Digital Penetration

RATIONALE / CONCEPT - DIGITAL MONSTER?

2008-05-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

Just because something is powerful, should it be feared and considered evil? I believe it’s how we as humans use and manipulate it that matters...
The subject of power that I’m looking at is to do with the Internet. The Internet offers endless amounts of possibilities, as nowadays technology is accelerating and growing at a high rate, which is making anything seem possible. This can excite both euphoria and fear.

I’ve decided to make a sound piece to portray the internet as something powerful, capable of mass destruction that has been dormant but is awakening. As what the internet offers, is an amalgamation of ideas and machines from past centuries. Now our technology is able to conceive such ideas, as previous technologies weren’t advanced enough. The piece shows this internet beast creating fear and terrorising civilization.

I’m almost creating an auditory movie, in terms of story and it sounding like a film soundtrack. I Hope that the sound is enough to tell the story, rather than using moving image. Using just sound, and doing it well, will enable the audience to imagine it themselves and allows the mind to be creative. Just as Cloverfield included no background story in the film, but through random websites, cryptic clues and possibilities of the story are there to be explored, enabling viewers to come up with our own theories and ideas.

My piece is mimicking and amalgamating the stories of H.P Lovecraft’s novel ‘The Call of Cthulhu,’ Godzilla, and the Cloverfield monster. The internet is being portrayed as this monstrous digital creature, awakening at the depths of the earth to unleash itself on the world. All these creatures from films such as Godzilla and Frankenstein, are all metaphorically and realistically representing our cultures anxiety’s and fears form certain periods of time. Examples include, Clovefield- messing with nature or disrupting our planet, Godzilla- the greed of people and the threat of the A-Bomb, Frankenstein- Tampering with life. They all follow this idea of mans creation becoming more powerful than us, and wiping us out.

My monster will be representing our modern day fear and paranoia of the Internet. As without knowing it we are open to identity fraud with all our bank details, and your boss sacking you for seeing inappropriate pictures of you on Facebook ect. Events such as these can often destroy someone’s life. So that is why my digital beast is represented as destructive.

However, I believe a lot of this online paranoia is stuff we should be aware of, but not let it get in the way of using it for good things. The piece comes across as this is something to be feared of. But infact, if it wasn’t for the internet I wouldn’t have been able to create this track, as a lot of sounds used where recorded or downloaded off the net. I then used music programmes (which I had downloaded, rather than pay £700 or so) to sequence and manipulate them.

To conclude, it’s a double edged sword when defining if the internet is something to be feared of. As it offers amazing possibilities, but due to this it also creates fear of the unknown or unthinkable, like the depths of the ocean. Like I said earlier, this can excite both euphoria and fear. What if this power is the wrong hands? What if we misunderstand such powers in the world? What could happen? But in my case, I just used the internet’s power to aid me in being creative and make a piece of music to demonstrate our cultures latest anxiety and paranoia.

kristos animal nets

2008-05-29T08:12:00.002-07:00

2008-05-29T08:12:00.001-07:00

2008-05-29T08:11:00.001-07:00

EXAM PROJECT - So Far.......

2008-05-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

For my end of year project, i have decided to make a sound piece.

The piece will be more ambient and sensual, rather than melodic tunes and tight rhythms.

The track will be representing technology of the internet as a huge kind of monster/creature/beast. The piece will show the progression of this beast being dormant(sleeping), but then arising and unleashing itself on the world. It will be kind of mimicking the story of Godzilla or Cthuhlu, arising and attacking the world.

I intend to use sounds found by myself on the internet, as well as from old horror movies such as Frankenstein and Godzilla. I'm also creating sounds using live instruments, as well as using Midi. I will use several music programs to create it. The main one being 'REASON'.

I did think of using visuals, but after thinking it over and discussing it with my tutor, i thought best to focus on just the sound, and make it really strong.

Dissertation - Summary - THE WORK OF AURA IN THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION

2008-05-12T03:19:00.000-07:00

To begin to summarise, I believe that the rise of mechanical reproduction, has radically affected how art, film and music is created and distributed as well as making us question how we create and classify art. Due to the breakdown of traditional methods, classifying art can come in limitless forms. It could be argued that within the wider context, an entirely new art form has been created which affects all these different media that encompasses both its creation and distribution as fairly equal aspects. However it could be said that the digital era is leading to the extinction of physical formats. This is inextricably linked to the demand of our current culture for instant accessibility to multimedia. Our current society is highly immersed in technology which has become a commodity of everyday life. Through a large and complex system of information and communication, multi- media are made accessible on many formats which are also open to manipulation.

The machinery and technology that is argued to dictate our digital culture cannot be represented in physical terms no more. Computer technology is making information almost disappear and become invisible. But it is almost becoming natural to us to conceive work as data rather than something tangible. The same can be said of how multi- media is increasingly being created and represented. Through the rise of capitalism and it’s compulsive drive towards abstraction, it has broadly shaped our Digital landscape. Which could say that aura in physicality is becoming of less importance or relevance as our culture demands instant access to the broad spectrum of media, and capitalism is there to provide at any expense or consequences. Just as in the film Blade Runner, the world is run by capitalist companies, such as Tyrell, that has made advancements in the means of technology and are able to clone humans. But this seems to of come at some consequence of the planet, as it’s always dark and raining.

The distinction of aura is constantly being blurred as it seems to be very relevant to the past that tie in with nostalgic elements. Time and development of technology is continuously liquidating aura and nostalgia. It is forever changing as everything is relative to what came before and after. But the ever increasing rate at which it is now morphing and becoming ever abstract, is constantly multiplying in pace due to technologies capabilities nowadays. It’s almost like a fast-forward effect that makes development happen at a dramatic rate in a short amount of time. A speeding up of the process, which can excite both terror and euphoria.

