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February 26, 2005
Virtual Hallucinations
Virtual Hallucinations is a project by doctor and computer programmer Nash Baldwin. Situated in the Second Life universe, it simulates the hallucinations of schizophrenics based on their own first-person accounts.
(via BoingBoing)
Posted by jeppink at 02:27 PM | Comments (0)
February 25, 2005
As of Yet, Untitled
CTIN 499 Computational Film Sketch
Title: TBD
Concept/Theme: This film explores the central role commuting and transportation have on our experience of the world, especially in a sprawling metropolis like Los Angeles. Three characters (husband, wife, and elderly father/father-in-law) make their way from a common starting point to pursue their daily commute-the elderly father walks to the local donut shop with his faithful dog companion, pausing in the park along the way to chat with other neighborhood locals; the husband drops his wife at the rail station and proceeds by car, racing down boulevards onto the freeway, taking conference calls on his cell phone, and getting trapped by traffic jams, all the while images of snow capped San Bernardino mountains fleet by as unnoticed as the giant billboards advertising new televisions shows and the current lottery prize; the wife boards the MTA Red Line, noting the artwork in the station before boarding the train, struggling to maintain a comfortable personal space as the train car fills with commuters, students, tourists, panhandlers and all manner of persons.
In each vignette (father, husband, wife) the pace of images proceeds coincident with the pace (and relative peace) of the commute: pedestrian=slow, meandering pace; driver=frantic and fast paced, with the world fleeting by as if on screen, until traffic jam; rail rider=speedy and steady pace. The image-speed will not be “real time” but will be “proportional time”. That is, each of the three characters spends the same amount of time traveling within the storyworld (diegetic time), but standard cinematic techniques of time compression and ellipses, in addition to the rapid image speed, will allow the portrayal of significantly different distances covered by the different modes of transport.
The progress of each character can be followed by means of an interactive map. The icon representing each character will move along his or her route appropriately and the user can investigate each.
Interaction Design: The screen is divided into 5 frames, on large and four _ size thumbnails on the left hand side of the screen (one per character and one for the map). The map has three icons (each color coded to the character's costume) moving in proportion to the corresponding characters' commute. Clicking the icon will load that commuter's image track into the large window. To begin the piece, the three character thumbnails are not loaded, all characters are on screen in the large window and selecting a character populates the sidebar thumbnails and loads that character's image-track into the main window.
Misc. Notes: Currently thinking that the “image track” is still image montage, sound design (not described above) also a key element to capturing the experience of these commutes/lifestyles.
TBD elements: title, authoring platform, narrative closure.
Posted by sruston at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)
The MP3 Experiment
Improv Everywhere is a New York-based performance art group (or purveyor of large-scale, witty pranks - your pick). Their exploits are consistently smart, funny, and well-documented.
One of their recent projects was the MP3 Experiment, inspired by the Flaming Lips' Parking Lot Experiments and Headphone Concerts and Andy Kaufman's Performance at Carnegie Hall. Weeks in advance, participants were instructed to download a 27-minute mp3 file to their audio-player of choice and told the location and time of the performance. At the theatre, each audience-member donned headphones and started their mp3 players at the same time. Throughout the performance, participants were instructed to blow bubbles, give high fives, divide into groups (including secret instructions to each group), take photographs, and dance. All done in complete silence as seen by the outside viewer!
As visual media players become more portable and pervasive, one can imagine a similar project incorporating an active audience that reacts in groups to pieces of video each member is individually presented with. Perhaps participants are shown a set of shapes that they must form in groups (a la Michel Gondry's music video for "Mad World"), or they are given a map of some space and led on a treasure hunt with the added temporal challenge of clues being uncovered along a timeline. Not everyone would have to have the exact same video either. Groups could be instructed to use different versions, or technology permitting, video streams could be changed in real-time based on location or other variables.
Posted by jeppink at 12:53 AM | Comments (0)
February 24, 2005
Venice canals movie map
This project is inspired by the Aspen Movie Map and would use the Korsakow system to map the four city blocks that now comprise the space of the Venice canals by three modes of conveyance: boat, car and foot. The space is very contained and perfectly suited to such an exploration. In addition, Korsakow is coincidentally configured to present a three-link interface that would give access to the different modes of transportation, with decision points at each intersection as well as hidden "gateway" points where one could switch from one means of conveyance to another. For this class, I believe it would also be interesting to insert some sort of narrative motivation into the space -- most likely a kind of explorational game structure that requires navigating parts of the space by all three modes in order to solve a puzzle or uncover a story.
Posted by sanderson at 09:15 AM | Comments (0)
February 20, 2005
KinoAutomat
What is considered to be the world's first interactive movie, "KinoAutomat", created by Radúz Činčera and first shown at the Czech Pavilion at Expo 67 in Montreal, is about to be released soon for DVD. Thanks to Chris Hales, another active interactive filmmaker from England. Chris teaches one of the few interactive television courses in Europe : a 10-week course at the Finnish MediaLab of UIAH.
Posted by mlew at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)