SCREENING AT ROYAL CINEMA - volunteers needed

This Sunday Feb. 11 at 2:30 PM there will be a benefit screening for the Dyana Afghan Women's Fund of Christian Frei's "The Giant Buddhas", with a presentation by Nelofer Pazira. The benefit tickets are $25. w/ a $15. charitable receipt. (PLEASE URGE YOUR FRIENDS / FAMILY WHO CAN AFFORD IT TO COME - a very good cause!). Also. student volunteers are needed who will get in FREE. Please let me know in the 'Comments' section below if you'd like to come.

Rt

"Rt"

Rt is an online website based project that aims to explore the relation between gallery and virtual space. Furthermore it is an opportunity for curatorial and critical practices to collaborate with an array of mixed medias that might bring up pertinent questions regarding the role of the internet, the art, the curator, the artist and the viewer as well as their relationship to one another.

Rt will function as a virtual, curated space that features art, especially by young and emerging artists. It is my hopes that be focusing on young and emerging artists I can open a dialogue and a collaboration process where by the site actively participates in discussing how virtual reality creates, displays and informs a viewer about the object and ideology of an art piece.

The site will feature a main page that has a playful theme of "drugs." Though not promoting the use of drugs the site will appropriate the ideas attached to most drugs incuding the theme of: addiction, prescription, treatment, health and individual purpose. That is to say that the site will utilize the image of pills and prescription drugs to reate a parallel to art which describes art and the viewing of art as a process of cause and effect.

As a curatorial space Rt will attempt to assume a role that is simmilar to a realistic gallery space and will function as a space that is open to include: critical analysies and writings, images, videos, sounds, event promotions, merchandise, animations and any other array of "art form" that satisfies the sites manifesto (to be written).

The ideal of Rt is to create a curatorial space that also confronts different forms of gallery spaces including institutional, alternative and commercial and utilizes those aspects to create a hybrid virtual space that can offer the same or similar services.

Potential services available to the user will be: available newsletters, browsing abilities on a unique interface, forum (?), download audio and visual pieces, oekaki, game play (?), purchasing rights.

Ultimately Rt is a quest into the potential role of a curator in the virtual realm that will utilizes conventional forms of gallery space in order to disolve previous boundries and offers a new way to look at objects.


Week 1:
- Manifesto
- Digital Imaging of Main Site
- Site Layout - Home Page, Contact Page, Manifesto Page
- Research Newsletters

Week 2:
- Site Layout - Home Page, Events Page
- Digital Imaging of Artist 1
- Site Layout Collaboration with Artist 1
- Research Forums/Message Boards

Week 3:
- Site Layout - Newslettering (On Contacts Page), Affeliations, Artist 1
- Build Affeliate Connections
- 1 Critical Review of a Current Exhibition
- Research Oekaki

Week 4:
- Site Layout - Forums, Oekaki, Artist 1
- Digital Imaging of Artist 2
- Site Layout Collaboration with Artist 2
-Curatorial Statement Artist 1

Week 5:
- Site Layout - Artist 2 (+ any other incomplete)
- Curatorial Statement Artist 2
- 1 Critical Review of a Current Exhibition

voyeurism

when the internal becomes external judgement has commenced.
stereotyping.social grouping. demographics.
we struggle to outwardly reflect our ideas and beliefs without looking like an advertisement.
through possessions we create project visions of who we think we and others are.
a window is connects the public with the private.
who are you?
the window frames the plant in its sill. a block parent sign. a cat.
a standard mailbox.2 cars in driveway honda civic and ford focus..
an image forms in my head
we are all voyeurs.

For my final Project I would like to revisit an idea that I have previously explored. This is due to fact that my previous attempt to create an interactive graphic colage fell quite short of my expectations. I believe that this was due to my inexperience with the flash software. (at the time of my previous attempt I had very little experience with flash and action scripting)
The project consists of a broad collection of images (previously i worked with a collection of my drawings) which are broken into multiple sections. These sections are then reasembled one on top of another in flash.
The interaction of the user with this image (be it rolling over, rolling out, clicking, dragging etc.) toggles the visibility of each section of the top image revealing portions of the images below making the same types of interactions possible with the newly exposed sections of image. These interactions create a "seemingly" infinate number of possible compositions creating an environment that promotes user interactivity and exploration.

The Development Process:
1. I must compile a collection of images, either my own or from others (this could make an interesting gallery format) and divide the images into sections.
(It is important that each image not be divided into sections eaqual to the image to be placed above as this is to predictable and, atleast I feel, destroys the experience to a certain degree)

2. These images must then be reassembled in the flash environment.

3. Action scripting must be applied to each image section to control the ways that the enduser will interact with them.

4. Presentation on the web will require posting the completed project to a web-server as to allow it's viewing. Prior to which however I would like to construct a site that will not only display the interactive flash file but also a gallery/images used section through which I would like to show each image used in the interactive colage in it's entirety as a way of citing the creators of the images (asuming they are not my own) and providing users with some insight into the production process of such a work.

