ART 350-Arduino Update #2

We have made some good progress since the last update. Pictured above is the the resulting image of our jellyfish after it has been flattened out in the Pepakura Designer program. We have printed it out on a standard letter sized paper to get an idea of what the folds and attachments we will need to make. However, it is much too small on this size paper to begin trying to put it together. So, we will need to either print each individual part out on a separate page, or print the entire thing out on a larger sized paper. Also, still working on getting all the supplies needed for the Arduino portion of the project. More updates to come.

ART 343-Second-Life Performance Proposal

The idea behind my performance proposal is for the entire class to be dressed as giant monkey's (pictured above), roam around in Second Life and to "monkey around." As someone mentioned during our critique, I think it would be interesting to have one of us dressed as a giant banana with the rest of us chasing it around. Additionally, I'd like to have the following song by The Monkees playing while we are in costume.

ART 350-Arduino Update #1

The last couple weeks have been filled with much trial and error and trying to land on a concrete idea of what the project was going to be. Justeen and I have decided to work on this first project together and to create an underwater like world full of jellyfish within a gallery setting. We just recently purchased a 3D model of a jellyfish (pictured above) we plan to use as a template to create our own jellyfish. We've been working in Pepakura, a program that allows us to create paper models from 3D data, to try and make the most realistic looking jellyfish possible. Once we have Pepakura all figured out and our jellyfish in production (we plan to make at least 10), we will be using the Arduino to light the jellyfish up and possibly make them move. The plan at this point is to have the jellyfish made out of a transparent fabric, EL Wire in the bell of the model to give it light, Fiber Optic Lights as the tentacles, and possibly Fiber Optic Ribbon for the oral arms. The Arduino will have a motion sensor attached to detect any movement in the gallery and activate the lights in the jellyfish. There is still a lot of work to go but I am excited to see the project progress.

ART 350-Reading Questions

From Interactive Art on the Internet by Eduardo Kac

1. Seeing as how the Internet has virtually no censorship and that anyone connected may upload whatever they desire, how might this effect artists using the Internet as an interactive medium and the deeply rooted idea that art has a social responsibility, either negatively or positively?


From On Totalitarian Interactivity by Lev Manovich

2. The final paragraph of the essay reads, "This (interactive computer media) is a new kind of identification appropriate for the information age of cognitive labor. The cultural technologies of an industrial society -- cinema and fashion -- asked us to identify with somebody's bodily image. The interactive media asks us to identify with somebody's else mental structure." If this is true, will it come to pass that interactive computer media will put the same pressure on society to conform to a certain "mental structure" the way that cinema and fashion have with bodily images?

ART 343-Second Life Avatar and Object Comparison

For this assignment we were to create a realistic self-portrait avatar as well as an object from our daily lives in the online virtual-world of Second Life. I had created a self-portrait avatar previously in Second Life for the beginning Digital Media class, which can be viewed here. I feel that my second attempt at my avatar was much more successful, due in part to the fact that I had spent more time in Second Life figuring out it's capabilities as well as using a skin template to import an actual image of my face rather than using the default skins. I am pleased with the way my avatar turned out, but feel as if there are still some things I can do do to make it truly look just like me.
As for the object I created, I decided to create a replicate of my Sony PSP. Again, I was pleased with the way it turned out, but still feel like there is more that I can do to make it seem truly realistic. This was my first time creating in object in Second Life, but found the build feature to be pretty simple and fun to play around with. I look forward to spending more time in Second Life and discovering more possibilities and ways to expand my ideas as a digital media artist.

ART 343-Art & the Avatar Discussion Questions

1. In one of the responses to the article, left by Sowa Mai, it discusses the issue of entering a virtual world with our perspective still intact. These perspectives are based on situations and events experienced in the real world. In my mind I wonder whether or not our perspectives, while in a virtual world, are worth anything. In a place where we can be anyone or anything we want, where we can do things we as real people would never dare to do for fear of seclusion or judgment, in a realm where anything goes, do these perspectives matter?

2. The society we live in trains us to expect unrealistic and unachievable attributes of ourselves and of each other via commercialized mass media. We are bombarded with commercialized images of the ideal body, the ideal home, the ideal lifestyle day in and day out. For this reason, the ambiguity of identity while in a virtual world can be extremely attractive. In a virtual world we have the freedom to alter any indicators of age, race, gender; to be anyone we want to be. In reality, we are pressured to be all of these ideal things with just a hint of hope that we may someday be, but in a virtual world we have the choice to be whoever we want, whether that be the ideal image that we feel pressured into being, or anything else we may have our hearts set on. The question I pose in this case is that since we live in a society that puts this sort of pressure on us daily, why wouldn't we be attracted to escape to a place where we can actually be exactly who we want to be without the fear of being ridiculed for not following the societal norm?