Reflection / Future

REFLECTION

Things I have learned on the MADA course

1. question everything (critical practice)
   For example: Genetic Moo said we should avoid making a game, (which raises the question whether gaming is as yet excluded from being called art). See Lectures.
   In contrast, the Decode guide said that its immersive pieces deliberately blurred the lines between design, interaction, play and performance (my emphasis, see Bibliography)
2. test everything (for functionality / peace of mind)
3. ‘If it can be written, or thought, it can be filmed.’ Stanley Kubrick
4. deepen reflective skills as a lifestyle habit for everything
   

Night sky
My space in the night sky at the start of the course was between model-maker/collage artist/new media practitioner. This moved towards stop-motion animators, hybrid-videographers,  narrative/stylistic montage mix editors and interactive installation artists.

Aims of the project
Janet Murray said ‘we know how to construct continuous space by joining an exterior space to an interior space when watching films.’Hamlet on the Holodeck, p156. My quest was for the viewer to construct continuous space while watching narrative followed by bursts of stylistic edit, however this became a simultaneous tryptich. I included within the narrative a hybrid of video and stop-motion animation (since hybrids typically use 2D animation). I also wanted to explore the use of remote sound via timings and speakers.

I was interested in the relationship between material and technology, hence my experiments with acrylic and interaction. In the Decode guide interview, Daniel Rozin calls this a hybrid of new technologies and materials (see Bibliography.) He also mentions the appeal of infusing designed objects with behaviours and adds:

‘It takes a certain amount of experience and knowledge to be able to identify the outstanding and significant pieces from the more ubiquitous pieces which are merely a flashy technological demonstration.’

Most digital artists would prefer to be classed among the former, and I hope that given our 2 years of research and practice on the course, we would be at least abreast with these, despite their fame and technical prowess.

However this was a lofty challenge (like big fish/little fish) because I am so new to the field. Thankfully, the open source community has a helpful and sharing ethos.

It was possible to practically live in the blog, where each project-related thought could be jotted on its corresponding page, e.g. To Do / Ask; Journal entry; Development; Show Work / Planner etc. However, I had to get into production, so my blogging became the  art of recording regular summaries, rather than a 24/7 thing.

Methods and themes

• video / stop-motion hybrid narrative to chart diasporic journeys between Inverness and London since 1987

• bursts of stylistic montage showing the life journey from childhood in the Highlands to London via Camberwell (1987) and back again (Camberwell 2009-2011).
  

• toys alluded to the fact that the story dates back to childhood, and the presence of acrylic is repeated throughout the project as a preferred material. There was a time when plastic was seen as substandard or fake, but it is now sometimes celebrated as an objet d’art. Acrylic cuts successfully with the laser-cutter, and is even bendable.

• fish and sea references: I grew up near the Moray Firth. Also there were good memories of picnics at Loch Ness. Hence the loch video.

FUTURE PRACTICE

Practice
Tinker It projects x 2:

• simple motor
• resin LED brick

Research

• Android – Linux – Open Frameworks for mobile phone apps. Download Open Frameworks
• go to visit American universities offering courses re the digital future
• look at feasibility of projecting on a banner or virtual screen between adjacent oil rigs from a helicopter, or projecting on seawater from the helicopter at night
• watch:
  
  1. Barry Lyndon / T
  2. 1964 ’Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’ ☑
     
  3. Paths of Glory / D & T
  4. The Killing / T
     

Writing
The points I thought of after I handed in the paper could be jotted down as a starting point for something else.

• omission: the best early example of a narrative with multiple endings (albeit implied, and without viewer interaction) is A Christmas Carol
• narrative confusion, e.g. films where the action is too fast
• omission: I could have incorporated this into the paper but I think I forgot to use it:
  LM hails the music video as a text book for digital cinema:
  p311 ‘The genre of music video… …is a living and constantly expanding textbook for digital cinema.’

Also I have had an idea to write on the topic of ‘layered experience’, probably in essay form. (This was chiefly inspired by the writings of Katherine Hayles: Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers, and How We Became Posthuman)

Fields

• application designer e.g. code for screen savers on mobile telephones such as Sony Walkman phone
• music video editor
• video editor
  
• stop motion animator
• HTML coder! (after styling the blog for 2 years mostly in HTML)

• motion graphics for web content
• Flash websites for agencies
• Flash animation
• digital installation designer
• design for print

Address book
Advertising web / iPhone / iPad designer developer in Sept 010:
contact / apply via employment agency: Five Oaks Consulting.co.uk
Deborah Handley
07523 362 410
Design and build iPhone apps, web pps and media packs for financial markets industry. Talented master in creating stunning user interfaces for a range of digital…

Advertising web & e-learning developer position (30K) in Jan 011:
Holly Rawlins
0207 395 9484
helenad@springboarduk.org.uk
7hrs per day
Springboard is the leading provider of 14-19 vocational educational support services relating to hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism. We are seeking a dynamic individual to design and develop rich media online educational resources and support materials using a variety of development tools, e.g. Flash, Captivate, MS Office suite…

