Here is a link to the table of contents of my final project. Thanks to Justin for the web help.
My project can be accessed here:
http://www.kirinthedestroyers.com/FFXI/index1.htm
Originally I started out with the idea of catalogueing all of the adventures that I had through websites and pictures, but I started with about 50 different web pages and ideas and ended up with a project the size about 250 different topics and stories. The project got way out of the scope of a final project but I didn't feel like any of these subjects could be cut because they were all important to me. Not all of the links work at the moment, and it is a bit hard to find the pages since they are kind of spider-web'd together, but the main statement of my project can be found on the first page. After an incident on Saturday I took a good long time to think about why I play this game and what it means to me, and why I continue to play it. If it gets too hard to find the links that work, please at least read the first page about my thoughts on the game and the people playing.
I will continue to update this site as a "diary" for all the adventures that I have taken part in.
An evil doctor steals my brain, and YOU have to help me regain my memories!!!
http://spartasoft.msu.edu/shailesh/m/memory/
Here's my final project for 518...DRIVING...
Drive around. Read some stuff...
Enjoy a thrilling and... Oh who am I kidding. It's definitely frustrating. At least, that's what I'm hoping will happen to the hapless reader of this piece. Read it here.
Write-up is included if you read the expanded entry.
The ADD project has come a ways from where it began. Originally, it was a bunch of HTML pages thrown together literally describing what I went through to get the mid-term done on time. While it was an interesting concept, the piece didn't work as well as many would've liked.
So now after a few weeks of re-thinking the project (and help from my fellow classmates) I have come up with this Flash project. Please be warned that I wasn't able to get HTML-like links in Flash. However, it's MUCH more legible for those who like decently formatted text. The buttons are still present, however it's not the same sort of thing as what happened with the previous project. Basically, most of the buttons will do exactly what they say they'll do. But sometimes, the outcome isn't what was intended by the button. That is, you might think you're clicking on a button to start the project, but instead you're writing a check for the rent.
We're holding the class in the ZML, please arrive a bit early so we can look at everyone's work. After brief presentations, I'd like to have as many of the pieces as possible, "installed" and "up and running" for the rest of the class period leaving us free to browse them singly. Some pieces will be experienced best one on one or with more time. Don't forget that your piece is to be accompanied by a document (one page is OK) with:
1. title and YOUR NAME
2. media
3. very brief description of your piece
4. very brief description of process
5. any analysis you’d care to share
I changed my final project. It simply was not feasible to do the flash game where you're performing surgery...besides it wasn't such a hot idea to begin with. But as I started to write content for the flash game piece I found myself more and more writing about what I imagined the future would be like to me. I think it's a reoccuring thing, I live very much in the future.
My final project arose out of this. The idea at the beginning was that neither you memories or your dreams are infalliable and somehow who you are is a composite of both of these. I broke my life up into seven 'chapters' and wrote a version of how I remember them and a version of how I imagined them.
Here it is: http://www.reltuk.net/story/
Of course, I already see some problems with this approach, and I haven't even faced the jury yet of my classmates. For one, in reality all my imaginings, except perhaps the final chapter are memories in and of themselves. On the same level, the work does a poor job of defining where I am imagining these events from. Clearly, it's some undocumented place in the past before the event I am writing about actually occured.
The content itself could of course also use a lot of help, although there is a bit of it so I'm sure I won't be able to go over all of it in class. Hopefully, next week some people will get a chance to fool around with it.
Hi everyone - I found this article at Kotaku about a week ago... It links to a bunch of debate material about interactivity and narrative, especially in reference to Video Games. The material is fascinating, but be prepared for a lot of it if you decided to follow all of the links.
Have fun reading!
After a lot of thought I've decided to do my project on masks.
As in people build up walls to disguise who they really are. People want to be perceived in a certain way. People don't always know who they are or what they want in life or out of life. We get caught up in so many things and at times in the road of life there a bumps that make us slow down and reflect who we are and what we've become.
