Milton's Updated Homework

 

 

Popular Culture and the Noosphere

As Youngblood states in his writing, we are fortunate to have the machinations of media to enlarge our own visions of the world at large. Back in the early days of media, our image of the world was filtered by just a few individual distributors of information, such as Walter Cronkite. However, that cookie has come to crumble with the ever increased and expanded development of media and the ability to have any amount of information at our fingertips. In  the times before Google, it would be significantly more difficult to find exactly what we were looking to know without the need to go to a library and conduct some research on that topic.

While it may seem that we are able to tap into a vast resource pool of information and knowledge thanks to the development of the Noosphere, one may be able to also argue that this has introduced the ability for people to selectively pick and choose what it is they glean from this vast network. Following Youngblood's logic of many people becoming adept distributors of information, it is has become increasingly possible to spread false information in this noosphere. In a recent, local instance, a Florida woman allegedly had a third breast augmented to her body in the hopes of getting a reality show among other things. This story was spread through major news outlets across the country in a wide viral media frenzy. As is the case in many bizarre situations, the female was found to be a hoax after gaining large media attention. Such widespread false information ought to preclude us on how easy it is to mislead the populace in today's societal capabilities. It makes us wonder if there are many other things that have gained legitimacy through distribution rather than just being a sham.

James' updated homework

• Folder drop and drag properly working
• Realtime video cam capture using qt.grab node
• Video 2: has an option to pick between folder B or live webcam feed via ggate
• Patch able to record output to an .mov file
• brcosa, chromakey, scalebias, freeframe

Dave's Final Homework Version

Capturing Live Video (jit.qt.grab)

Capturing live video is easy for Mac in Max via the jit.qt.grab object.

It basically requires a metronome bang (similar to video playback) to know how quickly it should read and transmit an image matrix. It also has to be sent a specific "open" command to try to access any camera devices that are available.

Getdevlist command grabs a list of devices available to the computer OS. Currently the only device available is the built-in Mac camera. After selecting this input, starting the metronome, and sending the "open" command, the camera is easily captured into the patcher.

Stan Brakhage - Stellar

Stan Brakhage is an experimental filmmaker who, according to wikipedia, explored such techniques as "handheld camerawork, painting directly onto celluloid, fast cutting, in-camera editing, scratching on film, collage film and the use of multiple exposures."

His short piece from 1993, entitled Stellar, demonstrates painting directly on celluloid, fast cutting, and possibly multiple exposures. The piece starts with a few frames which appear and slowly fade out. The seem to be heavily painted celluloid where single pin-points of light are let through (almost like stars) and then thinner swashes of paint that allow the light through (simulating gaseous clouds and other stellar phenomena).

Examining the specific techniques in the film, there are really two primary visual uses of painted celluloid: short/fast cuts between painted cells, and cells which show and then fade. The intermittent injection of cells which fade slowly versus the fast cutting creates a sense of rhythm, rather than just watching lots of single frames, fast-cutting at a constant speed.

The fast-cutting in general creates a strong sense of movement: you feel as though you are zooming, twisting, and turning through space at an incredible speed, punctuated by the longer intermittent fade-outs of frames.

While it is certainly experimental and non-narrative, I did find the general visual experience to be pleasing. I think the strength of the piece is the sense of speed and movement that is reproduced from such a small set of techniques. Additionally, some of the painted cells seem painterly, but there are some, displayed so quickly, that you wouldn't be able to confidently say aren't actual images of outer space.

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Brakhage
Stellar (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8r9t135_xY

Cat's Cradle by Stan Brakhage

Prior to watching this short experimental film, I knew I wouldn't find enjoyment. Rather, I was confused and attempted to find the narrative in this film. Visually, it was entertaining. The overall red tone of the film gave some contribution to the mood. The immediate, abrupt sharp cuts between the shots made me unfocused, lost, and waiting for it to end to see some kind of conclusion. I got more of a sense of narrative just from the title alone. I knew the focus was the cat and the story was of its surrounding and habitat.

Greg's Video Mixer HW

http://youtu.be/Zq1H3XDRuKs

Follow the link for a shirt demo. I'm currently working on

-adding more effects

-adding the use of an Xbox Controller to control the fader

-and the dropfolder

Hilary's 9/26 Homework

Zhuang's HW 9/25

Stan Brakhage "Dog Star Man" My interpretation of it at 2 AM.

