Cause and Effect

Simulacra Coursework IDAT201

2009-11-27T08:25:00.007Z

These are my workbook entries for my IDAT 201 coursework.

The task set was to produce a 90 second video clip that contained 3D animated graphics. The subject of the video was Simulacra and with this word at the forefront of my mind I went about looking for everyday objects that a person takes for granted without thinking about the mental connections that they create to familiarise with that object.

simulacrum [ˌsɪmjʊˈleɪkrəm]

n pl -cra [-krə] Archaic

1. any image or representation of something

2. a slight, unreal, or vague semblance of something; superficial likeness

[from Latin: likeness, from simulāre to imitate, from similis like]

1. I started off with the intention of doing a video in a similar style to that of the popular UK television advertisements about recycling shown here after the jump. http://www.tellyads.com/show_movie.php?filename=TA4490 Once I had set upon a style I began to look at objects to represent in a similar fashion. One day shortly after the coursework was set I picked up a pencil to start drawing in my notebook and realised I had been using one every day for as long as I could remember, so for my first attempt at 3D animation I decided to design a video based on the pencil and it's uses.

2. I began by brainstorming in my notebook a list of functions and uses of the pencil. Needless to say the list wasn't very long, but looking at this from another angle I approached the idea from the direction of "what about the pencil as a tool and a means to an end in designing just about everything else around us" as if the pencil itself was the link between a designer's mind and the physical world. So I set about re-imagining vehicles, appliances, buildings and many other things as if they were constructed from pencils.

3. Armed with my sketches of "concorde" style planes made out of pencils and bridges supported by 4 stanchions of HB I set to work trying to render 3D animations of these using 3D Studio Max. Unfortunately due to a lack of any comprehensive 3D experience I found this incredibly difficult. Here is an example of my first renders.

4. So the first rendition of my simulacra did not get completed and I have decided to change tack for my resubmition. Due to the high status of the financial markets in the current media I thought it would be a good idea to do a video about Money and the value that we attach to it after all money does make the world go round.

5. With the above mentioned song playing in my head like a broken record I set about making myself some money. By this point I had to find another program to do my 3D work in because the license on my 3Ds Max has run out, so I decided to try my hand at Blender. http://www.blender.org/

6. So I searched the internet looking for tutorials on how to do anything with Blender and after a short while I found the Youtube.com channel EverythingFX. On this channel one of the tutorials was about how to make a British Pound coin. Perfect! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pk618pt8Ytw

7. After a little tinkering with blender I made my own coin. Here it is.

8. Now that I had a fully rendered 3D coin I set to work animating it in a few different scenes. One scene was set to show the coin flipping in mid-air whilst the other was made, along witht he addition of a (badly) rendered globe thype machine to represent the way in which money causes to world to rotate.

9. As the videos progressed, so did my knowledge of Blender and thanks to some recent tutorials at University I was able to add some more interesting animations to my video, such as modifying the alpha channel with set values at keyframed intervals and the addition of a particle system to one of my shots.

10. Armed with my 3D footage, a few stock photos to reinforce my message, and a copy of Liza Minelli singing Money Money Money I set to work sequencing the video within blender. This was quite possibly the most challenging part to date, despite my knowledge of Premier pro and other video editing software I found this stage to be the most complicated and convoluted of the entire process. So much so that I got annoyed with the money song and decided to swap most of it out for one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs... handily titled Money. So now the video begins with money money money and then a record scratch sound spans the transition from that song into the Floyd. Here is my sequence in Blender.

11. With previous attempts at handing this in I found that I had problems with the video codecs and the animations would not show up on other computers. I hope that this has now been rectified and have tested this submition on other computers before handing it in.

12. One Blender project ------ Complete.

IDAT 203 Final

2009-04-30T16:25:00.000+01:00

The final piece for this project is intended to be an installation piece situated in a public place and requires the use of multiple Bluetooth transmitter / receivers and server

access for data / environment storage. I unfortunately do not have access to this technology at present and therefore the installation is not yet implemented. Due to this lack

of physical work i have "mocked up" some promotional images which can be viewed in the Pictures folder of this cd or on my blog.

The production process involved in making this installation is as follows:

1. Find a space and notify the relevant owner / proprietor of the establishment.

2. Install / mark Bluetooth positions.

3. 3 Dimensional grid survey and photograph the entire space.

4. Retrieve survey data and modify points using grid survey scanner software (Trimble real works survey office).

5. Upload modified survey points as a wiremap in Unreal Editor 3, Produce 3D surfaces and texture.

6. Register points of triangulation ( location of bluetooth receivers).

7. Upload to interaction software (produced in Java) and save on server.

8. Run program.

Production is likely to last approximately a month due to the speed at which 3D imaging surveys and processing can be performed.

Accessible via mobile devices ( limited usability) and laptops / PDAs ( higher functionality).

Evaluation:
This project idea was a bit more comprehensive than i could have managed in the time provided and with limited funds. Unfortunately, although I received feedback about this

issue I could not work out how to produce only a small part of the larger overall project without requiring the whole program.

IDAT 203 - Unreal Editor texturing the world!

2009-04-30T15:34:00.003+01:00

This is a level design created with the Unreal Editor version 3. Everything here has been created virtually from the undulations of the ground to the dilapidated concrete wall. These are created with modified blocks and planes to construct the shape of the world as you see it.

Transferring the 3D information from the GX scans would be a relatively simple procedure of simplifying the scans to a collection of geometric shapes. Then it can be textured, lit, the collideable surfaces can be registered and any interactive software can uploaded.

IDAT 203 A couple of examples of 3D environments

2009-04-30T15:11:00.003+01:00

Here is an example of the wire frame used as the "bones" to which the texture map is the "skin", taken from Igloo - Swan Quake project House :

Images courtesey of Igloo. Taken from Swan Quake

IDAT 203 A couple of examples

2009-04-30T14:59:00.005+01:00

Here are a few examples of what could be done with the technology:

Tag somewhere public with the general public being none the wiser.

Redecorate - Virtually.

IDAT 203 Possibilities of virtual spaces

2009-04-30T14:30:00.003+01:00

Along with the concept of virtually graffiting and / or blogging a virtual space the technology also lends itself to other areas of interest too.

The ability to 3D map entire rooms accurately with current surveying technology such as the Trimble GX survey system means for such great accuracy as to be usable with home improvement, construction work and many other tasks in large spaces which require the ability to view the final product, before or even during the process of construction.

The GX system, which uses a lazer to map a defined grid of points over an entire 3d surface allows a 3d designer to accurately reproduce the entire space in a few days work. The information gathered can even be bolstered with the GX's ability to register the colour of a point and to take photographs of the desired space means that life - like textures can be achived.

Images courtesy of http://www.trimble.com

Being a surveying instrument, the GX is capable of taking accurate triangulation points to the nearest 3mm. This would allow me to position Bluetooth transmitter / receivers in the places that offer maximum coverage and record their positions on the 3D map. This would allow for triangulation of a user within the 3D space as well as the physical world ( they would be standing in the same spot in both real and virtual worlds).

Images
http://www.ubergizmo.com/photos/2007/9/talking-bluetooth.jpg
http://www.directionsmag.com/images/newsletter/2006/04_06/Triangulation_lg.jpg

Virtual Graffiti

2009-04-30T14:19:00.001+01:00

Virtual Graffiti consists of virtual objects and/or digital messages, images, multimedia or other annotations or graphics applied to public locations, landmarks or surfaces such as walls, train stations, bridges, etc. Virtual Graffiti applications utilize Virtual Reality and Ubiquitous Computing to anchor Virtual Graffiti to physical landmarks or objects in the real world. The virtual content is then viewable through devices such as personal computers, set-top boxes or mobile handsets, such as mobile phones or PDAs. The virtual world provides content, graphics, and applications to the user that are not available in the real world. Virtual Graffiti is a novel initiative aimed at delivering messaging and social multimedia content to mobile applications and devices based on the location, identity, and community of the participating entity.

