rough ideas for dissertation.
I was going to write my dissertation by further exploring ideas discussed in my essay last year, which dealt with immersivity in virtual environments. Have decided to go with a different topic, more in line with current interests and future study/career paths. Reading various theorists take on photography in society and what the effects digital photography is having, an it's changing role in multimedia.
currently reading
From the externalization of mind to the implantation of technology - Lev Manovich
The Paradoxes of Digital Photography - Lev Manovich
The Photographic Image in Digital Culture - Martin Lister
Understanding Media - McLuhan
The Reconfigured Eye - William Mitchell
Digital Design media - William Mitchell
Remediation, Understanding New Media - Bolter and Grusin
On Photography - Susan Sontag
On Photography - Roland Barthes
Monday 24 December 2007
Wednesday 19 December 2007
Virtual Bodily Harm
Members of the game industry were not quite sure why 'Manhunt 2' was given the full ban by the BBFC, as the levels of violence were no greater than many other games that line the shelves in game shops, and it's also claimed the violence is watered down compared to that featured in countless horror films that all receive classification. Digging a little deeper into this story, I discovered that the primary objection by the BBFC was that the Wii version made full use of the wii-mote. Now instead of just point and click executions, you actually get to stab the bad guys. Or hack then to bits with an axe, or you can use the wii-mote to saw their head off. No longer are you sat calmly behind a desk dispensing your own brand of justice, your physically going through the motions, swinging your virtual chainsaw around your living room. And you thought the Wii was a family console.
The BBFC believe we are training the next generation of serial killers, who are right now honing their assassination techniques and stealth skills. As gaming becomes more immersive are we really likely to see an increase in violent crime? I think not, nor is here a place for the game/violence debate.But the notion of violent interaction with a mouse and keyboard being acceptable, while the exact same interaction acted out physically is not, is an interesting topic for debate, opening up questions about physical interaction and society
Tuesday 18 December 2007
Stereoscopic Images
After seeing the Kentridge projected installation mentioned in the last blog, I've been researching visual perception and the idea of stereoscopic images. Am working on the idea of using two video camera filming the same scene from two different angles(maybe the camera are inside an installation, pointing at the viewer. The two films could be projected side by side large on a wall. The viewer would wear stereoscopic glasses to see a giant 3d projection of themselves inside the installation. This is just the beginnings of a rough idea at the moment. I've bought some stereoscopic glasses on line so i can experiment over the break (if they arrive in time through the Christmas post)
Sunday 16 December 2007
William Kentridge - the Hove exhibition
Regency Town House - 13 Brunswick Sq
The installation shows a dreamlike sequence, a darkly surreal journey through war and human spirit, animated charcoal strokes erased and redrawn repeatedly as nightmarish images morph into the next with fascinating fluidity.
It's a very engaging piece, Kentridge plays with the viewers perception, offering an alternative way for them to observe and construct a narrative to the hallucinatory imagery.
The exhibition itself is located in a battered old regency house, and i couldn't work out if it was in the midst of being redecorated, or it had been painstakingly created to look like that. Either way it's transitory make-shift feel perfectly suited the scratchy discordant style of Kentridge's work.
The other work i was especially interested in was his Stereoscopic Photogravues exhibited in the University of Brighton Gallery at Grand Parade. Again Kentridge experiments with the viewers perception by allowing them to see the stereo images through specially mounted lenses , which also use mirrors to bounce the image into view. When viewed, a single image is perceived, and has a great depth of field that is not seen on the flat images when viewed from the side.
Have been thinking about these techniques with regard to the current project, and am interested to see if i can work with mirrors to shape the viewers perception while interacting with video input. not sure yet, still working out some concepts.
Thursday 13 December 2007
Visiting Speaker - Luciana Haill
This was a fascinating topic, exploring the way the mind works and how it behaves under differnet emotional and physical states. This techonolgy opens up all sorts of possibilites to gain greater understanding of the human mind and our thought processes, and could have benefitial insight into the way we learn, and benefit rest and meditiation.
Wednesday 12 December 2007
Sensors and input devices
Rona Innes demonstrated some interesting sensors and examples of input devices.
The Arduino looks worth further research. Mike blow also mentioned it in his talk earlier.
I was initially put off as it seemed quite complicated, but it's definitely worth another look. I was also interested in the video input Rona demonstrated, particularly using a web cam into flash or director to display graphics, or visual effects on the video.
ghostly mirror was particularly impressive, the effects are quite stunning. This would be worth exploring more, especially if sound input could be added also.
Some of the flash stuff which displays graphics that are triggered by sound via a microphone I've been looking at recently, and did some research with voice activated software and voice recongnition. This gave variable results - the voice recognition stuff needs time to train the software to recognise voice input and not give garbled output. Will spned more time see what interactive art could be triggered by vocal commands and sounds. I've also just sent away for a webcam to have a play over the break.
