Real vs. Imaginary Communities

“. . .Rather than being constrained by the computer, the members of these groups creatively exploit the systems’ features so as to play with new forms of expressive communication, to explore possible public identities, to create otherwise unlikely relationships, and to create behavioral norms. In so doing, they invent new communities.”(Reid, 1995)”

 Cyber communities are transcending the physical boundaries that usually accompany other communities. They can be any size, defined by the number of members. However, since these communities don’t actually possess boundaries, some researchers claim that they are “imaginary” communities that do not merit a deep study.

However, Oldenburg (1989) makes claims that online communities are actually filling a niche. We travel through three main areas during our daily rituals.  We have the place we live, the place we work, and the place where we interact with others. This used to be the domain of pubs, cafes and other such environments but increased urbanisation and developments such as the spread of malls and the stifling of humans leaves this gap sorely empty. Logging into an online community no matter what the form is the equivalent of popping at your local bar for a quick chat with the locals. 

Here’s my latest project for Cinematics.

Link

We had to take a location and express it remotely over the internet.

Wearable Technology

In recent years, miniaturization has increased. Taser jacket?

L’echarpe Communications – Techy scarf

1. Wearable computer, worn not carried

2 .User controllable

3. Real time, always active.

4. Cool

Steve Mann

Existech’s fashionable products for security, eSafety

“Maybe Camera – Who’s paranoid?” – A piece of acrylic on a sweatshirt which LOOKS like a camera but may or may not be. Complete with privacy disclaimer!

Audio ballerinas

Audio peacock (what?)

Dialtones, a telesymphony

Mobile phones annoy the heck out of people. But it is still an instrument, yet has no place for them to be performed properly at.

Paul De Marinis

“Raindance” 1998

“Firebirds” 2004

Joachim Sauter ART + COM

“Famous Grouse Experience”

“Medial stage and costume design

David Rokekby

“Very Nervous system”  1986-1990

Paul Garrin / David Rokeby

Erikki Kurenniemi

DIMI ballet 1971

Paul Sermon

“Telematic dreaming” 1992

“Telematic Vision” 1993

Kit Galloway & Sherrie Rabinowitz

“Satellite arts project” 1977

“hole in space” 1980

Nam June Paik

“Good Morning, Mr. Orwell” 1984

Video Location: Mt Victoria, town belt

Mt Victoria is one of Wellington’s most distinctive landmarks. Rising to the east of the harbour, it serves as the divider between the main city and Mirimar. The town belt covers most of Mount Victoria on side facing the city as well as the ridge extending along Newtown.

The concept for my film is going to be the ascension of Mt. Victoria, starting from the base and showing various aspects of the trails and paths ascending upwards. Mainly using footage from walking up the mountain as well as possibly cycling scenes, I want to show off the uniqueness of the bush while always ascending upwards. once the top is reached, (the lookout) a long zoom outwards from the top of the lookout into space will heighten the feeling of being “on top of the world”. Even though it’s not the highest point in Wellington, therelatively isolated mountain feels like the highest CENTRAL point and so feels almost like the middle of the city. I’m intending for the footage to be strung together using mainly a combination of fast cuts up various trails, using footage mainly recorded while walking on foot. At certain significant spots on the mountain, the action will turn to pans over sky through the trees and generally slow down to focus on important elements within the scene.

Style: Casual style constant beat in background, subdued chords during slow focus sections

Footage will start from the bottom of the mountain, probably from the entrance coming up from the basin reserve and progress upwards in order of height but not necessarily in order of location. Footage will be shot at different times of the day from noon, to sunset, night, dawn and back to early morning for the final shot upon the summit. Filters during the day will focus on enhancing lighting, predominantly concerning the play of light from the sun coming through the trees during the sunset.

The main response that is planned to be evoked from the viewer is one of realizing the natural beauty of such a location, even within a dense city area. There are so many locations upon Mt. Victoria that can be used for this purpose, that it will be interesting to choose the right ones.

We live in a changing world, this is something that we have known for many years. The information age exploded into our lives during the 1990’s and has continued to grow exponentially ever since. The shift has been from the creation of products, to the handling of information, of which there is now an overwhelming amount.

Videos, documents, music, encyclopaedias are all bow deeply integrated within digital mediums such as the internet.This influx of information is staggering for the human mind, so this has led to the creation of interaction design.

