DP: planned research experiments

experiments (rapid prototyping)

• design the different types of instruments the dj's will interact with
• film hands on green screen interacting with graphics (figure out best way to integrate video of hands with after effects graphics)
• think about how hand motions may call up different functions or menu's
• practice how graphics move in after effects
• shoot different points of view of touch screen and dj interacting with it
• create story board for different scenarios show off the functionality
• create different aesthetic effects, glows, colors to instruments
• film action and produce possible graphics that correspond with that action

DP: questions and considerations

We were asked to pair with a partner and describe our degree project proposals to one another. Our partner then came up with a question that we should answer by the end of the semester.

“How can a Dj's interactions with graphic systems work to expand upon the entertainment of club goers?”
(question formed by partner michael may)


MY IDEAL CAREER–

would be a place that shared similar philosophies about work ethics; a place that knew how to get their hands dirty working, and went out afterwords to celebrate their accomplishments. We are not a single track society anymore. These minds would be able to have fun problem solving their way through video, motion graphics, sound, print, web, social and anything else that comes their way. I prefer a smaller office in which everyone was very open and accepting to new ideas and processes. I would like the office to have a comfortable working facility with natural lighting.


Personally I would like to work on a team to produce and edit videos; then design the packaging, poster, tshirts, web layout and other misc. artifacts that contribute to complete a system. I believe people (parts) have their own unique strengths that make the system (the team) complete. I love the idea of integrating motion graphics with film and sound. I'm also interested in user experience and how design may enhance the rituals of listening to the music. we become very attached to our music. you choose a very specific kind of music to listen to while you're performing different tasks or in certain situations. In the event of having no music, you become the rhythm and the sound with whatever task you're completing.

my ideal co workers would motivate and encourage me to dabble in photography, film, editing, sound, illustration, writing, layout design (print and web), kick ass, and participate in corn dog eating contests every other friday at the office.

MX: project two final

alas, working wire frame website.


you can view the image, or better yet, click for live site! gergwerk.com

when thinking of the design for my site, I wanted the navigation minimal, very easy to understand, and be accessible at all times. the focus should be about my work, my achievements and information, not ornate elements that take away, or distract, from the them. one thing i am going to work on immediately is centering the content as apposed to having everything reside on the left side of the screen. during the process of making this site, i am most proud to remember how to build css document, and attach actionscript 3.0 to smoothly scroll through the images. i built this all myself! i had some help to figure out the scrolling images, thanks to josh, ian and michael dead man may. i struggled most with considering what i am capable of producing, and what i originally had planned the website functioning (keyboard functions that would toggle on and off navigation and flip through content). im not exactly sure what i learned through the process. it takes me a while to reflect upon experiences to pull out what i really learned...but if i had to say what i learned, it's that everyone has their own way of building these things (websites through css and actionscript). nobody is wrong for building it differently, just find out what works best for you and use it to the best of your capability. apply what you know to anything, even if what you know is just a little.

Design Coding

one of the most influential design coding rappers to dayte. foo.

VA: shake yo' booties (Work It!)

here's the skinny, if you will. america is the meatiest country in the world (couldn't imagine why). to put it nicely, we got as much junk in the trunk as a 1938 Buick Special 8. Heart related issues are leading cause of death, killing over 652,468 (27.7%) of North Americans. Half of the top ten leading causes of death are associated with an inactive lifestyle. (Any) exercising can greatly reduce health problems and help improve well being.

Now, I'm not going to spend hours of my time picking out songs for you to exercise with. That's why I've created Work It!—a prototype music database so people can create their own playlists. your peronalized jams will keep your heart pumpin' through whatever exercise routine you prefer. *disclaimer* you don't need to go to the gym to exercise. If you want to jog down the street in high heals and white leotards listening and imitating your favorite new lady gaga video, i can't be too displeased because at least you're doing something active. (but seriously. no leotards) the point is, whatever music you decide to exercise with will encourage you to keep doing it week after week.


the iphone application allows you to access your playlists on the go. the application also tracks your body mass index, calorie count, step count and heart beats per minute. what's that, not keeping up with recommended beats per minute? no? how about sending your heart on overdrive for an extended amount of time? the background color changes blood red as a voice notifies you maintain a healthy bpm rate.


you might be saying,“yeah, i guess that's cool greg. but how are people going to find out about Work It!?” large stickers will be placed on soda and vending machines reminding you of your unhealthy habits. going to eat that bag of cheetos? no problem, walk around the building four times while you're doing it.


detail
“a person that weighs 160 lbs expends 4.5 calories per minute while exercising.”



now get out there and Work It!

MX: “the screen and the body” part IV

response to pp 103-115 the screen and the body

new concepts learned in the passage:
p 104.
“the body must be fixed in space if the viewer is to see the image at all. from renaissance monocular perspective to modern cinema, from kelpler's camera obscura to nineteenth-century camera lucida, the body has to remain still.”
to really view an image, the user must be still. if someone is moving, they might catch a glimpse of the image