Ref:Wikipedia - Virtual Graffiti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_Graffiti

Wiki references from http://tagging.us/html/pr.html

2009-04-30T05:21:00.003+01:00

Another related concept is the cell phone graffiti screens (citylights / large lcd screen) being developed by Mark Ecko so that anyone with a bluetooth phone can draw whatever they like or any witty expletive phrase on a surface that will, for all intents and purposes be completely non-permanent, just by using the cursor of their mobile.

2009-04-30T05:07:00.003+01:00

I have found a new developing technology whilst researching on the internet, that is relevant to my current IDAT 203 project. The Wii Spray.

IDAT 203 Research cont.

2009-03-06T07:53:00.003Z

I found a project developed by the University of Illinois that is heading in the right direction. they call it Audiobombing.

IDAT 203 Project

2009-03-06T06:58:00.003Z

Brief
This project requires you to set a problem and provide a unique, innovative, creative, informed and culturally aware solution. Projects are to be negotiated with your tutor through an initial proposal written up in your online workbook - blog. It is essential that the production work is informed by critical debate underway in seminars and lectures. This is in contribution to the development of your professional practice and your final year project. It is essential that the development and production of the project is informed by critical debate underway in seminars and lectures. The proposal must include description of the topic, evidence of relevant research, critical references (bibliography, netography, filmography, etc), illustrations, diagrams, technical solutions and a realistic production timetable. This proposal contributes an important component of the overall mark, as it sets out aims and objectives against which the project will be assessed.

My Idea

Electronic Graffiti. Traditionally graffiti art has been frowned upon as a destructive way for the population to express their political, social and cultural beliefs. In the act of creating art to express themselves the graffiti artist defaces property, usually someone else's so as to show their disregard of the law or the importance of their opinion being greater than the value of the property, and usually somewhere public to increase the impact.

Where most graffiti is visual in nature I intend to create a way in which a person might share their opinions, their music, their work publicly without the necessity to deface public property. I intend to create a public forum invisible to the naked eye and those who would not wish for visual eyesores, but available and visible to mobile technology.

So, using a public place as a basis for my forum I will produce a digitized area using augmented reality and bluetooth / gps / other mobile technology to allow a person to digitally "tag" a part of that area. I would also encourage collaborative works so that users of this digital space could share artworks, music, video and playlists and improve upon them. These media objects would be available only to those who used the technology and could be viewed according to preference.

IDAT 203 Research

2009-03-06T06:10:00.003Z

Following my essay on the digitization of the music industry I have been looking into ways with which a person interacts with their digital music collection. Obviously the standard interactions of listening and dancing to their music were evident, but I am also interested in the other ways in which people might soundtrack their lives.

One of the more recent developments in video games technology is the ability to deconstruct a song into a series of game objectives and parameters such as the dance routine creator with most common dance mat related games and the track design function of games like Audiosurf.

I am also interested in what can be achived by games / activities that allow the player to create their own music. I doubt I have the time to write an entire refined audio mixer, but maybe there is some way i can simplify the process whilst entertaining the end user. This thought led me to remember messing about with a similar program on the Playstation 2 a few years ago. Something similar to Music Maker.

This interface looks more complicated than I remember. To be honest, although it does look very smart and well produced, this interface is far too much like a real mixing program and looks less like I would expect a game to.

The transformation of creative arts practice within the music industry of the digital epoch.

2009-03-06T03:51:00.002Z

The genre that I will discuss in this paper is that of contemporary music, its significance as an art form in the changing attitude towards digital media as the instrument of choice and the distortion that the use of such technologies lends to the establishment of what is known as a recording “artist” within the genre.
Until recently, being a great artist was, according to 18th century author and poet Samuel Johnson, to be simply a “skilled manual worker” and that was enough. Shakespeare, Rembrandt and Mozart created works of fine art as a job, a means to pay the bills and although their works were highly valued, they did not have much social stature in a world dominated by the church and wealthy royal courtiers. Bart Rosier introduces his work What is art? with a description of this mentality:
In late Antiquity the arts consisted of the seven artes liberales, the liberal arts: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric, Geometry, Arithmetic, Astronomy, and Music. Philosophy was the mother of them all. On a lower level stood the technical arts like architecture, agriculture, painting, sculpture and other crafts. "Art" as we conceive of it today was a mere craft. Art in the Middle Ages was "the ape of nature". And what is art today?
Bart Rosier. (July 2008) What is art? [online] Available: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffeehouse/6831/whatsart.html [date accessed 29 Jan. 08]
The Romantic Movement of the early 19th century championed by such artists as Byron, Baudelaire and van Gogh, turned away from producing craft works to please the rest of society and focussed ever more intently on indulging their own whims and elevating themselves as heroic enlightened and unique individuals, striving constantly to produce perfection through their own talent and suffering.
Artists of any genre are often henceforth portrayed as solitary, reflective, lonely and even unhappy figures that are far too complicated and intelligent for a lay person to comprehend. This “romanticised” archetype is a product of the movement that has played on the psyche of society for some 200 years since.
As such the portrayal of recording artists as a singular talented, creative elite has dominated the music business as much, or even more so, than many other art forms. This, in no small terms, is due to the widespread publicity with which such musicians are paraded day after day.
Take, for example, John Lennon, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen. Each of these men are accomplished musicians and songwriters in their own right and although the messages that their works convey differ from artist to artist, they have all at some point been idolised for their single minded dedication to their work and their self sacrifices to the benefit of music as an art form and all who have practised it since.
The overriding factor that combines all of the above artists however, is the fact that they used their talent with music to earn large sums of money. Each man played their instruments and wrote their songs for money, as a job. As the title of the Beastie Boys 1992 single states they used their Skills to pay the bills. Thus they could be referred to as artisans of the musical art. This is a term that rests well with me as a way to define those that would use music as an art to win their earnings. This does not necessarily mean that they are not artists, but should probably referred to as such second to a term that informs one that they are paid for the work they produce.
As Rosier discusses in his work it is very difficult indeed to define what is art and as such the concept of an artist is also just as difficult. He quotes the art philosopher Richard Wollheim with reference to painting and those that practise it:
"So, there are house-painters: there are Sunday painters: there are world-politicians who paint for distraction, and distraught business-men who paint to relax. There are ... psychotic patients who enter art therapy, and madmen who set down their visions: there are little children of three, four, five, six, in art class, who produce work of explosive beauty: and then there are the innumerable painters ... who once, probably, were artists, but who now paint exclusively for money and the pleasure of others. None of them are artists, though they all fall short of being so to varying degrees, but they are all painters. And then there are painters who are artists. Where does the difference lie, and why? What does the one lot do which the other lot doesn't? When is painting an art, and why?"
Richard Wollheim. (1987):Painting as an art (ref: Rosier July 2008) What is art? [online] Available: http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Coffeehouse/6831/whatsart.html [date accessed 29 Jan. 08]

Perhaps the definition of art needs to be revisited.

The first commercial digital recordings were produced in the early 70’s and much experimentation began with this new technology. When an audio track is recorded it’s sound wave is converted to binary bits at a rate of 24 bits per word ( word representing the length of the audio waveform), the number of bits required was originally hotly debated, because each bit sampled is reconstructed by digital audio devices the less bits there are per word the harder it is to reconstruct the audio signal with enough fidelity, however the larger the number of bits per waveform the better the potential accuracy and the larger the size of sample on a disk / tape.

