reading playgiarism and detournement

After reading these two readings, I’m still unclear about the line to define playgiarism and plagiarism. It is really blurry if the “size and weight” of copied work cannot be taken into account to define the plagiarism. The tone of the language became the point to tell. I wonder if there is a work copied everything from your existing work except the language tone, is it a plagiarism or a playgiarism? I will be very depressed if someone manipulated my work without announced my name.

This image is well-known one. But the original photo does not belong to the artist. It’s a photographer’s work. The artist steals the photographer’s image and manipulated and published it without notifying the original author. Artist did do a lot of changes from the original image but it’s still a controversial work. I think, at least, the “playgiarism” one should change the subject/ ideals for the work. I understand the Detournement because the cut-ups are used for supporting author’s own point, it can be seen as a kind of reference.

final project proposal

In this final project, I intend to create a mixed animation video that combines the video, audio, and moving text. I will choose my video sources from the animations that I’m currently watching. I have no idea of what kind of audio I will use right now, but I would like to choose a kind of strongly stylized music like opera, rock and roll, folk, those styles that totally non-relevant to the animation. Moving texts might be added to specify and visualize the plot of the animation or the tempo of the audio.
I want my video is narrative but I will see if I can do that because I don't have much confidence that I can narrate something well through cutting and pasting, and three minutes it’s a little bit too long for me, maybe I can do two short ones so each of them I only need 90 seconds.
I have an idea for the first 90 seconds now. I want cut a character dancing/fighting scene of the Anime Fate/Zero and add the Peking Opera as the background music. I think it will be very interesting and funny video.

response to The Cut-Up Method of Brion Gysin

To me, technique of “cut and paste” editing feel like making a new orientation for an old puzzle. Sometimes it will work but sometimes it just doesn’t make any sense. I think it largely depends on experience, so for the fresh hand, you have to screw up many times to test the line whether this will work or not. Burroughs thought that “all writing is in fact cut ups”. I feel that I cannot agree with him. Writing is a composition, and all the compositions have their own rules. It should be logic and descriptive so that people can understand what you are trying to say. Even though images and music both can be as informative as text, text requires more literal disciplines. It is far more than cut ups. People only will use quotes to support their ideas. Thus rearrange the composition is difficult. It’s hard to put pieces together but do not follow the hint and still let the new text make sense.
I haven’t thought about any cut ups of text but I have experience of video meshes.(all for interest purpose) And I think this kind of “rearrange” techniques also have been used in image manipulations. Photoshop does have many tools for users to copy and paste the partial of the image to make a new image. I’d like to try text cut ups, but I’m afraid it just doesn’t make any sense.

radio response__talking to machines

The first love story make me feel it’s a fake story and if it’s true, it would really scare me. I have played with Siri, a vocal APP which Apple claims that it can assist the user to do everything. But I feel this program is really limited if you try to make a conversation with it like a real human would do. The command from the user should be as simple as possible so that the response could be more accuate. But when the question refers to the emotional issues which are not logical, you will strongly feel that the machine is just programmed to respond you.
Computer, I think, no matter from the earliest DOS system or to the newest smartphone, it is positioned as a receiver. It receives the command from the sender(user), then collects data and do the calculation, then send the result back to the sender again. It is a passive system that always wait for the command from the user. Even if it can mimic a human’s behavior like the Ferebee doll does, it is programmed to react so under the certain signal that sensor received from the outside.
Computer cannot learn something, I think, that’s the biggest difference from a real human. Even include emotions, I think, all the human behaviors are learned from the outside(except some natural reactions like sucking). Because the computer do not know how to learn, it will not have emotions, therefore it will not have mind. The radio discussed “ is the simulated love a real love?” I think it is and it isn’t. because the love is only coming from one side—the human. The machine might know how to collect data when a human is having a emotional express, but it will never know what does those data mean.
There are many science fiction films that depict roberts rebel againse humans or discuss about if a robert has a mind, does it have a life. I do not deny that there is someday that the machine become able to learn. But I think our brain is far more complicated than their chips and smarter.

reading post #7 As we may think

This article is also the reading requirement in New Media History class. Bush’s prophecy about Memex and many technologies is very impressive. He predicted the invention of hypertext, the internet, computers, the WWW, and even the online search engine/Wikipedia: “Wholly new forms of encyclopedias will appear, ready-made with a mesh of associative trails running through them, ready to be dropped into the memex and there amplified.” He also envisioned website functions such as website navigation/index, page comment section, and info search function.

Memex is a device where individuals can compress and store all the info, data, records and communications “mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.” It has infinite storage and hyperlinks integrated within the text. And there is “a special button transfers him immediately to the first page of the index.”