Monday 10 December 2007
This interactive artwork is a faceted image projected approximately life size on a wall of the gallery. Each facet is interactive, emerging from darkness only when there is movement in front of that facet's exact location in the painting. If there is no movement, the projection is all black. Small gestures like hand movements will draw one or two fragments into visibility. Full body movement across the whole painting reveals the entire work. This is an impressive piece, the original work re-interpreted with new media to produce something that is close to the original aesthetically, while expanding on the theme of movement and form.
Screenvader is a stunning web art site, with lots of cool randomly generated graphics, and a smart looking interface. A nice use of flash.The graphics are really impressive and each stands really well on their own, - with a new image generated with the click of the mouse, i can't help feel something is lost when the image is replaced with a new one.
(cheers to Andreas for showing me this site)
Sound Fountain is an installation which captures and replays sounds in the space in which it is placed.
Sounds are captured using a microphone and introduced into the system as a graphic bubble. The size of the bubble is determined by its length and its volume. Each bubble exists as a unique element, interacting with the other bubbles in the system flowing and over-flowing from one container to the next. As the bubbles become older they lose their colour, colour which was determined by the time they were captured. When they fall from the last container they are gone forever.
There's a video of the installation in use (check the above link) It's amazing to see the people interact with it, barking and yelping like wild dogs, it's very funny.
-Jaron Lanier - "..we will communicate through gestures, body movements, and grimaces, like our primitive ancestors..."
Essay - Observing Systems-Arts from a Systems-Theoretical Perspective.
Extract from Francis Halsall's Systems-Art Theory Essay. -
'If the field of art history, with its obsessive concern fro the materiality and 'specificity' of media, the supposedly 'dematerialized' realm of virtual and digital media, as well as the whole sphere of mass media, are commonly seen either as beyond the pale or as a threatening invader, gathering at the gates of the aesthetic and artistic citadel'
I have to wonder why a text which discusses new media arts' slow acceptance in the art world a result of it's inability to articulate to a wider audience ironic, when the text itself is written in a language which is convoluted and unnecessarily wordy. On first reading it was virtually
intelligible, it was only by discussing it today and translating it into English that it made more sense. Something that is written exclusively with academics in mind as its audience, is clearly a victim of the same failings it painfully states is effecting new media.
So it discusses how new media art is having a tough time being accepted within the art world, and is seen as something threatening to artistic sensibility, or in some way a grotesque blasphemous challenge to the often arrogant attitude of fine art practitioners and critics.
This is nothing new, the history of art is peppered with similar such cases where a new media or style of artistic interpretation has initially been challenged by the existing art world. In the 16th century, the work of Dutch realist painters were accused (by mainly Italian Renaissance painters) of having little artist merit as they simply recorded what was in front of their eyes, without any artistic interpretation or embellishment.
This initial lack of acceptance for new art forms can be seen with the introduction of photography. It took a long time for it to be accepted as an art form, its mechanical method of capturing images, coupled with the fact that the photographer didn't 'work the canvas' in ways familiar to traditional painters, meant that photography was dismissed by many art critics and theorists.
The same can be said for the arrival of digital photography and digital photo realistic images, there was an initial reluctance to accept them as valid art forms, citing the same excuses as all the times.
Also text is probably not as relevant today as when it was first published, as nowadays new media art has generally been accepted within the art world and society as a whole. Installations and exhibitions around the world make use of and incorporate new media technology in both the creative process and the display methods. Online web-based art is also expanding from its niche following to become a more common medium.
Sunday 9 December 2007
visiting speaker - ellie rees
Ellie Reese in her discussion made the point that the setting for a piece or art is a major importance when viewing. For the artist to have complete control over their work and limitations on how it is displayed is understandable, for if they are trying to say something with their work, its important that it is placed in an environment where this is best achieved.
But I'm not convinced that taking a work out of it's intended or optimal environment is as terrible as she believed.
One could argue that all experience is personal, so 10 people viewing a work of art in a exhibition will have 10 different experiences, and could potentially have been affected in 10 totally different ways, whether those had any connection to what the artist intended is an important point.
There's been much discussion about the problems and implications of viewing video footage on sites like Youtube, where the quality has been reduced to ensure that its playable over the Internet, and that viewer is loosing something important by seeing them in this online context. Interestingly in response to this, i recently went to see Addictive TV at an event in Brighton marking the end of a film festival.
Addictive TV are a couple of DJs/VJs who have played all over the world, including recently on the roof of the National Gallery in London, where their art of remixing video footage and scratching it into an audio track was visible to thousands of people, projected on multiple screens and the sides of buildings. I saw footage of the event online, as well as some of their other work of film remixing. After seeing them live, i can honestly saw that what i saw online had way more impact on me than seeing them live.
