kellee's blog

The Play

Posted by at 4:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

From 
cbn_info@tiscali.it 
Sent 
Tuesday, November 30, 2004 4:59 am
Subject 
<> Your Payment Notification.

ATTN: Dear Contractor
       
IMMEDIATE CONTRACT PAYMENT.CONTRACT#:MAV/NNPC/FGN/MIN/009.
 
From the records of outstanding contractors due for payment with the Federal
Government of Nigeria, your name and company was discovered as next on the
list of the outstanding contractors who have not received their payments.
 
I wish to inform you that your payment is being processed and will be released
to you as soon as your respond to this letter. Also note that from my record
in my file your outstanding contract payment is US$32.7 million dollars
(Thirty-two million seven hundred thousand united states dollars).
 
Please re-confirm to me if this is inline with what we have in your record
and also re-confirm to me the followings:
 
1) Your full name.
2) Phone, fax and mobile #.
3) Company name, position and address.
4) Profession, age and marital status.
5) Scanned copy of int'l passport.
 
As soon as this information is received, your payment will be made to you
in a certified bank draft or wired to your bank account directly from Central
Bank of Nigeria and a copy will be given to you for you to take to your
bank and confirm it.
 
You must call me on my direct number as soon as you receive this letter
for a serious discussion with me and also get back to me in this e-mail
box:cbnexecutivegovernor@hotmail.com
 
Regards,
 
Prof. Charles Soludu.
Executive Governor,
Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Direct line: 234-803-439-9504
Website:www.cenbank.org

Posted by at 8:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Goals:
In going into this assignment, I knew I wanted to explore the beneath-the-surface aspects of mapping space. Sure, figuring out how to get around is useful, but if we are looking at a future in which “all of the streets of the world will soon be imaged in an Aspen-Movie-Map-like way(Naimark),” the possibilities to map space according to other rule sets than directions become more open. I also hoped to explore how having every space mapped leaves the door open to subtle manipulation by the companies that are able to create such world maps; there is choice in every design, even in that of a map.

Taking the Photos:
I decided to take my tripod and digital camera to Pershing Square and begin with a “traditional” panorama, take my cues from the environment, and go from there. I ended up taking some video by standing in one place, holding the camera up, hitting record, and turning around. I thought this might at least give me good coverage of the area. I then set up my tripod and began pointing, clicking, turning approx. ten degrees, and repeating. About four pictures later I got asked to stop taking pictures by a park security guard. He explained that I needed a permit to take photos in the park. I explained to him I was not using these photos for commercial purposes. I should tell you that my camera is really nothing very fancy. Nor is my tripod. However, he insisted that I cease taking photos immediately and leave the park. In the meantime, Erin and Brad were getting great coverage of the event with their cell phone cameras.

Creating the Panorama:
As an experiment, I dumped still images taken from the video using iMovie and my digital camera photos into Photoshop CS and got it to perform a “Photomerge.” Because my images were not a perfect panorama, an interesting thing occurred – a panorama was created based on the color and linear motifs of each image, despite their correlation in real space. The result was a fascinating collage of color and objects, which aligned much more with my memory of the park than a simple map did. I realigned the images myself to create a journey through the space – from yellow to green, from diagonal to vertical, from subjective to objective (as the picture quality goes from worse to better).

Viewing the Panorama:
Looking at the panorama horizontally like it is above, I think the progression of visual events is much more linear than they were in the space. This difference highlighted for me the aspect of panorama that only allows you to look in one direction at a time. The audience expressed frustration over only being able to see one wall at any given moment because they could see their was a story being told, but couldn’t get it all at one time.

Conclusion:
In this project I did not deal with issues concerning choice in map-making. Other than the fact that I made a choice, I don’t feel this final product highlighted my fears of “The World… brought to you by Google.” However, I think it did accurately reflect my feelings on mapping space through experience; I feel more and more that capturing my world and my life through digital photography gets farther away from my actual experience of it. For many reasons(that I might go into later), I have a very disjointed vision of the world around me. This panorama comes very close to capturing that feeling, and it might just be that the audience’s experience of frustration reflect my own.

