Readings for September 9/14
Posted: September 9, 2015 Filed under: Readings Leave a comment »An Arts, Sciences and Engineering Education and Research Initiative for Experiential Media
Pressure Project 1
Posted: September 9, 2015 Filed under: Pressure Project I, Sarah Lawler Leave a comment »
Location: Buffalo Wild Wings
Time: During Happy Hour
Observation: Happy hour was not as crowded as I thought it would be. I would imagine that if a big game was being aired there, the place would be packed. I’m going to base this devised piece off a packed Buffalo Wild Wings. When observing the waiters/waitresses I noticed the amount of maneuverability between tables is quite difficult for them due to the amount of chairs that are in the way. I also noticed there are not enough TV’s to compensate for the amount of tables that are within the room if say everyone wanted to watch their own game if multiple games were taking place.
Devise: Build tablets and card readers into the table to minimize the amount of traffic that is taking place throughout the restaurant. By installing tablets within the table, one could order food, drinks, ask for extra napkins, pay bill etc. without having anyone walk over until food needs to be delivered. They would also have total control over what they can watch. The TV would need be separate from the tablet so the customer would not have to be staring down at the table throughout their whole experience there. A 360degree projection would serve as the TV. It would sit above the table so everyone at the table can still be seen by one another.
The syllabus has been updated
Posted: September 9, 2015 Filed under: Announcements Leave a comment »You can find the updated syllabus here:
http://recluse.accad.ohio-state.edu/ems/?page_id=16
There is Only Software by Lev Manovich, Response
Posted: September 9, 2015 Filed under: Alexandra Stilianos, Reading Responses 1 Comment »Depending on which software you use to access it, what you can do with the same digital file can change dramatically.
Of course it is, in the eyes of a designer or programmer of course this realization is apparent but if ‘we’ are designing, creating, devising for the ‘masses’ the responsibility changes hands. In the same way that your experience with software can alter your experience, the same goes (in my opinion) on your lack of awareness of the capabilities therein. There is only software for the minority in the know of the in’s and outs of programming, for the masses who use the media- it is simply media, right?
To reverse back to Baudrillard:
“all we have now are simulations of reality (which aren’t any more or less real than the realities they simulate.)”
Jean Baudrillard by Doug Mann, Response
Posted: September 9, 2015 Filed under: Alexandra Stilianos, Reading Responses Leave a comment »“Death of the real” – “Simulacrum” – “Desert of real”
No matter which way he phrases the theory it is clear, we all are constantly and relentlessly immersed in the culture we live in. I have problem with any various sweeping argument in general, including Mann’s. I am also curious to place this article in the (near or distant) past since it has no date, and his pop culture references are Friends and Lara Croft.
While his refurbishing of ‘simulacrum’ is interesting, I think even a mildly self-aware person has the ability to speak about a fictional person/character in the context of the show (in the TV example.) The disillusioned minority who cannot would be similar to Brooke Shields cameo on the aforementioned show, Friends, where she believe Joey (Matt Leblanc) to actually be his soap opera character, Drake. META.
“Loss of reality isn’t so hard to understand but difficult for some of us to swallow.” So maybe, I am also just a lost lamb and this desert is too real for me to accept. *shrugs, turns Netflix back on*
A Very Short Introduction – Baudrillard
Posted: September 8, 2015 Filed under: Connor Wescoat Leave a comment »When Baudrillard talks about the “death of the real” it sounds like a reading I had to do in my history of pop culture class I took two semesters ago entitled “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” by Walter Benjamin. In this reading Benjamin states that in the age of mechanical reproduction, the “aura” of produced works of art are ripped and torn asunder due to accessibility. The “tradition” of making art is forgotten by the viewer and the aura of the work is ultimately diminished. This sounds like Baudrillard’s death of reality,
“we live our lives in a realm of hyperreality, connecting more and more deeply to things that merely simulate reality” – Baudrillard
There Is Only Software – Manovich
Posted: September 8, 2015 Filed under: Connor Wescoat Leave a comment »While this article makes complete sense and might be obvious to some, I never looked at “digital media” in such a straight forward manner. Manovich paints a pretty bleak picture of conventional media in that everything that “could” be, is ultimately controlled by the software at the end of the day.
“Digital media” does not have any unique properties by itself. What used to be ‘properties of a medium’ are now operations and affordances defined by software.
