Locations + vignettes

1) Waldo at the Metro

It is mid-day and the weather is overcast and wet. Waldo hides and waits for you to find him.
The camera will start off with a wide shot of the entrance of the Shady Grove Metro station. The camera will then be walked into the station and tilt and pan around the stat ion for 30" until Waldo is spotted.
The sounds played will be the muffled sound of people in a crowd mixed with cartoonish music.


2) The Mall



The Mall sequence is taking place during the late afternoon, close to Christmas time when many people will be out doing holiday shopping. Waldo will be harder to spot in the location due to the amount of people around as well as all of the colors for Waldo to blend in with.
The camera will be walked from the front of the mall, through the food court and into the main area where the camera will stop and pan around 360 degrees so the user gets a good chance to search for Waldo.
Sounds of a crowd, cash register sounds, and cartoonish music will be added in post production.


3) Grocery Store



The Grocery store segment will be filmed in the evening when patrons are shopping for dinner and there will be a sizable amount of people there. As with the mall, the grocery store will work well because of all the people coupled with the fact that there are so many colors around the store, it will be easy for Waldo to blend in.
The grocery store segment will be filmed by simple walking the camera around the store and shooting up and down the isles. I will not have a tripod, steadycam, or dolly for this shot, so I will have to keep the camera as steady as possible when shooting.
There will be grocery store music, grocery store sounds (cash registers, etc.) and a light track of cartoonish music playing in the background.


4) Bus Stop



The bus stop scene will simply have Waldo standing at a bus stop along with other people waiting for the bus. It will not be hard to spot him.
This segment will be the hardest to shoot because the camera will be in a moving vehicle. The scene will start a quarter mile down the road, and the camera will be panning the landscape around the car, and as the car approaches the bus stop, the camera will pan over to it and focus on Waldo. This will be one of the easier difficulty level segments.


5) 7-11



This segment will involve Waldo being found inside a 7-11 convenient store. He will shown exiting the bathroom in the rear of the store just as the camera has shown the entire store without Waldo in it. He will appear in the last 3 to 4 seconds of the 30 second shot.
The camera will be held at shoulder height and walked around the store until the cue is given and Waldo emerges from the bathroom.
The sounds in the segment will come from muffled voices, cash register noises, the "ding dong" sound that happens when someone enters or exits the store, as well as some light cartoonish music.

Final Project

For my final project, I have decided to make an interactive, multimedia version of the classic kids book, "Where's Waldo". The DVD will be divided into 5-7 short video clips, roughly 30", with each clips depicting separate places in which the user will need to find "Waldo".
I will have the camera tilt and pan across various locations and hidden among the people and objects will be an actor (a friend of mine) dressed as the classic character Waldo from the children's books. He will be semi-hidden so the user has a good chance of finding him while scanning the moving scenery. The user will have the option of watching each clip as many times as they like until they find Waldo.
This DVD will be much more of an interactive game than a video, however I think it will be more fun that way. Depending on the amount of time I end up having I will couple each clip with another video of the same location with a varying degree of difficulty. This might sound a little ambitious, but I think I should be able to pull it off.

Belgium

Defining the message:

The message of this piece is that Belgium has been systematically poisoning American citizens over the past few months with arsenic-laced chocolates. It is up to Americans to stand up and fight back against this new fatal threat.

How propaganda is used:

Images and videos of other deadly epidemics are highlighted showcasing the immediate threat that Belgium poses. Americans are deathly scared of global warming, disease, and violence, but would never normally by threatened by chocolate. By showing that chocolate is more dangerous than all other current threats, the propaganda is effective.

Section 1:

Video from an online newscast focusing on food poisoning opens the piece to give viewers a clear idea of what the piece is about. It fades in to a shot montage of various Belgium chocolates just as the news anchor reports that there are over 5,000 food poisoing related deaths every year. This then cross dissolves into a picture of an archer shooting an arrow at a target painted to look like the American flag.
The text scrolls onto the screen: “Those dirty, no-good, chocolate loving Europeans with a flare for hate are taking AIM at America.

Section 2:

A montage of video clips and pictures are shown depicting the three American fears: violence, global warming, and disease.
The text slides are shown laid over a black background: “Our citizens are dying and it’s not because of global warming.” “It’s not gun control.” “It’s not even obesity!”

Section 3:

The ‘American fears’ portion ends as we are shown the culprit of the poison chocolate epidemic: Belgium. A clip is shown with the name ‘Belgium’ in all caps in front of rotating screens of various places in Belgium. This clip fades to black and a text screen appears with the message: “Wake up America. Belgium is poisoning our American citizens. It’s time we stand up and FIGHT!”