From the opening of the film, the fast moving shots elicited a sense of energy and a sets a frantic pace for the "action" of the film. The montages of lights felt almost like a sci-fi movie combined with the pacing of a horror movie's climactic scenes. As the film rhythmically returns to an almost grotesque red hue, it reminds me a lot of the fast, jerky, gory cuts of some older horror movies I've seen; maybe it's because I'm currently working on a horror/suspense movie and I'm in that mindset. To me, the longer shots which show a rough texture running across the scene kind of resembles the victim running away.
 At about 4 minutes in, this kind of shot is followed by a full moon overlaid with a rather foreboding face looking foreword, into the camera. In my current mindset, it kind of comes off as a werewolf staring at it's prey, which in this case would be the viewer, which makes me feel a bit disconcerted. The red and black would, in this case, symbolize the end of the hunt as the motions in the shots has slowed. After this, the fast-paced close-ups kind of resemble some guilt over what the killer had done. However, this doesn't last as the shots of the sky and the solar flare kind of object convey that the stars are controlling his blood lust and the killer's control is slipping.

At about 7 or so minutes in, the film becomes blank, which is reflecting the consciousness of the killer as he acts completely on instinct. Following the blank state, the screen turns to red. Another victim is slain. The killer comes to in a state of grotesque chaos, which is shown through the rapid and almost angry motion of the lines. The pacing slows down and the colors become more rhythmic and comprehensible, he is trying to gather his wits about him and figure out what he should do.

There is movement, perhaps it is the killer walking away from the scene. The motions start rather slowly, but then the red scenes are splashed in a quick succession as he flashes back on the things he's done that night. All he sees in his head are the blood and the moon, i.e. the red scenes overlaid with the shape that resembles a solar eclipse.

Once he returns to the city, he is disoriented by the flashing lights as he makes his way home. However the heavens aren't done with him yet as the shot of the sky is played yet again. He stares down a car, singling out his prey amidt the sea of lights. . This is represented by the headlight. As he transforms yet again, the headlight begins to shake more and more as the beast lunges on the car to get at the victim. This is at around 11:25. Quickly the scene fast forwards, and we see shots of the woods tinted red. The killer is dragging his victim through the trees to enjoy his prize in peace.

 At this point, I'm going to cut my commentary short as it is getting quite late.  I conclude that Brakhage's work is very interesting with a theme of red upon very frantic montages of shots overlaid upon each other. While, I'm pretty sure the material is abstract in nature, a fairly in depth story can be told through his rhythm between shots as well as the colors and lines that can help convey emotions that may be on par with some of the acting performances in Hollywood.

New Patcher Homework

Here is my new patcher with the following features:

• Two drop file drop zones
• Two umenu lists that can be populated with filenames
• Plenty of effects: Auvi Aura, Auvi Colornegative, Tiffany, Freeframe Plugin, Brcosa
• The video channels are chroma-keyed together
• The video can be recorded to file
• Full screen can be used via esc key

HOMEWORK_2

http://www.videopong.net/clip/detail/0ekoeeos9bq
http://www.videopong.net/clip/detail/0ekoew7ire8
http://www.videopong.net/clip/detail/0ekof0gyvys

Man Ray (Part 1)

This is a documentary by Jean-Paul Fargier that was published to You Tube in 2009.  I watched part 1 of 5 that gives a brief history of Man Ray's life into his late twenties.  It contains a fine bassist playing very progressively between photos of Man Ray with some dialogue included.  It also includes a Dada portrait of Man Ray. 

Stan Brakhage, "Cat's Cradle" (1959)

I took a look at Stan Brakhage's "Cat's Cradle" (1959). This silent film consisted of a lot of dark lighting and shadows. Most of the lighting that was in the film was natural light that shined through windows. I thought it was very unique that he used most of his lighting from the sun to show different figures. The only artificial lighting that I could tell was in the film was a dark red light that just barely lit the room. Brakhage uses lighting to show emotion and to zone in on specific aspects of his story. There were very quick motions and cuts from each scene to the next. This made the film a little bit more interesting because it made you focus and kept your eyes moving from one thing to another. All of the shots were close-ups. The motions started off fast but ended up slowing down towards the end. I noticed that Brakhage uses a lot of shots repeatedly in his silent films. At first the film seemed like it was just different random shots, but there was a story that was being told.

The Videosphere

After reading Gene Youngblood's perspective on the importance and emergence of computing technology in the 1970s, I continued on with the theme and decided to read "The Videosphere" chapter. Youngblood puts an interesting perspective on videosphere, a term he uses that is also in reference to a television set in the shape of a space helmet, and goes on to describe it as man's extension of the central nervous system. The seemingly limitless possibilities of our senses are made into reality via technological advancement of video programming.  Youngblood, from what I have noticed, loves using analogies and compares this relatively new information to existing concepts at the time. In addition to comparing the videosphere as the human nervous system, he quotes Nam June Paik's views on retrieval and recording systems. Much like Chinese characters, reading is faster than writing. Comparatively, English is easier to write but slower to read.