There had been electronic synthesizers before like the Moog synthesizer produced by Dr Robert Moog, however unlike its modern descendants the Moog required a series of magnetic tapes for artists to realize their works. The limitations of the devices components were such that often notes had to be recorded separately and reconstructed later, using the speed at which the tapes were run to produce the different pitch and then splicing with the master. An altogether lengthy and frustrating procedure.

In 1982 the advent of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface), created by Adam Brooks Kinder was marked as the industry standard protocol for interface between electronic musical instruments, computers and other electronic musical equipment allowing the hardware / software of each device to be synchronized. It was widely adopted throughout the industry and remains today as the music synthesis standard for computers worldwide. Because MIDI does not store audio information in waveforms sounds can be constructed on a computer by sequences that, through sound output devices, may be played as music.

Many artists now found that with digital sample tapes and synthesizing keyboards they could produce entirely new sounds that could not have been achieved with the previous levels of technology employed in such devices as the Moogs. With the right hardware a recording artist could record directly from their instruments to a digital tape for immediate playback and review .

If music can thus be created without instruments, without the necessary skills needed to know why each chord works the way it does and with the use of pre – programmed or pre – recorded synthesized percussion is it really art? Yet many recording artists are producing works that have been synthesized by computer code that use background beats that have not been produced by their own hand and yet are receiving critical acclaim and large sums of money for their work. Does the responsibility for that work rest solely with the artist or is it prudent to theorize that the software developers that produced the synthesizing program gain some credit for their efforts towards the recording artist’s success? The fact of the matter is that other than a license fee or registration fee for the software many mainstream music software companies do not receive royalties for works produced with the programs that they have designed. CakeWalk is just one of such software companies that produce midi sequencers, but is widely thought to be the leader in the business.

Adversely one could look at the computer as an addition to the artist’s instrument complement. Does not the producer of a guitar or a drum kit receive kudos for their product by having it used by the recording artist in the production of their works? Not by way of royalties they don’t, but they do tend to piggyback marketing campaigns off the back of live performances, music videos and in fact any other visual media they can be shown to have their instruments used by famous artists. So guitar manufacturers label the head of their guitars with their name or logo, drum manufacturers place their stamp on cymbals or drum skins and so on. When there are no aesthetic or portable means of exhibiting the digital instrumentation used to make music will this practise change? I think not.

Similar to audio synthesis is the practise of audio sampling. Again the artist is using something they have not produced to add a track to their song that they could otherwise not do. Audio samples may be loops of percussion, many modern recordings are strings of drum beat samples tied together and looped to produce the backing percussion. They may also be samples of spoken words, entire recordings, or other more unconventional sounds.

Some audio samples are also taken without permission and the recording artist often finds themselves in a difficult situation with copyright lawsuits being thrust upon them from unexpected angles. One such artist to be stung by copyright infringement was the white hip hop rapper Vanilla Ice. Ice used a sample of the main guitar riff from the legendary rock collaboration Under Pressure by Queen and David Bowie in his signature track Ice Ice Baby from 1990. His defence rested on the addition of extra notes, which were in fact only further cutting and sampling, to the original riff. No lawsuit was filed in the end, but there is speculation that Ice agreed to pay the rockers if they agreed not to openly sue. Some artists, however simply allow or even advocate re – use of their music in sample form.

The most notorious piracy of a sampled beat is the Amen break, a 6 second long drum beat, or break beat that was originally produced by a funk and soul band called The Winstons in their song Amen Brother. This break beat was taken by sampler and is ingrained into the western subconscious through tracks such as Straight out of Compton by the rap pioneers NWA, Words of wisdom by New York duo Third Base, and King of the beats by Mantronics. The Amen break could also be cited as responsible for the advent and longevity of drum and bass, dance and hip hop as musical genres and many of the beats behind songs from the early nineties rave scene. The Amen break has been broken down into its constituent drum hits by artists to create new tracks ever since and is still being used in popular music, advertising campaigns and soundtracks to this day.

This does not imply that any of the aforementioned artists ever owned any part of the Amen break. What they did own though, were samplers, without which modern music would be very different indeed.

Now although I digress slightly from the point of the discussion, this is a necessary diversion to explain that the originality of many a recording artist’s works can be called into question once they start using pre – recorded samples and although this does not detract from the newer work being a work of art in its own right per se, it does call into question whether the recording artist should be vaunted for the work in its entirety or whether such a recording artist should now only be allowed to claim the merit for the assembly and mixing of their work’s consistent parts.

So now it is clear that the creative practice of musicians has changed in the last 30 years. A musician producing works pre synthesizer would be required to have a fair knowledge of music theory at the least to play and record their songs, they would need to be learned with many musical instruments, or employ other artists to play along with them and they would be required to complete a recording in a single take for distribution. Inevitably records produced before digital sampling would take far longer to record due to this requirement for the artist to play their song from start to finish over and over until they were happy with the results.

In this way digital recording has become a boon for recording artists across the board. Songs can be constructed modularly, a verse at a time, with the chorus only ever needing to be finally mastered once per version and the sample repeated. Thus allowing for those odd moments when one can hear an artist drawing out a long note or verse without needing to stop for breath and carrying on into the chorus without missing a beat, or the moments where the artist will record a harmony to their own lead and thus harmonize without being physically able to. This practice is also applied to musical instruments in some bands, where a singer will record their vocals over the finished track to allow them to participate in the more energetic instrument playing at the same time that would otherwise leave them out of breath. Whilst allowing the artist more freedom to produce works of notably higher quality to live performance, additionally this allows a song to be produced far quicker than could possibly done to the same standard previously.

Many critiques, I amongst them rate not only the studio recording of the artist, but the live performance of the song and I have come to the opinion that if I am impressed by the live performance as much or even more than their studio recording then they are a band worthy of inhabiting my music collection. Only a few have managed to surpass themselves and my expectations and they take pride of place. This does not mean that I only listen to live bands in fact it could not be farther from the truth. I enjoy a healthy mix of music, like many other eclectic types, that involves many technically brilliant musicians that I could only label as artists well worthy of the title and also includes songs that are simply impossible to reproduce exactly live.
One of the many musical genres that I foster a love – hate relationship with is drum and bass. Commonly abbreviated to d&b and also known as jungle, drum and base is a purely electronic dance music that uses fast break beats like the Amen break, generally up to 180 beats per minute, with very heavy bass lines. It began in the late 1980’s and was an offshoot of the early UK rave scene. D&b and to a similar extent today’s dance music is intended to be listened to live. Now that might sound a bit daft considering almost anything can be performed live, but d&b differs because it is designed to be played by a DJ (disk jockey) and constructed live, using a pair of record players otherwise known as decks a sampler and ever more frequently an i – book or laptop, from constituent parts usually referred to as dub plates in the case of new records. Each part of the song has intro and outro sections designed for the DJ to keep time and match the beats and could technically be played in any order across any number of different tracks. In this way the DJ becomes not only the author of each mix record (despite not necessarily being the source of the sounds) but a performance artist as well who mixes and samples live on stage. Thus it could be said that in d&b the art is not just in the crafting of the song but in the performance of the DJ as well as no two performances will ever be entirely the same.

DJs and MCs (master of ceremonies – pompous I know) often have strange and outlandish pseudonyms, often related to their stage performance and the sub – culture of the genre to which they belong. Whilst some are comic at best, other DJs with slightly better taste are seen with an almost godlike mysticism about them and receive as much accolade as any mega rock star. This attitude could be identified as the romanticism cropping up again where the lone DJ heroically mixes away striving to rock the spectator’s world.