There is too much information in the world for anybody to access it in it’s raw form. Interaction Design was formed as a way of creating ways to easily access and manipulate data, in ways that make natural sense. This has led to the evolution of the internet and in turn, the extension of the internet into our everyday lives. Now we can access information from almost anywhere we desire, from computers, laptops and cellphones.The evolution of the internet has also led us to the age of Web 2.0, a shift in focus of the internet from being a static collection of pages with meaningful links between them, to focusing more on user generated content and the manipulation of existing information by said users.

Community orientated websites such as Facebook and Youtube have offered the user for the first time, the ability to EASILY make a place for themselves on the internet without having to delve into the dark world of programming.

But as demand and the volume of information grows, new methods need to be developed for people to interact with their data. In the future, how will we interact with our data in not only cyberspace, but the real world as well?These new future methods of interaction are already in development, such as the proliferation of radio (RFID) tags for giving real world items a presence on the Internet and the constant development of wireless technologies, for allowing us constant access to reams of data which become more and more relevant to our actions in the real world.

So in conclusion, what technologies and methods will interaction designers provide us with for interacting with online communities in the future?

Bibliography:

Dan Saffer – The Future of Interaction Design: Berkley, New Riders 2007

Virtual-Communities, Virtual Settlements & Cyber-Archaeology: A Theoretical Outline - Quentin Jones JCMC 3/12/97 - http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol3/issue3/jones.html

JCMC VOl 10 Issue 4 - Online Communities - http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue4/

Ethnomethodology and the study of online communities: exploring the cyber streets -  Steven R. Thomsen, Joseph D. Straubhaar, Drew M. Bolyard - http://informationr.net/ir/4-1/paper50.html

Second Life Research - Guido Lang - http://secondliferesearch.blogspot.com/ 

Social Interaction Design Guide: Social Media, Social Practices, Social Content - Adrian Chan - http://www.gravity7.com/articles_G7_SxD_Social_Content-12-21-06.html

Design and Postmodernity

“Postmodernity is everywhere, from literature, design and philosophy, to MTV, ice-cream and underwear” – Michael J Dear and Steven Flusty

                                             Spaces of Postmoderism

                                             2003

-ities and –isms

-ities describe the value system, that ideology

-isms are the qualities associated with those ideas.

Post modernity: the state or ideaology of being postmodern

Postmodernism: The associations of being postmodern

Value systems provide societal, cultural, and economic meaning

Design features of Post WWII

Shows innovation and technologically based design

HfG – Rotary Slide projector - 1963

         - electric shaver - 1961

Levitown – thousands of houses in rows, nature suppressed

-       Depressed housewives, “is this all?”

-       Lack of public facilities

Postmodernism about choice, feminism about choice

Those disabled, different race, religion, all fitted into woman’s lib, global awareness. Woman’s lib postmoderist

Richard Hamilton – “Just What Is It That Makes Today’s Homes So Different, SO Appealing.”

         - Collage, 1956, Tate, London

 Abstract Expresionism

De Kooning’s Untitled XXIII, 1977

Shifano, Mario Coca Cola, 1972

70’s CRAZY design man.

3-Legged Arne Jacobsen Ant Chair, 1952.

Form moulded Plastic

1970’s Apollo design. Looks like a space helmet :/

1962 Oldenburg Cloth Hamburger

1967 Inflatable Blow Chair

1968 Bean bag chair

1981 Carlton cabinet – Ettore Sottsass

1969 Portable red typewriter – Olivetti

1970 Nefertiti desk

1985 Tartar Table

Paris – Student Uprising

Mechanical Calculator

Slide Rule

Apple Computer

WWW – 1993

Semiotics

Structuralism

                  Sign

                  ^      ^

             ^              ^

         ^                         ^

Signified———————Signifier

Gaston Bachelard

The Poetics of Space 1958

Underlies the rationalism of the imagination

Phenomenology, the experience of space, includes the poetic notion.

Basement: Dark, damp frightening

Attic: Light, mysterious, discovering of secrets

Difference between horizontal and vertical

 Jean-Francois Lyotard 1925-1998

The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge

Knowledge has become ‘splintered’ into fragments.