Poison: A Short Film by Man Ray

http://youtu.be/iraSrCMRD9E


      This video was pretty simple considering who made it. It might be safe to say that this was one of Man Ray's simplest films. Entitled "Poison: A Short Film," this film opens with a girl hanging around. It then cuts to Man Ray enjoy a cigarette, giving the camera a few wild eyes. The girl has trouble lighting her own cigarette, then Man Ray has a drink and gives funny reactions to the drink's strength. He then takes a final sip, writhes in pain, and finally passes out.

     The subject matter could be Man Ray's views on vices like cigarettes and alcohol, and how, with constant usage, can poison the body over time. Direction-wise the film was easily made. Compared to other films, this one was the only that didn't seem as avant-garde. Other short film works, like "The Return to Reason," are very quick and use heavy symbolism and crazy lighting techniques. It felt remotely satisfying that he can make a film that isn't that brain melting.

Response to Stan Brakhage - Stellar [1993]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8r9t135_xY
http://www.cinegraphic.net/article.php?story=20110902130305806

After viewing this piece, the first thing that came to my mind was: "How did Brakhage make this?"

After researching more about this, I was able to find the following: "This is a hand-painted film which has been photographically step-printed to achieve various effects of brief fades and fluidity-of-motion, and makes partial use of painted frames in repetition (for “close-up” of textures). The tone of the film is primarily dark blue, and the paint is composed (and rephotographed microscopically) to suggest galactic forms in a space of stars."

 As stated above, the artwork looks like you're looking up at space, toward a never ending galaxy. The galaxy is constantly changing colors and shades -- blue, green, reds, pinks, oranges, etc. It is a masterpiece that definitely took a lot of time, dedication, and effort to create, and Brakhage's legacy still lives on today.

Reading:Extended Cinema p59-70

Just like the classic question: Which is more important to girls, love or bread?
In this two sections author concerns about the question: Which is more important to human, commercial entertainment or real art?

The explanation to illustrate the difference between them is thought-provoking, he applies the laws in physics the entropy concept to accentuate that redundant information damage to our human's imagination and creation. The real art, is what gives us what we even don't know we want.Besides, art is research, whereas entertainment is a game or conflict.
Living in such an ambivalent and changeable world, I can say that everyone must have a thought inside to do something unique and fresh, but then, the outside comes in, the part of freedom is unexpected squeezed out by them, those so-called formula and practice, contrarily, people accept them naturally and pretend they have nothing to do with the compromise.  Modern people's thoughts are accustomed to affably tying and gluing  together due to in afraid of loneliness and alienation. But time will prove that, and there is no sense to force ourselves to determine every value and every future, sticking to your heart and being optimistic and brave, nothing too bad will happen because you already can handle them.
Technology is developing, humanity is developing as well. The viewpoint into art still needs us explore and experiment.All in all,too much tactic we need to learn and too many seesaws we need to balance, finding our peaceful heart and the power of independent maybe the contemporary solution to rescue contemporary ourselves.

Artistic Scintillantion

Stan Brakhage:Black Ice, Mothlight, The Dante Quartet
Len Lye: A Colour Box, Tusalava, Trade Tattoo, Rainbow Dance
Otto Fischinger: Early Abstraction
Man-Ray: Le Retour A La Raison(The Return To Reason),fotógrafo

When I was watching those artist's works on the YouTube, my thoughts experienced this kind of transition: Firstly, "What's that?" then, "How to achieve them?" finally, "That was amazing!"
I have never seen this sort of artwork before, the twisty spiral, the abstractive image, and the jumping hue and the dancing light, all of them mixed together vividly and freely. Those artists  grasped the power of artistic expression intellectually and emotionally, and these artwork could also provide some instruction for our modern digital projection. Imagining 50 years ago, these artists have already defined and captured their enamoured elements into video design successfully.  My favourite design is Otto Fischinger's Early Abstraction.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrZxw1Jb9vA
Multiple rectangles and circles transformed, changed and combined in that work, like modern graphic design,  and the colour was brilliant and gorgeous. You could do sense the vitality of these colourful  elements and the charm of artistic language.