Contrary to this mythical concept of the lone artist writing and producing every part of their artwork as a solitary edifice of introversion of their own volition, many recording artists are individuals who want to share their life experience with their audience through the medium of song and as such could be seen as very sociable characters. Bruce Springsteen can be regarded as a prime example of a man with a message to share, one that thankfully makes for a good rock song that people want to listen to. I could not put it in better words than this:
His most famous albums, Born to Run and Born in the U.S.A., epitomize his penchant for finding grandeur in the struggles of daily life.
Bruce Springsteen (1972-present) Springsteen: Wikipedia [online] Available: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Springsteen [date accessed 29 Jan. 08]

As such Springsteen has become somewhat of an American everyman hero, a champion of the ideal that artists are people too.

The current era of mass digitization and cut and paste song craft does not come about without leaving a few casualties in its wake though. Large scale recording studios are swiftly becoming a thing of the past and the speed of their decline shows little sign of slowing down any time soon. Now that most of the functions that would be familiar to a sound engineer have been incorporated into software for the home computer there is little need for large and expensive establishments, unless you are scoring the next movie blockbuster with an orchestra of course. One studio that has sprung up amongst this change of face is The Doghouse in Brooklyn NYC. In their introduction to the article: Breaking the glass wall. They explain exactly what is happening to the old establishment:

The art of recording has changed dramatically. Mammoth recording spaces, giant glass walls, and mile long consoles have given way to smaller, more specialized rooms. As the decadent recording budgets of the last century dry up, small studios are cropping up even faster than the old behemoths fall silent.
The Doghouse NYC Recording Studio (May 2005) Breaking the Glass Wall:
Reinventing the Modern Recording Studio [online] Available: http://www.doghousenyc.com/articles/glass_wall.php [date accessed 28 Jan. 08]
So small studios and in – house production are becoming the accepted norm for recording artists both in the USA and here in the UK, perhaps Springsteen could have benefitted from such technology so close to home, but I’m not so sure his fans would have been so ready to accept him with an electronic dub beat.
The Doghouse also philosophises in its review of “single seater” studios, which may in fact hold as many as 8 to 10 musicians to one or two sound technicians that it’s not all about the technical gear:
The one - seater caters to the mindset that it is people who make recordings - not spaces or equipment.
The Doghouse NYC Recording Studio (May 2005) Breaking the Glass Wall:
Reinventing the Modern Recording Studio [online] Available: http://www.doghousenyc.com/articles/glass_wall.php [date accessed 28 Jan. 08]

This is rather a poignant reflection on their own practices that sometimes it’s good to remind people in a studio environment that the digital technology is not the most important aspect, but the people who use it to create their music are. This does not detract though from the truth that musicians that do not follow the trend in technological advances will eventually fall by the wayside as newer and better products will be released that will far outstrip theirs in quality and production value.

In conclusion I would have to say that I have gained the opinion that although a DJ or MC uses a computer, a set of decks, or a synthesizer / sampler to produce their work they have as much right to call what they produce an artwork as a folk guitarist or a flautist because it takes a considerable amount of skill and experience to produce and develop their work. The musicians of the digital age might not be classically trained, they might not know the difference between a fret and a bridge and they might not play the instruments that they use in their work, but they have the freedom of their imagination, a massive archive of information available and the talent to string a mash of beats, tunes and vocals together to create music the likes of which have never been seen before to such high qualities of sound that they could make Mozart weep with joy. In essence the concept of the “artist” has returned to more of a definition of a craftsman producing his wares and is in effect contradicting the neo – romantic view of all artists being somehow better than mortal man.
With new technologies such as digital sampling and editing software becoming more readily available to the consumer market it is not too difficult to comprehend music production again returning to a craft and a hobby to which standards ordinary people may begin to parallel big budget record producers and mainstream recording artists. With that in mind it pleases me to think that many new recording artists, producers and DJs will rise to fame who never would have otherwise had a chance, much in the same way that Daniel Beddingfield the popular singer / songwriter began his own career. A number 1 single created in his bedroom at home with a microphone and a cheap piece of music software.

TECHNOLOGY AND ITS REPRESENTATION IN THE COMMUNICATIONS MEDIA

2008-12-19T02:58:00.001Z

BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES

The term Biometrics has recently undergone a change. Where once before it used to refer to the collection and analysis of data from a biological community, it has now been broadened to include the study of methods for uniquely recognising other human beings based upon physiological and psychological traits. With this data a being can be catalogued and the information stored on a database for validation or Identification procedures in the future.

The emergence and development of Biometric Identification technologies in recent years has caused mass debate in the communications media on a worldwide scale. The topic is a controversial one, because it involves costly mass production and distribution of scanning and identification technology, a vast amount of personal information requiring collection and assimilation, probabilities of infringements of civil liberties and all under the suspicion of compulsory membership of a ‘non compulsory’ scheme. You won’t have to carry Identity, but it may harm you in the long run if you do not.

The positives however are much more appealing:

The National Identity Scheme (NIS) is intended to secure our borders and tackle illegal immigration, to prevent identity fraud and criminal assumption of multiple identities (which is commonplace), to enhance the safeguards in place during police checks for people working with children and those who are vulnerable and to enhance the level of customer service provided across governmental departments and the wider public sector.

The Home Office. (December 2006) Strategic action plan for the National Identity Scheme. [online] Available: http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/Strategic-Action-Plan.pdf [date accessed: 13 Jan. 08]

The emphasis on identity has arisen, due to the recent political shift, relative to the global paranoia, post September 11th 2001. Since 9/11 governments in both USA and the UK have redoubled their efforts to pass laws that would introduce biometric systems to their countries health, immigration, employment, security and welfare systems to name but a few.

With all these services to cover there are more than enough sources of revenue for the biometrics industry. In 2005 the research and debate group BITE (Biometric Identification Technology Ethics) stated that:

The number of biometric devices in use in Europe has jumped from 8,550 in 1996 to more than 150,000 in 2004 and biometric industries revenues are expected to more than triple in the next two years.

BITE Project. (2005) Promoting Research and Public Debate on Bioethical Implications
of Emerging Biometric Identification Technologies. [online] Available: http://www.biteproject.org/ [date accessed: 13 Jan. 08]

These figures suggest an increase of more than 1750% over 8 years. The devices not only include heavy duty retinal scanners and fingerprint readers for access to secure buildings, but they also include the consumer security market figures too. Miniature portable fingerprint scanners are now available as a USB device for personal computer / laptop security. Some of the latest laptops even come with a scanner built in. You can pick them up on your local high street.

The good intentions of the governing bodies attempting to currently introduce this technology are small in comparison to the fears of what the information could be used for and the possibility that should corporations get hold of the information, a new form of invasive advertising and product pushing might begin.

This is no more evident than in the Stephen Spielberg action thriller Minority Report (an adaptation of the Philip K. Dick short story.)
At one point the male lead is in the centre of a busy shopping district with an example of the un-ethical use of unauthorised retinal scanning to produce “personalised” adverts for their customers. But this man is on the run and seconds later his face is plastered across every screen and hologram within a five block radius. Further on and he has had to receive an eye transplant (bear in mind this is set 45 years in the future) to shake off his previous identity. The police employ a miniature retinal scanner in the hunt for him, but it is fooled by his “new eyes.”

Minority Report [DVD] (2002) Directed by Stephen Spielberg. Cruise / Wagner Productions. 142 mins.

This simple concept now appears to be closer than we think and through this medium of film indicates some of the possible problems it might incur.