I want to use masks that represent emotions, which change to what's really motivating a reaction. Like many times it is easier to express anger rather than hurt.
The plan:
April 12 - outline out and begin writing for various emotions
April 19 - begin building out project (in flash or html)
April 26 - Finishing touches on project.
I've decided I want the interface to feel like exploring an audio space. My plan is to implement a Flash piece (since I can't construct a physical motion-sensitive exhibit) that the user can move the mouse around and depending on the area of the screen and what foci it's near the user will hear a combination of recorded audio pieces. I think this may create some neat patterns and overlap between the sounds and their meanings. It allows the user to have some authorship over their auditory experience - they "wander" through an arena of stages that have captivated my life that now exist mainly as echoing memories.
Schedule:
- Implement Flash interface
- Code (by the 14th)
- Visuals (by the 15th)
- Record and import audio files (by the 19th)
Alrighty, so I'm fleshing out the ADD thing. So by the end of this week, I shall have a diagram outlining the overall structure of the piece (with the exact number of "pages" for each thought). Here's the rest of the schedule:
I implement the whole thing in Flash as simply text and links to start. I hope to have this done in the next two weeks. Once that's done, if there's time I will insert sounds and other distractions and have it ready for the final class.
I like to stick the stuff in my posts in the "extended entry" part. ;)
I have given some more thought to my project. My intent is to explore and satirize the construction of identity through consumption. At its core, my project is a list of annotated objects/products/concepts. Each one has associated keywords and a sentence or two attached to it about what it suggests about my persona. Through a minimal flash interface, you will go shopping for the items that will build your own custom Aaron. Each object will have an iconified representation. Mousing over the object will provide more info. What I want to try is to have a limited number of objects for you to select from at each stage (maybe 4 stages of object selection total). Each selection will determine what items will next be selectable (ie related items).
And now for my schedule...
April 12th - Final list of objects, keywords, most of the associated sentences finished. Preliminary interface sketch, interactivity walkthrough
April 19th - Working prototype... probably not too polished or debugged. No sounds or flashy flash flourishes yet.
April 26th - The final thing... it'll have some sounds and will work nice and smooth and will take into account issues brought up in class presentation.
Ever since Peggy first assigned this project, I’ve been wrestling with the best way for me to represent a self portrait of myself. Yesterday, while getting my car serviced I decided to get a snack at Starbucks and finally after weeks of contemplation, I found inspiration. I don’t know if it was the chantico or the Sinatra blaring through the speakers, but whatever it was I think I’ve come up with something. It’s a jigsaw puzzle, riddle, Q&A game! Nothing earth shattering, but nonetheless a challenge for me to create over the next few weeks. Each puzzle piece would reveal something about me. Now that I have the idea, I’ll being developing it more fully this week and implementing the design the rest of this month.
I heard Ted Nelson give a talk at Yerba Buena in San Francisco in 1996. He ranted, expertly, wittily, on the excretable state of publishing technology and digital culture. After all I'd heard and read about his work to perfect hypertext tools, I couldn't stand it - I went to ask a question: You've been working on tools for so long, what about all the writing you would have done? Will the tools ever be good enough for you to start creating?
Now I remembering this moment as I struggle to make the architecture I described in my last post - a personality plug-in for Firefox. I'm seeking help, I knew that before - I've specced out an open architecture, so I build the system for myself to use, in a way that anyone else can use it too, to put out their own portable personality modules. Heck this seems like I've bitten off a lot. Gotta keep chewing!
Here's a rough schedule: Finish up coding by April 12. April 12-19 begin to fill in content. April 19-26 expand content beyond initial compositions. Back up plan? Use Greasemonkey.
So far I just have some reading to do, some questions about del.icio.us integration, and a project page up on MozDev - a Firefox plugin development site. I'm going to use persona.mozdev.org to coordinate my designs and hopefully attract some qualified outside expertise.
And then? If I get this think working? I'll be writing my final assignment all over the ever lovin' internet!