MDDN 211: Proposal

The intended concept theme for Assignment One Iterate is Lava and its effect on landscapes. I will edit together found footage of volcanos, lava and smoke to create three different iterations with different atmospheric moods. There will be a visible contrast between the created atmospheric moods to make a difference. I intend to rely heavily on the editing techniques used for each iteration to create the atmosphere rather than relying on music or sound.

The first chosen iteration's atmosphere is Aggression. Lava has the natural appearance of aggression because of its danger, especially when a volcano is erupting. To create the impression of anger without using these particular scenes will require the editing techniques of jump shots, cross-cutting and speeding up footage to make each scene appear as if there is an intense motive behind the movement of lava. This will make it appear as if it has a purpose and look like it has somewhere to go. The speed will definitely affect the atmosphere of lava. Using jump cuts will remove a lot of unnecessary footage of slow moving lava, which will assist in making it look as if the lava has motive. Also, cross cutting to over events that are occurring such as plumes of smoke or flowing lava will make it appear as if all of the footage is occurring from one volcano.

The second chosen atmosphere is Melancholy, a complete opposite to the previous iteration. This will create a large contrast between the two while using similar themed footage. Again, due to eruptions of a volcano, creating a Melancholic feel to the footage will require a large focus on the particular editing techniques, without relying solely on sound. Slow cutting will make the shot appear more emotional to the viewer, as a clip over 15 seconds long approximately appears to be slow in Western culture. Dissolve will be particularly important to create a melancholic feel. Slowing down footage and using rewound footage would create a slow, melancholic feel. By using match shots between shapes found in the smoke or lava to the shape of more emotional, sad images or footage, the melancholic atmosphere is more easily created.

The final iteration atmosphere is Tension created by the sense of stalking and following. This is the more comedic iteration over the other two. To create the sense of tension, the order of footage will be most important. It can be created by footage of lava appearing on shot is following an anxious character using cross cutting. This will give the impression that both shots are occurring at the same time and making it look as if the lava is following the character. Establishing shots could be used to create this scene with the anxious character. It is possible that a montage of jump shots could be used to show the character running from the emerging lava, cutting a long scene of running down into a few short shots.

MDDN 241: Poster

MDDN 241: Final Animation

MDDN 251: Video of work

MDDN 251: Images of Final

MDDN 241: Animated Turntable

MDDN 241: Animated StoryBoard

MDDN 241: Orthographic with Origin and Personality

MDDN 241: Character Movement

 Above is an image of the small characters chest and the compartment in his chest. Because of the lack of opposable thumbs, a little third arm stretches out of his chest compartment holding the fuel nozzle.

 The above image shows the rotating charger on the tall characters arm. It begins flat, then moves up to allow space for the pin to come out. This pin connects to the crank on the back of the small character and rotates rapidly, charging up the small character.

MDDN 241: Environment Images

MDDN 251: Short video for Musical Lights

Here is the final video for the Musical Lights.
Credit to Crystal Method for the music.

MDDN 251: Fritzing Schematic for Circuit

Because the screen was a reused screen from an alarm clock, there was no schematic that i could find to put on the circuit. Therefore, i have used a similar style LCD screen that has an accurate amount of pins for the lights.

MDDN 251: Description and Images

The purpose of my project was to get and LCD screen taken from an analog alarm clock to light up when a microphone connect registers a change in noise. When the microphone is directly interacted with, such as blowing on it, tapping it or talking to it very closely, the lights registered the change in volume and begins to flash rapidly, as if your interaction stimulated then screen.

When music is played to the microphone, a pattern in the screen is shown. When the music has louder drums or beats, the lights will play faster. Between these, if the music was quieter and slower, the lights wouldn’t play as frequently. Therefore, the prototype has been nicknamed “Musical Lights” (with reference to Musical chairs – When the music stops, so do the participants).