Walter Benjamin argued that aura is lost when an original piece of art is reproduced. However that is not the case in digital culture, as different mediums are a created in digital formats, so an original was never there. So how will aura be defined in digital work? I feel that nostalgia will be forever present in defining aura in the same way that certain smells and sounds can evoke specific and vivid memories of childhood and is essentially informed by the perceptions and experiences of the viewer relating to the work. Different artifacts of work are now accessible on many different formats, but more and more it only exists as information located in a broad digital media scope, such as the internet or our personal mp3 players and computers. No longer will something such as a CD have its own individual aura of physicality. The content itself can trigger nostalgia, but I certainly believe that it loses a considerable amount of its experience, due to it how it’s viewed, or listened to in a digital format.

There might come a time when we will no longer be able to revisit old artifacts such as a vinyl, and be listened on a record player. Not only would this trigger nostalgic aura in terms of the music itself, but interacting with this artifact of the past gives it something unique due to its interaction and physical experience. Whereas viewing films, or listening to music on your computer as just digital data, it has a more generic experience. A simple few clicks and you’re viewing a feature length film. This definitely does not ruin your viewing, if anything its better thanks to the digitizing of media. It allows greater variation of interacting and viewing it, but only as digital information. But I believe this is at the expense of physical formats and machines that can also be integral to a certain piece of art or media.
Through the huge blanket of communication created by our digital culture, people are beginning literally to take matters into their own hands, and manipulate and evolve our culture through the means of technology, at a rate never previously achieved.

Exam Project Intention - Evil: Myth & Reality

2008-04-28T02:47:00.000-07:00

It can be said that we live in a society that is very susceptible to fear and paranoia. Creating fear always been a tactic used for centuries to keep control over people, but in the past century it’s become easier to do so world wide, and on a mass scale due to communication technologies available to us. It’s embedded and broadcasted into advertising through T.V, radio, larger than life billboards, and the internet. We are constantly warned of terrorism, rapists, pedophiles, safety of our children, ect. We are told of procedures to follow, to avoid such happenings, such as alerting someone if you suspect them to be a terrorist at an airport. Rather obvious things, but its creating a shared mind set of fear amongst people. But also the means of technology are creating fear of surveillance.

An article in the Guardian last week showed an increase of television viewing surrounding terrorism, and street crime. Viewing figures from between the time 9 until 10 showed that shows such as ‘The age of terror(1.1 million viewers), Waking the dead(revolving around a European terrorist cell. 6.8 million), Cops with cameras (3.5 million)and CSI: Crime scene investigation (2.8 million)took up 60% of audience share. It just shows how nowadays we are aware of these threats but T.V stations choose to use them as entertainment or insight.

Nowadays it is argued that there is an endless and ever growing list of things to fear or to be aware that COULD HAPPEN!! But what should we be actually afraid of, or not be a tall? The word ‘evil’ is commonly used to describe something to be feared of. For example Bush describes terrorists as evil. Evil is a broad term used to indicate a negative moral or ethical judgment, often used to describe intentional acts that are cruel, unjust, or selfish. But what is actually evil, and what is the evilness in our world? Is it what we humans have created ourselves, for instance the ‘Internet’, or in a fiction sense, ‘Frankenstein’?

I recently discovered H.P Lovecraft’s tale ‘The Call of Cthulhu.’ It’s about a creature that is a huge, octopoid sea monster, sleeping for centuries at the bottom of the ocean (either "dreaming" or "dreamless"), and destined to emerge from his slumber in an apocalyptic age. So this creature is seen as evil, as it intends to destroy humanity and end the world. This is obviously a mythical and science fiction sense of evil, but it got me thinking about it parallels in the real world. What in reality shares Cthulhu’s story?

I watched the documentary film ‘The Corporation.’ The film examines and critiques corporate practices, and draws parallels between examples of corporate malfeasance and the DSM-IV's symptoms of psychopathy. Unconcern for the feelings of others, incapacity to maintain enduring relationships, reckless disregard for the safety of others, deceitfulness (repeated lying to and deceiving of others for profit), incapacity to experience guilt and failure to conform to the social norms with respect to lawful behaviors. I found the comparison between a corporation and a psychopath really interesting yet awfully true. A pyscopath would be considered evil surely? The documentary shows how capitalists greed and disregard to humans and nature is destroying the world as well as the people. Theres not much difference to Cthulhu’s rampage of the earth, and that of which capitalism is doing to the world. The only one being that Cthulhu’s way is a lot quicker, visible and one clear direction to point our hate at.
If you asked people what are they more scared of out of; an attack on the world from a Godzilla type creature, capitalism, or the Internet? Most people would say Godzilla, but the fact is the damage from corporate businesses is a lot more real and is happening. Also the internet is a large and unknown entity, like the sea, which often creates fear or distrust.
In this project I want to explore what evil is and draw comparisons and parallels in a mythical sense, and in reality. What should would we be afraid of , or of anything at all? Is the internet a reference to Cthulhu? The internet could be seen as a large monster. Hungry and greedy for information and power. Some People have pessimistic views of the net, some don't. It offers communication and access to information in the safety and comfort of your own home. But at the same time your not sure who your actually talking to and how truthful this information is, or who’s listening in. It’s a doubled edged sword. Although it offers these great services, it can create paranoia of surveillance. Just because something is considered a monster (e.g.Frankenstein), is it actually harmful, or is it to do with how we use and provoke it. The same could be said about the internet. This is my main aim to demonstrate.
I am undecided what it is I’ll actually create, but it will be working around animation and video. Maybe some kind of interactive piece.

The Myth of 'Cthulhu.' H.P Lovecraft

2008-04-07T06:38:00.000-07:00

Over Easter I was having a chat with my brother about films, conspiracies and many other randomness. We were talking about the recent film ‘Cloverfield,’ and he informed he of how it’s based on a novel "The Call of Cthulhu", written by H.P Lovecraft. Cthulhu is a creature that has been reinvented many times over. Lovecraft's creature is a huge, octopoid sea monster, sleeping for centuries at the bottom of the ocean (either "dreaming" or "dreamless"), and destined to emerge from his slumber in an apocalyptic age.

