Final Project Ideas

For our final project we'll have access to some digital projectors and possibly a device that works along side a program called Isadora which allows for manipulation of digital format media like video and sound, with an emphasis on video. I have a horrible tendency to think up these grand ideas and elaborate designs but always find myself a bit overwhelmed with application. I kinda feel that way with this project right now so I'm attempting to keep my idea simple, sweet and effective by breaking down the various elements.

So the idea is this: Experience.
We all sense the world. We create an understanding out of our senses and we translate this in our brains and psyche into an "experience". Others may observe the expression of our experience but they may only see fragmented bits and pieces of our expressions and form cryptic guesses at what happens in our heads.
I don't usually try to explain what I do in detail until after I've done it because my full understanding of it usually matures enough at that point to verbalize it. Everything I described here most likely will change as I work through the projects and run into road blocks and revelations. I'm using this post as a verbal sketchbook to have something I can keep track of, maybe help me keep focused and remember details; something to look at and analyze.

Anywho, onto the technical aspects. I'm thinking about having a chair. And upon this chair a person will sit. And near this chair a helmet, or box of some kind shall set. This is the veiwing environment, only accessable by one person at one time. (I haven't figured out logistically which will work best. Perhaps I can prototype with a box and upgrade it to a helmet of some sort it if seems plausible.) The person sitting on this chair places their head inside the box or helmet. If I can find a cheap portable dvd player or an lcd off a broken phone or camera I would like to have one lcd screen mounted in front of the veiwer's eyes (inside the helmet) which will play a stream of abstract video I'll create in final cut pro. Also inside the box/helmet will be a set of earphones which will play accompanying sound to the video. All this seems simple. The only hitch would be the time it takes to render, but with a few days of taking photos and a few late nights in the McKenzie lab I should have that done easy enough.

That covers the "experience" of the person in the chair. I would like to add one more element to bring the idea a bit fuller circle. I would like to have a secondary "experience" created for an "observer" who would be able to watch the person in the chair. On the outside of the box/helmet I would like to project in various places the individual elements that make up the most recognizable facial expressions of a human face. Eyes, nose, mouth, eyebrows and perhaps the forehead. These elements would be projected in various expressions and in random correlation to the element it's next to. I would like the experience for the person outside of the box/helmet to be relatively silent. The only connection to the person inside the box/helmet would be their body language and the projections of facial elements onto the box. It would be nice to have the person in the box stay silent while observing, but perhaps allowing them to attempt to verbally communicate the experience would be beneficial as the next person would have a near impossible time experiencing the same thing and would be limited to the mixed and varied signals at their disposal. Very much in line with the whole ideal.

I feel that to encourage a different "experience" for each person the visuals and audio should play for at least 5 - 10 minutes with unique material before looping, and perhaps the audio could be slightly off sync and play for a longer time so that no audio matched up to the same visuals more then every once in a while.(audio is easier and less demanding then video and will take up less space to record) It would defeat the purpose of creating unique experiences for each person if everyone could see and hear the same thing if they sat long enough, although it just might happen regardless if someone is patient enough. Kudos.

Attacking Inchworm: Living Up To It's Namesake

The first project for the Emerging Tech class was to take a children's hobby science kit and deconstruct and then reconstruct it. This particular kit was a solar powered "Attacking Inchworm", which was sadly disappointing to me as it seemed "attacking" refereed to attacking my desire to see some fierce battle action. It was a very cute and fun kit to make and I would have loved to have something like this as a kid, heck, I might have gotten into physical computer much younger if this had been available... but it still left me with a big empty hole. The inchworm needed to live up to it's name, and thus my goal was set. The attacking inchworm needed a makeover, steampunk style.

I'm a bit of an eclectic/eccentric collector. I have a thing with watch and clock gears, sprockets, wires, metal bits and all sorts of interesting parts you find in clocks and watches or scrap yard or metal scrap bins. So far my collection has been pretty useless. I've gathered things with ideas of using them in sculpture and one day learning how to construct an actual moving sculpture using the gears in a more or less tradition/realistic fashion . When I got the inchworm in my little hands I felt that I finally had a good venue to test out some of my ideas. I had this grand scheme (as I usually do) that was far more complicated then time would allow. I wanted to have a great deal of parts modified and attached to the worm. I wanted to have it painted and polished and just give it a rugged yet eloquent appeal. Buuuut, time ran down and I realized I had bitten off more then I could chew. Story of my life, seriously. And to make matters even more interesting... when I was constructing my little worm I hadn't considered the fact that the original gear ratio for the motor and moving parts may indeed have reduced speed, but in doing so had increased power. And when I decided speed was more important then power I sort of neglected to remember that I was going to be adding weight to the motor. Oops. Well, it still looks pretty cool right?

 

And of course everything is better with ninjas. Fight!

There's even a short video thanks to Colin Ives, our Emerging Tech. instructor.

 
Christine Thomas did a steam-punk worm from Colin Ives on Vimeo.

 In the near future I'd like to add gears and parts to this and then finish the painting I had envisioned. I think this could be pretty amazing with the last few touches I had wanted to give it, maybe even upgrade that motor so this baby can actually move. Then it will truly live up to its name and be one intimidating fighting machine!

Never Let Go - Homage to PBF

For as far back as I can remember I have always been attracted to dark humor. The macabre, twisted, informal humor of Mad Magazine, Ren And Stimpy and my beloved Goosebumps books and now lost collection of author Alvin Schwartz and illustrator by Stephen Gammell's “Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark” series are all testament to the flavor of entertainment I pursued as a young child. As I grew my tastes stayed the same, although perhaps refined in one manner or another. I know find myself entertained by the likes of Stephen King, The Happy Tree Friends, Johnny The Homicidal Maniac, and who can forget the cherished Perry Bible Fellowship (PBF) to name a few.

Now all but defunct, the once prolific PBF comic strip used to continually entertain me and my fellow appreciators of all things odd and humorous. I have always acknowledged a festering desire to try my own hand at such dark humor in a similar comic/illustrative style, but lacked the confidence in my skill both literary as well as artistically. But there's no time like the present to do something new, right? I thought so, and after finding motivation in the form of a very odd jewelry commercial I decided to give it a try.The Partially successful attempt can be viewed bellow. I take no responsibility for pain or suffering sustained due to absurdity of subject matter. View at your own risk, of course.

Is it just me or is there something morbidly humorous about the implications of a realistic application of professions of undying love. “Hold me forever.” “Don't ever let me go.” “I'll never leave you.”
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate a romantic anecdote or two as much as the next guy, but I can't help but chuckle at the implications and absurdity of the literal words we use to express our care for the ones we love.

Sometimes love is downright creepy.