The screen at the event may have been massively larger than the 3 inch movie playing on my monitor, but the definition was actually better than the fuzzy screen, plus it was easier to see because of all the coloured lights dancing across it at the gig. Despite the fact that the music was compressed over the Internet, it sounded better than the gig, where the levels were set wrong - rendering any dialogue in the film to be barely audible mumblings, and the high tones pretty much dominating the rest of the sound. I have my PC hooked into my stereo -so the sound quality is better than desktop PC speakers, but for the sound to be so superior to that of a sound system in a club stuck me odd at first. But then i considered other music events I've been to in the past, and if you compare the sound quality at an event , to listening to a studio album that's been meticulously engineered to sound as crisp and rich as it can, then you often encounter massive differences. So which one is the better audio experience, the live gig, or listening to it on a stereo? Which would the artist prefer as a method for delivering the optimal in sound quality?
We've all seen the image of the Mona Lisa, hundreds of times in many different settings and media format. Her smile is still enigmatic, even when on a 5 inch postcard. Leonardo da Vinci finished painting this classic piece in 1519, and the environment in with it was created and displayed is very different form that of today; it's had various homes in it's life, and still today it draws big crowds. Someone seeing the image for the first time will likely be view a copy, but may still be moved by it. Is the context so important?.
Ellie Rees's work entitled Britney is a video of the artist playing a Britney Spears song on bottles
She has strong views on whether it is suitable for the popular video site Youtube, despite the content being pop trash - I've never heard Britney Spears music described as fine art. I would have thought Youtube would be the perfect vehicle for her new media piece.
Toccata et Fugue in D Minor on a Bottle Organ on the other hand IS available on Youtube..
This young artist uses a well respected piece of classical music in his work, the editing may be raw - i know Ellie is a proponent of the unedited performance, but who is to say if one is less worthy than the other, who is to say which is art and which is not. By putting one in a exhibition space it is stamping it with exclusivity. If something is worth saying, why limit it to saying it in a short period of time at a gallery, especially if it is a new media artwork? Is not art for the people?. To have on demand access on the web is giving it a much wider audience than it has in a single gallery.
Not all artwork should be displayed in a gallery, where the atmosphere can be austere and pretentious, it should be more accessible.
To quote Banksy , who's not afraid of giving his vision a wider audience -
"Art is not like other culture because its success is not made by its audience. The public fill concert halls and cinemas every day, we read novels by the millions and buy records by the billions. We the people, affect the making and quality of most of our culture , but not our art.
The Art we look at is made by only a select few. A small group create, promote, purchase, exhibit and decide the success of Art. Only a few hundred people in the world have any real say. When you go to an Art gallery you are simply a tourist looking at the trophy cabinet of a few millionares."
recap on interaction
Brief summery on interactivity so far..
Interaction can be said to be a dialogue, and for our purposes between man and machine or computer, although the term can apply to an exchange between two or more of anything.
Chris Crawford describes good interaction like a conversation, requiring 3 steps if it is to function correctly -
1 - 'A' speaks while 'B' listens
2 - 'B' considers what was said
3 - 'B' offers a response to 'A'
Interaction breaks down if one or more of these steps is omitted or performed incorrectly. If at step two 'B' doesn't listen properly to 'A', his answer will have less value and the conversation would be unsatisfactory. If at step one, 'A' fails to communicate articulately, then 'B' will have a hard time understanding him. Applying this to interaction in a multimedia environment, if the interface design is difficult to understand, then the user will have problems conveying his needs, or if the method or delivering a response is flawed, the user experience will be poor.
Crawford also states, specifically as regard to games, that the higher the level of interaction the better- games with a low level of interactivity are less successful than those with higher level and better quality interactivity.
The user is also important, -are they asking the right questions, or is their goal within the boundaries of what the programme can respond to? The user becomes the author, following his own path through the possibilities of the programme, albeit in a controlled manner, as all the options have been the creation of the programmers and designers. This relates to Monivich's Myth of Interactivity and Barthes Death of the Author.
Wednesday 5 December 2007
Interaction
M.I.T - Assist Sketch Understanding System and Operation
I also discovered a different group doing similar things to this drawing system that used physics ( unfortunately Firefox crashed and i lost the link) but they had developed a handheld display, a little larger than A4 size. On their device, the physics cut in straight away, so as soon as the user had drawn a circle and lifted his pen from the surface, physics took over, and the drawn object fell as if it was a dropped ball, and bounced on the bottom of the screen, knocking over any other drawn objects that were in the way. Instant animations, a great tool for teaching- as in the M.I.T video.