Our conversation then took a different turn around the idea of conspiracies. He showed me a page on wikipedia called Bloop, that tied in with the myth of Cthulhu. The Bloop is the name given to an ultra-low frequency underwater sound detected by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration several times during the summer of 1997. The source of the sound remains unknown. You can listen to it by clicking the bloop link.

Apparently with the aid of scientific technology, these recordings suggests it was from a mammal, but it had to be MUCH MUCH larger than a blue whale. What made this even more interesting (coincidence or not) was that the Bloop noise originated near the location of the fictional sunken city of R'lyeh from H.P. Lovecraft's story "The Call of Cthulhu", the Bloop has been linked to Cthulhu by Lovecraft fans. Apparently the film Cloverfield used the ‘bloop’ as some kind of media advertising to stir up a debate of myth versus reality, whilst promoting their film.

It made me think about how little we know about the sea, and whats actually down there. The word is 2/3 waters, so that’s a significant amount of space that is mostly unexplorable or unexplored. It’s the closest thing to experiencing outer space. Its similar in the fact that gravity has less relevance and we just don’t now whats there, as well as a feeling of isolation and vulnerability.

Is there something down there in the depths of the oceans that man has not discovered. A creature that could possible be the largest thing on the planet, but has never been sited. This excites me a lot, but cant help but feel a slight cause for concern if Cthulhu was to rise from his sleep and cause apocalypse to the world. ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR NO NOT ME CTHULHU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meshes of the Afternoon - Maya Deren

2008-03-31T02:53:00.000-07:00

Over the easter holidays I stumbled across a short film at the Tate Modern. I found this inspiring as it had major influences on the work of David Lynch's films.

Meshes of the Afternoon (1943) is a short experimental film directed by wife and husband team, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. The film's narrative is circular, and repeats a number of psychologically symbolic images, including a flower on a long driveway, a key falling, a door unlocked, a knife in a loaf of bread, a mysterious Grim Reaper-like cloaked figure with a mirror for a face, a phone off the hook and an ocean.

In 1990, Meshes of the Afternoon was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant", going into the registry in the second year of voting.

The film was the product of Deren's and Hammid's desire to create an avant garde personal film that dealt with devastating psychological problems, like the French avant-garde films of the 1920s such as Salvador Dalí and Luis Buñuel's Un Chien Andalou.[citation needed] Deren's use of symbolism in her films relates to her father's preoccupation with psychology and her desire to appeal to her father's interests.[citation needed]

Deren and Hammid wrote, directed and performed in the film. Although Deren is usually credited as its principal artistic creator, filmmaker Stan Brakhage, who knew the couple, has claimed in his book Film at Wit's End that Meshes was in fact largely Hammid's creation, and that their marriage began to suffer when Deren received more credit.

The original print had no score. However, a musical score influenced by classical Japanese music was added by Deren's third husband, Teiji Ito, in 1959.

The dreamlike (or nightmarish) atmosphere of Meshes has influenced many subsequent films, notably David Lynch's Lost Highway (1997); Wendy Haslem of the University of Melbourne's Cinema Studies department wrote about the parallels:

Maya Deren was a key figure in the development of the New American Cinema. Her influence extends to contemporary filmmakers like David Lynch, whose film Lost Highway (1997) pays homage to Meshes of the Afternoon in his experimentation with narration. Lynch adopts a similar spiraling narrative pattern, sets his film within an analogous location and establishes a mood of dread and paranoia, the result of constant surveillance. Both films focus on the nightmare as it is expressed in the elusive doubling of characters and in the incorporation of the “psychogenic fugue,” the evacuation and replacement of identities, something that was also central to the voodoo ritual.

Roger Ebert has also noted the influence of Meshes within David Lynch's new feature-film release, INLAND EMPIRE.

In 1993, two different videos were made for Milla Jovovich's song "Gentleman Who Fell." The second, filmed in black-and-white, is an obvious pastiche of Meshes of the Afternoon.

The music video Your Ghost by Kristin Hersh contains several details from this video short, including the key in the mouth, the winding staircase and the phone off the hook.

Freedom of speech

2008-03-08T08:44:00.000-08:00

A highly interesting situation has occurred recently. we had a guest speaker in uni (Seraphina Samet, a digital artist) who wanted to come in of her on request. i wont talk about her work as that is not of importance of what im concerned about, but i will say that most peoples opinions of her work seemed to be hitting consistent notes.
self indulgent, disengaging to the viewer, cliched techniques, and rather boring unless you personally know her as she was rather reluctant to talk about why she was stuck in this narrow alley of her own mentallity. these were the occurring themes amongst peoples blogs. ooops, did i just say those things? are the thought police coming for me?

i myslef did not actually update my blog about her, but since this reaction to others i feel inclined to. me and my course peers were not intentionally trying to demean her, but our course encourages us to write about guest speakers and anything of interest, and try to be critical as well as just talking about all the things we find interesting. as in this case, being critical can also be areas of interest. should we have just not bothered to write anything, or instead lie to ourself and say we thought she was great? are we not entitled to express our views?

so, the controversy that has occured is Seraphina's friends have read these posts and have left comments, or rather "qoutes", from really really clever people. you cant argue with quotes. she has also contacted our tutor and expressed her distress at these posts, and asked for them to be removed and have formal apologies from a selected few. i can totally understand that it must have been painful for her to read these views about her work, but wanting to take legal action against two students is a complete joke, if not verging on total stupidity. ok, let me get this straight, she is going to sue a few students for expressing their opinions on her work , but she gave us that right when she contacted our course to come and show us her work. i could be wrong, but what difference is there to a review from art critics and magazines ect.

ok, we are not accomplished employed critics but she gave us the opportunity to make our minds up about her the day she agreed to come in. also, if we are not employed accomplished critics, are our views less important and insignificant. and if they are, why make a deal about it? would this whole legal spiel have arisen if these views was written by a professional? i think not.. you would have to take it on the chin, try to take the criticism on board and move on! or just ignore them! the same should apply to our comments.

if she's this sensitive about her work , a suggestion to her is to maybe to not make her work so personal, maybe about something outside her own four walls. being an artist you work is always going to be criticized, and is something you should use to your advantage to gain views. i think Seraphina took this all very personally as her work is personal, due to it all being about her. in contrast, i went to see my tutors exhibition the other night (Micheal O'Conner). he was exploring an issue with his work that i believe he wanted to be open to criticism. it was a subject that people could relate to and peoples views would be of a huge range, but thats what made it interesting to observe.

if she wants to continue what she's doing, and take this incident to make her stronger, fair play to her. i really do wish her the best, and hope she can take some positives out of this incident and better her work. i truly hope this does not make her bitter. we did not mean any harm, but felt no wrong in expressing what we thought. or am i wrong in thinking that????

