Seminar - Audio on the Web

Here is a link to podcasting and audio uses on the web.

Audio Seminar

Seminar - Audio Art and Networks

Mike Briand
Text messaged Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick with his cell phone’s keypad in segments.

Sound Scapes
Networked generative art and interactive systems for installations, architecture, and public spaces. It has interpreted data from security tracking, and environmental monitoring. These artworks involve collecting the data, visualizing the data, and then displaying the data. The outputs from the online interfaces and online visualizations are realized as real time dynamic artworks as diverse as installations, and real objects, made out of new display materials back in physical space.

Sound Suit
Sensors in your fingers, wrists, and elbows translate your movement into instrumental sound.


IN[]EX
IN[ ]EX is a project by a Canadian art group which acts as a nice low-tech approach to the spread of digital information. Their piece consist of a shipping container with (initially) 3000 wooden blocks of various sizes attached to it with tiny magnets. There are also a few bigger ones that actually contain sensors for the smaller blocks. The setup has two functions: a sound installation inside the container which is being generated and influenced through the way that the small blocks are attached to the wall of the container and around the city.

Embedding Sound Files on your HTML Page
This helped me with my soundfile hosting for my class project.

Free Flash MP3 Player!

If anyone is looking for a flash-based mp3 player to use for their site, I've found this great piece of free software that you can download and install on your site. It requires PHP and SQL on your web server (where you need to install the software), and will require some basic knowledge of PHP and SQL in order to configure it (or if you're REALLY good at following instructions, you can probably get by with the included instructions). It even includes a file upload tool, so you can easily upload your mp3 files through your web page.

You can get it here: http://www.flamplayer.com/

A7

Seminar - Online Media Activism

MEDIA REFORM

Mass Media - newspapers, magazines, TV and radio stations, books, records, movies, videos, wire services and photo agencies.

5 huge corporations own and operate a majority of America's mass media-- Time Warner, Disney, Murdoch's News Corporation, Bertelsmann of Germany, and Viacom (formerly CBS) and General Electric's NBC is a close sixth.

MEDIA REFORM INFORMATION CENTER

FREE PRESS






INDEPENDENT MEDIA

For true democracy to work, people need easy access to independent, diverse sources of news and information.

But the last two decades have seen unprecedented corporate media consolidation. The U.S. media was already fairly homogenous in the early 80s: some fifty media conglomerates dominated all media outlets, including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, music, publishing and film. In the year 2000, just six corporations dominated the U.S. media.

In addition, corporate media outlets in the U.S. are legally responsible to their shareholders to maximize profits.

And U.S. “public” media outlets accept funding from major corporations, as well as from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Every Corporation for Public Broadcasting board member is appointed by the White House and confirmed by the Senate.








POLITICAL ACTIVISM

Petition Online





CONSPIRACY RESEARCH & INVESTIGATION

9/11 Mysteries - Full Length Documentary

Links from my presentation

wooster - http://www.woostercollective.com
stencil revolution - http://www.stencilrevolution.com
streetsy - http://www.streetsy.com
GRL - http://www.graffitiresearchlab.com

I'll update this later with some images and texts.

Cathy's Seminar

Online Gaming - MMORPG

MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) is a genre of online computer role-playing games (RPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world. As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (most commonly in a fantasy setting) and take control over many of that character's actions. MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game.

History

The term "MMORPG" emerged in 1996 after Trip Hawkins frequently made use of the term "massively multiplayer" when explaining early graphical products to the media. Although MMORPGs as defined today have only existed since the early 1990s, their history begins as early as the late 1970s.

The first gameworlds

MUD (Multi-User Dungeon, Domain or Dimension) , the world's oldest multi-user roleplaying game

The beginning of the MMORPG genre can be traced to text-based with the first being developed by Richard Bartle and Roy Trub
shaw in 1978. By typing commands into a parser, players would enter a dungeon, fight monsters, gain experience, and acquire loot.