p 106.
“in one of the earliest depictions of the camera obscura (dark chamber), we see the subject enjoying the image inside a tiny room, oblivious to the fact that he has had to imprison himself inside this 'dark chamber' in order to see the image on the screen.”
a majority of the pages talk about how user is trapped by the devices she uses. in early photography, portrait shots took minutes to expose. Photographers used ‘various iron clamps, reminiscent of torture instruments, to hold the subject in place...a voluntary prisoner of the machine in order to see her own image’. in cinema, viewers sit in a dark room, face forward and cannot talk to enjoy the experience. we are restricted my sitting down and facing forward. you are not completely contained—you could walk out of the theater and miss the rest of the film. Virtual reality devices continue immobility by ‘fastening the body to a machine, while at the same time it creates an unprecedented new condition by requiring the viewer to move.’ it's a very interesting contradiction. using virtual reality in order to have 'user experience', they must hook themselves to a machine, limiting mobility. in the device, the user is able to control camera angle and move through space as if they were walking. this, the most constricting device, allows for most user control in the experience. when designing websites, we as designers need to understand who our audience is and what kind of experience we are allowing them to have. a more exploratory site allows for more user freedom and should perhaps be more experimental with navigation or aesthetic. the opposite is said for a site where people know what information they are looking for. when reading a book, we think of the experience as linear, the author has control in pacing. in actuality, the reader is completely free to flip through pages, spend as much time on any page (pacing) or decide if they want to finish the story. On the other hand, film/motion prevents users from controlling these things because each scene and its pacing are already created for the user to sit back and reflect upon.

technology both hinders and facilitates freedom at the same time. although we sit at a desk in a particular room to use a computer, we are able to explore much more information quickly, as opposed to physically walking around in a library to search for specific books. In class, I'm able to sit at my desk and get the same, if not more, information from the internet than if i was walking through a library sifting through many books. although we are restricted by sitting at a table, the possibilities of communication can be as much or greater than 'real life'. As a user, I am also able to stay in contact with people over long distances much easier with the aid of technology. not only are we being restricted by computer screens, but now smaller electronic devices such as mp3 players and cell phones. to contradict an above sentences, i am able to connect with users far away, but this makes me neglect the people around me. take for example, bus riders. they sit next to one another, but usually spend the bus ride home on their cell phones talking to others that aren't there, or playing music on headphones that tune everyone around them out completely. perhaps we should choose a time and a place to use electronics for the advantages at the appropriate time. when someone is sitting next to you, why not talk to them? if you're sitting home alone, that might be a more appropriate time to converse with someone on the computer or phone.

because of cell phones, we are able to 'be in touch' and always 'plugged in'. it's a good thing if i need someone right away, i know how to get in touch with them. on the other hand, if these technologies make it more difficult to enjoy a nice vacation. when i went on vacations with my family, my dad would always have to take calls from work. this didn't allow him to relax, like he should of been on his time off. even these small gadgets restrict us.

MX: "the language of new media" part III

response to pp 94-103 the screen and the user, a screens' genealogy

p 94. “a computer monitor connected to a network becomes a window through which we can enter places thousands of miles away. with the help of a mouse or a video camera, a computer can be transformed into an intelligent being capable of engaging us in dialogue...coupled with the computer, the screen is rapidly becoming the main means of accessing any kind of information, be it still images, moving images, or text. we are already using it to read the daily newspaper; to watch movies; to communicate with co-wrkers, relatives, and friends; and, most important, to work. we may debate whether our society is a society of spectacle or of simulation, but, undoubtedly, it is a society of a screen.”
no matter where i look, i'm confronted with a screen. cell phones, computers, car screens, electronic billboards, televisions, mp3 players, hand-held gaming devices, in grocery store isles, menus, and air port flight screens to name a few. I don't think i've grown up without a screen ever. I remember having a dos laptop i could play wheel of fortune on. i sometimes won a boat.

p 96.“although the screen in reality is only a window of limited dimensions positioned inside the physical space of the viewer, the viewer is expected to concentrate completely on what she sees in this window, focusing her attention on the representation and disregarding the physical space outside. this viewing regime is made possible by the fact that the singular image, whether a painting, movie screen, or television screen, completely fills the screen. this is why we are so annoyed in a movie theater when the projected image does not precisely coincide with the screen's boundaries: it disrupts the illusion, making us conscious of what exists outside the representation.”
futuristic films and gui prototypes (like the microsoft sustainability video) show the content being accessed from all sorts of surfaces. i'm not exactly sure if they intend to make every surface a screen, but it's interesting to be able to move content from a monitor to a table top by motion of dragging. i believe that's why movie theaters are completely dark, to minimize the area around the screen, so the user is able to have complete focus on the film. if someone's cell phone rings, or we can see the cell phone illuminating, both our auditory and visual senses are pulled out of the ‘picture window’. so turn of your damn cell phones during a movie!

p 97. “no single window completely dominates the viewer's attention. in this sense, the possibility of simultaneously observing a few images that co-exist within one screen can be compared with the phenomenon of zapping—the quick switching of television channels that allows the viewer to follow more than one program. in both instances, the viewer no longer concentrates on a single image.”
this is evident within my studio all the time. i walk by and see students working in photoshop, have their emails open and are watching a dvd, all at the same time. other students use the ‘spaces’ function, which allows them to toggle between screens on their computer. even when i have my internet browser open, i constantly switch between tabs and screens while other pages are loading. i guess my generation sure hates to wait.

p 98. “in 1882, unmanned photo balloons were already in the air; a little later, they were joined by photo rockets both in France and in Germany.”
interesting photography was used for such tasks!

p 99. “with radar, we see for the first time the mass employment (television is founded on the same principle but its mass employment comes later) of a fundamentally new type of screen, a screen that gradually comes to dominate modern visual culture—video monitor, computer screen, instrument display. what is new about such a screen is that its image can change in real time, reflecting changes in the referent, whether the position of an object in space (radar), any alteration in visible reality (live video) or changing data in computers memory (computer screen). What this means is that the image, in a traditional sense, no longer exists!”
i found this the most interesting tid-bit in the reading. i knew computers were being developed around the 50's and 60's, but i never applied the notion that radar was the first screen based object! niiiiiice. i then ask myself the question, “Are most technologies a product of fear/war?” history of internet.

desperate times call for desperate measures.