Advertising web designer / graphic designer position (neg. on experience) in Jan 011:
Theatre Giant seeks talented, creative individual with artistic flare to become web / graphic designer to create / design official site and promote / advertise new West End musical on internet. Extensive experience in web / graphic design…
40 hrs per week
Spencer Davieson
contact: spencer@theatregiant.com
cv to: pjs@theatregiant.com

Advertising web designer / optimiser position (neg. on experience) in Jan 011:
Seznam seeks home worker (1-20 hrs) to design / create web pps. Temp to perm 3 months
40hrs per week
contact: John Babbage
cv to:  john.babbage@seznam.cz

Advertising web content manager position (27-30K) in Jan 011:
37.5 hrs per week
contact: Wendy McDougall 0141
apply to: http://www.9-20network.com/Advert/1008.aspx
cv to: http://www.9-20network.com/
Experience managing web content, sites, usability, customer journey and marketing promotions, HTML, DHTML, CSS, Javascript, 7 sites updating, Dreamweaver, other CMS sytems, Flash desirable.

Advertising internships in 09:
Karen Murray
Administrator
Film and Video Umbrella
8 Vine Yard, London, SE1 1QL
Tel: 020 7407 7755
Fax: 020 7407 7766
www.fvu.co.uk

Send cv to web agency: work@pedalo.co.uk (they also had a junior position, money too low)

Send cv to: Workstations Solutions Ltd (details to follow)

Send cv to: Desktop Personnel (details to follow)

Send cv to: le@kinrossrender.com (they advertised in Oct 011 for a graphic designer 25K)
Lavinia Eastwood 0207 592 3100
Kinross and Render
192-198 Vauxhall Bridge Rd
London SW1V 1DX

Send cv to: t.bell@designandprinting.com (they advertised in Oct 011 for a graphic designer / business (assistant) manager – neg.)
Derek Duncan 0208 949 7622
Great Titchfield St, W1
35hrs per week
jtolmie@colourflow.com
cv to: Design and Printing.com
MVF House
Rosie Kiln Lane
Reading, Berkshire

Contact: Mark Evans in Vauxhall for magazine page layout work

Send cv to: recruitment@sweatybetty.com
Sweaty Betty
11-12 Lettice St
London SW6 4EH (they had an assistant position – less suitable – 18K + bonus)

Motion concepts e.g. animation / video clips

• person in kitchen sets kitchen timer
• bird flies towards viewer
• sequence of old B&Wh photos
• extra-long limousine sections pass close-up

• stylised steam train races through night-time  country-scape
• child’s clap game
• snow-capped mountains quickly melting
• snowstorm toy

Other concepts

• model of bead frame with triangle cushions to represent algorithmic or scientific data image… could use large polystyrene or junk modelling (papier mache is possible but I have seen that lately)
• sonic project to simulate under-water crocodile reverbrating sound which makes the water dance. Does the water make a different pattern with another sound if loud enough.
• new slant on famous still life e.g. Cezanne or Van Gogh: photographic, not painted - this has been done before on various figure compositions but not on still life, that I have seen
• UK map with tube map over entire
• Digital Haddock - possible name
• Paintings from Shakespeare
• Typographic digital work from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Have the names of the fairies (Peaseblossom, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed) on one side or page or composition and the character names for the interlude (Prologue, Pyramus, Thisbe, Wall, Lion and Moonshine) in another.
• Paintings from more obscure bible stories e.g. not ones that have been painted before
• Photography concept work e.g. cucumber slices for hubcaps on luxury car or bike
  

Concepts rejected from project but usable in future?

• (animate cubes in maze)
• (animate marbles)
• (embroidered letters on fabric cubes – for photography: suspend on thread against black velvet or lay on white to create shadows)

• (make bric-a-brac video)
• (photography – cubes on thread against black velvet with side spotlight)
• (photography – cubes lain on white with side spotlight to create shadows)
• (small stripey book) sketched ideas for film of loch (good for transnational flavour, validation etc) with platform for projected sequence and alternate rollover cutout of engraved area surrounded by bric a brac-on-white.

• (Early night sky showing blue behind brown voile curtain with oval cutouts. Still image.)
• (Footage of giant butterflies or golden eagles from Baltimore County.)
• (Print-out of part of project on tracing paper if banner needed in show.)
• (Poster for show including funky type segments at angles)

• (multi image repeat after Bohemian Rhapsody)
• (dots become photo)
• (transparent perspex layers of shape with paint at the edges)
• (take photos for beauty-in-the-eye-of-the-viewer possibilities e.g. partner or projection on torso, performance art, painting, sculpture etc?)
• (animate marbles)

Requests

• Wedding decoration design using cellophane, wire, beads etc 2009
• Website for a charity for burned children’s family support, 2009
• Website for function decoration business, 2010
• Corporate identity for export business (frozen fish), 2009
• Website & corporate ID for car export co. 2010
• Corporate work for music management co. 2010