It would appear that the British government consider the biometric ID card to be a more secure version of a passport or drivers licence. It is in fact plausible that the drivers licence and maybe even the passport would be scrapped entirely in favour of indicating driving privileges on the Identity Card. In 2002 David Blunkett made a television appearance on Newsnight for the BBC. In a transcript of the conversation he hints at the similarities between the current statistics of passport and drivers licence holders and the expected number of ID card holders, should a voluntary system be implemented:

Well, you have to register if you want to drive a car. You have to register if you want a passport. 38 million people have a driving licence. 44 million, including some youngsters, have their own passport. There's nothing new about registering. All those people do.

Blunkett. D. (2002) Teletext subtitle transcript from Newsnight (Real video of this interview is also available) [online] Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/archive/2093573.stm [date accessed: 12 Jan 08]

Mr Blunkett seems to make a good indication that although these technologies may not be mandatory you would require one if you wanted to do anything. This is what is worrying most of the people who will choose to “opt-out” of the system (The House of Lords allowed the bill to pass after five previous attempts on the condition that there was the possibility to opt-out of the system.) However the BBC has gathered this information:

What will happen when I apply for a passport?
You will have to go to your local passport office where you will be photographed and fingerprinted. The new Identity and Passport Service will then carry out a "background check" on you to establish that you are who you say you are. Your details will then be entered in a national database and you will be issued with a passport and an ID card. You will probably be able to use your ID card as a passport within the EU.
Will there be a discount for those who opt-out of having an identity card?
No. Charles Clarke, who steered the measure through Parliament when he was home secretary, said the final charges have yet to be worked out but those who opt out of ID cards will have to pay the same for a passport as those who accept one and their details will be entered into the database in the same way.

BBC News (09 Jan 2008) Q&A: Identity card plans [online] Available: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3127696.stm [date accessed 10 Jan 2008]

So although you might have decided to opt out of the ID card scheme this implies that the government will try to get you on their system in as many ways as possible. There would be no way of obtaining a passport without being entered into the biometric database.

The technologies themselves are not necessarily the root cause of the problem, but it is in the way it could be used for profiling that scares many people. The use of one method under biometrics, finger prints for instance, have been used for over a hundred years in the solving of crimes, because every one is unique.
It is a tried and tested system and the faults are known (for instance being at the scene of a crime hours before whilst totally innocent you might be arrested or just asked to provide a statement) as is the fact that someone intending to do crime would be smarter than to expose their fingers to anything.

Finger prints are also in this way one of the best security identifiers, hence why they have been used for years as right of access. They have replaced passwords for many people as a password is often forgotten or is easy to crack because many people use personal information such as date of birth and children’s names etc.

There is another form of risk when it comes to biometric passwords. There are no lengths to which some people will go to steal your identity, for instance the removal of a finger of a business man to start his Mercedes Benz.

Of course one can see why this might give biometrics a bad reputation.

In late 2007 it appeared in the news that the government had “misplaced” copies of 25 million Briton’s social security information, information that could be used in identity theft. What is to say that in the future this won’t happen again with countless numbers of British citizens biometric data? This information would not only have to be scrapped from the records for fear of mass identity fraud, but it would also be irreplaceable as the fields measured would be permanent factors of the person’s identity. The government’s answer to this is:

As described in Chapter 2, the information
in each person’s NIR entry will be in several
parts, with each part being held on a separate
set of technologies:
-biometric details will be held on the
biometric system;
-a biographical part of the entry will be held
on the Customer Information System (CIS)
technology; and
-Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) related
information will be held on the PKI
technology already being used for issuing
passports.

The Home Office. (December 2006) Strategic action plan for the National Identity Scheme. [online] Available: http://www.ips.gov.uk/identity/downloads/Strategic-Action-Plan.pdf [date accessed: 13 Jan. 08]

Essentially only those in the highest positions would ever be able to view our biometric NIR (National Identity Register) in full and each separate identifier would be stored in separate locations and on different formats.

From what I can discern from the communications media articles there are two distinct sides to this argument.
On the one side are the majority of the Labour party and a percentage of the population of the United Kingdom who are prepared to pilot the biometric National Identity Scheme. And on the other are the Conservatives and Liberals whom are united with a larger percentage of the population.

It would seem that the government’s main representation in the media is through gruelling television or radio interviews where they have attempted to defend the reasons for gathering so much data about the citizenry and their public information on the home office and passport office websites.

Whereas most of the opposition to the scheme has been highly distributed via a similar range of sources including TV, radio, newspaper and the internet, but they are receiving more focus for their protestations, because their arguments are entirely plausible as many have roots in current issues that, although it is claimed the ID cards will solve them, it is already too easy to see the flaws with the system. What is in place to stop someone who has access to the biometric information from passing that information on? It is argued that once the information has been gathered it will be sold to third party companies which may very well breach one’s privacy.
Is it necessary to record the facial structure of every person in the UK over a certain age? Would this not lead to extra surveillance on the population and the possibility of mistakes? Facial appearance is often subject to change depending on the health, weight and age of the person. There is also the possibility that plastic surgery will become more popular amongst the unlawful so as to assume one’s identity further.

The government is attempting to communicate the fact that the biometric scheme will improve civil security, whereas the general public consensus that has been forwarded directly by the communications media is the idea that security levels would not change in lieu of the current systems in place, but it will in fact only lead to a loss of the civil liberties that we take for granted.

The main premise here is that many more people are willing to watch a television debate or read a newspaper, than they would be to listen directly to the government ministers, but through these sources they are biased by the opinions of those who send out the messages.

Essentially we only receive the information we have been allowed to see by people of higher authority in the media and will only truly know the extent of success or failure by testing the system for ourselves.

In 2006 the National Identity act was passed with a view to start voluntary application this year (2008). This year passports will also be changing to include more biometric data. So it is already here, despite all of the public opposition.

Organism project update

2008-11-07T15:52:00.001Z

The main interface was intended to be Flash based as shown in the file
TRACY office anno.jpg
No.1 is the funtion to exit the program.
No.2 is the list of stored "suspects"
No.3 is the "reply" function (styled as a typewriter)
No.4 is where the PI would answer the telephone ( Incoming Mail)

Unfortunately i have been unable to produce a working interface
in time

Bruce Eckel has some interesting thoughts

2008-11-07T01:22:00.003Z

This blog has definitely improved my awareness of the "situation" surrounding the web design community and despite being almost two years old it raises some interesting points that could still be hot topics in today's climate.

Organism project update

2008-11-07T01:02:00.005Z

I found the solution to my connection problem! One little change to my code ( Literally adding an s on the end of Pop3) has allowed me to connect to the mail server and testing has found the spam in my dummy emails!

from
try
{
Properties props = System.getProperties();
Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(props, null);
store = session.getStore("pop3");
store.connect(popServer, popUser, popPassword);
folder = store.getDefaultFolder();

to

try
{
Properties props = System.getProperties();
Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(props, null);
store = session.getStore("pop3s");
store.connect(popServer, popUser, popPassword);
folder = store.getDefaultFolder();

I am so happy :) this has been bugging me for days.

Organism project pop3 info

2008-11-06T14:16:00.003Z

Organism project update

2008-11-06T13:57:00.005Z

I have downloaded some sound clips to serve as alerts / background music etc for my flash GUI.

These files are from a popular game (Team Fortress 2) which is an american cartoon stylised first person shooter for the pc.

Organism project update

2008-11-06T13:31:00.005Z

Java coding is definitely more complicated than I first thought.

