tag:interactive.usc.edu,2008:/members/mchuri//131 2008-07-04T05:45:30Z Movable Type 3.31 tag:interactive.usc.edu,2008:/members/mchuri//131.9096 2008-07-03T22:25:12Z 2008-07-04T05:45:30Z

Since a towel wrapped around my feet and legs evoked such a sense of stability I thought that extending that stability to the entire torso would enhance the sensation but actually it had the opposite affect. I took a large...

Maya Churi ]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2008:/members/mchuri//131.9089 2008-06-29T21:30:20Z 2008-06-29T22:51:50Z

...and what I saw there. There are spider webs all over the tree. Webbing from leaves to branches - maybe moths? Nest. A bird flew out when I touched the tree. Outside of tree is green and lush. From underneath...

Maya Churi history. ]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2008:/members/mchuri//131.9079 2008-06-26T04:13:27Z 2008-06-27T18:56:29Z

A few days ago I asked a couple of kids to come over and show me what they would look like if they were a tree. I didn't give them much instruction. More than anything I wanted to see what...

Maya Churi ]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2008:/members/mchuri//131.8963 2008-04-16T20:16:33Z 2008-04-16T21:21:11Z

Here are some notes on my thesis - the idea and the experience. Special thanks to Mike, Ethan and Al for their creative input... The goal of my thesis is to create a multi-sensory experience in which the participant can...

Maya Churi be another living thing. Essentially becoming/transforming into the other. Through the Storied Experience participants can learn, sense and eventually come to understand what it feels like to perceive the world from the other’s perspective. In the simplest terms, I would like to explore how we can use advanced technology as well as simple science to create a layered experience that gives us the impression that we, as well as our senses, have changed. The participant will be given visual, auditory and tactile cues based on the cognitive understanding and instinct of the chosen entity. Perhaps gesture can play a part as well. (Scope - TBD). Thoughts...we can't change our mass but we do have materials at our disposal that can give the perception that our mass has changed. Oobleck, for example, can easily give the perception of walking on water - much like the Basilisk Lizard can. How does story work its way into this understanding? How can story enhance perception? And, when working in tandem can story and perception create a uniquely rich and profound experience. In the case of this thesis the perspective will be of either a crow or a tree. Why a crow and why a tree? They are both characters in the children's story I am writing - which is an integral part of the project. But, my goal is to create a format or structure by which the methods used to create the experience could be used for any living thing. Some questions: How does affordance work its way into this? How do I articulate the affordances of a crow or a tree? How do I differentiate between anthropomorphism and science in this context? Do I have to differentiate? Does the integration of story lend itself solely to anthropomorphism? American Heritage Dictionary – Anthropomorphism – Attribution of human motivation, charactersitcs, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals or natural phenomena. Does the project have to be untainted by anthropmorphism…can anthropmorphism be attributed on some level to human instinct – why is it given so little voice? A bird ascribed human charactersitcs or a human ascribed bird characteristics…maybe we just have similar characteristics. ]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2008:/members/mchuri//131.8740 2008-02-08T19:34:32Z 2008-02-08T23:52:33Z

Inspired by the Chinese proverb “If you hear you forget, if you see you remember, if you do you understand.” I AM DESIGNING storied experiences that immerse the doer into a world from which they will walk away with the...

Maya Churi I AM DESIGNING storied experiences that immerse the doer into a world from which they will walk away with the resonant feeling that they were part of something bigger than themselves… BECAUSE I want to explore the extent to which these experiences can be appropriated and applied to life… IN ORDER TO enhance human understanding AND DEVELOP a lexicon for the methods, mechanisms and approaches to creating effective storied experiences.]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2008:/members/mchuri//131.8666 2008-01-24T18:02:39Z 2008-01-27T03:25:48Z

Part 1: Pick 3 objects a) Something significant from your childhood, something important to you - a toy, a talisman a memento. Noah’s Arc wooden toy. b) An inspiration - a quote, a song, a book, a lyric, a piece...

