Stephen E. Dinehart's IMD Blog

Local:
Los Angeles Natural History Museum
An awesome inspiring venue of the past and present, with rotating exhibits. Check out dinosaurs and rose gardens.
I see great potential to create punlic interactive installation works on the grounds around NHM.

Non-local:

Chicago's Millenium Park Recently opened next to the Art Institite of Chicago, and Grant Park, between the Loop and the lake, this new amazing venue is full of possibilities. The list of attractions includes, gardens, theatres, sculpture plazas, and fountains.

During my time @ EALA with the Real-Time Strategy (RTS) Team, formerly Westwood Studios, I have been learning a great deal about the genre. I was charged the other day with the task of creating a database of RTS history. I was stunned in my research to find that the first RTS was in fact Dune II, a game I was an avid player off, and was the first product produced by Westwodd Studios. It was released on the Sega Genisis, Sega MegaDrive, and PC. It launched Westwood Studios into infamy.

It’s so strange that the first RTS was actually a successful console release. These days so many people claim RTS can’t be done on the console, but just looking to the past one can realize that the console was one of the places the RTS genre started.

Last night, on our ride home from EA, we spoke of RTS in depth. Jenova claimed that Dune II, and earlier RTS games, fail to satisfy today’s players. The reason, he stated, was that the control schemas we are so familiar with today, lassoing etc., are not available in early RTS games. While I understand his point, I thought I’d test it out.

I downloaded the DUNE II ROM, and I have to say I still love this game! Sure I’m a sucker for 16-bit graphics and sound, but the simply interface still provides a sense of command-like agency over the evolving Arrakis system. I would highly recommend, for anyone who is interested in the genre, to play this game…again…and it can provide some very interesting insight into the founding of a genre.

GameStop's RTS 101

Game Research's Guide to Strategy Games

What is a Thesis?
A thesis is an assumption that one may seek to prove using a means of experimentation, and the scientific method.

What do I seek to prove?
That the worlds of my imagination can come to life, so others may take witness.

Why do I want to prove this?
All of my life I have seen unthinkable things, of subconscious imagination, I need to share them with others, fundamentally I suppose, for approval and understanding.

Why do I seek approval of my dreams, thoughts and ideas?
Everything I know to be true I was always taught to be untrue, except by the exceptional few that stumbled through my life sharing similar dispositions. I want to prove to my family that my lunacy has purpose, to my friends that my longing was not illusion, to my classmates, and the world, that I’m more than a blithering out-spoken fool. Most of all I want to prove to myself, that my loves, my beliefs, which slowly die within me, are righteous and manifest.

1. Area of interest
a.Gesamtkunstwerk; The convergence of cinema and games

2. Q’s
a. How can an interactive experience be as compelling as a cinematic one?
b. Where is the balance between authorship and user participation?
c. How can the arts be combined to provide a total artwork experience?

3. Method
a.Short Film-games

4. Topics
a. Anima-comic book pop
b. RTS
c. Epic Sci-Fa adventure
d. Transpersonal film noir

5. Definition and Market
a. Next Gen Video Game; 18-35 Males;

6. User term
a.Player

German artist Joseph Beuys, strongly believed that the spiritual nature of human beings is expressed throught creativity and ability, in vigorous opposition to negative forces, what he called “the principle of Auschwitz.

He wanted to make a new kind of sculptural object that would include “Thinking forms: how we mould our thoughts…Spoken Forms: how we shape our thoughts into words…[and] Social Sculpture: how we mould and shape the world in which we live.”

He believed that all art belongs to the same sphere of human activity, no matter what medium the creator uses. He created one-person performances in which his stylized actions evoked a sense of mystery, profound human meaning, and sacred ritual. \

Beuys, in such performances, considered himself as a shaman carrying out actions to help “revolutionize human thought,” so that each human being could become a truly free and creative person. Most of his performances were not public events, but were witnessed by only small audiences.

