This Arbor Project Is Mother

Another revision

2005-11-07T12:19:00.000-05:00

I'm not dead, only hibernating

2005-10-18T23:32:00.000-04:00

I've been working on a legitly awesome paper about my work on Arbor, and how it relates to the medium I'm presenting it in. Here's a draft of the essay. I'd really appreciate some comments if you have any - positive or negative.

xoxo.

Expect more to come.

Two Panels!

2005-08-11T10:24:00.000-04:00

Weeeee! What comes after "next"!

technobiography: the remix

2005-08-10T09:31:00.000-04:00

Techmology. What is that all about? Is it good or is it wack?

Wack (sometimes).

not lazy

2005-08-09T17:55:00.000-04:00

I thought I'd let you know that even though there wasn't a media oriented update, I'm making progress. I've done character sketches and drawing some panels today. It feels so good to use a pencil and paper after slamming my dang fingers on this machine all the time.

To do tomorrow: Finish coloring panels. Put together Panels. Evaluate next page's layout!

To do tonight: a re-evaluated TECHNOBIOGRAPHY. Or perhaps TECHNO MUSIC!

Scroll Bar!

2005-08-08T12:33:00.000-04:00

So I finally figured out my scroll bar issues. Here's what it looks like now. Oh, and I know it lags, but that won't be a problem when its published on a cd. Or I'm pretty sure it won't be...

The only thing is that for some reason I have all this blank space at the end that needs go BYE BYE. The movie inside the scrollbar doesn't have it (which includes the next button), so I have no idea where it's coming from. Suggestions?

Lil' more

2005-08-05T10:11:00.000-04:00

Moving right along...

I know that progress is slow, but I'm anal retentive and want things to look the way I want them to. I've also been working on some character sketches! I'm so excited about them!

Eventually, the flash movie will require scrolling to move along with the conveyor belt, but for now you can just look at it scrunched down. I'd like to finish it before I worry about little things like that!

Arbor, new and improved

2005-08-03T01:10:00.000-04:00

So does this look better?

In the name of progress...

2005-08-02T16:50:00.000-04:00

So, my schedule I had for this week got a little skewed. As I started reviewing my storyboards, I realized that maybe I was biting off more than I could chew in two weeks. I work slow, and I'm a perfectionist and those two things don't really mesh that well. So I'm taking it level by level. Working from the first page down to the last, I'll assign tasks before, list them up, and modify as I'm working. I think working this way, I'll get a better quality than quantity. Heck at this point, I'd be glad just to get the first page done. I've gone from this still image, to a fully animated moving sequence! Although I'm pretty happy with the animation, I'm not so happy with the wheel animation. So here's a list of things to do to the wheel between now and tomorrow afternoon:

Make the gradient on the wheel jiggle.
Track the highlights on the notches to match the turn
Skew the notches for better perspective?

Got any other suggestions for making the wheel more realistic (within some cartoony constraints)?

Oh and modifying my endgoal for my ASTP experience, I'd be really happy with finishing half to the end of the first chapter - just somewhere in between that.

Goals for the first page:
Finish movement of robots down assembly line
create conveyor belt and track to robot's movements. (note to myself shift+10 is for the first tween where the head moves)
Map out box to truck sequence.
Map out truck delivery sequence.
How to encourage user to scroll to the right!

I'm also really computered out. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do when you get a little disoriented from staring at the computer too much? I know this will be easier to deal with whenever I start drawing more and get past this huge flash page, but what can I do in the meantime? Take lots of breaks? Stare off into space? Would someone help me remember do this?

Ding DONG!!!!

2005-08-01T11:21:00.000-04:00

I've had a great idea to revamp the very first page of Arbor so that it introduces the user to a less passive narrative!

Scott McCloud is obsessed with scrollbars. How about a really long and skinny flash movie that animates the process of making a robot? With metallic sounds! And the reader will have to scroll along to follow the process therefore no long being a passive reader! INTERACTIVITY!!

Music Technoculture

2005-07-31T14:24:00.000-04:00

Negativland mixes up some crazy stuff, and they're the pioneers of the cultural mish-mash phenomena known as the mashup (a.k.a. Bastard Pop). Their website is a great resource for all things music collage, intellectual rights issues, and fun crazy things. Check out their saga with U2 for a great historical perspective on intellhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifectual property issues and how it clashes with artistic expression.