P-Soup is a interactive art java applet, that allows you to 'communicate visually' to other users with patterns, shapes and colours. I'm not sure how much communication you could have with someone, but it's an interesting idea and has some psychedelic coolness to the patterns as they emerge and disolve on screen
A little off topic - i don't know if anyone saw an article in the news recently, about chimps out-performing humans in memory tests.
The numbers 1-9 were briefly displayed on a screen, then the subjects had to recall back in sequential order the numbers by touching the screen. The chimps managed this at lighting speed, while their inadequate human cousins stumbled along making mistakes. Who needs opposable thumbs anyway? Completely bypassing the evolutionary stage of developing rudimentary tools, these chimps have mastered the digital interface with such proficiency, they make us humans look like primitive baboons. Check it out if you didn't see it - there are various videos of it on the BBC website.
Sunday 2 December 2007
TurntablistPC
This is an interactive Art installation from Mogens Jacobsen.
This oddly device is part of an ongoing art project, allowing users to control the turntable over the Internet. The amount of effect the user can have on the deck is controlled by the location of the user in relation to the TurntablistPC. This made me consider other forms of interaction to control the turntable, the presence of viewers around the installation, their numbers and movement having some effect. If there was a couple of decks, what possibilities would there be of mixing the two records together. Further thought led to using mp3s instead of vinyl, as this would allow users to have a way of choosing what tune would be played. Sensors could detect the location of viewers in the room, the density and position would determine what tune is picked from a database, for how long it's played etc.
Inspired by the practice of listening to the body to diagnose illness, the Sonic Body is an audio-installation that uses interactive technology to create an orchestra of the human body.
This installation was part of the recent Brighton Digital Festival, in which viewers were immersed inside the a representation of the human body, and heard bodily sounds gathered from by such instruments such as a stethoscopes and hydrophones.
“The looped results (of the sonic body) are addictively danceable mutations of minimal techno. As science looks ever outward, it seems culturally significant that such alien music would transmit from the internal network of our very bodies.” David Michael Perez, from My Body, My Discotech, review of the Sonic Body in Rhizome.
Saturday 1 December 2007
Design for Interaction
Further research for this brief has led me to these gems recently.
In a similar vein to Mike Blow's Machines for Singing, i noticed this from David Byrne, an installation where devices are attached to various parts of a disused paint factory, which were controlled to produce vibrations, turning the whole building into a playable musical instrument.
The Art of Surveillance , Wired's images from various installations and art projects around the globe which explore the theme of always being watched.
The Khronos Projector has been used in interactive art installations, it's an interesting device which allows viewers to explore pre-recorded video footage by touching the screen, which makes the film move through time in a water-like ripple effect.
This is impressive stuff , and i wonder how it would work with the sound being affected by the interaction of the user as well. This could potentially produce echo effects similar to dub music. Large installations inside clubs could produce good interactive art/music events.
This concept of making a dub version of video footage reminded me of Jeff Noon (novelist/poet i mentioned in a previous post). He thought about applying the same production methods of dub music, to those of writing a novel. His leftfield book Cobralingus he take various written works and feed them into his 'cobralingus engine' to mutate, sample and remix them into pieces with new a different meaning. It's an interesting idea, -the pieces turn into poem like creations, very weird. He applied this style in an online novel/writing game - mappalujo, co-written with Steve Beard. This idea of remixing text is worth more research.
Wednesday 28 November 2007
Idea-Generation excercise for Interaction.
Carolyn Handler Miller in her book Digital Interactive Storytelling, relates modern interactive computer games, mmogs etc to ancient rituals, ceremonies, rites of passage and physical contests/games.
Four questions where raised on the topic of interactivity.
1. - What traditional ritual are you aware of that reminds you of some interactive narrative?.
If you could describe a music festival as a traditional ritual , then this could be represented by virtual 3d environments. These serve as a social meeting place for users, and offer a alternate version of reality - a fantasy wonderland that could be evocative of the twisted reality that is often experienced in the hedonistic ephemeral festival. Once inside the gates , festival goers find it easy to loose inhibitions, forget about the real world for the weekend and immerse themselves in their new environment, much like users of virtual worlds.
2 - What game or sport could be adapted to work as an interactive entertainment.
Most major sporting events have a computer game version, this is nothing new- early arcade games included 'Pong'('72) , racing game 'Gran Trak 10' ('74), and later games like althetic themed 'Track and Field' ('82). With the latest generation consoles, motion detection ha been built into the controllers (wii, and xbox 360 are releasing one). As these become more varied and sophisticated, so will the interaction become more tactile and physical. Events such as archery, javelin, curling, fencing, rowing, squash, rhythmic gymnastics (where the girls run about waving a ribbon) , shot put, badminton(to name but a few) will all have a new lease of life on the small screen
3 - What work of traditional storytelling contains a narrative technique that could be applied to a work of digital entertainment?
