Identities 2008

Our new project for 2008 is called Identities, this project will be split into 2 tasks...

- The Avatar (a second self).

The idea is to explore a virtual avatar, through a application such as Second Life and then to create our own using 3D studio max.

- Navigating Identity

Looking at Joseph Cornell, we will create a box containing things we believe to show our identity. The difference is ours will be online using flash rather than a palpable object. Our box will also contain our avatar from the previous task.

In this project we will be exploring our own professional identity through independent multimedia practise. I will again be using flash so it is important I learn more advanced tools in action script. When using flash it will important to test usability and learn inter relationships in multimedia techniques.

I will be exploring the way we interpret others identities and how myself and other interpret my identity. I will also look at the way consumerism effects peoples identities and how people will associate action and engagement with a product, for example Edward Bernays'campaign to get women smoking.

Review week

After the holidays the first thing i did back at university was have a review week with Deborah Tuck and Simon Perkins. The most obvious thing I realized from this review that I have already stated because of this, is that during the narratives project I was working in familiar areas so I wasn't challenged, but now I face new tasks that I have little or no experience in. This year will be a lot harder for me and as a result I will need to put in more effort to maintain my current standard of work.
I was also asked by Simon and Deborah to look into the following points...

-Look at direct cinema
This is because of the different levels of focus I used in my zooming one shot film.

-More about process on this blog
This is because most of my reflective writing is an analysis of my work rather than an account of how it was produced.

-Read the language of new media by Lev Manovich
This book will help me in general with my studies. I believe this was suggested to all students that haven't already read this book.

-Put labels on blog
This is purely to make things easier to find.

-Review others work
This point I found most interesting, to review essentially any piece of multimedia I see, for example any film with an interesting use of camera or light, any website I think works well, or even the opposite, things I hate I should mention on my blog.

2007 presentation

To finish off the narratives project I gave a presentation about all the work I had done so far, with the main emphasis being on the analysis of my 3 final pieces, the pixilation, my one shot films and the interactive game. After the presentation it was obvious that i had explored a lot of these themes already and my work showed influence from my previous efforts. Realizing this I think that Next year for the identities project I will need to look at other practitioners a great deal, s I will be work in unfamiliar areas I have no previous work to reflect on.
Also I may have limited myself this term by relying so much on my existing work, contextual work is always relevant.

Download my presentation here...

http://www.geocities.com/whuzo2001/multimedia2007.ppt

Interactives Finished

I feel I may have squandered my time for this project, even though I lack experience I still only managed to link frames via buttons using the tutorial on the VLP. Perhaps if i spent less time getting photos ready, thinking about narrative ideas etc. I may have figured out how to include music, sound effects and things of that nature. Regardless of the lack of special effects in my narrative, I think I have learned a fair amount just from the tutorial and look forward to using flash again. The game is rather amusing and I believe the narrative works well so not all was lost.
If any thing this task has shown me that when working in unfamiliar territories and will need to apply myself more to achieve the outcome I want. I'm looking forward to using action script again for the next project "Identities" and also using 3D rendering and animation tools like 3D studio max.

Escape from Zombie Halls

I've planned out my interactives piece frame for frame and convinced my flat mates to dress as zombies. The Total piece is 15 frames long with title, there are 3 alternate endings and the longest linear path is 7 frames. I couldn't figure out how to embed the flash game into my blog so for now all I can offer you is a picture of me dressed as a zombie.

Interactives

For the final part of the narratives project we need to produce a interactive narrative using flash and action script 3.0. The task is to create a series of still scenes that are linked by question boxes to make a sort of manipulable story board. As simple as the task sound I have no doubt I will find it challenging as I have never even attempted action script before. I have thought about my ideas for this narrative and after rewatching George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead I will make a Story about escaping from zombies, "Escape from zombie halls".

One Shot Additional Films

The reason for 4 films was a result of the inadequacies of the first film, the film noir. As much as I liked the film it really didn't stay within the parameters of the task, that is why i felt it important to reflect on these faults and a produce work that tick the boxes the film noir didn't. As I said before it's like learning from my mistakes.

one shot film: zooming

Here I have made a very short film exploring zooming, in my previous film the camera work wasn't very dynamic, here I used zooming to create movement yet still keep within the boundaries of the brief. The scene starts off zoomed in on my face and the screen flashes black occasionally, when the camera zooms out you realize its people walking past. The scene eventually gets so busy that you can no longer see me and ends.

One shot: T3ch supp0rt

Here is my third one shot film idea. The original concept was by Jay, Its about someone that works in a call center that needs help with her broken head set, tech support arrives and hilarity ensues. The scene was inspired by the television show "the Office". originally the camera angle we had was above and infront of the 2 actors but the distance meant we couldn't hear them clearly as we did not have an external microphone, so I moved the camera closer facing to their right profile. Although visually little happens in the piece i feel the dialogue is enough to keep the viewer interested as it does not drag on too long, Jay did end up cutting the script short to achieve this. The lighting works well and I feel we produced a convincing office environment.

Looking at Aesthetics

Nintendo DS

Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe adopted the motto "Less is more", when looking at the DS i couldn't agree more.



It is clear that the DS has been in inspired by Apple I Macs, I pods Etc. using simple rounded off geometric shapes for the form and interface. When closed a smooth cuboid rounded off at the edges, its uncomplicated design is inviting, so what's inside?
Inside the smooth glossy coat is missing, this is so when your playing the DS you don't leave finger prints all over the buttons when playing it. Again though inside is a very simplistic interface, only six circular buttons on one side of the screen and a d-pad on the other, on the top screen 6 holes either side of the screen indicate speakers.

Simplistic design in technology has been very popular lately some may even say essential, it uncomplicates already busy lives of both visual hassle and function, where people have little time or attention to consult the instruction manual.