A similar group to Negativland is the Evolution Control Committee. Most of their music is completely free on their website, and for the most part they've done their homework with their samples. Check out Rocked by Rape which features segments of a Dan Rather broadcast! Yet another intellectual property case which is really interesting.

One of my current favorite culture jammers is Josh.Cry.On.My.Console who mixes things from drum and bass to britney spears to the mario bros. There's usually a mashup per week, so check back often.

Also, in the project front, I've scanned in the storyboards for Arbor! Please check them out and post a suggestion. I've never considered myself a writer, and I think that's the weakest part of the story. Help me out!

Need some Vectors?

2005-07-28T20:41:00.000-04:00

Jim Rodda (who gave us an awesome Maya/Gaming Design tutorial) spiked my interest in this open-source, multiplatform Illustrator alternative. Very interesting! If you use linux, I'd be really interested to hear how well it works for you!

Next week's goals and schedule

2005-07-27T16:49:00.000-04:00

R: Research Methods used in Graphic Novels (scripting, developing graphic style, etc.), explore more Interactive Narrative for inspriation on making the DGN less passive. Narrow down books, put in order for books
F: Look over storyboards, Evaluate scope, begin proofing and scanning in storyboards
S: Proof storyboards
S: Look at some graphic styles available online, evaluate why they are functional, begin to get an idea of what sort of graphic style to use.
M: Continue Sunday's work. Begin Character mock-ups and research images that might be needed.
T: Character mockups, research continued
W: Char Mockups - finalize, begin looking at panel layout and how the panels should function. Evaluate how various media will be used.
R: Continue Panel Layout, evaluate sample pages.

Let's see if I can keep to it. Keep your fingers crossed!

For reference, Here's a list of potential books I'm thinking of ordering. Any suggestions?

Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture
by Philip Auslander
PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites: Visual QuickPro Guide
by Larry Ullman
Arguing Comics: Literary Masters On A Popular Medium (Studies in
Popular Culture)
by JEET HEER (Editor), Kent Worcester (Editor)
Reinventing Comics : How Imagination and Technology Are
Revolutionizing an Art Form
by Scott McCloud
Writers On Comics Scriptwriting
by Mark Salisbury
Writing and Illustrating the Graphic Novel : Everything You Need to
Know to Create Great Graphic Works
by Mike Chinn
It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken
by Seth
Vernacular Drawings
by Seth
Digital Art (World of Art)
by Christiane Paul

99 Rooms

2005-07-26T22:57:00.000-04:00

What a beautiful site!

99 Rooms offers an amazing view of an abandoned building through the eyes of an explorer, sometimes flâneur and other times an active force in the narrative. The user in encouraged to explore, to stroll through this space and mouse around. She is not provided with any direction, just the assumption that mousing will do something, as will clicking. However, the user is experiencing a sick and twisted version of the life flâneur, because the environment the user is in (regardless of if we're experiencing it with someone in real life) is so hauntingly empty. The hustle and bustle of the city which normally makes unhurried strolling enjoyable is now replaced by an empty, hallow, perverse world. This turns the world of the flâneur upside down, causing the user to interact with seemingly non-interactive elements (there isn't much feedback visually to tell the user that someone can interact with an element).

Another interesting part of 99 rooms is that it experiments with the concepts of ghosts. Images like words once created immortalize a concept (see: Shakespeare Sonnet #18, Spenser#75). The graffiti on the walls immortalize their representations but are presented here as ghosts of the ideas. Their presentation haunts us, their movements leave us unnerved, and these character stay in our heads and chill us to the bone. Graffiti, even though only semi-permanent, has a haunting quality in that it immortalizes its subject and the authors emphasize on this quality by animating the images. They often breathe, blink, or even moan. They are no longer passive wall art but living parts of an environment.

I also can't help but see the connections between ecology and technology. Often the graffiti is of animals (for this purpose, I think we can consider humans as animals) which are maniulated to appear surreal and frankly, creepy. Often they have body parts amputated, or appear coming out of another object. These representations are closely connected to machinery in many of the rooms. We see in room 81 that machinery is a vital part of the animal, it keeps it alive and moving. Perhaps this is a dystopian representation of our future? A place where nature depends on technology to exist - a sick and twisted Disneyland. However, we see a critique of this vision later in room 87, where we see an animal get poisoned (it changes a sick green color) by the man-made watering trough it is stuck in.