An interesting book to turn into a work of interactive film , would be Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5. Although any kind of film of this book would be a challenge to make (in as much as it would be difficult to do this classic masterpiece any justice), the themes of free will, fate and rationality might be well suited to an interactive media. The disjointed and seemingly random series of events (as the hapless protagonist Billy Pilgrim travels through time to different periods in his life) could be made into a series of choices for the viewer, who has the ability to fast forward to future events ( or be transported to the forth dimension to Tralfamador) The odd twist would probably be that all the choices are arbitrary, the viewer has no idea where he will end up next - the links would have to be unlabeled, thereby further raising questions of free will and choice. So it goes. Billy's ability to 'time travel' through his own life means he always knows whats coming next as he's seen it before, and that every event is simultaneously happening at the same time. How does he have any choices in life when he knows what the outcome will be?
(anyway, if you haven't read it i recommend giving it a go - it's a short book and well worth the time)
4 - What work of traditional entertainment breaks the "forth wall" , and how could it be replicated in an interactive work ?
The idea that springs to mind first is the British tradition of pantomime. Every December we are blessed with a variety of these types of participatory theatre, where the audience (typically dominated by children) are encouraged to yell at the 'actors' and sing along to the choruses of the songs. Interaction is limited to pre-scripted to shouts of "he's behind you" and "no....other side" etc in response to the 'actor's' on stage antics.
This could be replicated in the form of children TV - with the newer digital format, viewers could input responses (via the remote control) to unfolding events, or select one of a few limited replies to prompts by the actors. This idea is flawed, as the amount of pleasure the children derive from participation is not due primarily to the fact interaction is possible, but more the fact they can interact at high volume with a large number of their equally vocal peers.
The panto format might have more success in virtual environments such as Second Life, where large group participation is possible, though this would work better if the 3D space had VOIP, as typing in "...Oh no it isn't !..." etc doesn't have the same appeal as yelling it. This again has its drawbacks, the age range suited to pantomimes typically aren't equipped with the necessary skills to use Second Life - a simpler child friendly version would be more useful in this case.
Saturday 24 November 2007
Design for Interaction
Have been researching all things interactive and giving thought to the brief of Design for Interaction. The open brief offers a overwhelming number possibilites, and I'm in need of something to fire my imagination.
Well, that's not quite correct, I've seen plenty of inspiring things, from participatory art, through to imaginatively designed kiosk interfaces. I'm a bit concerned that a lot of the things I've seen function with some specifically written piece of script, or re-wiring and reprogramming different devices and software. Having no skills in these areas, I've no idea where to begin. Then there's the idea of making a web based interactive project. There a some cool sites out there with stunning interfaces and functionality- largely flashed based sites, which again, rely on some custom coding to make things groovy, and my actionscript skills are only marginally better than my electrical rewiring skills.
Initial thoughts lead to some kind of voice activation or sound based project, no idea how it will manifest itself, so more research in this area is my first avenue of research.
seeing with your ears java based 'audio -from -image' doohicky
interactive sound
sound design for interactive media - resources and interesting links
HMC - multimedia production company doing cool stuff
interactive architecture installations and art/ architecture projects
pianographique - curious web multimedia instrument
ixi - digital generative music group, giving workshops and providing free software and tutorials.
SASSAS - The Society for the Activation of Social Space through Art and Sound
dont click it - experimental website that uses mouse movement without clicking to navigate.
British Interactive Media Association Exhibitions, events and all sorts
.
Wednesday 7 November 2007
Lansdown Lecture - Heartlands: heart-rate, GPS, gameplay
'Ere be Dragons
Lansdown Lecture - Heartlands: heart-rate, GPS, gameplay
'Ere Be Dragons is a pervasive digital artwork which encourages users to explore both their environment and themselves. Based on mobile computing, it is responsive to location and biodata (heartrate) which it uses to construct a responsive visual and auditory environment overlaid on the real world. It is designed to be highly engaging while at the same time raising important issues about health and behaviour. The work is an interdisciplinary collaboration between digital artists, an electronic arts centre, health scientists, and the UK research laboratory of a major IT company (Hewlett Packard)
Now here is a cool application for A.R glasses. Building a virtual world based on your heartbeat - the more your heart works during healthy exercise, so a more extravagant world is created around you. This could spawn all sorts of games, and be linked into other 3d worlds , so you could create content there with you heart beat.
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It's just a shame the 1 hour lecture is in north London, two and a half hours away:- they need to broadcast it in cyberspace so it's a bit easier to see. If we had our A.R glasses, we could all attend.