The synthesis of a small narrative, the telling of events.

-       Discourse opens without pre-conditions, no rules or conditions…

Postmodern narrative is situational, provisional, temporary, with no claim to universality, truth or reason.

Science legitimates itself for reasons which assume a unified, progressive, universal total truth…

But none of these are so…

Bias and distortion have changed blah blah blahfgdfsjkghdfg

Frederick Jameson 1934

Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, 1991

Postmodern war (Vietnam) created a postmodern culture of alienation and disorientation. High-tech fantasies are morally questionable.

Jean Baudrillard 1929-2007

Simulcra and Simulation 1988

Values of commoditities as a philosophy of culture

-Functional value of an object (eg pen)

I’m setting up categories in my blog now so that I can tag each post and have them ordered into subjects, rather than have three seperate blogs, one for each subject.

For future reference, the link to the research aspect of my blog is
Huh, my link seems to be busted. Well anyway, it’s http://burning-water.com/blog/archives/category/course-blogs/271-history-blog

Search for philosophical language

1. To serve as an auxiliary language for people to communicate (common language)
2. Scientific language – simplified system of symbolism
3. Logical calculus – powerful instrument of the human mind

John Wilkins – Bishop of Chester (1614-1672)

            Attempted to create universal language

-“An Essay Towards a Real Character and A Philosophical Language”

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)

            -“Characteristica Universalis” Universal Character

            Add numbers to determine meaning

Discovered binary notation system – Existed 2000 years previous in Eastern countries.

Charles Babbage

            -“Analytical Engine” 1834

            Early calculator, forerunner of the computer, never completed

Ada Lovelace (1815-1852)

            -First computer programmer

Alan M. Turing (1912-1954)

            -Founder of computer science

            -Turing machine, really simple but can calculate a lot of stuff, theoretical

Turing test – “If you communicate with a computer in another room through a terminal not knowing if it is a computer or human, then you have true AI.”

1947 – Worked on software in Cambridge

1952 – Convicted on acts of gross indeceny (gay? – what the hell)

Konrad Zuse: Z3 computer 1941

            Was working in isolation from other sources

Founded first computer start up company

Late 1960s, suggested calculation based space (fledlging internet?)

First fully functional programmable computer – mechanical relays

Colossus at Bletchley Park 1944

            -Reduced time to crack messages from weeks to hours

Norbert Wiener “Cybernetics” 1948

            Developed field of cybernetics – means to extend human capability

            First human-machine interaction designer

IBM 701 – First commercial scientific computer 1952

            Sold 19 over 2 years

PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1) 1960

            Most well known for creation of hacker culture

            First game – SpaceWar! - Steve Russel

            Cathode ray tube

MIT – Center of computing universe

Atari – Pong

Ivan Sutherland –Sketchpad 1963

            Lightpen and screen for drawing directly on screen (tablet – woot)

            First program to fully use a gui

First non-procedural program (straightening lines)

First true object oriented system

Douglas Engelbart’s NLS demo (oN-Line System) 1968 – “The mother of all demos”

Presentation of hypertext linking, instant messaging, video conferencing, email,            Mouse, huge amount of technologies

Mouse developed in 1960’s, not used mainstream till 1980’s

1990’s

Pretty much a computer explosion

Media           

1834 Zoetrope

Eadweard Muybridge “The Horse in Motion”

Fantascope projection

Lanterna Magica – Early projector

Vladimir Tatlin 1919-1920

Bauhaus something

Laszlo Moholy-Nagy

            -“my belief is that mathematically harmonious WORDS”

1930 Home Clavilux by Thomas Wilfred

            -First remote control?

Jean Tinguely, meta-Matic, No 17 1959

            -Homage to New York 1960

E.A.T – Experiments in Art and Technology

Nam June Paik – First video artist

Sony – First portable video/audio recorder

John Whitney – Father of Computer animation 1917-1995

Cybernetic Serendipity

This is an animation I was commissioned to do by one of my friends from University to promote his group’s software for a competition.

I really like how this turned out. It took a while to do, and I nearly went insane several times from it but I learnt a lot and managed to produce my first frame-by-frame animation (in a matter of speaking.

Hope you enjoy this new version with almost twice as much animation as before.