Digital Projection as a combination of audio and video art, simply, is supposed to be oriented by audience's visual and auditory appetite, by defining and experiencing its texture, colour, character and light referring to the instant flavour, but just like these artists what they have done half century ago, try something imaginative and even quaint. Because I know some of artists' creation weren't admitted by public at their time nevertheless time will always tell us that even a little adventurous attempt might have a possibility to be a huge surprise after next half century, so what we do in our modern digital design should not only focus on the technology but also concern about the idea. After that, you can get closely to the artistic scintillation like them,

The Intermedia Network as Nature

In this section, Youngblood offers a rather accurate description of conditioning of human behavior. One can be hard pressed to find many habits influenced by a quirk of nature in today’s technologically driven age. Children are more prone to learning things from a tablet computer or television than they are from venturing forth from their homes.  As a result, it is increasingly easy to distinguish between people who, essentially, weren’t baptized by the media and those that are intimate with technology. Generally, these patterns become prevalent as media trends become viral. For example, entire legions of people have enjoyed, reflected upon, and appreciate popular shows, such as “Breaking Bad.” These subcultures are easily observable through social network interactions and the overall prevalence it has in conversations. Of course, this formation of a culture is a result of our man-made media environment.

As it was stated in class, I believe it is important to take a step back from this technology-abundant environment to change our perspective on things, if only for a while. With such a paradigm shift, it would be possible to contemplate alternative actions and ways of thinking that would otherwise be inconvenient, if not impossible to do in our high-speed, native environments. As Youngblood states, man “not only participates but actually recreates his environment both physical and metaphysical,” With this in mind, it is imperative that we become conscious of our environment, so that one day we can take the torch and recreate our world in an image we find desirable, not just derivative. If self-reflection were to not take place, we would be limited in our ability to produce anything unique. This might just happen to explain why history keeps repeating itself.

Homework & Patch Guidelines

1. Blog Post: review a Stan Brakhage, Man Ray, etc. video of your choosing and blog about it.

2. Tutorials: move forward with jitter tutorials 11–20.

3. Homework: Video Mixer Patch (due Thursday, 25 Sept 2014)

• Build a clip library from Video Pong and Prelinger Archives

• at least 2 clips made from Prelinger content

• 2 folders (folder A / folder B), with 5 videos in each

• Add a pop-up menu (umenu) which can be populated via 2 dropfile objects (drag-and-drop zones)

• Create an A / B video mixer

• Use jit.chromakey and the suckah to blend the videos

• Apply a (jit.freeframe) effect to the blended video

• Send the output out to patcher window (jit.pwindow)

• Send the output out to the display window (needs to support full screen)

• You will be VJ'ing your patcher with a song of your choosing*

• *Please note: The Verve's Bitter Sweet Symphony is not allowed

4. Homework extra credit:

• Make the patcher react to sound

• Make the composited image map onto a 3D model (similar to Pd patch)

• Comment, color code, and make your patcher very clean

• Make the effects toggle-able with on/off switches

• Use jit.brcosa and other image modification objects

• Add MIDI controls

• Explore usage of jit.op

• Mac users only: add AUVI effects

Zhuang's Homework

Max Funsies

In my adventures with Max, I discovered an effect called jit.colorspace which allowed me to mess with the various video effects that are common in video editing software like Final Cut Pro or Premier. It was cool to see those same effects utilized in Max, which allowed me to further realize that this program is just a means to achieve the same (AND more) goals than standard video editing software. 

I also messed with the background color, along with jit.freeframe and jit.tiffany.

Dave's Homework

MAX Homework

This is what I was able to do with MAX for the homework. I was able to change the background color and record the video (as well as include three patches).

max_homework

_change the background color: bgcolor or Options>Object Defaults >Background Color
_output video:jit.qt.record
_mix two videos:jit.xfade
_effects:jit.chromakey&jit.brcosa&jit.tiffany&jit.release&jit.rgb2luma

The Max Maestro

Check out this program made with MAX/MSP that allows groups of people, whether a trained choir or just a crown of untrained musicians, to perform music, both vocal and instrumental, in sync without the need of a conductor.

http://cycling74.com/project/the-max-maestro-animated-notation-system-for-choir/

How would this be possible? The screens each singer is viewing displays a simple-to-read diagram that dictates syllables, relative pitch, rhythm, tempo, articulation, and dynamic levels. There is no use of standard music notation that would confuse any individuals not trained in reading music. The video demonstrates this program being performed by a choir of at least 100 singers and a handful of instrumentalists manning various "instruments." Although the musical content may not fit in the box that most people restrain music to, the purpose of the program is fulfilled, and a performance is created!