Tuesday 6 November 2007
Through Rose Coloured Glasses
So we've skipped ahead 10 years. We've all got these snazzy Mixed Reality glasses on. We never get lost any more, because the GPS in the frame links into Google maps and displays right in front of our eyes where we are, where we wanna go;- and it's booked a table at the restaurant across town where we're trying to find. The kids are all fitter, because they aren't sat behind a computer playing games and shooting aliens for hours on end- they're running around the streets playing computer games and shooting virtual aliensfor hours on end. There's less congestion because the SatNav in the glasses helps us avoid snarl ups and keeps traffic moving, and there's less accidents, because the sensors detect on-coming danger and steer you out of the way. Everything is rosy. But what then?
Death by Pixels
There's a multitude of benefits and cool advantages to this technology, and there will also be a shadier side to it. Just as scandal after scandal hit virtual worlds like Second Life- fraud, child porn rings, undercover cop avatars, extortion, viruses being realised,- there will surely be an underworld develop in the brave new world of augmented reality. Rockstar games will probably find themselves in a lot of trouble with their latest violent mixed reality game they'll probably produce, with high def images of virtual massacres- there's bound to be a class full of kids in America get senselessly slain by someone playing Grand Theft Auto 9 in A.R.
If the glasses have a built in lens and recording capability, people will be able to experience someone else's reality. The film Strange Days explored this theme, where 'dealers' would sell copies of a porn stars reality, or the experience of someone being killed. Some became hooked on the reality of others.
Jacked into Hyper-Reality
To escape all the stresses of constant connectivity to the world, and tune out of all the info and ads of A.R, many will turn on to altered states of (augmented) reality, with programmes created to simulate and induce trance like states and euphoric journeys through psychedelic lands. As the technology and applications mash up and mix together, all kinds of strange hybrids will evolve. Cyberpunk novelist Jeff Noon's creates dystopic visions of Britain's future, where party junkies inject liquid music, where people remix themselves with technology in varying degrees of 'roboness', and where the thrill seekers enter hallucinogenic virtual worlds for kicks.
It won't be long of course, before the boys in blue (#00008B) come pounding on the door with their virtual cops to pull the plug on all those subversives, avatar agents sent to restore order to the matrix.
But at the end of the day, the most important thing for most will be how cool the glasses look. Whatever changes happen to society with the advent of A.R, Apple will still be in the headlines with their latest iEye glasses.
Monday 5 November 2007
Future Design Presentation.
Reality in the mix
The time to make the presentations for the Design Futures Project is fast approaching, and I've been trying to whittle down my idea into a more focused idea, but i think that the nature of what I'm researching (augmented reality) has such wide reaching potential, that to pin it down to 1 or 2 simple themes will loose what in some ways is the main point of this product/platform. I see the potential of A.R will touch many areas of life, from training and educational use, through to web surfing, teleconferencing and virtual work environments, to gaming and immersive panoramic cinema experiences.
In one sense the glasses can be seen as the latest in portable ultra slim monitors, and when used in conjunction with a PDA device or computer, can run complex applications, which can be highly specialized for training purposes, or popular mainstream web apps, like Google Maps and MMORPGS and social networking virtual environments. I was trying to come up with a simple interface that can present information to the user in a way that's simple to use and doesn't overload the user will to much information, but the interface will vary for each application used, as on a regular computer.
The glasses will be 'transparent monitors' that can overlay graphics over the users field of vision, or can 'blackout' to run total Virtual Reality applications. They also work on the assumption that developments in fuel cells and power issues will be at the stage where they can be produced small and lightweight enough to fit into the arms of the glasses. Currently developments in power cells , data storage and processor chips are producing smaller and more efficient products, so it's feasible that within 10 years the technology will be small enough to fit inside something as small as a pair of glasses, without being as clumsy and cumbersome as current VR goggles.
Thursday 1 November 2007
Semiconductor
Guest speakers : Semiconductor
I first saw the work of today's speakers, Semiconductor, at this year's Big Chill festival, although at the time I admit I probably didn't give the installation Earthmoves the attention it deserved. This time around my mind wasn't as addled as it was in the heady atmosphere of the festival, nor was i surrounded by all manner of musical and multimedia delights, so was interested to discover what they where all about.
Semiconductor are artists producing digital artworks in the form of sound-films, music videos and live animation. Feeding and mixing audio into photography, 3d software and moving images, they create abstract films and live performances around the world. They use captured sounds from the environment and digital sounds, which effect and are influenced by the images on display.
Their most recent work I was most impressed by, Magnetic Movie, an animation where they have visualised audio recording of scientists describing their discoveries. This was more interesting to me because it seemed less abstract than much of the other work, though all of their work is very inspiring.
Wednesday 24 October 2007
Digital Reality
A Virtual Guantanamo Bay has recently been built in Second Life.