Early commercial development

In 1991, the first graphical MMORPG was Neverwinter Nights on AOL. In addition to being the first graphics base MMORPG, the game also marked the first appearance of online Clans and Player versus player combat in multiplayer RPGS. It cost $6.00 per hour to play.










The Realm Online, originally known as simply The Realm, was one of the first MMORPGs for public. It was launched on December 31, 1996 for Windows personal computers. Methods of social interaction include chat channels, "room" chats (limited to the players shown on a screen), private messages, and an in-game mail service.

Commercial MMORPG on the Internet

Access to the Internet, forming a global player base, caused game companies to grow in popularity and accumulate truly massive numbers. With this global access to paying customers, there also came a surge in profitability for game companies.

Ultima Online is a popular graphical massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), released on September 25, 1997, by Origin Systems.
The success of Ultima Online opened the door for the creation of many new massively multiplayer games. Ultima Online is a third-person/isometric fantasy role-playing game set in the Ultima universe. It is online-only and played by thousands of simultaneous users (who pay a monthly fee) on various game servers, also known as shards. It is known for its extensive timing-based player versus player combat system. Over a million paid accounts have been created in the game. To maintain order in the online community, there are Game Masters who resolve player disputes, police the shard for terms of service violations, and correct glitches in the game.

EverQuest (EQ) is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that was released on March 16, 1999. It was developed by Verant Interactive and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). SOE currently runs and distributes EverQuest. The game's sequel, EverQuest II, was released in 2004.

To play, one must initially pay for the game software and then pay a recurring monthly fee; a free trial is also available for those who wish to experience the game before paying.

Second-generation Commercial MMORPGs

In 2002, Final Fantasy XI was released, which hoped to bring in fans of the extremely popular (but mostly single-player) Final Fantasy series, which was particularly popular in Japan. Like the previous Final Fantasy games, this one was playable on a console, using a handheld controller, though it bore little resemblance to gameplay in prior Final Fantasy titles. Though

not the first MMORPG played on a console, it was the first to allow console and PC users to play together.

Modern MMORPGs

At present, World of Warcraft is one of the most played games in North America, and the most played MMORPG worldwide, with a total of over 8 million customers. With the release of these newer games, subscriptions began to decline for many older MMORPGs, The current MMORPG market has World of Warcraft share being greater than 50% of the overall market. Players control a character avatar within a persistent gameworld, exploring the landscape, fighting monsters, and performing quests on behalf of computer-controlled characters. The game rewards success through money, items, and experience, which in turn allow players to improve in skill and power.

In addition, players may opt to take part in battles against other players, including both duels and fights against player characters allied with an enemy faction.

The majority of the quests d uring the early and middle stages of gameplay can be completed without the help of other players, particularly if the player is a higher level than what the quest suggests. Other portions of the game, such as dungeons, are designed to require other players to work together for success. Dungeons are designed for parties ranging from two to five players, up to significantly more difficult "raids" (a term originating from EverQuest gameplay) requiring up to a maximum of 40 players. The highest level, most complex dungeons, and encounters are designed to take raiding guilds months of playtime and many attempts before they succeed.

Free Online Games

MapleStory is a free, 2D, side-scrolling Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game developed by the Korean company. Although playing the game is free, many player appearances and gameplay enhancements can be purchased from the "Cash Shop" using real money. MapleStory has a combined total of over 50 million players in all of its versions. MapleStory Global, for players mainly outside of East Asia, Southeast Asia and Europe, has over one million players. In the game, players defend the "Maple World" from monsters and develop their character's skills and abilities, as in typical role-playing games. Players can interact with others in many ways, such as through chatting, trading, and playing mini games. Groups of players can band together in parties to hunt monsters and share the rewards. Players can also band in a guild to interact more easily with each other.