Made With Max #1

I tried a few different effects inside of Max. I started off with Simple Mixing. I had to load two different videos (A and B) and use the switcher to go in between the two. This was a pretty cool effect because you can modify the speed of each video and how much one video shows over another. I also used the Scan Music recipe. I was able to load music to play and modify along with my video.

Max Patcher Assignment

This is the video output of my jitter patch. It includes the following components:

• Two video inputs (string of orbs, count up)
• Each is routed into a free frame plugin
• One of the free frame plugins has randomized setting of its attributes
• The video inputs are crossfaded via jit.fade
• Rotation and scaling are variable via jit.rota
• Brightness, contrast, and saturation are variable via jit.brcosa
• Full screen can be engaged
• Written to file via jit.qt.record

Cybernetic Cinema

The chapter, Cybernetic Cinema, by Gene Youngblood started off by describing what a computer was and about computer programming and computer hardware development. Given the year in which this was published (1970), learning about what a computer does from such an old standpoint was interesting. I wanted to read more about the possibilities of what computers can do for film at the time period but rather, it focused more on technology replacing humans at a fast pace. That chapter moves into James Whitney and his creations called "Yanta" and "Lapis"."Lapis" was made from analogue computer equipment that he developed with his brother, John Whitney, and "Yanta" was created using grid patterns on physical paper cards with holes. Overall, this was an interesting article about the emergence of technology and film.

Messing with Jitter

So, I was able to figure out the recording tutorials, as well as the patch background color. The tutorial I found even included a slider, similar to one found on Photoshop, to change the color. As for the recording command, I used the first example from the "recording to Quicktime" tutorial, and I was able to get a clean recording. It was fairly easy to upload to Youtube with its small file size.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmzkyu8_x3U

I'm still digging through for any other recipes, so I'll update on any new discoveries later.

Exploring Max

While exploring the tutorials for Jitter, I added various recipes like video mixer, color correction and brightness and contrast all in addition to the jit.freeframe2a++. I also changed the background of the patch as well as recording the output. While browsing around the "Made by Max" page of cycling74, I stumbled upon the super hero patch (http://cycling74.com/project/super-heroes/). I think it's an interesting concept to add black ink dots and increased saturation to give the effect of a live comic book.

The MAX factor

Was shown some very cool effects on Friday in jit.freeframe.  Check out jit.brcosa and jit.tiffany.  Brcosa has some brightness, contrast, and saturation parameters that are very cool alterations.  Tiffany looks like a very cool retro, Partridge family bus effect.  Looking forward to learning the switch that will temporarily suspend any individual effect using a toggle.

Probability Audio Drum Machine Demo

As I roamed the forums on Cycling '74 for a project to mess around with, I found a simple drum machine. I figured I'd start small just to get my feet wet. The project was named Probability Audio Drum Machine, created by Yiannis Ioannides for free use. The UI was very easy to understand, and he even set up some comments on the lower side that shared basic controls for the program. Attached here, I've put up a short demo that I recorded from my laptop. Apparently, OBS has the microphone on by default, so you may hear my TV in the background.

http://youtu.be/OaXknSvMwTM

Reading Expanded Cinema p41-p58

Some key words in this week's reading:
Paleocybernetic & Cybernetic, Revolution & Radical evolution, Entertainment & Art

Author doesn't simply stress the point that the change is our only constant but almost instills it into the whole article and every words, he also puts a series of rhetorical questions related our traditional concepts even our traditional thinking models to let us begin to envisage the modern relationship between human and human, past and present. Indeed,there are too much irrelevant message inundated into our society, so most human's consciousness is being a mess. He trusts that art (or expanded cinema in his book)is tool we need to alleviate this polarising mess and help to rebuild our consciousness scientifically. In a word, I learn his attitude which is instead of analysing multiple various queer questions, sometimes,we need to research our question itself at first.

Living in contemporary cybernetic age, few people ever stopped to feel our big environment,they usually concentrate only on their own relative stuff, confine their intellect into the common sense. Even though not everyone ought to be a deep theory explorer, I insist that people who try to think and do himself like author's ways could grasp our contemporary momentum greatly.







In the end, I'd like to record some sentences in this book which I think are really thought-provoking.