It's aim is to create a platform where people from around the world can gather together to discuss important social justice issues, and explore the potential for activism and change. Monthly discussions are planed, which will mix real world debates and speeches, also broadcast in Second Life, while video footage and interviews with the relatives of the detainees are shown on screens. By allowing users to experience the loss of freedom, albeit of an avatar in cyberspace, it is hoped that it will promote greater understanding and empathy, and who knows, maybe even offer an end to intolerance and bigotry. Virtual Utopia.
So just how effective can something like this be, and how much will it just be for 'virtual detention center tourists'? . The various worlds of cyberspace have already shown that people are coming together in ways like never before, working collaboratively in online games and Alternate Reality games, and socialising with people from wildly different social groups and ages.
But just as cyberspace is being used to promote understanding and empathy, it's also being used as a tool to recruit soldiers into the military, the release of 'America's Army' in the U.S proving to be very successful. Kids get to see what huge guns they can play with if they join the army for real. Should we be disturbed by this propaganda aimed at kids ?, or is it no different from them playing violent shooting games anyway.
There's an interesting article in Wired Magazine "shall we play a game" on the merging on real life and the virtual world and society.
Sunday 21 October 2007
Projected Interface
This is an odd idea. Completely bizarre way of displaying content, and I'm not sure how practical this is, especially when compared to the development of Augmented Reality. It might be a lot more use if the projector wasn't hand held- i really cant see any advantage to carry the projector around and have to swing it wildly about in order to see the content. A desk mounted unit, with a much greater projected area would be a lot more practical.
Tuesday 16 October 2007
Machinima
The line between cinema and gaming becomes ever more blurred, but they meet head on in the ever growing phonemon of Machinima.
'Machinimators' create films using the 3d environments and components of computer games
A cheap way of making movies, gamers and film maker use tools from programmes like Second Life and World of Warcraft, and the recent film festival shows that's its gaining in popularity. It's also being used by big film companies to quickly and cheaply try out ideas before making the actual movie.
Here's the 1st of a series created from the game Medal of Honor: Airborne, and looks like a standard war movie (more or less)
more info at machinima.com
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Tuesday 9 October 2007
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality
I've been studying themes of Virtual Reality, and have seen some great work on Augmented Reality. The applications for this type of technology are limitless, with obvious uses in education, health care, architectural design, and gaming etc.
While still in development, some technology has been implemented already, like this educational kiosk in a New Zealand museum in the clip below.
At the moment the hardware is still pretty clunky, but we are moving away from the cumbersome equipment associated with VR. When these technologies are fully developed, whole new ways of learning, communicating and socialising will be opened up, and as the software becomes more accessible, we will start to see lots of user generated content appear online. This technology could be much more exciting than Virtual Reality, as it offers us more freedom of movement around our environment, and could be used in more everyday applications.
If in the future, RFID tags (An RFID tag is an object that can be applied to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radiowaves. Some tags can be read from several meters away and beyond the line of sight of the reader.) become common place, you will never loose your keys again - their location will be instantly displayed in graphics over your field of vision.
Games offer great possibilities, turning your real urban environment into a puzzle game, a battleground, or setting for a quest.
As media gets mashed up and mixed together, apps like google maps could prove useful in 3d, directions displayed right in front of your eyes. Historical info could be revealed as you pass buildings, or sale items in your size be advertised as you pass by the shop or you could be informed if items on your shopping list are stocked there.
While, undertaking repairs in the home or at work, instructions could be displayed and updated as you progress. There really is no end to the uses for these, the more you think about it the more ideas come to mind. All we need is the technology to become small and fast enough to look cool and render images well, and we'll have some funky kit to play with
Monday 8 October 2007
Sunday 7 October 2007
Design Futures
The Future Is Here.
Whatever trends shape future technology, designing products that are energy efficient will be a top priority. With increased demand on natural resources, we are at the stage where we have to act now to eliminate the burden we've placed on the planet. Looking for alternative forms of energy will be of paramount importance to meet rising population levels and ever our increasing rates of energy consumption.
Electric cars will go a long way to reduce our use of fossil fuels, but have had a bit of an image problem in the past. This is set to change.
Switching to sustainable energy will be more of an option when technology enables cheaper equiptment production and increased efficiency at harnessing and storing renewable power. New techniques for producing the latest lcd monitors is a step in the right direction for solar energy
Clever Cutlery ?
For all those cooks who are too pissed to taste if the soup is properly seasoned, at last comes the Intelligent Spoon . With an array of sensors, it can tell you if there is too much salt in the bouillabaisse, or if the cake batter is of dropping consistency and ready to bake.
What next - the DigiBowl - it's advanced nanocircuits can detect when the bowl is empty of soup, and can vocalise the words 'fat bastard, that was your 3rd helping' in 36 languages.