Reference:

UMD
http://www.ludd.luth.se/mud/aber/mud-history.html
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/1.03/muds.html

Neverwinter Nights
http://www.bladekeep.com/nwn/index2.htm

The Realm Online
http://www.realmserver.com/

Ultima Online
http://www.uoherald.com/news/

EverQuest
http://everquest.station.sony.com/
http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/12/27/1748252

Final Fantasy XI
http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/index.shtml
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=1&cId=3145765

World of Warcraft
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/index.xml
http://pc.ign.com/articles/572/572070p1.html

Maple Story
http://www.maplestory.com/
http://rpgvault.ign.com/articles/748/748331p1.html

interactive sites---very basic

http://www.ablab.org/
a teacher i didnt really like but his site is interesting

doc

http://www.cbc.ca/doczone/gamerrevolution.html This is the link to the gamer revolution doc site I used in my presentation. I dont know if its possible to view it on there but it is downloadable with bit torrent. its definatly wrth seeing.

Batch image processing

This is how you can take a bunch of images that are all different and through Photoshop resize them, change them to black and white, apply filters or do whatever in a really efficient way. If you go through this and are having any troubles, just ask and I'll help you out :)

PART 1:
1) Put all the files you'd like in a folder together, ie: a folder named 'puppies'.
2) Open the first file from puppies in Photoshop.

PART 2:
3) In the history pallet, click on the tab that says 'actions'.
4) Click on the little sideways triangle and select 'new action...' click 'record'. Every action you do after clicking this button will be 'recorded' and applied to all your files.
5) If you'd like to resize your images, for example, go to 'image' --> 'image size'.
6) Click the square 'stop' button on the bottom of the pallet when you're done.

PART 3:
7) Click on 'file' --> 'automate' --> 'batch...'.
8) Click on 'source' and select folder, under 'choose' select puppies.
9) Under 'destination' select 'folder'.
10) 'choose...' a new folder, ie: 'puppies 2'.
11) Click OK. Photoshop will do the rest of the work for you!

Antonella’s Seminar Presentation

Web Aesthetics
- Qualities unique to web media
- Web user experience and needs
- Web as an art medium

Web Site: http://www.geocities.com/antonellc/seminar/index.html

Andy's Mid-Term

Since I am in the final stretch of my thesis, I took it upon myself to work on my site non-stop (i.e. 8+ hours a day) the past 4 weeks in an effort to finish as much as possible before I dedicate myself entirely to doing my thesis. As a result, my site is about 95% finished. So what I will do for my mid-term discussion is talk about all the ground work I had to put together (like graphics, blog creation, features, etc) before integrating the Nabaztag device. Then I can save the Nabaztag integration for my final presentation.

From a design perspective, I wanted to update my existing website with a wider interface (my old site was 800px wide, and the new site is 1024px wide to accomodate the larger displays that are more common these days). I also wanted the graphics to be a bit more slick, and needed to rearrange things on the site to allow for the new features to be unintrusive. So here's an example of my old site:

You may notice that the old site showed no valuable information on the main page without scrolling down. You could see the latest posts on the Free4All (a blog that the general public can post to) and the latest comments, but my posts are hidden well below that.

You'll also notice that there is a whole lot of wasted space at the top, and on the sides. From a design standpoint, that was the first thing I decided to clean up.

In the example of the new site, you can see that those changes helped a lot. There is much less wasted space, and the posts are immediately available without scrolling.

Since there is so much that went into the design and programming of this site, it would take far too long to post all the details of all the features I've implemented after the redesign. What I will do is list most of the major features I have added, and demo them in class so you get a visual understanding of what I created. The main features that have been built in to the site are: Privacy Groups and Posts, Private Comments, Advanced Account Management Tools, Custom User MoodIcons, MSN and Yahoo IM integration, Visual MoodIcon Selections, Animated Comment Emoticons, Basic HTML Comments, Advanced WYSIWYG Posting Interface, Advanced File Upload Management, Advanced Tags and Tagcloud, Shoutbox, Dynamic Menus and Options, and more.