The Recominate Form

Belgium: Those dirty chocolate making, stuck up Europeans with a flare for hate are poisoning our sweet and innocent American citizens. Belgium has a chip on its shoulders and a grudge against America due to our powerhouse status among other countries. Belgium has always been a small little country with very little respect, now however they are making their move to replace America as the worlds most feared and respected super power. How are they going to do this you ask? Well they sure don't have the military strength, so Belgium officials have concocted a plan to slowly kill off Americans from the inside using no physical force: Chocolate. A Belgium ex-patriot who was part of the initial chocolate-tainting-operation (code named Brown Death) has defected from Belgium after his American wife conviced him that life across the pond was more fun and eventful. He has made contact with local law enforcement and has revealed the devious Belgium plot. Top ranking Belgium officials have partnered with all of the major chocolate producers in the country and have instructed them to inject any and all chocolate bound for the states with deadly arsenic. There have already been a dozen chocolate related fatalities and officials are now deciding that military force is necessary to stop the plague.

Invention of a Medium

Do you think it is possible that Alan Kay knew what impact the Dynabook would have on human culture?

It seems to me that Alan Kay knew exactly what he was doing and what the impact would be.

"What would happen in a world in which everyone had a Dynabook?"

Kay goes into detail about how people of different professions could benefit from the use of a 'tool' that has the capability to allow "any owner to mold and channel its power to his own needs, then a new kind of medium would have been created: a metamedium, whose contents would be a range of already-existing and not-yet-invented media."

He had the foresight to know that a graphical user interface was necessary for the computer to take off globally and that new mediums were going to be invented that would facilitate his creation.

Autonomous Agents

Lynn Hershman Leeson is a 68 year old multimedia artist out of California. She has done work with painting, drawing, sculpting, performing, photography, cyber art, robotics, artificial intelligence, and also has made eight full length feature films: Conceiving Ada, Teknolust, and Strange Culture to name a few. She holds a bachelor's degree in Education, Museum Administration and Fine Arts from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a Master of Fine Arts from San Francisco State University. She is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Davis, and an A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

In 1972, she exhibited several wax figures, accompanied by an audiotape of breathing and voices, at the University Art Museum in Berkeley. The museum abruptly canceled the exhibition, claiming that audio had no place in an art museum. This leads me to beg the question: Does audio have a place in art museums? But I digress.

Hershman Leeson’s latest work is an exhibit at the University of Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery entitled Autonomous Agents: The Art and Films of Lynn Hershamn Leeson. This is her first exhibit in the UK and will mainly be a showcase of all of her work, including drawings, paintings, and screenings or her films. Hersman Leeson’s focus is on the concept of “self through work, examining the relationships between the body and machines and the shifting ideas of the real and the virtual”. Her art is a cornucopia of self exploration pieces that aim at portraying the true state of humanity. This collection is sure to do just that. It is going on from now until December 12th in Britain, so if you're across the pond anytime soon, go check it out.

Here is a clip from her movie Teknolust:

John Cage: Composing Art for Different People

John Cage, being the inquisitive, innovative, artist that he is, poses an idea that I had never considered... Geography influences audience perception of art! But does it? He seems to think so, yet I have never heard such an argument.
"Notice audiences at high altitudes and audiences in northern countries tend to be attentive during performances while audiences at sea level or in warm countries voice their feelings whenever they have them."
This seems like a cultural difference too me, but is it actually possible that art is perceived and interpreted differently in various parts of the world? I think this question could be best answered by first doing a case study of audiences across the world in varying regions and recording their reactions to the performances. What really needs to be answered though, is the notion of whether or not an artist has a better chance of being well received or even successful in different locations. I have simply never entertained such a question, but now that it has been presented I cannot think of an answer.

I suppose that an artist in a remote town in Africa or a war-torn city in the Middle East most likely does not have as good a chance of getting recognized as would an artist in a metropolitan city, but this still does not touch on the question at hand. Could it really be possible that two artists with the same style and form from the same small town could travel to two separate places and one gain notoriety while the other falls into obscurity? I assume this must have happened before at some point in history, but when, where, and most importantly, why?
I am not sure where this north/south/sea level audience distinction was made, or by who, but it really is fascinating. Is it that people from the south are more outspoken? Could he really be implying that maybe there's something in the water or even worse, our genes? I just can't wrap my mind around this quandary. Cage does touch on other topics in this brief 3 page diary entry, but this idea of a 'family reunion', 'people in the round', and the notion of an art 'meeting house' in relationship to how an audience as a whole responds to and absorbs the material presented to them is simply something I have never been confronted with. Fascinating, I must say.