I'm also a little confused by how the narrative moves through the space. Sometimes it feels as if we are looking at an outside wall of a room, and other times we are looking inside. The feeling of space is confusing because of the straight on, non-navigational space. Even thought the narrative is interactive, it isn't immersive since we are still somewhat limited by the authors.

For a great history of grafitti, check out Style Wars.
More dystopian visions of the future via Mike Davis. (ps. Mike Davis' book The Ecology of Fear is a great read for anyone fascinated with natural disasters, idiotic humans and environmental amnesia, and Blade Runner!)

Project development:

2005-07-26T01:18:00.000-04:00

I was thinking about continuing Arbor. Those are sample pages I created to get an idea of how the concept would work. I'll be scanning in some storyboards and compiling a synopsis so that hopefully I can get some feedback. Eventually, I'm going to complete this project, and this would be a great time to get started.

I also posted this idea in my other (personal) blog:

"I think I have an idea for my project to be worked on while I'm here. How about a graphic novel about a subculture whose main mode of communication is the use of old mediums discarded by the mainstream. You know "IN THE FUTURE..." digital media is king! Junkyards are filled with old radio equipment, film cameras, grammaphones etc. The digital divide is between the rich (who can afford digital media) and the poor (who can't). Something along the lines of Tank Girl...just less angsty and more witty.

I always wished I was Tank Girl. I mean who didn't?"

Potential Projects

2005-07-25T00:19:00.000-04:00

I was facinated by the lecture that Tom gave us on liveness and the development of a live performance since the introduction of digital media. Recently, at the radio station I work at, we've been looking at automation systems to implement some programming 24 hours a day. It sort of saddened all of us that buy purchasing one of these systems we run the risk of "the death of the DJ." I don't know what is special about it, but having someone really cueing up a cd or an lp really makes a difference on air. There's a "live" element to it, even if everything is still pre-recorded except the DJ's voice. Now with podcasting and webstreaming becoming the way many people receive music, the live element becomes completely almost completely nonexistent. I might like to examine the ways digital media requires performers (DJ's, musicians etc.) to add another element of spectacle to their show in order to maintain an audiences attention.

I've also toyed around with the idea of writing and beginning a digital graphic novel while I'm here. I've been consuming written ones like crazy lately, and I've storyboarded one about a robot that falls in love with nature. I've had the story laid out for almost a year now, but I've had very little time and guidance in order to sit down and actually get cracking on it. I'm even getting some ideas for a possible cyberpunk graphic novel. I'd like to incorporate digital images and animations to create a more submersive graphic novel experience.

I'm also really interested in the effect that new digital media has had on the physical objects of "old media" (what a retarded term, I refuse to use it, someone suggest something better please). You can commonly just walk into junk shops and find tons of old plastic cameras, super 8 film cameras, old video gaming systems, lp's, 45's, radios, etc. I'm really interested in what happens with the disposal of these objects in the next few years as our culture rapidly shifts toward the digital realm.

Yeah so, um completely different topics...my head is kinda swirling with all these ideas right now, I don't even know where to begin.

Music Galore

2005-07-21T22:55:00.000-04:00

Here's a couple radio/music resources that I totally dig:

MP3Blogs are awesome. There's a great wealth of them out there, practically a dozen for almost any genre out there, here's some of my favorites:

http://stereogum.com - independent music, making fun of Brit Brit and other top dollar celebs.
http://fluxblog.net - all sorts of genres, all under-exposed, check out their HUGE blogroll as well.
http://sixeyes.blogspot.com - mostly rock, covers great contemporary folk music as well.
http://cocaineblunts.com - hippity hop.
http://www.catchdubs.com/ - a writer for Fader magazine who is a DJ and covers some great music.
http://www.londonlee.com/blog.html - soul music.
http://www.negrophonic.com/words/ - "dj/rupture does critical thinking about digital culture and drops the occasional bizarre great mp3, that is really a cyberculture site/modern ethnography site with an occassional mpfree" says Chris Jay, media minded educational film programmer and rapper (and my partner in crime).
http://ofmirroreye.net/blog/ - eclectic and analytical. Check out that great Rolling Stones picture!

Audio Programs:
Sonar/Cakewalk goodness. Sonar is an interestingly complicated audio program, but once you get a short introduction it's really easy to get the hang of. There's trial versions on their site, and if you like 'em you can buy 'em
Fruity Loops is a sequencer in which you can make beats, loops and other fun things. They also have a trial version, but be warned, this is just as addictive as Garageband.

