watching the clouds roll byWednesday, June 20, 2007
can you see the dragon?
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
My New Media Thumb
So if gardeners have a green thumb, what do new media artists get? Apparently we, or at least I, get an injured thumb. My thumb first got gashed going to see spiderman for our senses assignment, and now I have a sizable blister from my latest project. I zip-tied cameras to coat-hanger rods and took a series of pictures from different angels. Whereas yes, that could be accomplished with one camera, well, that's just not as fun. I tried compositing a couple of them together, and got some cool patterns, but nothing mind-bending just yet. If the blister is any indication, I won't stop until it hurts. Anyway, I got the blister from cranking all of the advance-sprockets on the cameras. They were a little tough to wind as the zip-ties compressed the casing, and the sprockets wouldn't roll forward. Since I was out in the field (literally, and a forest), I couldn't undo the ties. Therefore, the blister. I guess I could submit my thumb as my project.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
1. What if I lived as the person I want to be, not as the person I am?
2. What if the world all spoke one language?
3. What if eating chocolate made you lose weight?
4. What if contemporary art made sense to everyone?
5. What if you knew you would live to be exactly 100?
6. What if everyone had the same IQ?
7. What if you had no memory of pain?
8. What if stop signs were green?
9. What if apples tasted like chicken?
10. What if everyone were hairless?
11. What if Oprah ran for president?
12. What if life were easy?
13. What if silence was deafening?
14. What if cats felt like sandpaper?
15. What if you knew the answer to every question?
16. What if wearing flip-flops was outlawed?
17. What if blondes really did have more fun?
18. What if the standard business day went from 10 pm to 6 am?
19. What if it were considered offensive to speak in public?
20. What if everyone you knew suddenly forgot you?
21. What if all cars played ice cream truck music only?
22. What if trees had feelings?
23. What if bagels had no holes?
24. What if everything in the grocery store only cost $1?
25. What if you could see your thoughts?
26. What if people had a shut up button?
27. What if the color orange didn’t exist?
28. What if exit signs said “leave”?
29. What if coca cola still contained cocaine?
30. What if you found your soul mate?
31. What if we could smell in stereo?
32. What if garbage were edible?
33. What if grass needed orange juice to grow?
34. What if the days were 62 hours long?
35. What if no war ever happened?
36. What if every truth you knew was a lie?
37. What if the person next to you could change your life?
38. What if the American flag was octagonal?
39. What if you had to move every two weeks?
40. What if two objects could occupy the same space at one time?
41. What if you discovered a miracle drug?
42. What if you could remember your birth?
43. What if pavement were never invented?
44. What if all bread had no carbs?
45. What if you could get a sun burn from florescent light?
46. What if you could bring back one person from the dead?
47. What if you could see electromagnetic fields and radio waves?
48. What if you only spoke when spoken to?
49. What if birds held the key to world peace?
50. What if you find true happiness?
2. What if the world all spoke one language?
3. What if eating chocolate made you lose weight?
4. What if contemporary art made sense to everyone?
5. What if you knew you would live to be exactly 100?
6. What if everyone had the same IQ?
7. What if you had no memory of pain?
8. What if stop signs were green?
9. What if apples tasted like chicken?
10. What if everyone were hairless?
11. What if Oprah ran for president?
12. What if life were easy?
13. What if silence was deafening?
14. What if cats felt like sandpaper?
15. What if you knew the answer to every question?
16. What if wearing flip-flops was outlawed?
17. What if blondes really did have more fun?
18. What if the standard business day went from 10 pm to 6 am?
19. What if it were considered offensive to speak in public?
20. What if everyone you knew suddenly forgot you?
21. What if all cars played ice cream truck music only?
22. What if trees had feelings?
23. What if bagels had no holes?
24. What if everything in the grocery store only cost $1?
25. What if you could see your thoughts?
26. What if people had a shut up button?
27. What if the color orange didn’t exist?
28. What if exit signs said “leave”?
29. What if coca cola still contained cocaine?
30. What if you found your soul mate?
31. What if we could smell in stereo?
32. What if garbage were edible?
33. What if grass needed orange juice to grow?
34. What if the days were 62 hours long?
35. What if no war ever happened?
36. What if every truth you knew was a lie?
37. What if the person next to you could change your life?
38. What if the American flag was octagonal?