Developing my character

2008-02-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

A man that used to work in marketing and data mining until he saw too far into the web of surveillance and information it scared him rotten. He becomes a recluse and cuts himself off from society. He becomes self sufficient, grows his own vegetables, keeps his own chickens. He recluses further into his own narrow alley of madness and neglects his his vegetable patch. He no longer cleans or feed his chickens to the state of rotting to death in their own faeces. He is a voyeur of technology, as he no longer interacts with it but observes how the outer world is trying to communicate to him.

After bouncing these ideas around with Zac, he wrote up a few passages to this story.

The data collector
Previously a man of marketing, he used to sell lies for a living, until he realised his life was merely exiting, he reclused away from an exaggerated reality and got lost in the narrow alley of his own mentality.
His vegetable patch hasn’t been tended to for weeks. The chickens will soon stop their clucking. Do you like the smell of rotten eggs when you sleep? Do you sleep?

The merchant of fear
For a long time he gathered a lot of information, but hard-drives of secrets aren’t easy to keep. The sins of the world seered deep into his conscious. A scared data skeleton remains.

Narrative

2008-02-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

My animation will come into a story, where something big has happened. Something has made him become a recluse and paranoid.
The animation is set in my characters house, where he has locked himself away from society.
Conceptions and incidents of this character are told through other peoples view. My method to do this, is people will leave phone messages that start to piece together his story. Eg. “no ones seen you at work for weeks now, and people are becoming very worried.” People giving accounts of him.
I also intend to use radio broadcasts that talk about either his story or subjects that relate to him.
Images will show objects and memorabilia that reveal clues to this characters identity and past.

Ideas - Look + Feel

2008-02-28T07:36:00.000-08:00

- obscure looking – but just enough to tell what objects are.
- I want the visuals to potray my characters state of mind. The use of colours, speed of editing.
- A lot of darkness and shadows – blurry and jerky outlines.
- Don’t want to show my character clearly as I feel the images will provoke imagination for the viewer to envisage him. Plus, I feel his lack of appearance is more fitting for the character im building.
- Currently considering creating visuals to work with by either
: taking photos and editing in photoshop = still frame.
: hand drawings scanned and edited in photoshop.
: using models like the Quay brothers.

Tom waites - Whats he building in there?

2008-02-28T04:39:00.000-08:00

This music video by Tom Waites is a massive inspiration to the direction I want to take my project. Recommended by Collin, thank you Collin!
Everything is spooky and haunting, the music , visuals, his voice.
The piece is about a man , and someone is giving an account of him. These fatcs come through peoples own takes and of apprentaly what they’ve seen or heard about him. I love the idea of people conspiring behind this persons back. Chinese whispers, rumours, misconceptions.
They state they deserve to know what he’s doing. I really like the use of visuals. Almost looks like still photographs, but is infact video. Considering using still photographs in my animation.
- A character portrayal through other peoples views and experiences. Could be fabricated lies or the truth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMqxNPsfN50

Characters

2008-02-28T04:09:00.000-08:00

Batman
When thinking of messed up characters, I thought of batman. I love the idea of his split personality. People argue he’s actually depicted as schizophrenic, which I fully agree with. His alter ego is meant to be Batman, however this eats him up and he is actually Batman, and Bruce Wayne is just a person he feels fit to be judged by the public eye. His messes up past of his parents being murdered sets the foundations of him becoming batman. He made a promise to them, that he feels always in debt of.

Rorschach
He’s actually one of my favourite characters from graphic novels.
He stinks. A calculated killer yet spontaneous. Driven character – hard as nails at 5’6.
No care for appearance. Bullied as a child. His mother was a prostitute.

Patrick bateman
A repressed wall street businessman.
He unleashes primal urges on unsuspecting victims as a reliefe of his frustration at his contempary lifestyle and the trap of the American yuppy dream.

Frank from ‘the wasp factory.’
Has odd religious rituals of his own inventions.
Uses sacrifice poles, ehich hang bodies heads of killed animals like rats. They define and protect the boarders of his territory according to him.
He’s cut off from society.
Very sexist views towards women.
Kills 3 children from his family as a child himself but see’s them as a matter of fact.

Fear and Loathing

2008-02-28T02:36:00.000-08:00

I want to make this animation a little bit different from the obvious way to react to the brief. Eg. Not a man walking around – zooms into his brain that show his fears and aspirations ect....
I want my character to be someone that is abit dark and messed up. Someone like Rorschach from the Watchmen or Patrick Bateman from American Psyco. I would like to incorporate the idea of conspiracy and paranoia.

