Discussions about the assignment

When i was first given this assignment, i didnt understand it much. I didnt get what interventions meant nor even how to start going about this project. Thought after one of the lecture, i began to understand what was being asked of me. I have to produce either a news report or an advert for a new invention or gadget. Yet rather than trying to create the product, its about the social effects and impact on the public.


After discussing it with Mike and agreeing that my idea has scope, I decided that my idea shall be a Teleportation Watch. The idea is that the user selects the destination on the dial, hit the side button and then they shall be modularly transports to the desired place. Next I need to research for teleportation, and the problems and benefits of the technology.

Here is a video about the movie Jumper which is all about teleportation, and the science behind it:

Asssignment 3- Interventions

Here is the brief for this next assignment:

“Give me another 24 hours, and I'll give you a machine which no none will be able to tell from a human being.” Rotwang, Metropolis, 1926.

“In the electric age we wear all mankind as our skin.”Marshall McLuhan 1964.

“We are at the farthest point of time!... Why look behind us when we should be crashing down the doors of the impossible? Time and Space died yesterday. We are now living in the absolute since we have created eternal omnipresent speed.”F.T. Marinetti. 1909

The Interstices Project requires you to explore, analyse and design an ‘interface’. The outcome of this activity will be to develop a ‘representation’ of a specific future, contemporary or redundant technology operating in a social environment. This representation may take the form of an T.V./multimedia ‘advert’ or sales promotion for the ‘product/activity’, a short documentary about the ‘product/activity’ (e.g. News footage/report), a simulation that provides a real experience of the ‘product/activity’.

There are many possibilities, however your project must be based on an extrapolation of current technology/social practice/cultural phenomena/documented hypothesis, and not just whimsical speculation, i.e. the end of Western Civilisation following a bacterial infection which turns out to be microscopic Chinese following the self-miniaturisation of the entire Chinese population.... (see “Slapstick or Lonesome no more’ Kurt Vonnegut)...

Requirements:A: Design documentation and output of negotiated process.

The Process of Creating The Final Idea

We started off with filming about an hour's worth of footage, from the comfort of Hayley's car, and the shot the journey from each other of the doors. We had 3 night shots on the same night at 3 different doors and 2 day shots. Once we had the footage we began to plan the layout and scenes for the video.

This is the plan for the first idea, it came from us deciding that we are going to map Drake Circus as a living organism. I thought about having a shot of someone breathing and overlay the doors over the lungs. Below is a sketch about we envisoned it:

Eventually when i came to do this scene, i found on Windows Movie Maker an effect that just showed the lines of the shot. So i saved that and overlaid the video in Adobe Premiere Pro, which i used for all my editing of the final film.

The second idea was to do a shot which showed the 3 doors running simultanously in a grid as if to monitor them like a CCTV camera. They would running at different speeds depending to how many people passed through them. Like in breathing, the faster you breathe, the more air particles move in and out of your lungs. Here is a drawing of the idea:

Finally i planned out a storyboard for the video and all the different shots i would need and what order too. I couldnt do the flash animation with air particles moving in and through the center, as i dont have enough training in this field. Somethings changed like i added the scene with the figures were had recorded on to a shot, as i felt it should the volume of people passing through, in hindsight i should have maybe left it out.

Below are the photoshop images i created to feature in the video. The title sequence was to show a parallel between drake circus and the human lung. The map was created from the map on the drake circus website, but i removed all the icons and symbols. Thus now only shows the entrances, which were the most important part.

As i had all the better video editing software, Hayley let me edit the film over christmas. OMG the trouble i had with that. First my camcorder didnt have a firewire cable with it, so we had to go buy one. Then it was the wrong one, so we took it back only to discover my laptop doesnt have a firewire port. So we ordered a card to plug into it, but that turned out to be the wrong size. In the end i used the house computer, which had one and then transfered them across! This took all of boxing day!!! Here is the final video ready to show:

On the day of the presentation, Hayley didnt show up and so i had to present by myself :( I wasn't too happy so i wait till last as all my group would have gone! Mike gave quite positive comments about it, seeing as he was quite blunt and harsh about the other ones that i thought were better than mine. The only problem is that i didnt have a final image as the conclusion to the project, as the video itself was more a presentation of ideas. So if i had to chose one from the collection it would be the line video of the doors overlayed with the breathing chest.

Overall i enjoyed the project and it had so much scope. I just wish hayley had stayed on to the end of the course.

Defining what a doorway is

We thought we best start now understanding what a doorway is and does. So i went on dictionary.com and got the following definition:

door·way /ˈdɔrˌweɪ, ˈdoʊr-/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dawr-wey, dohr-]

1. the passage or opening into a building, room, etc., commonly closed and opened by a door; portal.
2. a means of access: a doorway to success.
[Origin: 1790–1800; door + way]

I thought the second description fits our assignment perfectly, as people in Drake's Circus ofte use them doors as a way of going through the centre to get to the high street.

So I next did a random image search on the bbc.co.uk, google images and wikipedia.com and found many pictures of the entrances we are goin to look at!

Our idea-well one of them

After our practical yesterday, me and Hayley managed to come up with an idea that has some substance. We are going to look at the doors leading into Drake Circus. What interested us was what doors are most commonly used at what times of the day and night. Here are some of the aspects that we might continue to study:

• What people use which doors, such as families might only use the two central doors while lone shoppers go to the ones on the far sides.
• What are the most popular doors at different times of the day?
• If a block was put in front of one of the door, how would that affect the space?
• How many pass through the doors in the space of an hour?

After checking the idea with Mike, we decided to next thinking of how to display such info in a mapping way. These are the options we thought of blending together:

• Videoing the doors and speeding up the image so it doesnt look like people but instead a flow.
• Slowing down the image and then drawing a still of the shot.
• Highlighting the doors opening and closing, by removing the people.
• Displaying the statistics on screen in a clear way

Next is to now go to Drake Circus and take some photos for some research. Later.

XsX

Asssignment 2- Mapping

Two week ago, I was set an assignment for my IDAT 101 module to do a group project. This was the aim:

"The aim of this assignment is to map a space and document what happens in there in different ways. A third year has been assigned to your group to offer help and guidance. You will be in groups of two and will have to give a presentation on your findings, in any medium."

The space is we have to document is Drake Circus in Plymouth. It is a shopping centre, which opened in 2006 and is now the focus of shopping area in the area.

I decided to work with Hayley Viant as a partner as we had work well together for the telematic performance and put alot of effort into it. Also we have a giggle and get on well :)

Our year went to see the space in our practical session, but unfortunately no one was allowed to take photos as it is against the data protection act. Plus we were stood around in a massive group drawing attention to ourselves. So in the end Hayley and I went shopping as we had yet to come up with a focus for our project.

The subway is good too.

XsX

1st Blog Entry

Well here is my first blog!
I hope to keep it update with how I am progressing with my course Digital Art and Technology, and use this as a way to communicate my ideas to other :)


I tried to change the background to something fancy, but I failed cause all the sites adjust my layout, or just don't work. Stupid websites!!!! I will however change it eventually......in like 2 year or two lol.

XsX