I could do a whole other piece on my experience with the security guard. Maybe I should have stolen Brad’s idea to map a back alley. Perhaps these will be the only spaces to be creatively and effectively mapped by the public because they will be the only ones we lowly citizens have access to?

Posted by at 12:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

I heard about this project from a friend who might be working on a documentary on it.

From a description on the piece.
“The original idea was to asses the value of using Indian Classical Dance as a tool to improve the understanding of complex scientific concepts. Students have learnt the material and transformed it into choreography. The choreography has used the tools of Bharatanatyam like Jathis, Hasta , Mudras and Abhinaya. Students have come up with creative ways of showing DNA replication, structure and mutation."

And this is quoted from a review.

Eleven students trained in the art of Bharatanatyam studied the science of DNA under the guidance of Dr. Balram Singh, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at UMASS Dartmouth. They then translated the science into dance under the coaching of two masters of the dance art of Bharatanatyam, Ranjani Saigal, Director of the Eastern Rhythm School of Dance in Burlington, and Kausalya Srinivasan, Senior Fellow of Dance at the University College Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. Under the careful guidance of these teachers, the students created their own story of the Origin of Life, the characteristics of the Double Helix, and the discovery of the structure of DNA. They even explored the processes of replication, transcription and translation and illustrated the concepts of mutation and genetic disorders. I have never seen such an effective explanation of night blindness and hemophilia, and I will remember the illustration of cloning and stem cell research better than the explanations of my college biology class because of this creative illustration.

Posted by at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For Hoberman and Lew's 534 class I decided not to use a webcam/isight for my user input. I realized that at the heart of my project was a way to necessitate not only physical movement between the user and the screen, but physical interaction between the user and other people in the room.

Perry and I brainstormed ways to force the players/users interact with each other. One way we thought would be simple would be to use the variable resistor code, replacing the variable resistor with two copper wires attached to humans(contacting the skin in any way does the trick), and then the humans touch each other.

Well, it turned out to actually be easy! The more contact the two(or more) people have, the more resistance, and the lower the reading. Light contact generates high readings. I wasn't expecting to accomplish this so quickly, and am not prepared with content(That backstory is that I've been creatively blocked towards this project) . However, it obviously suggest a sensous experience, although one could make the choice to contrast this with something completely non-sensous. (i.e. turn the lights on)

Anyways, it's really fun to use, and I'm only getting numbers from it right now, so at he very least I'm hoping to create a more accessible and equally fun experience for the users.

Posted by at 5:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is a section from my 14 screen panorama - an attempt to map my experience at Pershing Square with Brad and Erin.

Posted by at 11:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You're at the holiday get together with friends and family. Somebody turns to you and says

"Hey! How's school going? What are you studying again?"
"I'm getting my masters in interactive media."
"Oh... interactive media.... so... what is that exactly?"

What is your answer?

Posted by at 5:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by at 12:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Because I haven't posted in a while, here is a zen thought -

"A beehive can apparently be moved two inches each night without disorienting the bees the next morning. Surprisingly, if it is moved two MILES, the bees also have no problem. They are forced by the total displacement of their environment to re-orient their sense of direction, which they can do easily enough.

But if the hive is moved two YARDS, the bees will become fatally confused. The environment does not seem different to them, so they do not re-orient themselves, and as a result, they will not recognize their own hive when they return from foraging, hovering instead in the empty space where the hive used to be, while the hive itself sits just two yards away."

From "In the Blink of an Eye,' by Walter Murch

Posted by at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

At a March & Rallyagainst the war in Iraq and in support of bringing the troops home. I live within walking distance, so if you are interested please contact me and we can meet up and walk together.

Info:
March & Rally
This Saturday, November 6th at noon
Hollywood & Highland

Posted by at 1:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)