Maya Churi Part 1: Pick 3 objects a) Something significant from your childhood, something important to you - a toy, a talisman a memento. Noah’s Arc wooden toy. b) An inspiration - a quote, a song, a book, a lyric, a piece of art, an experience, a philosopher, a scientist, just ONE. Jeanne d' Arc painting and transcripts of her trial. c) Something you've done or pursued on your own initiative (scholarly or otherwise) that is deeply interesting/satisfying to you. My Changing Planet ]]> Part 2: Questions a) Why this item is interesting/meaningful/important to you (or universally)? Noah’s Arc There are aspects to my life, aspects to my memories that have significance that cannot be quantified or explained. There is a comfort in objects of my childhood and that comfort exists as a familiarity that cannot be explained to anyone else except my brother and sister, mother and father. My object is a small wooden arc and a few wooden animals that go with it. It is old, it was old when I was a child, but it was in my home and represents a time and a place, but not a moment. It is a feeling - a sensation that comes upon me when interacting with this object – a sensation similar to coming upon an old friend or a long forgotten memory. Jeanne d' Arc Chosen partly for the similarity of the name that it shares with Noah’s Arc and chosen partly because I’d forgotten how moved I am by her story, my object of inspiration is a painting of Jeanne d' Arc by Jules Bastien-Lepage that hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a book that I have of the transcripts from her trial. My Changing Planet The project that I am currently working on is the one I am most proud of. Four women, including myself started a company last year to bring awareness of environmental issues facing our world to children in a fun and entertaining way. Our goal is to inspire them to make change in their home, in their neighborhood and in their world. We are still a work in progress but feel free to take a look and have a listen: mychangingplanet.com b) What are the issues, concerns, principles, processes or attributes that surround each item? Emotionally compelling, meaningful and humanely significant story is the common attribute surrounding each of my objects/inspirations. A story that is able to make change or alter the way we view the world around us (individually or as a group) is usually the most significant. But, the audience must be ready to hear it. I don’t think these stories can be manufactured – they are inspired. c) How is each item relevant: socially, technically, politically, phenomenologically? With the exception of the painting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art the objects themselves are not relevant to anyone but me. It is the story behind the objects that holds the most importance. From my personal, first person P.O.V. the Noah’s Ark toy represents a time and place in my life when I was living with my mother and my brother in Philadelphia. Things were difficult and magical, frightening and encouraging all at the same time. It represents a time and a place that was full of confusion and wonder. The essential feature of the Noah’s Ark toy is the story behind it. The same is true of the Joan of Arc items. d) What do you not know about the item, and would like to investigate? The Noah’s Arc toy was made in Japan. The Jeanne d' Arc book was bought at The Strand book shop in New York City for $9 about 10 years ago and used to be owned by someone named Sigmund Beale. That is all I know. Part 3: Step Back a) Look at your three items, as a whole and see if you can discover similarities (literal or abstract), are there intersections? It is interesting to me that I chose two stories that are seeded in religion as I am not a religious person , in the organized religion sense. Noah's Ark was much less about "why" everything was being flooded and more about the magical act of gathering animals to save them. Jeanne d' Arc was about courage, strength and the power of a young girl. b) Does your analysis suggest an area of interest, or (series of) questions? My analysis suggests an interest in the emotional quality of the work – the form is much less important. Books, Movies, Interactive Entertainment – the medium itself does not speak to me so much as the story behind it. That said, I do think that a story is most successful when the medium and the message work together.]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2007:/members/mchuri//131.8233 2007-09-29T05:03:40Z 2007-09-29T05:33:27Z

Today we met with Perry and he offered us the immersive lab (photo below) to use as the staging ground for the Empty Space project. This is great news since the space already has projector mounts and a screen. In...

Maya Churi What resources will we need? Hardware: Projector Microphone and cables Mic stand Speakers Computer Software: MAX/MSP +Database of movie fragments +Pitch tracking +Voice recognition What research will make this project better? Prior Art - Don Ritter Books: Bill Buxton Sketching and a book on body language and meaning What will your deliverables be? A scaled-down (3 objects w/ dozens of movies) version of the project. Ultimately, we'd like to have 10's of digital dwellers appear and disappear on the screen. For this semester we'd like to get everything working with at least 3 digital dwellers. Written documentation.]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2007:/members/mchuri//131.8215 2007-09-25T20:21:07Z 2007-09-25T20:41:06Z

Nowhere: an unknown, remote, or nonexistent place or region.* A secret place so secluded no one even knows it exists. It isn't on any maps and doesn't have a zip code. It stands at the intersection of three counties and...

Maya Churi Nowhere: an unknown, remote, or nonexistent place or region.* A secret place so secluded no one even knows it exists. It isn't on any maps and doesn't have a zip code. It stands at the intersection of three counties and therefore isn't in any government records and doesn't receive mail. The address is next to the llama farm, at the end of the overgrown dirt road, on top of the hill. Nowhere is the world I will build in this class. It is also the fictional location of a children's book I am writing. *Random House Unabridged Dictionary]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2007:/members/mchuri//131.8214 2007-09-25T20:00:13Z 2007-09-25T20:41:36Z

The Promise of an Empty Space Take the promise of an empty space and an empty screen then fill the space with your own story. All of the digital storytelling mediums take place on a screen. The promise of the...

