Publications : Digital 2007

Monday, March 26, 2007

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

Saturday, March 24, 2007

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.

Thursday, March 22, 2007

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.