Text video critique

After Effects is a powerful digital motion graphics and video compositing software. It took me a while to adapt myself to the new operating interface because it’s slightly different from Adobe Flash. AE does not have any keyframe or tween, and user doesn’t need to calculate the frames to count the timeline. The control of motion is very straight forward and easy understood.
I did not realize my text size problem until I final rendered two files and put them together via iMovie. My view setting is 100%, so everything became very small when zoom out to fit the window. On the other hand, I think my topic is interesting. I want to discuss the relationship and impact between text and image. Does text can be seen as an image if in a certain situation? We know that image is very informative. One image could say hundreds of things, but how text could easily affects the meaning of an image? The video is experimental and I think I failed to convey my points due to my font size problem and the time that text stays on the screen is too short to read. I put music at the last second, because I just figure out how to do it.
This is not a satisfied work, but it will be a good start of my video software studies.

artist Jennifer Steinkamp

Jennifer Steinkamp is a living installation artist. She mainly works with video and new media in order to explore ideas about architectural space, motion, and perception. Her work uses computer animation to craft immersive interactive projections. 3 dimensional computer graphics are the basis of her animation. She fully uses the advantage of computer modeling and rendering technologies to create motions and views which are not accessible by any other means.
Lighting is the most important element in her art. Since most her works are about architectures and spaces, she dematerialize architectures by using multiple lighting methods and combing the space and movement. Her lighting creates an illusionistic sense of space and dimension.
I like her because I feel that she and I share something common in the perception of light, and her work has evolved out of a deep interest in issues of feminism, since I consider myself as a feminism artist. About the technology aspect, she uses tons of software tools such as Maya, After Effects, and Macromedia Director. She likes to use particle dynamics and paint effects. Her work is very overwhelming saturated and patterns are complex.

here is her official website: http://jsteinkamp.com/
her video installation video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlRWxLB-CcI

after effects exercise

Assignment #2 text part

Asian style emoticon is more complex and detail on facial features. It has more expressions on eyes and action. Emoticon is very closely related to language and the Manga expression marks. Because it’s vertical orientation. Asian emoticon is more vivid and lively, and probably more effective associated with emotions and brain activities.
Western emoticon only contains three elements: eyes, nose, and mouth. It’s very easily understood.
They convey not only verbal messages but also nonverbal information--emotion and gesture. more directly points out sender’s attitude and make the metaphor more clear
What are emoticons? They are symbols for faces, usually used by teenagers and young adults in informal social writing.

assignment #2

1st Assignment

reading post #6

Invisible Cities is composed by conversations between Marco Polo, a Venetian Traveler, and Kublai Khan, an oriental emperor. The plot is very strange— there is no beginning, no development of characters (besides the two mentioned), no direct background reference to the reader. Calvino’s writing can be described as surrealistic. Towards the end of the book, cities that described by Marco Polo and told to the emperor are surreal: they are rarely built of bricks or mortar; they are full of aluminium springs, silver domes, crystal, bronze, seashells, etc. It seems that every time Marco Polo told Kublai a completely different city. They are strange, magical, invisible cities that nobody else ever saw. None of them are the same. But finally readers will find out that all the cities are exactly the same one—Zobeide.

The conversations structure reminds me the book of One Thousand and One Night. The emperor was bored of the stories brought to him by his messengers across the empire. Only the stories told by Marco Polo, of the cities that he met during his travels, keep him interested.

I think the point when the story comes into Art is visualizing the invisible city. After each short new description of the city, reader has to stop and to think; to integrate each piece of prose into a real living city. Just like play a puzzle.

reading post #5

Psychogeography, according to its founder Guy Debord, is “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals”. It combines subjective and objective knowledge and studies. Psychogeography overlaps mental maps, having subjective analysis-mental reaction to neighbourhood behaviors related to geographic location. It encompasses diverse activities that raise awareness of the natural and cultural environment. “in discovering a small world we discover the whole world.” (Bill Humber)
The video TED gives a new manifesto to the map. I am so impressed by the imagery technology and augmented reality. Network with Flickr and video camera supports a fantastic possibility of a brand new future of mapping. This new imagery tracking and three dimensional simulation system has something overlapping the Psychogeography. Psychogeography mapping relies on the mental reaction/emotions to a place or the surrounding environment. The new research provides a more realistic and imagery vision to the viewer. Visual reading is more likely trigger an emotional reaction and provides a more specific measurement than a flat abstract map. Thus, I think, the new imagery tracking mapping method could be seen as a sort of psychogeography. Images provided by flickr comes from the people who has been there before, therefore, it’s about a personal experience and memory to a place.

reading post #4

I feel the second reading Robert E. Horn’s Visual Language is more appealing to me since two articles talk about pretty much same content: Visual Language/ visualization/mapping information. Robert used more images and shapes to interpret his theory: visual language is an integration of words, images, and shapes into a single communication unit. Text, images, and shapes cannot stand alone as visual language. Indeed, his article is more easily understood and remembered than the first one, which only contains few images.
Compared with Edward, Robert points out that shapes is another element which works effectively to drive reader’s attention to a certain sequence that the author designed. I also feel that arrows and lines are helpful for clarifying and managing messages in a short time.
In Edward’s article, I am impressed by his Vietnam Veterans Memorial example. Visitors take a visual measurement, what 58,000 means, when they look at the name of 58,000 dead soldiers’ name arrayed on the black granite yields. Each individual name makes a mark adding up the total amount.
Visual language is more powerful than works or images working alone. Biologically, our brain processes image much faster and effective than reading. We don’t even really to read an image when we collecting the basic information from an image such like the size of an image or what color it is. But we have to read every single word and analyse whether these words make any sense. And image has larger capacity of information and could be more detail than verbal paragraphs.