Paranoia
- anxiety - irrationality
- delusion - a threat

Greek original translation
= simply means madness. (para=outside: nous = mind)

After speaking with Dan about my direction he told me look at the following.
- Rear window ; Hitchock.
- Stressed Eric.
- Memento.
- German Expressionism.
- Noh theatre
- Jan Svankmeijer.
- Chris Morris, ‘My wrongs

D&AD Awards - sorry this is being posted very late

2008-02-28T02:34:00.000-08:00

Ive decided to do the character portrayal brief from the D&AD, as I felt it was the one with most creative freedom. The other briefs seemed rather boring apart from the MTV one. I really didn’t like the thought of hundreds of people sending advert ideas to co-operative companies that they will probably just steal. At least this brief is from an animation company and not someone like bloody Powergen or British gas.

bERLIN - pART 1

2008-02-05T10:17:00.000-08:00

BERLIN
Wow, where do I start? When first touching down on German soil, we were greeted off the plane with a smell of fresh sewage. There was murmuring amongst us hoping that all of Berlin didn’t reflect this smell. But those thoughts were temporally lived due to our excitement of arriving. When walking through arrivals, me and Zac noticed a guy holding a sign saying ‘Red 7’. “Wow, we did a project for them,” we both commented. Totally missing the fact that that guy was for us! Duh!
Once arriving at the street of the hostel, we went through a rather bizarre experience of actually getting in it. We got buzzed through a door only for it to lead us straight back outside! So, we went through another door which led to a lift. “Hotel transit floor 4,” the sign read. As we ascended in the lift, a strong smell of cigarettes and laughter of girls became louder and poignant. The doors opened... Girls in pyjama are chasing each other, bar, booze, smoke. We had arrived!
The hostel was not bad at all, good social area and nice sized rooms. The main selling point for us English was probably the 24 hour bar. As it was late, we weren’t going anywhere just yet and joyfully gulped down our massive glasses of beer and filled our lungs with smoke. I’ve never felt soo manly carrying four of those beers over to the table. A novelty that would last only a day or so, but still..
We awoke for the agreed time to meet for breakfast, everyone looking a little worse for wear, including myself, still actually feeling very pissed. Breakfast bemused the majority of us,(except Kristos) consisting of make yourself sandwiches. I didn’t know what to make of it and struggled to make myself something I could agree on. I was already missing full English breakfasts.
We slowly made our way to the Transmediale festival to pick up our tickets. A few of us broke off from the group and went to explore and make the most of out of our travel cards. I instantly felt that the city was overly spacious, calm and rather stunning at times. The architecture and design has a very interesting yet minimal feel, consisting of strange and unusual angles and shapes. Even the clothe shops kept to this minimal feel. The colour to the city was very dull and grey, all the same very interesting though. A shoe shop we came across really caught my eye. Its decor was rather urban and decayed. Almost looking like the decor and building is incomplete. They opted to show just show 3 single shoes on a concrete slap on the floor. That was about it, but it made me want to go in, and I thought it was really cool. I believe I found it refreshing not to see corporative logo’s splashed everywhere. This minimal feel, was becoming a recurring theme that the Bauhaus gallery would explain later to me.
That day we randomly got off at train stations and explored the areas without using a guide which was refreshing as it allowed me to get my own feel to the city. Getting lost along the way was a highlight, and when we found our way back we were rather disappointed that we knew where we were.
Throughout the week the spaciousness of the city put me into a Zen-like frame of mind. I could stop in the middle of the street of town without people barging into me. Unlike London, the packed like sardines aspect that puts me off wanting to live there. A striking point of Berlin was also how under populated the city seemed. At times you would believe that it was a ghost town.
More to come
- Transmediale Festival
- The Bauhaus Museum
- Interesting experiences. Panorama Bar, The Reichstag, Squat Gallery.

DJ SCOTCH EGG

2008-01-24T08:22:00.000-08:00

It can be said that i found his music offensive to the ear at times. However, he entices his audiences with nostalgic gameboy theme tunes that spring in here and there!
He set his parameters to a limitation of using just gameboy games. This was an interesting aspect, as he stated it allowed more room for creativity.
His influences have progressed throught his albums. Avant-Garde Minimalist's such as Steve Reich and John Cage have inspired his work. The idea of silence being avery imporetant factor.
He also took inspiration from unpredictable narratives. An example could apply to the style of Tom and Jerry cartoons. Naked city is a free jazz band that he referenced.
His early influences go back to the classical Boroque composer Bach. He tended to use singular notes rather than chords. This tactic applys to gameBoy music as they run on a four track sound that can only output one note at a time.
Dub Step was an area he dived. Its attitude focuses on the bass and tends to be relatively slow. An example he showed was BlackBeard. This attitude also applys to Stoner Rock. Bands such as Sleep being an influence.
He looked in to film music, John Carpenter being a massive influence with such films as Clockwork Orange , Halloween, The Shining. 80's electronic (abit cheesy) but amazing music.

Evaluation

2008-01-18T07:10:00.001-08:00

Overall I’m very happy with this project. I feel like I found a really interesting theme around interactivity. I myself thoroughly enjoyed working on this subject. I collated good research around my chosen topic ‘Toilet Graffiti.’ Looking at the psychology behind it and also getting first hand research by taking photo’s around pub toilets. I also created a group on facebook to get my friends to send me photos too. This was great for building material to work with. Over time my research had broadened to areas such as identity, billboard advertisement and digital Media art piece’s concerning this topic.
I believe my concept of interactivity that I explored was a solid idea. Based around the themes of anonymous detached communication on human interactivity. My installation proposal accumulates my research and themes from throughout the project. I was also rather pleased with my interactive show reel made in Flash. I had had only a limited amount of time on computer software towards the end which made it hard, but it was accomplished and works fine.

If I had more time I would have liked to of been able to actually create my installation and see the outcomes, and hopefully take it further. I would also have liked to of made my interactive show reel allot more cleverly interactive. As I kept it rather simple due to time and technical capabilities. . I would then like at some later point put it on the internet and allow people to upload and view photos of it, collecting an archive of Latrinalia (the term given to toilet graffiti). I did try to start conversations in toilets for research but it was unsuccessful. So that would definitely something I would like to able to do properly and see where that could have taken me.