I have "borrowed" the source code for a mail application with the intention of modifying it to interact with my flash GUI and i have managed to get the mail app to work... to a degree. unfortunately i have come acropper with the code because although it appears to work there are some connection issues between my computer and the mail server.

here is my mailreader

package mailproject;
import javax.mail.*;
import javax.mail.internet.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.io.*;
import net.sf.classifier4J.*;
import net.sf.classifier4J.bayesian.*;
import net.sf.classifier4J.summariser.*;
public class MailReader
{
public static void main(String[] args)
{
try
{
String popServer="pop.gmail.com";
String popUser="ss.tybs";
String popPassword="xenophobe1";
GetMail(popServer, popUser, popPassword);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.exit(0);
}
public static void GetMail(String popServer, String popUser, String popPassword)
{
Store store=null;
Folder folder=null;
String strEmail = "";
double dSpamScore = 0.0;
try
{
Properties props = System.getProperties();
Session session = Session.getDefaultInstance(props, null);
store = session.getStore("pop3");
store.connect(popServer, popUser, popPassword);
folder = store.getDefaultFolder();
if (folder == null) throw new Exception("No default folder");
folder = folder.getFolder("INBOX");
if (folder == null) throw new Exception("No POP3 INBOX");
folder.open(Folder.READ_ONLY);
Message[] msgs = folder.getMessages();
for (int nMsg = 0; nMsg < stremail =" buildMessage(msgs[nMsg]);" strsumm =" getSummary(strEmail,3);">m.out.println(strSumm); dSpamScore = checkSpam(strEmail); //dSpamScore = checkSpamWithBayes(strEmail); if(dSpamScore > 0.7)
{
System.out.println("--------------------------");
System.out.println("SPAM DETECTED:");
System.out.println("--------------------------");
System.out.println(strEmail);
System.out.println("--------------------------");
}}}
catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
finally
{
try
{
if (folder!=null) folder.close(false);
if (store!=null) store.close();
}
catch (Exception e2)
{
e2.printStackTrace();
}}}
public static String buildMessage(Message message)
{
String strReturn = "";
try
{
String from=((InternetAddress)message.getFrom()[0]).getPersonal();
if (from==null) from=((InternetAddress)message.getFrom()[0]).getAddress();
strReturn += "FROM: " + from;
String subject=message.getSubject();
strReturn += "SUBJECT: "+subject;
Part messagePart=message;
Object content=messagePart.getContent();
if (content instanceof Multipart)
{
messagePart=((Multipart)content).getBodyPart(0);
strReturn += "[ Multipart Message ]";
}
String contentType=messagePart.getContentType();
strReturn += "CONTENT:"+contentType;
if (contentType.startsWith("text/plain")|| contentType.startsWith("text/html"))
{
InputStream is = messagePart.getInputStream();
BufferedReader reader=new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(is));
String thisLine=reader.readLine();
while (thisLine!=null)
{
strReturn +=thisLine;
thisLine=reader.readLine();
}}}
catch (Exception ex)
{
ex.printStackTrace();
}
return strReturn;
}
public static double checkSpam(String strEmailBody)
{
double dClassification = 0.0;
try
{
SimpleClassifier classifier = new SimpleClassifier();
classifier.setSearchWord( "belgium" );
dClassification = classifier.classify(strEmailBody);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
return dClassification;
}
public static double checkSpamWithBayes(String strEmailBody)
{
double dReturn = 0.0;
try
{
IWordsDataSource wds = new SimpleWordsDataSource();
wds.addMatch("Belgium");
wds.addMatch("Vogon");
wds.addMatch("Devx");
IClassifier classifier = new BayesianClassifier(wds);
dReturn = classifier.classify(strEmailBody);
}
catch(Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
}
return dReturn;
}
public static String getSummary(String strEmailBody, int nSentences)
{
ISummariser summ = new SimpleSummariser();
String strSumm = summ.summarise(strEmailBody,nSentences);
return strSumm;
}}

and here is what happens when i run it:

annoying to say the least!

Another issue i can't fathom to work around is jdeveloper does not work on my vista laptop! Upon which flash is installed and any hope of me combining the two parts of the organism. :(

Organism project update

2008-11-03T23:25:00.004Z

I have scanned in my workbook to show the processes worked upon in the last few weeks. These include sketches of the process tree i expect from my organism.

I am working on applying these processes with java code. This way i can have a working format and work on the GUI later.

So these pages from my sketchbook show the thought processes behind the program's functionality... and that i think Jeff Han is a ninja....

Erm... 4shot espresso please!

2008-11-03T22:59:00.001Z

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site

204 Project

2008-10-16T16:03:00.002+01:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spam_filter

IDAT 204 ORGANISM Project

2008-10-09T16:53:00.007+01:00

A new year, a new project and now the heat is on.

This module is interactive and intuitive programming. Workshop 2.

THE BRIEF:

Part 1 - Organism 25% Delivered by Dan Livingstone
organism n. 1. any living animal or plant including any bacterium or virus. Jean Baudrillard, Simulations2. anything resembling a living creature in structure, behavior, etc ----, organ’ismal or,organ’ismic adj. organ’ismally adv.
‘The artificial purification of all milieus, atmospheres, and environments will supplant the failing internal immune systems. If these systems are breaking down it is because an irreversible tendency called progress pushes the human body and spirit into relinquishing its systems of defense and self-determination, only to replace them with technical artifacts. Divested of his defenses, man becomes eminently vulnerable to science. Divested of his phantasies, he becomes eminently vulnerable to psychology. Freed of his germs, he becomes eminently vulnerable to medicine.
It would not be too far-fetched to say that the extermination of mankind begins with the extermination of germs.’ [ Jean Baudrillard ]
‘Artificial Intelligence: the art of making computers that behave like the ones in movies.’ [Bill Bulko]
Working in pairs generate "a living creature in structure, behavior, etc...". The final organism should be a form of interactive media, able to work on any platform from mobile, desktop, internet, ipod etc. The intention is to make the organisms accessible/downloadable on a live web siteThe rational behind this exercise?:
A: to generate a problem which is not technology driven, i.e. the idea drives the project. You should not start working on the computer until the ‘life form’ spec is generated. You will then have to find ways of realising it with appropriate software or platforms.
B: to force you to consider a truly timebased, multidimensional, interactive problem. In principle a life form needs to feed or to be fed, sleep, move, multiply, expel waste etc. It will be sensitive to certain conditions and have a life expectancy. Do not use buttons, instead concentrate on a process of interactions and behaviours. In defining a life form do not fall into the obvious trap of using cartoon characters, question existing models, redefine and innovate! What is digital life? What is OOPs?
Keywords: Artificial Life, Cellular Automata, Organism, Entity, Lifeform, Virus…

My first thought about this project was to combine it with the work I was attempting in SOFT 221.

(We are producing an instance of "Langstone's Ant") The ant would be used to edit images in an attractive, but possibly time consuming way. I decided this was quite a weak idea and went on with my generation of ideas.

My next idea was the Spam Demon. A little chappy that removes un-wanted emails from your system and sends back a reply:

"Your email has been eaten by the spam demon. Please do not send any more junk mail to this address.

If this is a mistake please reply with the keyword BANISH to ensure your email will be received."

The demon would be an animated figure on the desktop that notifies the user when spam has been eaten with a sound / visual animation allowing 24 hours before finally digesting them (deleting them) .

When the demon notifies the user it would provide functionality to reply to the "perpetrator" in an attempt to stop them from mailing the user.

After discussing this with Dan, he told me that most spam mail is sent from temporary email addresses that go dead soon after they send out the mail. So the Spam Demon idea took a turn towards deleting the spam mail, but also investigating further into the company / person that sent the email in an attempt to find a live email address that would receive the reply and act on it. For instance the director of a company is emailed instead of the dead email their company used to boradcast their spam.