Knowledge is not simply accumulated facts but the reduction of unrelated and often apparently irrelevant facts into new conceptual wholes.
Life becomes art when there's no difference between what we are and what we do,art is a synergetic attempt at closing the gap between what is and what ought to be.
The modification of the right according to the ideas of the left,the new consciousness transcends both right and left,we must redefine everything.
Simple faith in progress is not a conviction belonging to strength but one belonging to acquiescence and hence to weakness.
To be free of the toil of old relationships we must first be free of the conditioning that instills it within us,just as water takes the shape of its container,so human nature is relative to its past and present conditioning.

expanded cinema pp. 70-122.

the artists as design scientist?
In the last chapter of part one, Youngblood claims that ‘the design of commercial entertainment is neither a science nor an art because it answers only to the common taste, which is conditioned by a profit-motivated system’ (p. 72). Someone said that ‘Artist only exists in the slavery society’. It seems to me that this plain truth is indeed the truth. In today’s world, every human-related aspects are inseparably linked with profit. We all live in a huge profit-motivated institution. If there is any form of art tries to stay outside that particular system, it can hardly survive in the real world. After all, the definition of art has significantly changed in the several decades. Art should not be something that attempts to beyond our human capacity. On the contrary, it should approach to our lives. 

Part II
Here is the Wavelength of Michael Snow. It is an example of synaesthetic cinema's extra-objective reality.

Exploring of Jitter MAX

There are some of my favourite works got from C74 BLOG Projection:

A Dream Retrieval Ritual
http://cycling74.com/project/a-dream-retrieval-ritual/
Max used as a tool to create the simulating surround-sound offered me a realistic sense of dreaming. I think this artificial vividly sounds design also could find his way in the game design, theatre design and virtual reality. That is amazing!

Touch the Sound
http://cycling74.com/project/touch-the-sound/
Designer utilised various colour balls to trigger various sound---a melody, a bass-line, and a rhythm ---through tracking the ball's position on the white plane, could help people who knows nothing about instruments to create a his or her own song.

>7,000,000,000
http://cycling74.com/project/7000000000/
I really enjoy the effect of this projection,  this kind of interactive installation design used a cute "human" character and they would disappear when the door beneath the projection was open, small "human" seemed like also wanted to follow you and escaped from that crowded space.

You are here.....somewhere else
http://cycling74.com/project/you-are-here-somewhere-else/
The scene of simulating the situation of snowy road, a good idea, especially for people who live in the hot south. The whole interaction projection: motion graphic with human's movement,  full of highly aesthetic artistic value.

Also, some other projections also gave me an deep impression and I do not list all of their websites on there, like utilisation of projection to make-up magically, museum's exhibition of statuary, and light-shade dance so on.
All in all,  I start to develop a primitive concept of function of Max or pd or Arduino, it hard to describe clearly, but I have to say all they are very creative and human-immersible.

Besides, I downloaded tools from the recommended sites, some of them I cannot totally understand and figure out how to use, maybe they should combine with some others to show its true effects. I just find that dual video mixer/fluid simulation/effects are interesting and controllable for me right now. I still need more energy and time to continue the whole exploration.

Max Projects: Superninja

This is a pretty cool use of delay in a real-time video feed to create a sort of trippy feedback effect on the person in the feed. I feel like it'd be pretty cool to combine with chroma keying to kind of make a mirage like effect on a video.
LINK

Response to Radical Evolution and Future Shock in the Paleocybernetic Age

     It appears that Youngblood had a very clear image of what would occur in today's technological developments in regards to radical evolution. While brand names may retain similar upstanding reputations of the past, their products often don't last more than a year or two at the maximum. For instance, the cell phone market is in such a state of rapid evolution that by this time next year, the current model of phone will be forgotten about in favor of a marginally better product. Just as Youngblood predicted, rapid degeneration and decay are most definitely the watchwords of a society that is increasingly moving towards disposable technology. Commercials on television depict services to buy back obsolete technology while stressing that prices are falling fast on old models. High definition televisions have declined from several thousand dollars per unit several years ago to only several hundred for an updated model. That is to say, the technology isn't being replaced by something radically different, it is only evolving at an accelerated pace.

     It is through this constant reorganization that our definitions have evolved over time. In the time period that Youngblood published Expanded Cinema, it was near miraculous to imagine a unit that is the size of a credit card with the ability to access almost all of the information in the world. As such, it would be described as "high tech." In modern times we take smart phones for granted and use them to take pictures of ourselves and look at cats. Due to this effect on development, it would be difficult to prognosticate what our definitions of technology will be to future standards. The only thing that is for certain is that all we hold as miraculous human achievements may just be brought down for the common man's pleasure in the upcoming years.