Radio Fun:
KEXP's webstream plays a great eclectic mix of music from college radio indie rock, to hip hop to bluegrass to live DJ's. They also have podcasting.

Old Time Radio. This is the good stuff.

Other Things:
Finally, this is the first song I ever made in Garageband. It features the funky bass line Bret used in class and lots of recorded vocals with effects, there aren't any lyrics yet because I haven't had a chanced to record/write them yet. Feedback appreciated. It's for a band that I just got involved in that I can tell you more about if you leave me a comment saying you're interested.

Also, you can find some great bands on MySpace.com . I'm on it, and from there you can reach some of my favorite Shreveport-area bands, including the Pillage People, and The Vidrines.

Please share your favorite music things with me! theenchantingsarahebert [at] gmail [dot] com.

warning: harry potter spoiler

2005-07-20T01:07:00.000-04:00

Bryan mentioned this briefly during our talks today. Apparently, this video has inspired others to run around screaming the ending of the new Harry Potter book to unassuming readers (or perhaps just some of my pals in Shreveport). So I guess the analytical question is why even record your stunt and stick it on the web?

Some links for CSS

2005-07-19T17:17:00.000-04:00

http://www.w3schools.com/ - Great resource for learning web standard goodness
https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=60 - Not really for CSS, but helpful for poking around websites to see how they're coded.

A Study of RetroRaunch

2005-07-19T11:36:00.000-04:00

A look at the media content of RetroRaunch presents us with an niche in the internet pornography market. The site contains images of women in "retro," naturalistic pornographic style. The text on the site claims that these women are more real, how they were back in the 40's-60's. The imagery mimics black and white photography, which brings to mind the idea that these pornographic images are artistic rather than images made for pure pleasure. The media grammar tries to reveal a darker side to a time stereotyped as safe and less sexually promiscuous. However this darker side is not vulgar and offensive, but rather alluring and secretive. The use of a webpage allows this site to be a paid service; however, it also allows for a sneak preview of the site which is the hook which entices the user to make the purchase of a subscription. The site also plays on the institutional moral ideals of pornography by allowing "Miss Lacey, (history teacher by day, nasty girl by night!) [to] take you through the full range of what we have to offer (and strip down to the naked truth while she's at it)." Here the writer of the text is playing with what is institutionally acceptable (a history teacher) and what is culturally acceptable in pornography culture (nasty girl).

a technobiography

2005-07-18T17:01:00.000-04:00

Here's a post for your mother.

A technobiography:

A stream of important technological progressions in my life:

Learning grammar, how to spell, Computer games on an apple, too poor to get a computer, - got a TV instead, sister's computer, following princess di's death from the wreck, taught self html, published art, angelfire, first email account, nintendo.com, im chatting, role playing, alternative source of entertainment, reboot, paint shop pro, creating animated gifs, learning how to make jpegs not look jpeggy (single frame gifs), photoshop, dreamweaver, first webpage created with wysiwyg, redesigning it in one night, working on Centenary's english dept website, college classes (cyberculture, multimedia writing and lit, communication design, art studio multimedia design, animation design, ecology technology and culture), writers: ray kurzweil, marshall mccluhan, scott mccloud, hell.com, donna haraway, umberto eco, marvin harris, evan eisenberg, jeffery zeldman, eric meyers, benjamin, philip k. dick, william gibson, cronon, webcomics, academic papers linking ecology technology and culture, blogging, websteaming.

These things connect linearly but as the timeline moves on more concepts intersect. How can I represent this in a more nebulous manner that reflects how I connect them in my brain (ex. too poor to get a computer, following princess di's death from the wreck, to college classes (cyberculture, mulimedia writing and lit, ETC), to writers (marvin harris, evan eisenberg)). Naturally this comes easiest in some sort of visual context, but what about representing it in a different way? A sound collage - the sounds could merge into one sound sort of like a re-mix of ideas or a mash-up of time. Hypertext is naturally built to make something like this orderly, but it is difficult to link to more than one thing with out repeating our initial location. So our web would look something like this:

creating animated gifs - psp
creating animated gifs - photoshop
creating animated gifs - published art
creating animated gifs - benjamin

It becomes less like a web and more like a list with connections.

In essence, it is the connections that have brought me here to study technology, and less the events. These intersections have created an interesting potion of knowledge that has caused me to be passionate about something.