And thus the demon dissolved to be replaced by Email Police and then a name came out of the Brainstom...

The Spam P.I. was born!

A Private investigator that will sift through the information provided (spam email addresses) and use it's detective's knowledge to search websites for similar addresses.

Products with similar functionality do exist, but in this project the P.I. will need to be kept busy in his hunt for "The Kingpin"

Some examples are Casper Spam Hunter: http://www.filetransit.com/screenshot.php?id=12218

And the search program would be based around something like Atomic Email Hunter: http://www.massmailsoftware.com/extractweb/screenshots.htm

Now then lets get cracking!

Interventions Video

2008-04-18T23:54:00.003+01:00

Here is the video for my Interventions final piece. I hope you like it

FNG

Telematic Performance

2008-04-18T23:35:00.002+01:00

For the first coursework project "Telematic Performance" I worked alongside a group of people to produce a transition from one state to another.
Although the brief was intended to be met without the use of technology, my group and I found it necessary that our message be delivered via a flash animation.

Our performance was about Stereotypes and how they can be warped and moulded to suit ones needs. We transitioned a set of stereotypes by merging them together to create new ones.

Using a combination of the stereotypical lifestyles we created new outlandish personalities.

We then combined all of these new stereotypes into one to produce an outcome. It was derived that from the multitude of combined stereotypes, aspects of the "average" everyman showed through.

We put forward that everyone has a bit of each of the stereotypes in them at any one time and no man can be segregated by particular stereotypes.

Interventions Update

2008-04-18T21:57:00.005+01:00

Characters:

Serge: Cybernetics millionaire and military contractor reduced to a pauper. The man behind the mask. Manic depressive. One time implant junkie. Disillusioned. Horrific injuries caused whilst failing a suicide attempt with a shotgun meant that he had to craft himself a new face with his own technology.

[Costume: Blank mask with head scarf. Old Ex-military jacket.]

Jack Keenan:

Our lead in the tale. The Protégé to Serge. He has begun to follow in his masters footsteps in an attempt to better himself. Serge dissuades him to go further but he continues. When a brain implant goes wrong he begins to pick up radio signals that drive him insane. In a vain attempt to return to his former self he tears out his implants with his bare hands.

[Costume: Ex-military Parka, Jeans, Black T shirt]

The music for the backing track has changed again. As a suggestion from one of my actors i listened to Timelessness by Fear Factory and it captured the mood perfectly. It is darker and more emotional than the previous Song and although it has vocals they add to the atmosphere of the piece.

Back to work Moron!

2008-04-06T18:14:00.003+01:00

I have found the perfect song for my Interventions project. It is the song used on the credits to the popular T.V series Cold Case. I believe that it would be perfect for a "Movie Trailer" It captures the mood and emotion of what I am trying to express, it starts slowly and breaks into a wonderful build up during the chorus, exactly what a good trailer needs to set the scene and then pile on the tension to it's climax!

The title of the track is "Nara" and it was performed by E.S.Posthumus.

Also in the running for the title soundtrack are Pompeii by E.S.Posthumus and Lonely Soul by Unkle Ft. Richard Ashcroft.

I have been storyboarding and scriptwriting over the Easter break, these will be posted soon along with notes on intended after effects etc. Filming should commence shortly.

I have also been considering names for my fictional movie and i have a few working titles.

Robotic Arms!

2008-02-29T11:58:00.001Z

Interventions

2008-02-29T11:16:00.003Z

A great insight into what it is to augment ones-self and pay the price for it, is given by the popular manga Ghost In The Shell:

In this movie two officers. One, part machine and the other, an android controlled by parts of a human brain, combat a cyber terrorist known as the "puppet master".

It centers deeply on the mystery of whether an A.I. (Artificial Intelligence) can have a soul.

The video excerpt is the title sequence from the movie. This depicts the construction of an android body, assumed to be the officer mentioned above, into which is implanted with living tissue.

This can be interpreted as my extreme case scenario where people are constructed instead of naturally born into the world.
It also indicates that although they are machines they are "born" as natual people are.

Interventions

2008-02-08T11:22:00.000Z

Ever considered getting an "upgrade"?

What if you could upgrade yourself?

My Intervention is a look into Cybernetic enhancements and their possible impacts on human society, physiology and psychology.

I'm thinking of a possible future where implants and full transplants are a viable commercial product, are mass produced and surgically grafted to the consumer on demand. We join it at the point where a full body transplant from biological to mechanical has just become available.

I'd like to present a short news bulletin possibly within a run of adverts for "the product" documenting this point in history and how the advancements have improved our way of life....

Then....

Everything is not as rosy as it seems.

years later and sparked by a campaign by a militant anti-cyborg group, "The Skins," the general public have developed a "Pinocchio complex" and are striving to return to their former Human flesh and blood state.

IDAT 101

2008-01-11T12:19:00.000Z

The Starbucks customer blog is up and running at http://drakecoffee.blogspot.com/

Starbucks Update

2008-01-11T11:44:00.000Z

I managed to create the small questionnaire form for my IDAT 101 project using Adobe Illustrator CS and an image taken from the fire escape / seating plan from Starbucks in Drake Circus which was simplified in photoshop.

This seating plan is to be used to gather information about the most popular seating areas so that the stickers (below) will be in the optimal places to encourage communication between regular customers.

The sticker uses the simple Fast Show tagline "someone's sitting there mate" as a humorous and eye catching introduction to the concept.

The URL is a link to another "Public" blog that anyone can comment on as their addition to the seat's journey.

Warlord Titan Made By GW Plymouth

2007-12-14T19:43:00.001Z

This 5ft tall 25mm scale Warhammer 40000 Warlord Titan Was constructed by a dedicated team of "Veteran" gamers (including myself) recently. It's name? Manus Dei (The Hand of God ) Quite fitting really as considering that 3 story building on it's base comes up to just under it's knee :D

2007-12-13T17:48:00.000Z

I am on my way to getting my project off the ground. I've spoken to someone at starbucks in DC who thankfully understood exactly what i was on about and even expressed my project as "The Journey of the seat" and was good enough to let me see their seating plan. Unfortunately there was only one copy for their staff office, so I took a couple of photos and will "overpaint" to make a diagram to use on my questionnaires for the first stage of the project plan.

I've started to plan out my questionnaire leaflets, but I'm not sure whether double sided printing is available. If not, this is not essential. The questions I have decided on so far are Age, Sex, Occupation and a diagrammatically themed "place your mark here" for customers to place an X where their favourite seat / table is.

Next I must design a sticker, or flyer with a short tag line e.g "someone's sitting there mate" or "who's seat are you in?" and a web address.
I'm unsure whether to create a forum or a blog to display the user's messages. I'm also going to have a look at WAP browsers, because although the starbucks is in a wi-fi hot zone only a small number of customers ever have their laptop or fully internet capable device with them.

Feedback from IDAT101 Presentation

2007-11-30T12:21:00.000Z

The overall feedback was quite good. I think once we managed to get across the general idea it went down well.

The Revised project plan:

Possession. A simple Questionnaire (no personal details), just asking the age, profession and most importantly the favourite seat of coffee bar customers in DC. The result of this will then lead on to a mapping of the favourite seating positions throughout Starbucks and the other cafes in a similar style to that of the Worldmap of Consumption shown to us by Mike Phillips or the map of relative Ecological Footprint as it is known in other terms. This can be found at http://www.worldmapper.org/index.html

A similar map could be derived from a seating plan of the coffee bars in Drake Circus.