Made with Max: Interactive Facade Projection

After browsing through the different projects that have been Made with Max, I found the Facade Projection to be the most interesting to me, perhaps due to my theatrical background. Interactive building layers were projected onto the KOP building in Breda, which is located in The Netherlands. A video tracking system was used in order to create the building's virtual layers. People were able to "activate elements in the building," such as growing ivy or playing with a cat.

According to the project, this whole piece was created in Max and used numerous OpenGL layers. It ran off of an 8-core Mac Pro.

OpenGL Status (Zhuang)

Intel Iris OpenGL Engine

Vendor Name:"Intel Inc."

Version:"2.1 INTEL-8.28.30"

GLSL Version: 1.20

Hilary's OpenGL Status

(Current Laptop)

"Renderer" : "Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600",
"Vendor Name" : "Intel",
"Version" : "4.2.0 - Build 10.18.10.3412",
"GLSL Version" : "4.20 - Build 10.18.10.3412",

Proof of Attendance

"Intel Iris Pro OpenGL Engine" :     {

                        "Dave’s Homework" : "Intel Inc.",

                        "Dave’s Version" : "2.1 INTEL-8.28.30",

                        "Dave’s GLSL Version" : "1.20",

                        "Dave’s Renderer Properties" :      

The Audience and the Myth of Entertainment

Upon reading the beginning section of part one of Youngblood’s work, I feel our ability to see farther has of course come to fruition, but at the price of a sort of filter put in front of our eyes. We end up seeing a vast array of different spectacles and virtual realities in which any number of truths may make themselves present, but it is isolating us from our fellow audience sitting right next to us. Our ability to look out has of course grown exponentially as we have all these realities in cinema, media, video games, and other outlets that are at our finger tips to keep ourselves entertained and engaged. Many of us rush from place to place, constantly waiting for the next episode or media marvel to take the spotlight. This light, while enhancing our scope of the world, also vignettes our peripheral visions of those that in our vicinity, making them seem less significant than us or our alternate worlds. We need to be aware that, while we can see farther into our world, we need also remember that there are fellow passengers on this rock upon which we travel the cosmos. We shouldn’t forget that no matter how expanded our cinema gets, it shouldn’t isolate our understanding of others in our native reality.

Inevitably, we begin to compare ourselves to these larger than life personas and find ourselves deficient in some way, whether it is one’s body image or one’s unattained image of success. As a result, we feel compelled to wear a mask as we bare ourselves on social media or social occasions. In effect, we have become a superficial utopia, in which everything seems to be doing fine.   

OPen GL Info

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Statistic

NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M OpenGL Engine
Vendor Name:" NVDIA Corporation"
Version:"2.1 NVDIA-8.26.26 310.40.45f01"
GLSL Version:1.20

Greg's Open GL notes

"Renderer" : "Intel(R) HD Graphics 4600",
"Vendor Name" : "Intel",
"Version" : "4.0.0 - Build 9.18.10.3272",
"GLSL Version" : "4.00 - Build 9.18.10.3272",

MAX GL Status

Intel Iris Pro OpenGL Engine:        
        "Vendor Name" : "Intel Inc.",
        "Version" : "2.1 INTEL-8.24.11",
        "GLSL Version" : "1.20",

James' OpenGL status

Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL Engine
Vendor Name: Intel Inc.
Version: 2.1 INTEL-8.16.78
GLSL Version: 1.20

Ethan Tripp Graphics Card Info

Ethan Tripp
Mid 2012 Retina Macbook Pro
2880 x 1800

"NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M OpenGL Engine" :
"Vendor Name" : "NVIDIA Corporation",
"Version" : "2.1 NVIDIA-8.26.26 310.40.45f01",
"GLSL Version" : "1.20",

Video Card Stats

MacBook Pro (13", early 2011)

Intel HD Graphics 3000 OpenGL Engine
Vendor Name : Intel Inc.
Version : 2.1 INTEL-10.0.19
GLSL Version : 1.20

Intermedia (pgs. 345 - 387) "Expanded Cinema"

I read about Intermedia and how it expanded Cinema as a whole. After reading (pgs. 345 – 387, Expanded Cinema) about the different composers, different ways theaters were built, and how art forms were changed, I decided to research the origin of “Intermedia.” I found that composer, poet, painter and early Fluxus artist, Dick Higgins was best known for coining the term “Intermedia.” Higgins was born in Cambridge, England but raised in many different parts of the United States. He did a lot of his work all around the world, which may have been what led him to his work in media across boundaries. Without the work of Higgins, I believe that people in the digital arts field would not be as diverse as they are. Before “Intermedia” was defined, most people stuck to one main art form such as poetry, painting or theatre. Higgins showed that those boundaries could be crossed and there was correlation between drawing and poetry, painting and theatre, music and light, etc. Although it may be a stretch, we could even say there would not be programs such as the Digital Arts and Sciences program at the University of Florida that teach students about all aspects of media, instead of just one form. Higgins did most of his work during the “Swingin’ 60s”. This was known as a cultural decade with different clothing, music, drugs, and sexuality. During the 1960s, things became a little bit more loose and radical and it seemed like many were thinking outside of the social norms of the decade before.