39. What if you had to move every two weeks?
40. What if two objects could occupy the same space at one time?
41. What if you discovered a miracle drug?
42. What if you could remember your birth?
43. What if pavement were never invented?
44. What if all bread had no carbs?
45. What if you could get a sun burn from florescent light?
46. What if you could bring back one person from the dead?
47. What if you could see electromagnetic fields and radio waves?
48. What if you only spoke when spoken to?
49. What if birds held the key to world peace?
50. What if you find true happiness?
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Ideas so far for project
So far I'm not really sure where I'm heading for my final project. I had a couple of ideas, but the better ones are out of my current technical reach.
One was as a reaction to my senses assignment, to have a visualization - like they have for music - but make it based off a heart beat. So it would be interactive art. You'd have to grab little handles (like they have on a StairMaster or treadmill) and get a heart rate, and the visualization would be based on that beat. If you wanted a different experience, then you'd have to jog around or meditate to get a different heart rate, and therefore a different reaction from the monitor. Could also use other things - like body mass, temperature, etc, so that no two experiences are alike.
The other was 'eyes in the back of my head' - inspired by a scene in what the bleep to we know, where the little girl at the wedding has all of those disposable cameras tied to her. I wanted to rig some sort of camera-helmet thing to take a picture behind me with a separate camera at the moment I would take one normally looking forward. Not so that it's panoramic or anything, just as a way of saying sometimes you miss what you can't see. Or perhaps sometimes something more interesting is behind you than in front of you. I thought of using those disposable cameras like they have at weddings, but I'm not sure how to rig them up. Or I thought doing it like they have on the movie - kind of like a spiderweb with cameras pointing in all different directions. Then maybe taking them and stitching them together for a collage.
Then my third more practical (aka boring) idea was to take pictures of things that are very un-aesthetic (like stains, road-kill and the like, stuff that's icky) and try to create something beautiful out of it. Don't know how, don't know what, but thought of that on my bike ride the other day when I saw a stain on a telephone poll that looked like a cartoon character. I could try to use those shapes as some sort of illustration - like cartoons, because I'm not very good at it, and perhaps it's time I try. Basically the idea is to either make something aesthetic out of something icky, or to create a shape from something that's not there - like cloud gazing.
More later.
One was as a reaction to my senses assignment, to have a visualization - like they have for music - but make it based off a heart beat. So it would be interactive art. You'd have to grab little handles (like they have on a StairMaster or treadmill) and get a heart rate, and the visualization would be based on that beat. If you wanted a different experience, then you'd have to jog around or meditate to get a different heart rate, and therefore a different reaction from the monitor. Could also use other things - like body mass, temperature, etc, so that no two experiences are alike.
The other was 'eyes in the back of my head' - inspired by a scene in what the bleep to we know, where the little girl at the wedding has all of those disposable cameras tied to her. I wanted to rig some sort of camera-helmet thing to take a picture behind me with a separate camera at the moment I would take one normally looking forward. Not so that it's panoramic or anything, just as a way of saying sometimes you miss what you can't see. Or perhaps sometimes something more interesting is behind you than in front of you. I thought of using those disposable cameras like they have at weddings, but I'm not sure how to rig them up. Or I thought doing it like they have on the movie - kind of like a spiderweb with cameras pointing in all different directions. Then maybe taking them and stitching them together for a collage.
Then my third more practical (aka boring) idea was to take pictures of things that are very un-aesthetic (like stains, road-kill and the like, stuff that's icky) and try to create something beautiful out of it. Don't know how, don't know what, but thought of that on my bike ride the other day when I saw a stain on a telephone poll that looked like a cartoon character. I could try to use those shapes as some sort of illustration - like cartoons, because I'm not very good at it, and perhaps it's time I try. Basically the idea is to either make something aesthetic out of something icky, or to create a shape from something that's not there - like cloud gazing.