The Nabaztag integration required I gain an understanding of the Nabaztag API. It is actually much simpler than I originally thought, as the API is simply called via standard http URL (with your specific parameters). The official API documentation I worked from can be found here: http://help.nabaztag.com/fiche.php?langue=3&fiche=29

More details will follow during the presentation and demonstration.

Andy

Jamin's Seminar

My seminar is about interactive storytelling!


***** What is interactive storytelling? *****

Interactive: a two-way system of communication

Storytelling: the telling or writing of stories

Put them together, and you have a two-way system of telling or writing stories. Those being told the story can have an influence on its structure and sequence of events.


***** How old is interactive storytelling? *****

In 1975, interactive storytelling first appeared as a text-based adventure game called "Colossal
Cave Adventure" (or "ADVENT") designed by Will Crowther.

Advent was programmed in FORTRAN, a programming language developed in the 1950s by IBM .


There are many links to good examples of interactive stories here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction#Notable_works_of_interactive_fiction


***** Other Examples *****

There are some funny older programs, and some of this stuff uses Java, so you can actually play
them online. Some of you may enjoy them, but I don't really find it that exciting since a lot of it
is just text...for example:

http://www.adamcadre.ac/if.html
and
http://www.nickm.com/if/emshort/galatea.html

are a couple that I checked out, and quickly grew bored of them.


There are way more possibilities out there, especially when considering all the things you can do
with Flash. I really enjoy Han Hoogerbrugge's work ( www.hoogerbrugge.com ). His interactive tale called "Hotel" is really cool.

You can check it out here:
http://www.hoteloscartangoecholima.com/splash.html

The only thing about Hotel is that the user input doesn't really affect the final outcome of the
story. There are a set number of episodes in each of the 10 parts, and when you play through the story you are always going to end up at the same episodes.

Pretty much all video games these days tell some kind of story or are based on a movie or book, such as Lord of the Rings, the Grand Theft Auto series, World of Warcraft, etc. Countless titles
incorporate some sort of storyline as a means of captivating the players on another level aside
from just the gameplay.


Something interesting I found is a new piece of software being designed called "Storytron" and
"Swat" :
http://www.storytron.com/overview/ov_index.html
...which are tools for creating your own interactive stories. They are like a more modern version of the text-based games, but they also incorporate some graphics, like giving the
interactive characters of the world a real face that you can look at (instead of just text). The creators of this software claim that it will be the next "major breakthrough in interactive entertainment."


***** What will become of interactive storytelling in the future? *****

Thought maybe this question would provoke some discussion...

I imagine something like the holodeck on Star Trek, or maybe being able to plug something into your head like in The Matrix. The interactivity at this point would be as realistic as reality. Amazing stories could be told and re-written. Beyond my lifetime?


***** Works Cited *****

interactive - Definitions from Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/interactive

Interactive fiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_fiction

Interactive storytelling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interactive_storytelling

storytelling - Definitions from Dictionary.com
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/storytelling

Storytelling - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storytelling#Storytelling_as_Art_Form

An Example

So, I threw together a little test/example of how my final page will sort of maybe look. Just so I (and maybe you) could have a better idea of how things are going to hopefully be.
http://www.eliamorrison.com/test/
I also got my own web site! WOW!

Checking In

I've started work on my site. So far, I've uploaded the audio files for my gallery tour and a video (for fun).
I really like the simplicity of its layout.
I'll organize more of my source material into coherent pages over the next few weeks.

Ben

Project in Progress

Since researching about web art (for my seminar and this project), I’ve decided that I will be manipulating qualities of the web to create my web art piece.