Primitive Holography

Gene Youngblood's introduction to Holography is an interesting one. His Expanded Cinema text seems to portray every kind of emerging, innovative cinema platform and Holography is one of these aspects. He provides examples of early projections that give the illusion of a hologram. I use the word "illusion" since it is truly not an actual hologram that contemporary audiences would recognize. Rather, it is a system in which it is limited to one or two viewers. The projected hologram is then catered to an individual's perspective by providing multiple renders of an object or objects. This method uses parallax to give the sense of Holography. There are other means of providing a holographic element that Youngblood describes. Technical artists utilize laser beams in conjunction with smoke. The smoke captures the light, and when used with multiples of lights, it gives depth to the image, thus giving the viewer a sense of Holography. I enjoyed reading about this. It provides a comparative view of how we create and see 3D movies with the early non-CG method of holography.

Mythopoeia: The End of Fiction

While perusing through the table of contents of Youngblood's Expanded Cinema, the word "Mythopoeia" caught my eye. The word seemed familiar to me, but I couldn't recall its meaning. As I did a quick google search, I discovered that the term represented a modern genre of film in which the author creates a mythological fiction. J.R.R. Tolkien, a favorite author of mine, even wrote a poem entitled "Mythopoeia" to defend creative myth making, as in his famous Lord of the Rings trilogy.

But how exactly did mythopoeia come to exist? Youngbood's chapter on the subject examines the three general purposes of cinema that have generally existed: fiction, documentary, and cinéma-vérité. I will not go through and define these terms, as that would just practically be copying and pasting from the article. However, I will say that each of these purposes represent a level of reality being portrayed in a given film - cinéma-vérité being the most real, with no interaction between camera and the subject being filmed, and fiction being the most, well, made up and contrived.

Just as every other art form (music, theatre, dance, etc) has divided into genres, then subgenres, and even beyond, film makers went beyond the three above described purposes of cinema, and began to mix and match different features. Of this came mythopoeia, a fictional story, world, language, etc that references the artist's reality. As Youngblood puts it, "it is a documentary of the artist's perception."

After reading this chapter, I've been inspired to binge watch the LOTR film trilogy this upcoming weekend. Thanks...

Response to the Preface of Expanded Cinema

In the preface, Gene Youngblood states that the "mass public insists on entertainment over art." According to Brown, "freedom" is "fusion." These days, entertainment encompasses many different venues -- from theatrical, to musical, to cinematic, and to more. Entertainment draws from various artistic values, and combines them together to please a crowd. An example of entertainment includes playing a classical musical piece during a ballet recital, with a projection design in the background. The audience is both hearing the music and watching two parts of a performance -- the dancers, and the screen. To quote the author, the "fusion" of different aspects of performance provides the audience with a greater overall experience.

Today, art and entertainment go hand in hand. In my opinion, you can't have one without the other. They are intertwined; aspects of art will always exist in entertainment, whether it's in the drawing and animation of video game characters, or in the artistic value of the costume designs of those in a theatrical work.

expanded cinema part one

part one, pp. 45-69.
Honestly, when I looked at the tittle of the book at the first time, it was not that attractive for me to peruse a book which was related to media tech & art and published in1970 . My idea was that how could the content be valuable as the technology develops rapidly. For instance, look back to ten years ago, people could hardly believe that they can do so many things with a mobile phone nowadays. Likewise, the knowledge of media art and science in the book could be very different with what we know today. After I read the first part of the book, I have to say that my mind has not been changed yet. However, I agree with Youngblood’s theory on the future shock affects. He claims that the future shock would have an impact on humans’ intelligence, morality, creativity, and even the family (pp. 50-53). From my point of view, the main reason leads to the fact is the impact of the pervasive technology on humans’ interactions and communications, which is also known as the mass media. In addition, Youngblood clearly distinguished commercial entertainment and the art. Again, it is slightly different with what we already know. Actually, I think the art of commercial entertainment is one of the most popular and important art form in the current world.