March 18, 2005
Video Game Legislation
Four states (Texas, Georgia, Maryland, & North Carolina) and the District of Columbia have introduced legislation that would prohibit the sale of violent and sexually explicit video games to minors.
Mature video games receive the "M" rating for a reason – and clearly state on the box that they are not suitable for players under 17. Then again, so do R-rated movies. But there are no laws that punish theater owners for not enforcing those ratings.
articles from The Washington Post and CNN
Posted by shelby at 06:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2005
Is the backchannel working?
Last semester our class started using a backchannel during lectures and speakers. We went thru several programs before settling on AIM. What would happen is the chat room would be projected on a wall or multiple screens while the lecturer was speaking.
While there are a few useful comments that do enhance the discussion and bring other things to the table, I've been finding it to be more of a distraction than anything else. I haven't found that it has been enhancing the discussion. Here's the log from last night's speaker Bing Gordon.
In fact, this past week a prof took us out on a field trip where the class discussion was held in the round, outside...yes that means a giant VOID for all WIFI computer access!!! The result, I thought was one of the most balanced conversations. Students who normally didn't speak did and those who are most often drawing from their computer weren't as vocal. humm....
Posted by shelby at 12:04 PM | Comments (13)
November 30, 2004
thankgoodness they were wrong
Posted by shelby at 11:25 PM | Comments (0)
October 05, 2004
Everywhere Display
There's a blurb in the Gadget section of this week's Time Magazine (the October 11th issue) about a wall mounted projector paired with a camera. The camera is suppose to track people's interaction with the visuals...like a touch screen keos on a larger scale. Anyone know more about this or seen a prototype?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101041011/gadgets/6.html
Posted by shelby at 04:53 PM | Comments (3)
September 15, 2004
Filmmaking for Computational Media
The guest speaker in our class series today was media artist, Michael Lew (of Media Lab Europe and MIT Media Lab). To illustrate this, his project
An extension of Hyperbole Studios (the creators of the X-Files games), Virtual Cinema, is dedicated to interactive film and storytelling. Its aim is to continue to develop the technology to deliver a sophisticated end-user experience and allows filmmakers, in any genre, to quickly leverage existing skills and production expertise into the exploding world of interactive media design. The limited choices still related to the timeline structure of the story. Which brought up the question of how much control is really necessary and does it take away from the content of the story or narrative?
Since we assume that the viewer has free will and is unpredictable, Tracey and the Plastics made it into this year's Whitney Biennial. This interactive piece is thru Wynn Greenwood. She plays the roll of all the band members one live and the rest previously filmed and presented as video projections. The Plastics originated as characters in a choose-your-own -adventure mystery that Greenwood was writing. The characters ability in that setting to rearrange and rebuild their world according to their own desires led the artist to flesh them out to varing degrees in real life.
At this point only artist seem to be crossing mediums and tackling the emerging genre. The move towards a more main stream acceptance of interactive art, not only with film was illustrated at this years Olympics. In Athens this summer, the piece by Maurice Benayoun: Watch Out! The Eyes of the City ("Landscapes below Athens" Route) was installed. The tongue in cheek commentary on who's watching who was set up with a box on Ermou Street which captured the eye of the passerby and in turn projected it on screens above the busy sidewalk.
And where is this all going? Another example of the program interacting with the viewer while being filmed in real time... Nudemen Garden.
Posted by shelby at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)