reading post #3

Matthew’s It Looks Like You’re Writing a Letter is really dry and long. Microsoft Word is a word-processing program in Microsoft’s office package. Matthew points out that not only users shape and innovate the program; the program also affects users invisibly. “I am currently typing these notes using Word to get a feeling for the critique. It is supplied by my university as standard issue as part of a suite of Microsoft products.” “Word is intentionally over-complicated given what it sets out to facilitate, providing a surplus of functionality and of course surplus value for Microsoft.” Microsoft office series as the mainstream software gradually trained computer users live with Office, and “force” users treat it as fundamental computer using skills because they have no chance to use other similar programs.
Miller interpreted rhythm science as mixture and creation from the flow of patterns in sound. Technology provides access for artist to mix ideas and objects to create something new, expressive, and endlessly variable. Technology works as a bridge bringing artist outside information and triggering ideas and critical thinking. Working with sound is same as working with other media.

Critique on Tuesday

I chose black, white, and red as my main color palette for this assignment. I have no technical problems, but the critique pointed out that my design and content do not go along with each other. I used Shel Silverstein’s poetry Messy Room. The poem is one huge metaphor relevant to life and the manner in which it is lived. It’s also humorous as it mirrors the average teenagers’ lifestyle.
I did not really think about the relationship between the content and design. Like said, I did not think about why it’s horror when I make the first one look like a horror movie flyer. I just go as far as my idea goes. Nothing went beyond that. Maybe subconsciously I felt messy room is a horrible experience and bad living manner but I cannot get rid of this habit.
For the second one, many felt that the Aladdin Genie Lamp down on the bottom is interesting and eye-catching. The text messy room which was written over the lamp is the only one easily read text. Someone pointed out that put an image of messy room in the context can make the text and design more connected. Without breaking the pure black background, I put an image of my room overlays the background white text. Through the text, people can have a limited view of a messy room, but it’s hard to tell what’s really inside the room. The image decreases the color contrast but strengthen the theme.

reading post #2

People don’t often realize how fonts guide their readings unless they work in the printing, design, or publishing industries, where they need to think and talk with fonts. But ironically fonts are incredibly influential and almost invisible at the same time. Readers are psychologically manipulated by fonts and unconsciously categorized the information they read by fonts. For example, newspapers or textbooks will choose classical fonts like Time New Roman or Calibri for their text. Its elegant serifs and proportions exuded authority. Comparatively, people rarely read the text which is set in Comic Sans, with its childish softness and bulbous loops.
Decades after the original Macintosh fonts have been created, typeface strengthened its territory very fast through the internet. Computer users almost deal with spelling fonts every day. They choose fonts to write emails, type papers, make powerpoints, almost everything they do when they need to type a letter. New typeface has been created everyday, how to choose appropriate fonts to achieve your purpose become critical. For example, I like small fonts and old style text like Time New Rome, Arial or Calibri. Some of websites (can be business or artistic) choose to use very big and overwhelming fonts (bold/handwriting style/harsh edges/wide). These kind of typefaces make me feel heavy and distractive from the content, and I certainly won’t stay long on those pages unless if I was asked to do so. For the aspect of design, sometimes text can be powerful weapon for the artists. Many artists choose to write text on their work especially for the artists work with new media (graphic design or photography). Text will clarify your theme. Even a short text can dramatically change your work’s looking. Therefore, fonts are important.

reading post #1

The Garden of Forking Paths response
This reading is very confusing and totally a torture to me not only because I’m bad at words but it’s a genre like detective story, a genre that need clue gathering and puzzle resolving, which I rarely read and I am not patient with. (I am the kind of people who read the first three chapters of the detective novel then directly jump to the last three. Middle part is always the last one. XD)
I read three times and finally figured out what this story talks about and the connection to the hypertext. The story is first point of view, which add mysterious smell to the storyline because of the background of the leading character—Tsun. Reader will not realize the protagonist is a spy if they see through a spy’s view. Besides, the infinite/endless book idea is very interesting. When the time element has been added to the three dimensional world, time slip will make every single alternative point has its own multiple choices and can be chose simultaneously, and thus the story goes to infinite endings. The structure is pretty much look like a tree: each single branch has its own several sub branches, and sub branches also will have their own sub-sub ones. Internet hypertext works in the same way because every message online can be searched and connect to others, the connection lines will go infinite.

old old old ones