Reading Response 11

Marie Sester's artwork consisted of projects that involved architecture and the issues of surveillance and propaganda. The core of her works does involve human interaction and how they react with the messages that are being told. A lot of the reactions tend to be either uneasiness and escape or acceptance with a small performance of the audience themselves.

I thought her work was interesting because it reminded me a lot of the works I saw from my Time Based class. It especially reminded me of the Surveillance Camera Players because their work involves the already built-in system of cameras all over the city. I've never really thought about surveillance cameras outside of stores, in which I would usually point at them or wave out of curiosity if there was really a person on the other side.

Reading Response 10

This article was an interview with Tom Igoe and his views on physical computing and his students' works. There is a strong emphasis between technology and design in all of the works that he talks about. He believes that there is an importance of artists collaborating with people other than artists in order to add strength to their own work. A lot of the works mentioned were complex yet simple in the interaction and design.

I thought it was amusing that some of the works he thought were great examples of physical computing were commercialized products. It does make sense though because it has an optimal amount of people understanding and interacting with technology. In such a case, the Nintendo Wii is one of the best examples of this in the present day with the technology simulating real life actions on the screen. Also, considering how much more the simple piece of technology can do, many have hacked the remote for other purposes like simulating actual fishing in World of Warcraft.

As interesting as all of this is, I know that I don't have the physical capabilities to do a lot of this on my own.

Video + Processing

Okay. After toiling with video for a week...I've determined that I dislike video and processing. That does not mean I dislike webcams and processing...yet. I'm just EXTREMELY frustrated that I can't come up with ANYTHING creative with video and processing that hasn't been done by my classmates or the examples in class. Then, when I do come up with something barely creative, it's either shot down by my inadequacy of code or my deadbeat 6 year old desktop here. >_<

So for now, I raise a white flag and be satisfied with whatever I came up with the webcam assignment. -_- I'm sorry Professor Carlsen.

reading response 9

The interview of Ken Rinaldo was about his works which involved a combination of art and science. He programmed his sculptures to interact with the artists as well as the animals and plants living within it. He talked about his ideas behind each work and how the audience reacted to it.

I thought the whole interview was inspiring as I was thinking about my own final project in this class. As much as I'd like to work with machinery, I don't know enough about it or have the capabilities to manipulate it to my will. Although at this point, I'm thinking of the game controllers that I currently have at my disposal for this.

Reading Response 8

The reading was about how computers interpret the information given through a camera and what could be done with it. It then gave examples of the different techniques that could be used to detect motion and the code for it.

I liked how simple the techniques sounded in theory, although I'm not quite sure in practice. Since there's only one lab on campus with cameras, I'm a little hesitant on working with video. But, from my past experience with playing with the libraries in processing, it would be fun to get something to work with it.

Reading Response 7

These reviews were about the artwork in the sonambiente art festival in Berlin, all of which had something to do with the use of sound. One of the groups involved in the production of this festival was Tesla, which gives artists a space to experiment with media arts. There were some pieces in the festival that involved sports, especially soccer, or as they call it, football with either the sound that the ball would hear or the audio recording of the televised game. Others involved walking through the artwork in order to hear the different changes in sounds, which may or may not be pleasant to listen to.

Most of the works were impressive and looked interesting to even try some if I had a limitless budget and knowledge of programming. Although the pieces I did find interesting were the ones that involved modifying already made objects and using them to manipulate and interact with the piece. It seems plausibly complicated to code something that is so simple to use yet so complex in the possibilities.

Reading Response 6

The reading discussed the influences of visual media, such as video games, on people due to their interactive nature. Bill Nichols takes Walter Benjamin's article about the essence of art when it is mechanically reproduced and adds in the factor of time and how it affects art. He uses the example of a montage, many of us are accustomed to now in film and shows, to explain how it created new art forms and ways of seeing daily events in life. It gives new meanings to simulated objects and how we as humans can treat them like they were real. Unfortunately, there are limitations to the amount of control humans have over simulations, breaking the reality formed within it. Later on, Nichols talks about the copyright issues of video games and how it is just a tool to create what the user makes out of the limitations of the code and who remains the creator of the object within the game. In the end, the creators of the video game won the right to their works under copyright and patent laws.

I thought the article was interesting because most of my life was spent playing video games that were simulations like the ones explained in the text. A great example would be how I couldn't part from neopets until I did cold turkey because I felt physically attached to my pets like they were real minus the ability of being able to touch and feel them.But my generation and the future ones will be used to thinking of simulations and interactions with the computer to be like reality. We're used to talking to our friends over instant messanger and playing games with people all over the world that it deeply affects the culture of our society.