable and likely complicated to both 3d model and to program.
I found two installations online that involved traditional style characters, these were Pussy Weevil and Interacting with Virtual Characters, they were both quite effective in their own way but they were limited because all the interactions had to be pre-programmed and the characters all have a certain repertoire that they work their way through and is then repeated exactly the same no matter who the participant is, I don't like this as I don't think it encourages experimentation or a particularly playful interaction. Swamped came much closer to an interesting and meaningful interaction, I liked the fact that they used a soft toy puppet as a prop to engage with the environment, I think this gave it a unique and fun twist and really encouraged the participant to experiment and find what was possible within the installation.
Anneke and I found that we much preferred the simplicity of installations such as Text Rain and Dance Floor Moves. The videos of these were delightful to watch because the concepts were so simple but the participants were really experimental and were genuinely enjoying the interaction. I liked that they were trying things out to see what reaction was produced and every person's experience was unique, and not pre-determined by a set of programmed behaviors.
We want to create a project that is nice and simple and encourages experimentation and learning on the part of the participant; I also want something that is unique to everyone who uses it, a fully adaptable work that takes a lot of information from the user and adapts and presents it back to them.
Right from the beginning we decided our existing characters were quite limiting considering the potential scope of this assignment. We were also quite reluctant to use a traditional character as the interaction would be quite predictable and likely complicated to both 3d model and to program.
I found two installations online that involved traditional style characters, these were Pussy Weevil and Interacting with Virtual Characters, they were both quite effective in their own way but they were limited because all the interactions had to be pre-programmed and the characters all have a certain repertoire that they work their way through and is then repeated exactly the same no matter who the participant is, I don't like this as I don't think it encourages experimentation or a particularly playful interaction. Swamped came much closer to an interesting and meaningful interaction, I liked the fact that they used a soft toy puppet as a prop to engage with the environment, I think this gave it a unique and fun twist and really encouraged the participant to experiment and find what was possible within the installation.
Anneke and I found that we much preferred the simplicity of installations such as Text Rain and Dance Floor Moves. The videos of these were delightful to watch because the concepts were so simple but the participants were really experimental and were genuinely enjoying the interaction. I liked that they were trying things out to see what reaction was produced and every person's experience was unique, and not pre-determined by a set of programmed behaviors.
We want to create a project that is nice and simple and encourages experimentation and learning on the part of the participant; I also want something that is unique to everyone who uses it, a fully adaptable work that takes a lot of information from the user and adapts and presents it back to them.
Friday, May 07, 2010
Serious Fun
Today we were given our brief for our next studio project. We are required to "make an artwork in which the audience playfully interacts with the content to reveal meaning." I will be working with Anneke http://annekeinstudio.tumblr.com/ for the remainder of this brief and we will be developing our character further to contribute to this interaction.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Stop Motion Clay Animation
Today we rediscovered our youth as we modeled our chosen character out of coloured plasticine. However the joys of which were soon forgotten when we had to animate them through stop motion, which I have discovered is the bane of my life, a minimum of 12 frames per second means a lot of manipulation of the model and very steady cameraing to create the appearance of a movie.
See below porcupine and his banana.
In the afternoon I joined with Anneke and Dylan to do a 10 second group film
See below porcupine and his banana.
In the afternoon I joined with Anneke and Dylan to do a 10 second group film
Illustration
Day one of our third studio project we had Beck introducing us to illustration and the ideas of what makes a character. We saw work produced by her and other illustrators and developed some characters of our own. We finished the day by producing a flip-o-rama, very reminiscent of our youth. I'm quite curious to see where we're going with this studio assignment and look forward to the next few weeks although hope there's more thinking than labour as drawing at least 12 images per second is hugely labour intensive.
Friday, April 30, 2010
The Final Max Patch
My Final Max Patch had a total of 5 videos and a grab component working through the web cam; I had a video for each of Love, Joy, Sadness, Fear and Anger leaving only Surprise.