I will repost my previous attempt to produce such a work on my own webserver as soon as i get a chance, however my laptop has recently died so it may take a few days to get my backup's sorted out. I will however be sure to post a link to the site as soon as it is up.
-Geoff Inwood

Lynda's Proposal

For my final project I would like to use flash to make this garden type of interface. There would be things like different types of plants, or flowers and bugs that you would find in a garden. This would be part of a website that I will create by the end of the term.
I would like the veiwer to be involed in the choosing the different plants, flowers and bugs and such, that a person can find or put into a garden. In a way it is like a mini game where the person is a gardener and they are trying to make this garden grow so that they can harvest crops or flowers, depending on what they chose to plant.
The different types of information that will be shown are text, used to tell what flower it is and maybe some other facts about the plants, and images will be of the flowers or what they will look like when they grow, the bugs and such, and flash animations used in this web page.
The target viewers of this web page would be females or gardeners in general. There might be two different versions one versions that is all flowery and pretty. The other version would be for the boys with lots of bugs and some other things that boys would find interesting. The just depends on how much time I have with all the assignments that are due.
I would research the different types of plants and such that a person might find in a garden. For example, tomatoes, onions, and flowers like tupils and some other plants and such. There will be a small blurb about each flower or the bugs describing what type it is and where you can find it and such.
Basically it is scheduled so that the first few weeks research is done to make sure I know what to put where and a small description of the plant and images. The rest of the time will hopefully be done doing sketches and working with flash to get it worked out to get all the kinks out so that it is working properly.

Elia Morrison Proposal

My website will be a sort of online-real-world game of hide and seek, as well as a guide through the city, maybe like a scavenger hunt. Accessed mainly by cellular phones that have both a camera and a connection to the internet, people will use the Semacode (http://semacode.org) application to capture “Sematags” and interpret them to get access to pages of my site that will be built specifically for mobile phones, palm pilots, and other such things.
The pages will consist of a small and vague map, a photo of a Sematag on some building, tree, or other object, and a nearby major intersection. Using these three items the viewer will then be able to seek out and continue the hunt for more tags around the city.
In addition to the hunting section of the “game” people will also be able to create and upload to the site their own pages and new locations, so the game can grow and be user controlled in a way. The hunt will be user directed and my web interface will mostly serve as a facilitation for the project to grow.
To control the user submitted pages I will hopefully be creating system that checks against a pre-defined template and allows the user to create a map of their chosen location using Google maps.

PLAN!
Week 1-2
Researching Semacode/Tag implementation
Researching web hosting
Researching WML and WAP
Google maps for map creation and php for user submission

Week 3-4
Creating site, interfaces, Sematags, researching locations.
Purchase hosting.

Week 5-?
Implementation.
Deploying Sematags, Getting attention to the project.

A7's Blog Extensions Project

What is it?
My project is about creating blog extensions. Briefly, a blog extension is a way of moving standard blog functions (posts, comments, updates) beyond the computer, into "real world" devices such as cell phones, iPods, and ambient devices.

Cell phone integrations could allow users to post to a blog via sms messaging. Perhaps users could receive text messages each time a comments is added to their posts. Or even using gps tracking on a cell phone to map your current location and display your whereabouts on the blog.

iPod integration could include automatic podcasting of all audio and video uploads within the posting interface. Files could be converted to iPod format on the server, and the proper podcast feed details updated on the fly for every file upload.

Ambient devices, such as the Nabaztag, will be integrated into the blog in a variety of ways. Post moods will be reflected in the ambient device automatically, comments can be read out loud by the device, and visual notifications can tell you if your blog has been updated. It will also act as a communication device, as people will be able to send message directly to the device from the blog.

Who is it for?
The initial site I will be creating is my own personal website. The target audience will be my friends and family, as well as others interested in my art, videos, or essays. Once the site is finished, the code will be portable in that it can be deployed in other environments for other people, so the extended audience is potentially anyone interested in blogging or ambient devices.

More Details?
Administrators (me) will have full access to post to the main blog, edit posts, delete posts, and manage users. All other users (with free automated account signup) can post to the Free4All blog, comment on all posts, and interact with the ambient device. They will also be able to upload files, such as images, videos, and more.

The site is accessed via web browser, but since it is integrated into external devices, some limited information is also available via cell phone or ambient device.

Timeline?
- The initial site redesign is in progress right now. Most of the design is complete.
- February 1-15th will be the integration of new features, such as private posts, user groups, email notification, and more.
- February 15th to 28th will be the integration of the ambient device into the site.
- March will be full deployment and testing of the site, as well as additional features and bug fixes.




































A7