Through the effect on viewers, and even more, though the efficacy of the acts themselves, the artist believed that the world could be changed.

In my performance for 542 this Thursday, I hope to accomplish something inspired in this vain.

The best to you and yours.

This morning seemed like any other, I woke, but this time outside the faces were heavier than usual. Then I thought, I must arm myself with the blind love taught to me by my parents, and give it out. So I did, designed, printed, cut and passed out little valentines, with a self-portrait and a simple statement “Happy Valentines Day”.

Seemed simple enough, make people feel good by genuinely engaging them with affection. I gave it to young, old, men and women, and it was the most direct interaction I have had with my fellow human beings in a long time. It was so pleasant to approach some familiar, some strangers, and simply smile, say happy Valentines Day, and offer a token of my love to them.

The responses we so great, most smiled and laughed, one girl was scared, but 9/10 people seemed pleasantly surprised.

It was a simple technique in ego-bubble bursting and it worked beautifully. At first my participants would be curious, scared, surprised, but once they realized the nature of my gesture all the layers would come off, out of their bubbles they would burst; into the present their consciousness would come.

Blessed Be.

Download QuickTime Movie File

Please feel free to check on our progress on the Cloud Project Blog

1. A Title:

Poetic elemental

2. A brief description that includes genre/material:

My poem will live and speak on its own. My poem will never be the same twice. My poem knows when you are close, and is swayed by the subtleties of mood.

The PE is a sculptural object embedded with sensors, a small computer and an AI system that draws on a database of words and to dynamically create three line poems.

3. Subject matter/topic:

Dynamic database poetry generation

4. Something about the experience:

Noise ratio = happiness vs. sadness
Colors = inspiration
Vicinity = Recite rate

5. Something about significance:

My poetry will leave me and embody an autonomous agent; it will become an emergent system, a ‘living’ poem.

Video game production history:
Gen 1:
Art, Dev, Production, working separately to create product; games got bigger and so did the teams; the system begins to break.
Gen 2:
Mixed 40 person Pods of Art , Dev, and Pro, artist sitting next to level designers, next to AI programmers; Long turn around and down times.
Gen 3:
5-7 person Cells, consisting of mixed individuals with complementary skill sets. “Rock Bands” developing on the fly with creative results, short turn around and little down time.

There have been a lot of changes going on at EALA these days. The GM, Neil Young, has been rolling out his strategy for the studio to move to a next generation game maker model. It’s been quite an experience seeing the studio collectively trying to create a paradigm shift.

At first all the talk of pods and cells made no sense, but my father tipped me off to some research that pertained to the new productions models at EA. It’s something called the Lean Manufacturing Method, a methodology based on the Toyota Production System (TPS) that is focused on reducing waste in any process.

I now believe Neil is acting a Change Agent, brought into EALA to bring about a paradigm shift to the Lean Model. Find out more about Lean Manufacturing at the Links below:

EPA's Guide to Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing Glossary

GOAL:

To awaken the richness of life’s splendor on USC’s campus; this will be the goal of my ideal kiosk remake.

POSSIBLE IDEA:

I would like to alter the kiosk to become a mysterious entity on campus, a unearthly visitor. The form would be modified to represent an organic form (as Illustrated below). During the day the neo-kiosk would gather audio and visual data, “listening” to its surroundings; perceiving. At night it would sleep, and from its slumber would arise dreams, remixes of the days data, abstract stories of color, light and sound.

I just got out this great interview with the Art Development Director on LOTR BFME; and wouldn't you know it, just when I thought I had the interview wrapped I extended my hand to shake his in a sign of thanks, and he went for a high-five. His hand slapped mine and before I knew it I was trying to shake his high-five...bad move.

I've started playing around with some of the tools used to create LOTR The Battle for Middle Earth, here @ EALA. They are such wonderful, easy tools, I'm amazed at their quality. I'm excited to work with them a whole lot more...