More Pictures For IDAT101

2007-11-29T10:10:00.001Z

Photos For IDAT 101 Presentation of a space

2007-11-29T10:00:00.000Z

Presentation On A Space II

2007-11-29T00:59:00.000Z

I've been considering what ideas I've had about DC (Drake Circus) and I think I've chosen some difficult ones to develop.

I have thought of another one I could present. The art of customer control. Have you ever noticed the way in which stores are laid out?

In general terms the average person's instinct when they enter a shop, is to turn right if possible. This means that whenever anyone enters a shop they will automatically concentrate on the closest items on the right. Many stores arrange their stock to entice the customer to look further throughout the shop by putting the most popular or the lower priced items to the right of the entrance.

Further still to get the customer to continue further into a clothing store the staff there might consider arranging only the biggest and smallest sizes of the popular items near the entrance to entice the customer to come inside and look for more of the same, but in a more suitable size.

In the case of retaining customers in a store for as long as possible the Entrance of a store is always much much larger and more easily accessible from the rest of the shop than the Exit. Shop exits are usually littered with the "best deals" and special offers, but some are also drab and unforgiving places. This tactic is most often used in supermarkets where barriers are used to control the flow of customers. The barriers swing one way only and there are always at least two times as many "IN" barriers as "OUT" and you often find yourself walking past the rest of the store once again on your way to the exit. A good example of this would be Tesco Roborough.

Escalators in many large stores are often arranged in such a fashion that the customer must traverse a route through a portion of the store before reaching the next one. This part of the store is often a hype of advertising and high fashion items and sometimes some quite good bargains. This entices the customer to look further around each floor before leaving it for the next.

All of these factors can be seen in DC and more if you look hard enough.

Ever useful wiki

2007-11-23T02:46:00.001Z

Possession is having some degree of control over something else. In all cases, to possess something, a person must have an intention to possess it. A person may be in possession of some property (although possession does not always imply ownership). Like ownership, the possession of things is commonly regulated by states under property law. Languages have several means to indicate possession.

Sus law

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In Britain, the Sus law was the informal name for a stop-and-search law that permitted a police officer to act on suspicion, or 'sus', alone.

It was based upon Sections 4 and 6 of the Vagrancy Act 1824 which made it "illegal for a suspected person or reputed thief to frequent or loiter in a public place with intent to commit an arrestable offence" and effectively permitted the police to stop and search and even arrest anyone they chose, purely on the basis of suspicion as a crime-prevention tactic.

The law caused much discontent among certain sections of the population and was abolished following riots in St Pauls, Bristol, in 1980, and in Brixton, London, and Toxteth, Liverpool, in 1981, because its alleged abuse was believed to be a contributory factor to these events. ^[1] Following Lord Scarman's inquiry into the cause of the Brixton riots, the sus law was dropped.

Subsequent British legislation which makes provision for the police to act on the basis of suspicion alone has been denounced as "another sus law" by opponents of proposals to grant British police "stop and question" powers: ^[2]

Mr Hain said he wanted to see the details of the policy before making any judgement.

But he told BBC1’s Sunday AM: “We cannot have a reincarnation of the old ‘sus’ laws under which mostly black people, ethnic minorities, were literally stopped on sight and that created a really bad atmosphere and an erosion of civil liberties.”

[edit] References

^ The legacy of the Brixton riots. BBC News (5 April 2006). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.
^ Concerns voiced over new terror powers. The Times (27 May 2007). Retrieved on 2007-06-06.

Presentation on a space

2007-11-23T01:53:00.000Z

I just finished watching the directors cut of the 1979 movie The Warriors and it got me to wondering.
Every place has it's little clique, every gang has it's "turf", so who's turf is Drake Circus?

Obviously this is a new development and is considered a public place, but even public places must be "owned" by someone. But how do you rate possession? Is it the person who owns the property, who more likely than not never visits unless on occasion. Is it the leaseholders who run the stores and maintain the facility? Is it the person whom uses the builing every day and consideres it theirs?

For instance take the M&S coffee bar in the main court, or the Starbucks at the other end. There must be a thousand people that consider each table in either establishment to be their territory by right, in fact most of us feel more comfortable in familiar surroundings and will head for, or as close to these places as possible.

A fitting analogy would be public transport. Everyone refers to the transport they use as theirs. "My bus leaves in x minutes" etc. And nobody complains or says otherwise? How is it we can accept this term sometimes but not others? Is it something we let slip when it suits us? Or maybe i'm just reading too much into this...

I'm sure the Mall is a perfectly sensible place for groups of people to congregate, perhaps it is a policy of the establishment that large groups of people are unwelcome there. We sure did sense the security presence last time we went filming there.

Just how many people do they consider a disturbance? And what kind of person would they be more likely to eject for "Loitering" which has got to be one of the funniest concepts ever. A few spring to mind In particular Groups of teenagers and / or students after school hours.

Next time you go out on your bus to your local shopping centre have a look around your shops and see how many other people consider what is theirs you might be surprised.

Icarus

2007-11-21T23:23:00.000Z

Early in the morning sunlight
Soaring on the wings of dawn
Here I'll live and die with my wings in the sky
And I won't come down no more

Higher than a bird I'm flying
Crimson skies of ice and fire
Borne on wings of steel I have so much to feel
And I won't come down no more

Sail on, sail on, I will rise each day to meet the dawn
So high, so high
I've climbed the mountains of the sky
Without my wings you know I'd surely die
I found my freedom flyin' high
I've climbed the mountains of the sky

Floating on a cloud of amber
Searching for the rainbow's end
Earth so far below me,
I'm here alone, free
I can't come down no more

GW Plymouth Champion Painting Competition

2007-11-21T22:54:00.000Z

Last week I decided to enter into a new miniature painting comp.

The title was Regimental Champion (aka unit captain)

I've had success in the past with these so i thought, hey why not! So I decided to paint an undead elf as a Grave Guard Champion... which went down well with some of the staff who are die-hard High elf players.

All I say is "Well everything's gotta die sometime eh?"

So I attempted a Green / Grey / Black colour scheme and hollowed out the face on the model ( i want it to be a ghost or a possessed suit of armour ) and decided on a weathered Bronze effect for the metallics.

Today I painted the model, which was a bit of a mission, but not all that hard. All I have left to do is the base to finish him off.

2007-11-21T01:32:00.000Z

Thought For The Moment:

Here I'll live and die with my wings in the sky. And i won't come down no more.

Kansas: Icarus-Borne on wings of steel.

So... I came up with this idea...

2007-11-20T23:47:00.000Z

What if one's emotional state is contagious?

Now i don't mean that as soon as you enter a room feeling happy, everyone else is smiling like they just ate a space cake, oh no.

I mean throughout your daily life how many times have you considered the consequences of being rude, or short with someone, or even just the common courtesy of holding a door for someone, or saying "Thank You". It doesn't even need to be direct contact either. One could even make someone happy or cause someone harm without even knowing.

For instance; Whilst having a heated discussion on your phone lo and behold you offend someone you don't even know who is just a passer by!

What kind of domino effect could occur from just one such comment?

This person could forget it and continue on their way, but what if it clings to them ? Maybe they will go into a shop and be rude to the sales assistant, who in turn takes it out on their colleague, who is rude to another customer and so on...

Is it not true that we as a society focus on the negative aspects more frequently than the positives?

Does this mean that negative "energy" travels farther than positive goodwill?

I fear that it is impossible to judge whether this is the case because one's very presence, recording the path of the emotion would bias toward the goodwill because, lets face it, everyone wants to be seen as a good person.

This is more of a spur of the moment topic than i first considered...

2007-11-20T23:29:00.000Z

Hello World

A new dawn, a new blog. Time to refresh and revive my ranting brain.