Interactivity - Rationale

2008-01-18T07:09:00.000-08:00

Interactivity - Rationale

My starting block was remembering Simon Morse and Soheila Sokhanavri’s work. Morse’s work had a running theme of human interactivity. The work itself wasn’t physically interactive as such, but its messages and meaning lay in the concept. Soheila’s work was around the idea of human conditioning, where she would set up installations and observe how the public interacted and reacted. She wasn’t trying to oppose her own message, but letting it take its own course and observe reactions. I really liked this concept and wanted to apply social experiments in my project. Human interaction between themselves is the area I intended to explore.

My base to the project was around the idea of the interaction in public toilets, toilet graffiti. The idea of messages and pictures being written on surfaces that are not in the intention of the architecture, and strangers reading it and not knowing who did it really struck me. Someone would start with a phrase or picture, and over time people would add, reinterpret, and evolve it something that could take up a wall. The stranger interaction is an idea I really liked. A kind of detached communication. People would express inner views in these situations, as there’s security of anonymity. Such conversations would not always happen in a face to face situation, especially with strangers. Toilet graffiti is not just about tagging your signature (territorial pissings). (Such text is not simply marking territory, but also reveals the strategies that two or more participants who lack co-presence use to communicate, as well as aspects of the social connections between them, and mutual perceptions of, individuals.)
To gain research and material, I went around and snapped photos in pub toilets. Looking for interesting messages and conversations to use as either work content or research. This proved to be successful. To gain even more photo’s I created a group on Facebook to get my friends to send me ones that they had found either by taking the photo, or finding ones on the net they found interesting.
To convey my ideas I came up with an instillation idea. First of all it consists of an interface that allows the user to a write a short message. You then receive an anonymous message from a previous user. You can then reply to this comment; however the owner will not receive it. The whole experience will be anonymous. To an extent it’s simulating the effect of toilet graffiti communication. The user gives something to receive something back. However the experience will be different due to the fact the user has to participate to receive anything rather than just being a voyeur. The more people use it the more it grows.
I decided that the interface should be placed where only one person at a time can see it, enabling privacy. I would create a fake toilet cubicle and the interface would go on the wall inside. It would replicate a real cubicle to try and get people into the mindset of the tone of writing in public toilets. It would be interesting to see if people left their names, a message like a post card. Or weather the majority will remain anonymous and write extremer thoughts. There's also the possibility of people changing their identity and pretend they’re something they’re not. E.g. Sex, race, age.
I created an interactive web-site like document using Flash software. It displays my images of research on toilet graffiti. It would consist of photos that I had taken myself and ones that I had obtained from friends using a group on Facebook. I would then like at some later point put it on the internet and allow people to upload and view photos of it, collecting an archive of Latrinalia (the term given to toilet graffiti).

Installation proposal

2008-01-18T07:07:00.000-08:00

To convey my ideas I came up with an instillation idea. First of all it consists of an interface that allows the user to a write a short message. You then receive an anonymous message from a previous user. You can then reply to this comment, however the owner will not receive it. The whole experience will be anonymous. To an extent it’s simulating the effect of toilet graffiti communication. The user gives something to receive something back. However the experience will be different due to the fact the user has to participate to receive anything rather than just being a voyeur. The more people use it the more it grows.I decided that the interface should be placed where only one person at a time can see it, enabling privacy. I would create a fake toilet cubicle and the interface would go on the wall inside. It would replicate a real cubicle to try and get people into the mindset of the tone of writing in public toilets. It would be interesting to see if people left their names, a message like a post card. Or weather the majority will remain anonymous and write extremer thoughts. There's also the possibility of people changing their identity and pretend they’re something they’re not. E.g. Sex, race, age.

Interactive showreel of research

2008-01-18T06:42:00.000-08:00

I created an interactive web-site like document using Flash software. It displays my images of research on toilet graffiti. It would consist of photos that I had taken myself and ones that I had obtained from friends using a group on Facebook. I would then like at some later point put it on the internet and allow people to upload and view photos of it, collecting an archive of Latrinalia (the term given to toilet graffiti).

Producing my idea

2008-01-18T06:33:00.000-08:00

an interface that allows you to write whatever you like. a message, a qoute ect.... once you write your message, you then recieve one fro, a previous person doing so. its place would be intended for an installtion, where it would grow the more people interact and contribute with it. the whole experience will be anonymous. the user gives something to recieve the same back.

it is vaguely following the interaction that happens in toilets. however this is a limited experience. you also have to participate to recieve anything, rather than just being a voyeur.

I decided that the interface should be placed where only one person at a time can see it, enabling privacy. I would create a fake toilet cubicle and the interface would go on the wall inside. It would replicate a real cubicle to try and get people into the mindset of the tone of writing in public toilets. It would be interesting to see if people left their names, a message like a post card. Or weather the majority will remain anonymous and write extremer thoughts. There's also the possibility of people changing their identity and pretend they’re something they’re not. E.g. Sex, race, age.

Situationists

2008-01-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

After speaking with Micheal, he told me to look at the situationists. The link being the idea of human interaction. The situationists are very similar to Marxism. They pay attention to the priority of real life, real life interactivity, which continually experiments and corrects itself instead of reiterating their beliefs. They often attempted to create ‘situations’ where humans would interact together as people. Not mediated by commodities.

Social Identity

2008-01-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

The new forms of social interaction it allows require us to reconsider the meanings of terms such as ‘community’ and ‘identity’. It allows communication between millions, who will generally have never net. The user can present themselves to many others with almost no restrictions, and via various media. Significantly the individual has much more control over the expression of their identity than face to face interaction. Users can impart anonymous, or create a new identity on the net. I also looked at internet dating sites that set up non traceable phone lines enabling non traceable calls.

Over the holidays....

2008-01-07T03:30:00.000-08:00

Right.... Its the first day back for the new year, and i realise I have not posted a blog for a while!
Over the holidays I just carried on researching, but have struggled to actually create anything, due to having no access to a computer..
I'm still yet to finalise an idea, and is something i must address relatively soon. My theme or concept is still around the idea of anonymous identity and interaction. I want to create some kind of experiment that uses this concept.. Im feeling I want it not be too software scripting based. i.e. An awsome flash document..
I'm going to post all my work from over the holidays, so they wont neccesarrily be my thought process that the date states..