Squares – The Stop Rule of Death
Posted: September 8, 2015 Filed under: Connor Wescoat, Josh Poston 1 Comment »
Behold! The classic game of squares. While up to 4 players can participate in a single game, Only Josh and I participated in this strategic game of Mortal Kombat. The rules are simple, a grid of “dots” are drawn on a piece of paper. From these dots, players take turns drawing a connecting line from dot to dot going up & down or left to right. The objective of the game is to create a complete square by conjoining the drawn lines. This next rule is critical, once a square is completed by a player they get to draw another line. This “extra turn” is a reward for completing a square and can cause a lot of squares to be completed in one fell swoop. The game ends when all dots on the grid are drawn in and the number of squares are tallied.
After playing one full game of dots, Josh and I chose to implement a “STOP rule” to the equation. This stop rule would function as a one-time stop to a players square completion. Simply put, if a player realized that they were about to get a lot of squares stacked against them they could stop that momentum of the opposing player. This new rule brought an added dynamic to the game by offering a strategic last resort. If used correctly, this rule could completely flip the tables in your favor. Used incorrectly and you would become crippled by the opposing players onslaught of square completions! Play at your own risk.
PP1 – Fashion Meets Music Festival
Posted: September 8, 2015 Filed under: Connor Wescoat Leave a comment »Getting Started: I chose to document my time at Columbus’ 2nd annual Fashion Meets Music Festival (FMMF) that took place this past weekend. My organization “Heart Of It All” was featured at the festival as well as many different talented designers, brands, musicians and artists. While I have attended a few festivals in my life, this one stands out in that its lay out was a little “unconventional”. Is that good or bad? Lets find out!
Note: While I have outlined a top-down diagram in my post, I will elaborate further on the installations and lay out of the event. I chose to observe both the “Fashion Stage” where my booth was present and one of the main music stages called the “Stella Stage”. Beginning with the Fashion Stage; this stage was constructed just like a fashion runway with 2 separate smaller stages on both sides. One functioned as a regular artist stage for musicians whose performance would accompany the fashion act and the other was a raised soundboard area which functioned as the technical hub for the runway. Seating was offered on the left and right sides of the runway. While seating was available, I observed that the majority of the audience chose to stand for the event.
Map: Overall map of the event
Note: The second stage that I observed was the “Stella Stage” which functioned as the main-stage of the festival. It was not only the largest of the 4 stages but it also was situated at the back of the field which housed the most people. I observed that while the other stages would only gradually get more and more packed when an artist was about the perform, this stage remained pretty crowded. In my opinion this was because the field offered a large social area to hang out in while also offering relief from the other aspects of the festival. I also observed that people started migrating to this stage 30 minutes to an hour before a performance. In contrast to the fashion stage which would progressively fill about 10 minutes before the designer went on.
Devise: For the fashion stage, I devised an idea to implement a visual aid to the back drop of the runway to reduce standing congestion. One idea of mine would come in the form of a downloadable app that would showoff the presented garment on the viewers smartphone. The other idea was to project either a picture or a video of the presented garment on the backdrop of the runway. I believe that these methods would dampen the amount of crowding around the stage. For the Stella Stage I took a page out of the band Metallica’s stage show in the form of a centralized main stage.
With this viewpoint, people cluster around the stage rather than being in front of it. This mode, while more expensive and harder to implement, would provide more people with better views and less centralized congestion.
Conclusion: While I believe these methods would dampen the overall congestion of these high traffic areas, the context in which these bottlenecks occur is a massive festival setting at the end of the day. People being packed in like sardines is an expected outcome and even the goal of many of these popular music festivals. In my opinion, I would like to see improvement on the fashion end of the spectrum rather than the contemporary “main stage” layout that is so prevalent at today’s major music festivals. By making the fashion stage more accessible and experiential for the consumer, more people will demand events like FMMF and the programmatic quality of these events will continue to grow.
Top-Down Diagram: PP1 FMMF
Dots
Posted: September 8, 2015 Filed under: Connor Wescoat, Josh Poston Leave a comment »The object of the game when presented with a grid of dots is to draw a single line connecting two dots while alternating turns. The player that closes the most complete squares wins the game. When a player closes the box they are given a followup move. This continues as long as they string together the closure of squares with a single line.
In the rule change we created a stop order or cease and desist. Under this rule a player may once per game elect to stop another player following the placement of the line for their first turn. This prevents them from continuing on a string of moves.
We found that using this modification increases the strategy and attentiveness to the overall game. It can be effective in creating a minor system of checks and balances in which both players can simply offset the others move, or strategically hold their stop order for a different point in the game.