Maya Churi The Promise of an Empty Space Take the promise of an empty space and an empty screen then fill the space with your own story. All of the digital storytelling mediums take place on a screen. The promise of the blank screen or the empty space is that a story will unfold before our eyes. We may interact with that screen but for the most part we are being told a story - guided through an alternate space. What if we flipped the unspoken arrangement between digital storyteller and viewer? What if the viewer was given an empty room and a blank screen? What if when the viewer began to tell their story the screen(s) would slowly become filled with people (or digital dwellers from familiar stories) listening to the viewer. When the viewer stops talking, or disappears, the digital dwellers would disappear - retreating back to the space just beyond the edges of the screen. Timline/Production Schedule ]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2007:/members/mchuri//131.8111 2007-09-11T07:21:52Z 2007-09-11T07:27:19Z

Articulate a collective participation strategy (i.e., how will you take advantage of being part of a participatory culture?) Wikipedia defines Participatory Culture as “a reference to the sum of the customs or ways of life that lead consumers to...

Maya Churi Articulate a collective participation strategy (i.e., how will you take advantage of being part of a participatory culture?) Wikipedia defines Participatory Culture as “a reference to the sum of the customs or ways of life that lead consumers to create and circulate new content on a medium.” If the words of this sentence are rearranged it could read, “a reference to content created by consumers to circulate new customs or ways of life.” I am interested in exploring that deep ravine that lies between learning about something and actually taking action to change it. Recently a seed of pessimism was planted in my brain. It has just begun to sprout even though I have been trying to starve it into submission. This past weekend I realized that the seed had grown when, after a 3-hour drive along the central coast, the mustard colored hills (Joan Didion called them this), made me think of the parched landscape of a planet whose inhabitants are slowing burning it up. I kept having to remind myself that we live in a desert, the hills are supposed to look like that. No matter. It got me thinking about taking action and how does one encourage…no, demand…no, subtly COERCE people to willingly make change in culture - to participate and understand all of the consequences. That brings me back to the rearranged Wikipedia sentence, “a reference to content created by consumers to circulate new customs or ways of life.” Is this a challenge? Decide on and articulate your own strategy for creating a productive tension between theory and practice in your work. In thinking of a strategy I have to first answer the question of whether theory or practice comes first. For me, theory is going to come before practice. In the past the practice of my work has always come before theory. I would like to switch it around. That said, my first step is to read. Define proficiency and an economy of value for the realm in which you intend to work (i.e., how do you want your work to be judged?) I would like for my work to be perceived as one of a group of works that helped change the way a generation (or two) understood the world they lived in. And also…encouraged…no, demanded…no, COERCED people to willingly make change. 3 things you do really well Manage Produce Motivate 3 things you want to learn To draw To tell a story To garden 3 things you want to be great at Articulating ideas Remembering (people, places, things) Balancing home/work, life/love, theory/practice Post a few links, names or readings that you are interested in exploring as part of the research for these projects. Coming soon. ]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2006:/members/mchuri//131.6956 2006-10-09T01:50:24Z 2006-10-09T05:25:00Z

There is an in depth article in todays NYTimes Magazine about Will Wright. "In an age of microscopic technologies and sweeping Google-earth panoramas, Will Wright, the world's most successful video-game inventor, has set out to create the game (or is...

Maya Churi
"In an age of microscopic technologies and sweeping Google-earth panoramas, Will Wright, the world's most successful video-game inventor, has set out to create the game (or is it the art form?) that will teach us how to really see."
- by Steven Johnson
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/08/magazine/08games.html?_r=1&oref=login]]> tag:interactive.usc.edu,2006:/members/mchuri//131.6902 2006-09-21T21:11:12Z 2006-09-21T21:14:51Z

USC's Public Art study program is doing a walking tour of LA and then going to the LA County fair. Walking Tour 3: 9/24 (Sunday All Day, beginning at 9am) Fair Exchange: LA County Fair www.millardsheetsgallery.org/fp/foundations/MillardSheets/exhibition-future.asp Starting point to be...

Maya Churi USC's Public Art study program is doing a walking tour of LA and then going to the LA County fair. Walking Tour 3: 9/24 (Sunday All Day, beginning at 9am) Fair Exchange: LA County Fair www.millardsheetsgallery.org/fp/foundations/MillardSheets/exhibition-future.asp Starting point to be determined, but there will be a caravan from USC. Carpooling encouraged. There is the possibility of taking the MetroLink train from Union Station to Pomona. For information email: lovins@usc.edu tag:interactive.usc.edu,2006:/members/mchuri//131.6878 2006-09-15T04:58:15Z 2006-09-15T06:38:31Z

Watching Elephant today got me thinking about Henry Jenkins' testimony before congress in 1999 after Columbine. Here is a link to that testimony. It is long - but since we are media makers, it is worth reading through to the...

Maya Churi Elephant today got me thinking about Henry Jenkins' testimony before congress in 1999 after Columbine. Here is a link to that testimony. It is long - but since we are media makers, it is worth reading through to the end. http://web.mit.edu/m-i-t/articles/index_dc.html On another note, for those interested in the cinematics of the film rent Bela Tar's Werckmeister harmóniák. It was the inspiration for a lot of what the film feels like and is visually stunning: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0249241/]]>