Thursday 4 October 2007
Design Futures Project
Future Tech
Predicting future trends and innovations can be a dizzying task. Technology is going through such a rapid state of change and advancement, that high-tech gadgets become obsolete before they get chance to get dusty. The latest developments are considered ancient history within just a few years, and technology that was not so long ago considered science fiction, is finding its way into everyday life.
When you start to look around at the latest research, it's stunning to see how far this technology is being developed. Nanotechnology will find its way into many different applications in the near future, and is just beginning to appear in different applications while wireless technology is fast becoming commonplace.
Research into robotics is massive, with significant developments for medical applications, and it wont be long before amputees are using robotic limbs, or surgeons are assisted (or even replaced) in delicate operations by medical robots.
I'm interested in how the use of artificial 3d space is growing in popularity, and becoming more diverse in its purpose. Everything from video conferencing, telemedicine, social networking, psychotherapy, and education and training through to gaming and cinema are making use of virtual spaces. With advancements in VR technology, hardware is getting smaller and easier to use, and processor speeds increase dramatically allowing more detailed graphics and real time rendering, the artificial environment is fast becoming much more user friendly.
Study project brief : Design Futures
Design Futures
This brief is concerned with the development of a concept that addresses the future and use of new technologies or technological services. That is to say, how technology might manifest itself in years to come and what direct impact it would have on our everyday lives. The basis of this project is to develop a ‘bluesky’ concept working on the principle of ‘what if’. The concept per-say could be derived from a product in as much as tool or for that matter a service. The concept should clearly have a defined rationale behind it and should be generated through a clear consideration of existing technologies and or related services, A clearly defined audience / user group should help to shape the conditions of the language used concerning the sonic, visual and physical elements along with the technical parameters, modes of delivery etc. Considering the time allocated for this project, students will have the opportunity to create a screen based presentation of the concept a ‘look and feel’
First thoughts centre around, nano-technology, virtual reality and robotics, field which are developing rapidly for mulitple uses. Technology with a environmentally low impact will also be a major consideration , being energy efficient throughout its life cycle will be a standard requirement in years to come.
Monday 1 October 2007
Blogging - so what's it all about ?
What makes millions of people around the globe feel compelled to write down their daily thoughts, and publish them for the world to see?
What forces are at work, driving these people to tell anyone who's willing to listen (or read) about their opinions, their day to day lives and everything and anything in between?
This is the first blog I've ever written, in fact, it's the first blog I've ever read!.I found it easy to avoid them, of all the infomation that we are bombarded with in our daily lives, blogs seemed to hold limited appeal- catering for a specific demographic, or simply being banal posts of someone's daily life.
Many blogs around take the form of online diaries, and i think this is where my desire to avoid them comes from - the fact that a diary is a personal log of ones life. Having never written my own diary, or had the desire to read whatever someone else has written down in theirs , diaries have always been something other people did. But an diary published online?
This is a paradox surely -a personal diary is something written by an individual for their own needs, and usually pains are taken to keep their thoughts secret and away from prying eyes, not published for thousands of strangers to have access to- who would have the diary printed in a daily newspaper? Are people's lives are becoming a soap opera for their readership on the World Wide Web ?.
In recent years there has been a large take up of people using blogs, and the nature of their uses changing. Disgruntled employees are publishing exposes of their workplace, politicians are using them for campaigning tools, and as we have seen in places like Burma and Iraq at the moment, journalists are finding ways of bypassing the government run media to bring news of important events. . Photographs taken on mobile devices are put on the web with first hand accounts of the situation often before major news organisations have covered them providing instant comment on important events.
It's now becoming a dangerous game though, as some bloggers are finding themselves in court fighting libel or defamation charges, or are simply sacked by their employers after posting ill-advised comments. Bloggers have been imprisoned for posting anti-religious remarks, while others have had vicious insults and death threats in replies to threads they have posted. Today the bloggers in Burma are in fear for their lives as the government tightens in grip on all news and information leaving the country after recent demonstrations against the military dictatorship. Blogging and the Internet have bought the events there into the global arena. When the government responded violently to demonstrations in 1988 during which some 3,000 people were killed, news never made it into the public eye in the way it can today, reporters were simply not able to get the news out of the country.
So blogging has grown into a powerful tool, giving a voice to the individual, raising important issues and providing comment on current affairs with an alternative flavour to that provided by mainstream news broadcasters. Governments are uneasy with this flow of information, and seek tighter control over the Web - a person surfing the Internet in China will have much less access to sites, and outgoing Web traffic is restricted and monitored. But the Internet is a medium of communication that's developing at an explosivily alarming rate, and as it envelopes every sphere of daily life, total control over it becomes increasingly unlikely.
Dunno where this is going really, had nothing in particular to say, and I've just spent ages doing it. Not much of a blog, but ya gotta start somewhere.