It has always been an interest of mine to form a connection between architectural structures and the characters they appear to suggest within a city landscape. What may seem like a familiar building within a city landscape holds unique characteristics, such as the window, capturing rare geometric shapes and surface transformations due to the conditions and constraints of erosion and time. These often go unnoticed but are worthy of acknowledgment, and this is what I like to accomplish in my web art. As an artist, I also like the medium to speak for the subject matter. So I will use web qualities, such as frames, links, images, and windows, to communicate meaning. Every process (clicks) creates and changes these structures of familiarity into something new and engaging.

I have decided to simply use HTML and CSS to create my web art so that I can exploit all its possible use. I’m currently exploiting the web element of frames by creating a framing environment for my images. I’m manipulating frames and nesting them within other frames. So I’m basically splitting the browsing window into a number of different sub-windows, each of which can be used to display different content yet seen through one window. In my site, the frames will separate each architectural structure from one another. The user will be able to build architectural structures, and understand there qualities and relation to others.

I’ve been doing a lot of research on windows, especially how it is represented in hypermedia. The web changed the way we view frame-to-frame movement that is usually seen in films, where a frame follows another. In the web, it converts the frame into a collage, where it’s unlike the continual edit. Frames can be placed anywhere and can separate content from other content on a same window.

Currently working on:
- Frame page: Working on splitting frames (http://www.geocities.com/antonellc/index.htm)
- Individual pages: Working on removing margins (http://www.geocities.com/antonellc/frames/frame_3.html)
- I’ve collected a group of images and currently post processing them and making them into graphics.
- Site layout image example: (http://www.geocities.com/antonellc/images/example4.jpg)

Sources:
- HTML Tools & Help Forum (Web Design Group: http://htmlhelp.com/ )
- Frames (W3C: http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/present/frames.html )
- Intro. To frames (USD: http://www.usd.edu/csci/acm/presentations/htmlTutorial/frames.html)

Project Outline and Work Plan

Herstory -05/03/07

Just an update on the progress of my project.

Basically I wanted to create a sort of personal scrapbook-type site that would allow me to express ideas and interests along with displaying photos and work and a person history element. It will allow me to creatively organize my thoughts, what's important to me, and provide a sort of visual reminder of my individual history. One day the site will include many pages, but the most complex? aspect of the site would be an ongoing timeline, which I will be developing for the class project.

The timeline will be somewhat of a visual record and interpretation documenting the major events and experiences that have shaped my life. It will take on the form of a typical, standard timeline, with dates, images and text, but I would like to be more creative in the visual aspects of it, allowing the viewer to form different interpretations based on their interaction with it. I am sure that there could be many ways to create this page and its visual imagery, but for the time being I have decided to work on it with basic HTML and concentrate more on the visual content of the page; perhaps later down the line I will make it into a flash site when I get more comfortable working with the process of creating a site.

Week 8/ Feb-Mar 5
Basic site Conception
-Site Drawing
-Webpage structure
-Layout ideas

Organize Content
-Collect visual/written content
-Digitize images and visual content
-Prepare for Presentation

Midterm Presentation

Week 9/ Mar 6-12
Content and Imagery
-Create visual/written content
-Images, links, text, graphics etc.
-Layout ideas

Work on Seminar

Week 10/March 13-19
Seminar
-Prepare for seminar

Workable Pages?
-Index & Timeline


Content and Imagery
-Create visual/written content

Page development/HTML
-Webpage structure

Week 11. March 20-26
Content and Imagery
-Create visual/written content
-Maybe some mp3s or audio files?

Page development/HTML
-Webpage structure

Week 12/March 27-April 2
Content and Imagery
-Create visual/written content

Page development/HTML

Week 13/April 3-9
Page development/HTML
-Finalize overall appearance

Final Presentation
- Test and Tweak pages and website
-Prepare for Presentation.

Mid-Term Marks

Hi All,

I will be e-mailing marks for the Project Outlines (Assignment 1) and Mid-Term Presentations (Assignment 3) today. A week today (Friday March 9) is the deadline for withdrawal from the course. You can also request your marks from me in class on Monday.