More later.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Senses 2
This is the left-overs from my senses assignment. I went to Nothing But Noodles and honed in on my hearing. My favorite thought was 'quiet chopsticks.'
Then I went to the grocery.
I had a hard time tasting anything as I was sooo full from dinner. I really wanted to taste the sour cream angel food cake. 
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Spidey Senses and My Big Blue Watch
Needing a reason to see Spiderman 3, I took the opportunity to complete one portion of the senses assignment. I thought I would take the assignment one step further and add another sense to my list - my heart. Since I started training for small triathlon, I have really paid attention to my 
heart rate. When I work out, it's the best indicator of how hard to push myself. I was curious to see what my heart rate would be during an activity like watching a movie. I have often heard movies called 'heart pounding' -- so this was my chance to really see how true that is.
Hoping that I would have some interesting results, I paid close attention to my heart rate throughout the movie. As it started, my heart rate was at about 80 bpm, about what I would expect. However when the Pirates premiere came on, I saw a little blip go up to 85! Woohoo Johnny Depp. Grrr....
heart rate. When I work out, it's the best indicator of how hard to push myself. I was curious to see what my heart rate would be during an activity like watching a movie. I have often heard movies called 'heart pounding' -- so this was my chance to really see how true that is. As I left my house, my heart rate was at 92. A little high for not doing anything, but I thought perhaps in anticipation of getting out and seeing a movie.
As I arrived at the movie theatre, my rate was still up at 91. Walking into the parking lot, I began to think about what I was smelling. A hot afternoon, the smell of warm pavement was abundant. I looked at my Big Blue watch and saw my heart rate was now at 111. Still low compared to when I run, which usually averages about 150 -160. As I passed the slight bit of landscaping in the parking lot, I could smell the burnt scent of woodchips from the mulch roasting in the sun.
Approaching the door, the cigarette smoke from the nearby ash tray distracted me, and as I walked through the door, 
encountered my first New Media Eye-related injury. So here I am waiting in line, bleeding, trying to decide if I should see the 3:20 Spiderman, or hold out for the 3:50 Imax version. Being cheap and impatient won out, and I went for the matinee-priced Spidey. I got my ticket, asked for a band-aid, was denied and went on my way. My average heart rate clocked in at 90.
encountered my first New Media Eye-related injury. So here I am waiting in line, bleeding, trying to decide if I should see the 3:20 Spiderman, or hold out for the 3:50 Imax version. Being cheap and impatient won out, and I went for the matinee-priced Spidey. I got my ticket, asked for a band-aid, was denied and went on my way. My average heart rate clocked in at 90.Of course, thinking about the smell at the movies immediately honed me into the popcorn. I knew it would smell better than it tasted, but I figured that's what this experience was about, so off to the concession stand I went. $8 later, I found my seat in the pretty empty theatre, and focused in on the smells again. I was hoping that my popcorn would smell good, but my popcorn had very little smell. It was difficult to smell much as I stuffed the popcorn into my face. I had noticed a kind of stale carpet smell as I walked in, but as long as I was stuffing popcorn in my mouth, I couldn't smell much.
Hoping that I would have some interesting results, I paid close attention to my heart rate throughout the movie. As it started, my heart rate was at about 80 bpm, about what I would expect. However when the Pirates premiere came on, I saw a little blip go up to 85! Woohoo Johnny Depp. Grrr....I kept looking down at my watch through out the movie, hoping to see some big variances during different scenes. Alas, no. For the most part I hovered in the 70's, an occasional dip into the 60's, and didn't make it into the 80's at all. Average was 72. I figured I would be affected more by the movie, but like the movie, the results were only so-so. Hopefully one of the other senses will kick my heart rate around.
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