Well guys, looks like there’s going to be a few changes around here. I’m finally getting onto that new site redesign I’ve been harking on about (since Burning Water on Joomla :D) as part of my Digital Media webdesign course.

This blog will also now have more progress reports and updates than before as I’ll have tutors and lecturers checking to make sure I’m actually doing stuff (Hi guys).

Releases will still be posted here first regarding all new projects and additions to the site so that you know what I’ve added, though there’ll be a funky new frontpage showing the latest releases in each category.   

So I hope you enjoy your stay! Whether or not you were already here in the first place… 

Well look at this, I’m updating about 5 minutes after my last post. Ah well, I’ve got more news and another video. 

This was my entry into the Gameriot “Dawn of Machinima” competition, where we had to take promotional images of the HP Blackbird PC and integrate them into a machinima in some way. I wrote the script, did the voice-acting and choreography all from scratch and ended up with what you see above.

Voting was from the 20th to the 27th but on the second to last day, I posted on the Facepunch forums, asking for people to check out my video and vote on it if they wished. Somehow the word spread and I received a massive amount of votes from all over the HL2 community which put me into first place with +741 votes! I’m still waiting on the competition results but I’m fairly certain that my entry has won.

Main prize? Said Blackbird PC. In the computer world that’s the equivalent of comparing whatever computer you are on now to a volvo and the Blackbird to a Ferrari. It’s in a whole different class.

So anyway, I’m calling this my first public machinima release. And from this contest I’ve DEFINITELY got some exposure. So you’ll be hearing from me soon regarding more releases, as I have quite a few ideas in production.

Peace out y’all.

First off, here’s my interior design project from the end of this year, a little late mind but I’ll get to that in a second.   

This was for the end of 112 where we had to take the dimensions of a room in a gallery and turn it into an interior space that interacted with light. I went the hard route and made my design into a HL2 map, the first time I had really used Hammer, the HL2 map editor. Of course this has me going nuts now over using hammer for machinima, something I’ve really wanted to break into for a while. So  I’m now in a machinima group called Walrus Attack, which strangely enough has nothing to do with Walruses. It’s the unified name we have for our HL2 machinima releases and we may have some big name machinima people on board soon so keep an eye out for us.

Now for the reason of the delay. Well, I broke my ankle in October after I was cruising down a hill on a waveboard (fancy two wheeled skateboard which twists in the middle) at a about 3am when I kinda lost control and ended up with a lovely broken ankle. Anyway, this shows how often I update this blog, considering that this happened 2 months ago now. Anywhoo I’m walking again so I’ll consider that a victory. 

PS: I got into Digital Media next year! Dance party time.  

Not much to update here. The year is wrapping up school wise.

I haven’t got any material to post at the moment though I’ll try and get some up later. My kinetic sculpture for Design was chosen to be displayed in an exhibition name “Are you smarter than a first year student?”

I frankly found this to be quite hilarious.

Anyway, my model has only been on display for two days and someone has already managed to break off the switch and break a leg. Even with about 12 “DO NOT TOUCH” signs spread all around it seems people just can’t help their needless curiosity. Ah well, I can’t blame them. Every time I walk past I itch just to try some of the more fantastic looking devices there.

Projects, projects, projects, hmmmm…..

I’ve got two maps coming up soon. One UT2004 map for Introduction to Computers (I promised myself I’d start tonight) and one HL2 map and video for Design. Shame I have no idea how to use Hammer…

I’ll also probably make some more videos in the holidays coming up. I still want to try and win that prize package from Avid, Sony and HP, for te camera more than the software or laptop.

I also need to get a machinima out there soon, start to make a name for myself.

Time to sign off now I think, it’s 3am and I’m still not tired.

Later world.

The project was also a competition, judged by DNA design from Wellington a large Design firm and the Victoria University marketing board. We presented it today, in front of about 50 students doing the same thing.Judging from the feedback we got from the audience though, it went down really well. Even the judges and tutors called it “slick” and “professional”.I’ll come down off my euphoria eventually. Till then, please don’t disturb me on cloud 9.

Please don’t kill me. I know I haven’t posted for ages and trust me, I have some stuff … somewhere which I can post (like a new website *cough*) but for the moment, here’s some jamming my friends and I did these holidays.

And yes, these guys can actually play guitar even if they aren’t demonstrating it particularly well here.