IDEA... Toilet Graffiti

2007-12-13T07:34:00.000-08:00

I had recently purchased a copy of Banksy's 'Wall and Piece,' for £8 from Virgin!! BARGAIN!! This opened my eyes to other implications that street art can be a very powerful from of message. The idea of messages and pictures being put in places that is not the intention of the architecture, and strangers reading it, not knowing who did it really struck me. It reminded me of about a week ago whilst in a pub toilet, reading and admiring (or at least finding it amusing) toilet graffiti.

I loved how someone would start with a little phrase or picture, and how over time people would add, re-interpreted and evolve it into something that could cover a whole wall. As I said earlier, i like the stranger interaction element. people's comments can vary on a huge scale. Some say bold and profound statements ( or they like to think so) such as " trust no one except yourself." Then on a different level, someone may reply "but i trust your mum, as she gives head!!" You get it! This is a common occurrence of sexual, and mum joke themes. It can be argued that people express exactly what they want to say in these situations as their identity will be unknown.

Initial Ideas.........

2007-12-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

When first looking at the brief I instantly thought of Flash, websites and viral games, which was something I wanted to avoid!!!!

Once i got passed the intial and obvious thoughts, i went deeper into thought, which took me back to the guest speakers we have had in during the future design project.

SIMON MORSE and SOHEILA SOKHANVARI in particular..

Simon's work had a running theme of human interactivity. His work itself wasnt obviousely interactive, but its messages and meaning lay in human interactivity. More so in his earlier work. One peice was basic icons that represented an office and showed routes of each person. He also did similar stuff but on the theme of choice using a flow diagram.

I especially liked Soheila's style of work. Her themes where around human conditioning. She would set up installations and sometimes participate, and observe how the public interacted and reacted. She wasnt trying to put her own messages in her work, but more so let it take its own course and observe the results.

This is a concept I really like and want an aspect of my project to incluse social experiments.

Mike Blows Presentation

2007-12-13T06:33:00.000-08:00

I took a few pages of notes in detail that are in my sketchbook. In general, he explored the different forms of of interaction. Looking alot at the range of sensors available. I found this of benefit as it showed me to look at interactive eqiupment and what is availible. Ways for an audience to interact.(Being aware and non-aware of their action)

New Project! Initial Thoughts.....

2007-12-13T06:18:00.000-08:00

(These are thoughts form a few weeks ago)
The last project 'future design,' and in general the 3rd year so far has made me approach my work and briefs very differently. Before i would get burried down in technology and often neglect my creative ideas. This is due to the fact the briefs often required a finished product, made in a certain way! eg, animations in AE, a music vid in final cut that has to be 1minute long ect etc...I feel this year the the briefs have alot of room for movement and creativity.
Im not overally experienced in Flash, and havent used it for soo long, that ive probably forgot most of it! But thats obviousely something ive got to get back into.
Back to earlier, im not going to let this drown me in software. I want to keep the technology apect faily simple but have a really well thought out concept of interaction. HUMAN INTERACTION is an area I'd like to explore......

2007-12-10T04:38:00.000-08:00

I have not fully read this text by Niklas Luhmann, but in class we touched upon the key themes. Overall the text made itself sound overcomplicated by its use of language, but infact what he was saying was fairly straight forward and wasn’t that forward thinking considering it was wrote in 2005. Which is rather ironic, as he talks about systems that work on effective design.
(MORE TO FOLLOW- INCOMPLETE)

Idea-Generating Exercises

2007-11-29T06:12:00.000-08:00

Last week!!!

2007-11-14T08:37:00.000-08:00

The past week has been very productive. I decided to stay with my original idea and have finally nailed it on the head. When researching I came across a concept that was very similar to mine. This did momentarily dampen my mood, but however it helped me define my idea. It also backed that my idea could exist in the future.

Have been doing intense research on brain scanning to look at the current technology to see how far ahead mine is. Mine will be basically the same as current equipment, but alot smaller and portable. I read articles that they could only see this happening in the future and it was only a matter of time. If you look how most current technology is progressing, it seems to be making evrything smaller and portable. eg. phones, cameras, mp3 players, computers.

'Zoe Mode' (Games company) Talk

2007-11-08T06:26:00.000-08:00

Today we had guest speakers in from the computer games industry. They work for a company called 'Zoe mode', based in Brighton. The two guys had very different background experience to each other which was interesting as we often stereotype game makers to be people that have been making games since they were 16 and nothing else....

John Taylor started out doing an art degree and got into concept art and character design. He worked for several comapanys over the years such as 'Dreamweavers, Gremlin, Infogrammes.' Now his job 0ften varies, depending on the game that their working on. Sometimes he might be designing environments, and sometimes he may be making spread sheets!

Ste Curran on the other hand was an avid gamer from a young age. But did not get into games design until later in his life. He did a degree in maths, and went on to train as a teacher. On the side he developed his writing and started writing columns and reviewing games for edge. From there he got employed for his critical views and went on to be a producer and then a creative director.

They both crossed paths and now work for Zoe Mode where they made games that are considered to be outer edges of game design, in terms of what the market wants. Games such as Singstar, Music Go, Melody, Crush, Utopia, Dance Star.

When questioned on how ideas come about, it was pritty much the same answer you'd get from any artist of some form. "whilst down the pub," or "having a shit." They themselves combine ideas in a room they call the lab. It seemed like their ideas where put into a database which could then be devoloped, re-used or altered. So for instance they could re-use certain aspects of ideas that they've already had, but then change and add new ideas. Ste made a point that there are more possiblitys when making games that would appeal to non gamers. This is due to not having to stick with formulas that are popular and sell. Such as 1st person shooters, driving games, sport games ect ect... Whereas games like Singstar and even bizzare games such as 'Brap the rapper,' where in which your a rapping dog and must rap to get the girl, which is infact a flower??? uh?

