Nahil Sharkasi

Analysis of things I carry with me

for CTIN 532

• Appearance – 23 items of clothing, make up, accessories. 4 kinds of lipstick, gloss, balm, etc. 3 perfumes, 2 scented lotions. Might need to change or refresh appearance throughout the day. Indicates that society has standards and expectations for ornamentation and appearance.

• Just in case items – band-aids, shout wipes, pain killers, tampons, etc…. it’s necessary to carry things that there is only a slim likelihood that we’ll need or use. This indicates that there are certain minor dangers in our environment that might be harmful, and these items offer protection and remedy.

• Money – the wallet is full of club cards, items with little to no utility or purpose. They serve as a reminder of where to spend money. I also carry 5 different kinds of money (cash, credit, debit, etc..), as there are many opportunities to spend money, and each may accept only certain kinds of currency.

• Supplemental memory – laptop, iphone, USB drive, business cards, journal all store information that we might need to recall at any point in the day.

• Weather – glasses, sunglasses, cleaning kit, sweater. We need light protection from the elements. These items are more about comfort than about protection from danger, Although the sunglasses protect from harmful UVA/UVB rays.

• Sustenance – tea in travel mug, granola bar, gum. We are mobile creatures and carry food with us. There might not be places or opportunities to stop and eat.

• Variety – there are at least two of every kind of thing, signifying a glut of choices and things; also 2 kinds of id, 5+ kinds of money may signify a lack of security or confidence in our society. When we're asked to identify ourselves, we're often asked for 2 forms of id. We carry extras in anticipation that things might not work.

• Garbage – Almost every item, or daily transaction has a disposable element that generates waste – chewing gum, food wrappers, receipts, parking tickets, disposable containers, etc. There is an overwhelming amount of disposable waste in our daily lives. It’s only appropriate to dispose of these things in designated trash or recycling bins, which is not always convenient. Hence, this garbage ends up in my bag.

I've been working on two interactive documentary projects this semester.

One is on the Umma Community Clinic in south Los Angeles. This is a free clinic started by a group of Muslim medical students after the 1992 riots. I used the Korsakow system to put it together. Video clips and short scenes are linked together both thematically and by character, so that the viewer can navigate the story by following a character or following a topic, or both.

The other is about my family's recent trip to Libya. Since this is a personal story, I'm designing it as more of a guided experience than the korsakow project, which I found really lent itself to more objective, informational work.

(...aka Squid-bot, Squid-goat, Trick-or-traitor)

We built this robot blimp for CTIN534 class. Here's a summary of our experience and some challenges we faced. For more info and documentations, check team members' blogs:

Ala' Diab
Lulu Cao
Taiyoung Ryu

The first set of challenges we faced were in dealing with assembling the electronics. This was the first time any of us had touched a soldering iron, and I have to say we did a decent job under the circumstances. The next challence was in dealing with such small delicate parts -- the wires were so thin, that in trying to strip them, I often ended up severing the actual wire before getting through the plastic sheath.

Once all the electronics were built and assembled, the next challenge came in testing the systems. This was a challenge mainly because we didn't know how the bot was really supposed to react. Our understanding was that it was supposed to be somewhat unpredictable, and animal-like, so we weren't sure if the reactions we got were truely intended. We could, however, verify thatall the sensors were recieving input, and all the output devices worked. If something went wrong in the connection between input and output, we couldn't tell.

For anyone else who wants to build a Blubberbot, here are some tips from our experience --

1. Prioritize - assembling the PCB is by far the most time consuming task. All the other components can be built independently.
2. Use the correct tools -- wire strippers might seem like an unnecessary luxury, but you'll need them. Make sure they'll work for this thin guage wire. Also a small tipped soldering iron will work best.
3. When filling the envelope, fill it almost completely with helium. The directions say to fill it half way with helium and half with air. We tried this and couldn't get it off the ground. Use more helium, you can always attach weight to balance it.
4. Use strong tape. The directions call for double-sided scotch. We used wide plastic electrical tape, and it barely lasted the day.

The most impressive exhibits I found at 2007 Nextfest were the ones using headbands that measure brainwaves. One exhibit used this technology for a game called "Brain Ball." "Brain Ball" is a relaxation game where two players face off to try to move a small white ball accross the table. The ball moves towards the player with the more relaxed brain waves.

In a similar exhibit, called "Kokoro Gatari," the same sort of headband set up was used in a medical application. In this case, the sensors could detect the difference between positive and negative thought. Doctors can use this to communicate with patients with Lou Gerhig's disease. Doctors can get a 'yes/no' answer from a patient who can't speak or move.

There's huge potential to use this technology in a game or narrative. A game that rewards positive thought, and punishes negative thought. Or a narrative where the viewer can drive the plot by simly thinking 'yes' or thinking 'no'.

photo by Ala Diab

This is me on my second adventure in Second Life. I still hadn't managed to 'drop' the various weird clothing and objects I had picked up in my first visit. So here I found my self-- In Gitmo, wearing orange detainee jumpsuit... with shopping bag and 'sparkly skirt.' Totally absurd. I was here to do serious work and I spent half the time stuck in mid-air, my head half-way through the barracks ceiling.

I love the idea of modeling real-world conflict situations in a virtual game environment, but it has to get easier to negotiate these environments. I know this stuff is second nature for a lot of people, but ot for everyone. I see that as a challenge to attracting non-gamers to interactive experiences. How can we design an environment where users can more easily intuit the rules of the game....and not waste 20 minutes on apple+point click, scroll, scroll, scroll, left hand, drop, shopping bag.

New in theaters -- "King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters"

A new documentary about the guy who made it his life's work to get the high score in Donkey Kong. Anyone interested??

If you haven't seen it already, there's a great documentary that was produced last year called '8 Bit' about video games and art. It covers a wide range of topics -- history of games and video art, musicians who use gameboys as instruments, machinima, and lots more. I have a dvd copy, if anyone's interested, otherwise check out

8 Bit Movie