This was achieved by connecting the lights of the screen to two shift register microcontrollers that decreased the number of pins connecting to the Arduino to five instead of 20. The microphone was then connected to the Arduino also with a 100x amplifier that made the audio waves easier to register.

The video shows one particular song, Keep Hope Alive by Crystal Method (full credit). The techno type of music is most effective in creating these patterns, as there is an audible beat that the lights can duplicate.

MDDN 241: Origin and Personality - Character Two

MDDN 241: Origin and Personality - Character One

MDDN 241: Final Animation

http://youtu.be/AEpsyY3VVc8

CCDN 271: Assignmet 1 - Sources

Google Warming

The Source found for Google Warming was an article written for Arteneo de Manila University about Google Earth and the style off surveillance it provided for the population. Google Warming: Nations Under Surveillance looks deeper into the program Google Earth, what it provides for the people with access to the free program and how easy Google Earth makes it to be able to 'stalk' people. It also gives some insight into how the program affected the people it was designed for. The report stated that certain governments and national institutes requested discretion in the location of "Top Secret" installations and properties (Caluya 2010 Pp 3. Line 1-2). The fact that Google has created a program that has images of the entire globe that even includes a street view and is free to anyone makes Google Earth one of the top "Big Brother" style Surveillance. The report concludes with a sentence that could be considered one of the best statements in relation to Google Warming:

 "The whole world is under surveillance; time is running out." (Caluya 2010. Pp. 12. Line 3) 

Caluya N.R. (2010). Google Warming: Nations Under Surveillance.  Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines.


The Everyday

The Design of Everyday Things (1988) by Donald Norman is a book relating to the design of everyday objects ad what makes one object more appealing to a user while at the same time being frustrating and complicated to other users. Within the book, Norman looks in-depth into simple objects such as the commonly overlooked door handle and how that is functional in the Everyday and can determine how one would interact with the door. By looking so intensely into such simple interactions that the everyday person would overlook, Norman gives a larger insight into what a person living their own personal everyday might miss. A review of the book on www.usabilitypost.com stated that due to its earlier publishing (1988), the book looks at the less technical everyday objects like water faucets, door handles and clocks. These are objects heavily overlooked in our everyday.

Norman D.A (1988) The Design of Everyday Things. London, England: The MIT Press.


DIY / Hand-Craft

DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain edited by George Mckay gives a minor insight into the Do It Yourself mindset of the 1990s, with quotes and examples of Do It Yourself from the several earlier decades as well. Mckay researched the development of Bitain's DiY culture that despite being conned "DiY", the book appears to be more centered around the culture of activist people that take part in the DiY style with quotes such as:

"DiY culture was born when people got together and decided that the only way forward was to do things for themselves" (Mckay, 1998)

This source can be effective for some parts to the DiY culture but lacks the insight into the design and craft side of DiY which makes the book lose some of its effectiveness for this purpose. Without researching into the design and hand-craft sense, there is a higher chance that this source would not be relevant to the purpose it was needed for despite its insight into the DiY activist culture.

Mckay G. (1998) DiY Culture: Party and Protest in Nineties Britain. London, England: VersoBooks.


Critical Design

Critical Design Ethnograpthy: Designing for Change by a collaboration of Sasha A. Barab, Michael K. Thomas, Tyler Dodge, Kurt Squire and Markeda Newell can best be described as an insight into the participatory design work aimed at changing local context while creating an instructional design that can be used in multiple different contexts (Barab et all. 2004). The book looks at opportunities that are available as local critiques are made, which are then refined down into designed artifacts. The collaboration review design-based projects that critically question and "test" society such as "The Quest Atlantis Project" that combines comercial gaming environments with lessons from educational research (Ji Y. Son et all. 2006). This source can be an effective insight into the less well known critical design projects that subtly criticise ethnicity and society.

Barab, S.A. Thomas, M.K. Dodge, D. Squire, K. Newell, M. (2004), Critical Design Ethnography: Designing for Change. Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 35: 254-268.