Anyway i found the talk as a good but brief insight into the games design world and particually interesting as alot of the games they desinged were music games. However it is too late into the project to start thinking about more ideas of muscial games!

http://www.zoemode.com/

Change of 'Hands'!!!

2007-11-08T02:19:00.000-08:00

Okaaaaay....

Whilst doing more research ive come with a new idea and concept for my project, and im seriousely considering changing to it! my reasons are that im struggling to get my previouse idea down, and keep finding it hard to nail down.

After reading an article called 'Machines powered by heart muscles,' and 'Playing Piano with a robotic hand,' I came up with this concept.......

My idea is gloves that can control your hand movement and can trigger certain movements in the hand. The gloves will have updatable software and instructions for different uses .

An example could be you want to learn to play a certain peice of Mozart music for piano. You then download or purchase the information/instructions and apply it to your gloves software. From here you place your hands over the piano, and the gloves will then enable you to play that certain peice of music.

I then had to ask myself, why would i want an invention that enables you play any peice of music without ever hearing it? I myself heavily believe in learning the fundamentals in music, and am against things (to an extent) that enables you to make music without knowing much about music.. But i thought my gloves idea could enable people to learn instruments and peices of music in a different form of learning.

I myself when learning to play the cello, would find if i heard the peice of music played first and saw the certain fingering and bowing physically, i would benefit much more than spending an hour trying to read it straight from the music score. Once i knew how it should sound, i would use the music score as more of a guideline to trigger my memory responses. So thats where my gloves come in.....

With them they would enable people that have learning disabilitys or want a different way to learn music in a physical and visual form.

ok... its been a while!!

2007-11-05T02:34:00.000-08:00

During the past 2 weeks i had my ideas presentation to the class. i thought it went well, considering i hadn't really prepared for it and was the only the person not to use powerpoint. people seemed interested in my ideas and gave alot of great input and suggestions. it made me especially happy that not one person said "hasnt that already sort of been done?"

doing my presentation made me realise not to always think in a conventional way, such as using powerpoint and using slides! I literally jotted a few notes 10 mintues before i did it, and i think it went alot better than it would have if i'd heavily prepared for it! think outside the box man!!!radical, boxfresh, daniel on ice, natasha on gravel, me on you?

That day we had a guest speaker in , lets just call her (Miss X) for the moment! she was a interactive conseptual digital artist. her ideas where around the idea of human conditioning, and how mankind wants to destroy! she talked to us about some of her installations and i found her work and ideas very inspiring and interesting. she said that she wasnt trying to impose her ideas on people, but just see how people react to certain situations. a silent/invisible observer.

she really liked my ideas and had lots of feedback on areas for me to further my research.
- John Cage
- Earl Brown
- Christopher Wolf
- Black Mountain School
- Modern jazz
- Experimental

Interactive Musical Devices

2007-10-25T02:25:00.000-07:00

This week i have been looking at new and old interactive musical devices! one being the 'Personal Orchestra'. it enables the user to simulate conducting an orchestra with real video footage in front of you and audio being played back in real time. the user can change the speed of the piece, the dynamics, basically all the things you can do as a conductor in real life. this is done so by actually using real conducting gestures and movement which is monitored by sensors. the amazing thing about this is how the video footage corresponds with slowing down the music. it apparently works very smoothly.

check out http://www.garritan.com/GPO.html

A more recent project existing is the 'Toy Symphony Maestro.'

The Music Toys developed by Tod Machover and his team at the MIT Media Lab for Toy Symphony are very sophisticated instruments designed simply to be played by any person with the desire to make music, with the specific needs and capabilities of young people in mind. There is no skill prerequisite-only the willingness to participate. There are three principal instruments used in the work for general audiences, and a fourth instrument for a more sophisticated musician. Through the use of Music Toys, children and adults alike can shape and modify musical lines with expressive gesture and delicate touch (Beatbugs, Shapers); use special software to draw lines that turn into musical compositions (Hyperscore); and also learn about the Hyperviolin, the latest in a series of enhanced expert performance instruments devised by the team. Each toy has a very specific musical and pedagogical function.

http://www.media.mit.edu/hyperins/ToySymphony/press.html

Gibson's self tuning guitar

2007-10-18T02:20:00.000-07:00

gibson in the near future will have self tuning guitars in the shops. it allows you to have customised tuning presets aswell as standard tuning. its essential purpose is for live performances, enabling the guitarist to not have to keep changing guitars for differently tuned songs.
this is a small step in the possibilities of advancing anolog instruments. this however caused a stir amongst musicians claiming that you should be good enough to tune it yourself.
it is stepping in the direction of making it easy for people to play instruments.

The Tenori-on

2007-10-15T08:15:00.000-07:00

researched the 'tenori- on'.. a futuristic music making device covered in a grid of interactive lit buttons. 16x16 grid of buttons, midi out, sequencing, built-in sampling and motif sound capabilities with internal speakers.

did not like it! its not visually obvious to use, and looks too plastic like! its sequencr capabilities are also rather limited. i can picture its future as a hand held sequencer (gameboy like) being used by japenese kids on the bus to school. no more than a funky sound toy. available to you for a whooping £500.... i say go buy yourself a nice gibson guitar instead!

2007-10-15T02:43:00.000-07:00

15/10/07 Over the past week!!

2007-10-15T02:23:00.000-07:00

have been researching a broad range of everyday technologies to experimental new ideas. after going to the natural history musuem last weekend and looking at dinosaur bones got me thinking about bone mutation and the possibilities in the future..

have narrowed my research to the area of music, and instruments. what will they be like in a decades time. will analogue instruments such as violins, guitars still be around? computers are already becoming increasingly popular but will it just be computers generating musical sounds? will the use of analogue instruments become an underground movement and can only be played by a limited amount of people! an elitest underground movement!

must get my idea nailed in the next day or so and really crack on..
research musical software - teneri yamaha
- menome

2007-10-01T06:32:00.000-07:00