Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Thursday, March 26, 2009

some books of interest from David

Elaine,

Speaking of books... I would like to recommend four books for understanding where the internet is and where it's going. If I had to pick just one to start with, I suggest "Small Pieces Loosely Joined."

Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web by David Weinberger

Weaving the Web: The Original Design and Ultimate Destiny of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee

Convergence Culture. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide by Henry Jenkins

The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom by Yochai Benkler

You can read a short blurb about each book at:

David's site

And yes, Edward Branigan's Narrative Comprehension and Film (Routledge, 1992) is among my favorite books discussing the process of cinematic narrative. He recently published Projecting a Camera: Language-Games in Film Theory (Routledge, 2008). Branigan is currently working on a book exploring the interaction of color with a viewer in cinema considering psychological, aesthetic, anthropological, and historical perspectives. It should be pretty good if his other books are any indication.

http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/professors/branigan/branigan.html

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

latest ideas on my work

here is what I've been working on and thinking about for the next steps in the independent study work.

1.
I have started considering what the basic elements of motion are. I'm thinking of the basic elements of design and how they might relate.

I guess motion wouldn't be one of them, but:

contrast
rhythm
pattern
proximity
repetition

and these seem to have a place here, too:
balance
unity
hierarchy


then there is:

camera still, object moving
camera moving, object still
camera and object moving
camera and object still

to consider.



2.
the squares from the motion lab are suggesting some kind of motion thing to me. not sure what it is. maybe it's just that they feel like something that could work in an interface while all the other things seem chaotic. I have a very old list of those object motions that I haven't done anything with yet, like:
jump
bounce
fade
roll
wiggle
slide
bump
pour
float
twist
wave
wobble
fly
fall
stretch
bend
spin
push
touch
follow
etc.

I am going to continue to refine the motion lab, hopefully to the point where I can control it to create these kinds of motions.

3.
Scott suggested creating language for when many objects make the same motions all at once. I love this idea. don't know where it might lead but it sounds like it could be a lot of fun.

4.
I also will make some video studies of gravity, water, mechanical movements and maybe more work with the laser lights in addition to (Mike's suggestion) studies of people using real interfaces.

5.
I went to the aquarium last thursday and shot a lot of different kinds of fish and penguins swimming. if you have some time you can look at some of the video here:

aquarium video studies

the list at the top of the page is the second cut so scroll down to the second group for the better video. I'll soon reorganize the page but I wanted to get the video on line so I can look at it whenever I have a chance.

there is a lot to look at but the jellyfish are really amazing and I got several shots of a wave crashing on the green anemones. you have to wait till the end of the video. they tend to be about a minute long and the wave is in the last quarter.

emergence article wikipedia

emergence

books and web sites referred during reviews

here are the books and stuff I wrote down from comments during your review:

Phil Worthington Shadow Monsters (not really a book)
Scott Simbbe another design person but I didn't note his topic - this was Mike's suggestion
Random International internet architecture

Eric Raymond the Cathedral and the Bizarre the end to end argument (maybe by someone else?)

Group of Mitch Resnick
Lo Ceiling White Walls
Turtles, Termites and Traffic Jams

Edward Brandigan
Narrative Comprehension and Film


2 random books I think from David
Water and Power
the Computational Beauty of Nature





some stuff from others:
Scott colorlovers.com


Colin search for Golan Levin master's thesis
Golan Levin also has a great site with flash experiments: http://www.levitated.net/
if you search in google you will find a wealth of other stuff

Golan Levin's page

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

destroyed in seconds



vieo of explosions

inflatable bag monsters



wow. I just love these creatures animated with subway exhaust. they are magical.

Monday, March 9, 2009

kaiten sushi time japan



...where the subject is static and the camera moves.



here it is in faster motion, but unfortunately paired with a really cheesy track.