For each of the movies I used Max MSP to start the appropriate movie and generate effects suitable for the emotion. I used the cross-fade function in most instances to show the to and fro effect emotions have on us, the cross-fade between the real video or the 'reality' and the applied effect symbolises the way we get caught up in emotions and lose sight of what the reality is.
The one emotion that I did a bit differently was Surprise, I saw surprise less as an emotion of its own than a flicker between emotions before settling on one. For this reason I didn't give it a video of it's own but instead cross-faded each emotion and combined this with feed from a live web cam so that the wearers face would be shown along with constant flash of emotions.
I like my finished product I think it symbolises each of the emotions well and makes use of a number of effects to good use. However I feel that there might have been some better techniques I could have used to tidy up my patch, when handling so many movies the patch got very large with many overlapping patch cords making it hard to visually see what has been connected to what, this could potentially cause some issues if something is not working as you think it should it would be hard to find where it went wrong.
For each of the movies I used Max MSP to start the appropriate movie and generate effects suitable for the emotion. I used the cross-fade function in most instances to show the to and fro effect emotions have on us, the cross-fade between the real video or the 'reality' and the applied effect symbolises the way we get caught up in emotions and lose sight of what the reality is.
The one emotion that I did a bit differently was Surprise, I saw surprise less as an emotion of its own than a flicker between emotions before settling on one. For this reason I didn't give it a video of it's own but instead cross-faded each emotion and combined this with feed from a live web cam so that the wearers face would be shown along with constant flash of emotions.
I like my finished product I think it symbolises each of the emotions well and makes use of a number of effects to good use. However I feel that there might have been some better techniques I could have used to tidy up my patch, when handling so many movies the patch got very large with many overlapping patch cords making it hard to visually see what has been connected to what, this could potentially cause some issues if something is not working as you think it should it would be hard to find where it went wrong.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
The Demonstration
Just about the cheesiest video EVER! However I do think that this video gets the functionality of my garment across better than still images.
A Finished Garment
This shows the belt and the track being worn.
This is my finished design, the skirt is worn over a slip or another garment; instead of forming a full outfit it works as an accessory or embellishment to allow the wearable continued adaptability throughout the day letting them reveal or hide their feelings.
This is my finished design, the skirt is worn over a slip or another garment; instead of forming a full outfit it works as an accessory or embellishment to allow the wearable continued adaptability throughout the day letting them reveal or hide their feelings.
Coming Together
Below this is the belt I have fashioned so that the rail can be worn by the user while still allowing the panels to spin freely. I have made it in a corset style with lacing down both sides so it can be adapted to fit a multitude of people, it has 2 mounts on both front and back so that the rail can attach securely and sit around the wearers waist. The pocket on the inside houses the keyboard hack close to the body so it doesn't get damaged, the USB cable comes from this point to plug in to a computer to play the accompanying video footage. Wires for the switches feed through the mounts and run around the inside of the rail.
The below photo shows the belt when fitted to the track, the runners on the outside of the track allow the panels to attach and rotate. I've fitted a series of reed switches around the track; reed switches are operated when a magnet is passed over them drawing two pieces of metal together and closing the circuit. I have drilled holes in 6 equally spaced places around the track, the reed switches sit on the inside of these, on the outside a ribbon holds the panels at equal spacing and also carries a magnet that when the skirt is spun activates the correct switch for whichever emotion is displayed at the front.
This below photo is a reed switch fitted on the inside ridge of the track, before the drilling of the holes.
The below photo shows the belt when fitted to the track, the runners on the outside of the track allow the panels to attach and rotate. I've fitted a series of reed switches around the track; reed switches are operated when a magnet is passed over them drawing two pieces of metal together and closing the circuit. I have drilled holes in 6 equally spaced places around the track, the reed switches sit on the inside of these, on the outside a ribbon holds the panels at equal spacing and also carries a magnet that when the skirt is spun activates the correct switch for whichever emotion is displayed at the front.
This below photo is a reed switch fitted on the inside ridge of the track, before the drilling of the holes.
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