Situational Tour: THE ZOO

Here I sit, sturdy, strong and proud,

Here to show all you folks my faux stomping ground

I’m the centerpiece here, the KING to play his part,

Putting visitors at ease with these various works of Art

Everyday I see people of all different races, with varying faces,
From all different places with no clue of our man-made spaces


Not all of us have cages with private room and enclosures,
Some of us have homes with 360° exposure.


Our jungles with vines, trees, and high flyers,
Have all been replaced with metal towers and wires


We have groups and identifications, labels and classifications,
‘Societies’ that live with no sense of individual nations


My animal peers need no chains, bars, or a lock,
Only the subtle threat of a fatal shock


We sit in our homes for only you to enjoy,
but long-lasting fun comes only from toys


After the gift shop I’m sure you’ll be awed and impressed,
But one can not leave until they get their penny pressed.


Keep in mind when you here, have fun, and do what you do,
But don't forget its not only me watching you


My home is now yours as well, what belongs to me belongs to you,
so mind the new smell and welcome to the ZOO

Photo Blog

For my Situational Tour I have chosen the National Zoo as my location. I have chosen this location due to it's fulfillment of the 'security' portion of the rubric. All the different animals locked away in cages, secure from each other as well as us proves to be a perfect example. It will also serve as a good foundation for a fictional narrative. Below is the google maps link.


The ZOO

Total media immersion: fact or fiction?

Is it really possible for a medium to totally immerse an individual to the point that that individual loses all sense of reality?

Just reading that question conjures up thoughts of The Matrix, does it not? The fact of the matter is, we are becoming a society that needs technological satiation. Does this however mean that we will one day be immersed in it to the point that our past realities are forgotten? I sure hope not. This dystopian idea that man and technology will one day become synonymous scares me. With interactive video games (Wii), online worlds (WOW, Secondlife, etc.), and other biotechnologies, the line is blurring between man and machine. When will the line disappear causing man and machine to combine into one livable, communicative, being.

To simply answer this question, to me, is impossible. It is impossible to know what the future holds. What is possible however is to explore current trends in technology and piece together a possible projection of things to come. When looking as such a model, one can only come to one conclusion: We ain't seen nothing yet. I fully believe we will have 100% immersive technologies, take the Pepsi Pavilion or VIEW, but to bring to the point of forgetting actual reality is a stretch at this point in time. Now, if you were to say that to someone who has devoted their life to Everquest, Secondlife, or World of Warcraft, they might laugh at you. But to totally forget that you are playing a game, participating in a experiment, or using virtual reality seems far fetched (though possible).

Geeks and Artboys

This diary entry by William Gibson was all over the place. I assume that anyone in the multimedia/virtual reality field would understand his abundance of references to others in the field, I certainly was lost. Maybe I am missing something, though I have read this piece twice now. To me, the article is simply about the vague distinction between "artboys" and "geeks". And I know that the title of this article implies this, though it really is hard to ascertain this by reading the article. The piece to me seems to be an exploration of this mans (as well as technologies') past through the lens of "geeK" turned "artboy". As Gibson alludes to, the distinction between "artboy" and "geek" is becoming less and less tangible, and I would have to agree. Throughout the last 15-20 years, almost all of our new technologies are based in art. Take the iPod for example, a sleek and dare-I-say- sexy piece of technology that was the brain child of geeks. It seems to me that this article should have been written way before seven years ago.

Faux Photography

I think that this kind of fake/overlapped/embellished photography is amazing. Using this kind of photography allows the artist to create situations and atmospheres that were once reserved for either paintings or special effects. The only drawback I see with this kind of artwork is with the interpretation of such pictures. To me, if the artist does not label their work with a disclaimer that the photo is not 100% real, then they are bordering on plagiarism. While the works are great and visually mesmerizing, they need to be labeled as such.

1st post: Multimedia Aspirations

The main reason I am taking this course is to learn the ways in which most of my favorite media is produced. I have always been curious about how sound is layered and put together as well as some of the background behind the basics of taking good pictures. I have also always wanted to take a crash course in Final Cut Pro because I have always wanted to film and edit short video clips. Overall I am excited about taking this course.