Scientists have transferred men’s minds into a virtual woman’s body in an experiment that could enlighten the prejudiced and shed light on how humans distinguish themselves from others.
Caribou from Allison Walker on Vimeo.
For an assignment intending to investigate our chosen animal, Caribou, from a subjective and objective perspective, Jenine Durland and I made a pseudo-documentary of the Porcupine Caribou. I dressed as our character, while Jenine provided the voice-over in the video. Video editing by her; voice editing by me.
The mask is the same mask I used in a previous assignment. (Check out this video I made for another class using those stills.) For the antlers, I just used a coil of wire I found on the junk shelf and made a headband out of it. The car adapter serves the purpose of not only looking interesting but also keeping the antlers on my head.
It was a fun time, but I can’t say I’ll do it again. The weirdest feeling I had was definitely on the train. You can’t imagine the stares I got when I started to put on my mask and antlers. The dog in the video was also pretty confused with me and didn’t really seem to know how to react.
A discussion Monday night got me thinking about my Phys comp final again. I like the bionic gardening, but I also want something really fun. The other student I was talking with was trying to convince me to do my original-ish LED light board idea. So, at home I thought about it a little bit more.
If I had the time to do this, I’d get 108 RGB LEDs, and a perfboard in 5″ x 5″ squares to measure a rectangle 30″ L x 10″ H. Each LED would be spaced 2.5″ from its neighbor, so that there would be 9 LEDs per square.
The interaction: When a user walks by, the LEDs light up in response. The color of the LED depends on how far or close the user is to the LED board. So, the closer, the more red; basically it goes through the visible light spectrum starting from indigo to red.
In addition, my original idea had sound output as well. Sound might be too confusing. I sort of just like the LEDs. I think this is something that would look spectacular, but I just don’t feel that I have enough time.
UPDATE: Perhaps I’ll just do this on my own, anyway. Seems easier than the UV Sunlight watch, but more difficult than the talking plant. In any case, I need to order ton 0′ parts, soon!
Tonight I was working on putting together some of the pieces for my Android Pet Plant.
To make the plant vibrate, I plan to use the 1″ FSRs around the flower pot which will trigger at least 2 vibration motors. To test this out, I cut open a cardboard Diamond Crystal salt container and stuck a piece of foam in the bottom of the container. Then I poked holes through the foam and through them I shoved some leaves that I got from someone’s fruit and the two motors, which I taped to the leaves with electrical tape.
On the outside of the container, I attached the FSRs with masking tape and then covered them in this fake leather stuff, which I flipped over so the soft part faced out. I wrote Pet Me on them, too. All of that went into the Arduino and, when I switched it on, I got vibration when I “petted” the pot.
The code was fairly simple. I simply reused something I’d written before. I suppose I should change the code from LEDs to motors, but I’m just trying to make it work for now.
int analogFSR = 4; // FSR analog input
int motorpin = 10; // Motor pin
int FSRValue = 1; // Value of the FSR
void setup() {
// initialize serial communications at 9600 bps:
Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
FSRValue = analogRead(analogFSR); // read the left FSR value
analogWrite(motorpin, FSRValue/4);
Serial.println(FSRValue); // print the FSR value back to the
delay(500); // gives a 10 millisecond delay
}
Last night, in my Applications class, we had 3 grads of ITP discuss their experience with entrepreneurship and working together. At one point, they discussed financials and working together. They listed several personality traits that apparently investors look for…I found this useful and inspiring.
integrity
passion
experience
knowledge
skill
leadership
commitment
vision
coachability
fearless
Saturday, November 7, I went to The Kitchen with a friend to see a double performance by Nancy Garcia and Chase Granoff. Nancy Garcia is also a graduate of ITP.
As far as Chase Granoff’s work, “The Art of Making Dances”, I quite liked it. I found it easy to “get” quickly, in that I found it both entertaining and provoking in a non-intimidating way. They were offering a copy of The Art of Making Dances after the show. I didn’t get it because, well, mostly because I didn’t want to spend $10. Maybe if it had been $8 or $9, I would have bought it. Plus, I wasn’t alone and I didn’t want to hold up my friend. We were hungry.
As far as Nancy’s work, “I need more”, I really wanted to like this particular performance a lot more than I did. Maybe I was hoping for something that better fit my particular aesthetic needs, or maybe I was hoping for something I could connect with on a more immediate level. For instance, I would have liked to see more of an emotional statement with the choreography, as well as more cohesiveness between the dance sections. Although the four parts flowed one to the other, I also had a feeling of choreographic separation between the parts, but maybe that was done purposefully. In addition, I also did not appreciate the how loud music/sound was, and I didn’t understand the purpose of the singing. On the other hand, my exposure to the type vocal performance she was doing is still quite limited, so I guess I would have always a difficult time connecting with anyone’s show that involved that type of sound/vocal performance. I’m still learning, so there’s still time.
Anyway, none of these things really turned me off to her work, and I only offer these critiques as audience feedback (should she ever check out my blog). In viewing her website, I found her other work interesting and I’m impressed by her continued activity as a dancer, so if I have a chance to see her work in the future I’ll probably take it.
In any case, before I wrote this post, I checked my Gmail account and found the email Nancy sent to me regarding ITP. I asked her advice regarding ITP and she really wrote the most comprehensive and useful response of all the people I talked to about ITP. I wish I had looked it up when I was selecting classes this semester because it was really good advice. Well, I won’t post her answers but I will post my questions:
Hi Nancy,
Midori Yasuda sent me your contact info regarding the ITP at NYU. She
also sent me a link to your thesis, and I thought it was really very
interesting.I plan to apply to ITP. My background is in dance and human-computer
interaction/usability. I’m interested in this program because I have
been looking for a way to synthesize dance and technology; although I
do not dance as much as I used to, I still have a passion for the art.
Your thesis seems very similar to an example something I might like to
pursue.If you don’t mind, I have some questions that I’d like to ask:
————————————————————————-
I’m interested to learn more about what led you to ITP? Did you have
any doubts?
What have you been up to since graduation? Did you have a plan for
what you wanted to do after graduating?
What types of ideas did you want to explore?
How difficult was it to pursue study in movement, dance and
technology? What were some of the challenges? highlights?
How challenging did you find the more technical aspects of the program?
Is this still something you are pursuing?
If this was my focus at ITP, do you have any advice for me?
How did you come up with your thesis?Tuition is a big factor for me. How did you deal with tuition costs?
Are you aware of any scholarships or grants for dance-based work in
technology?Now that you’ve graduated, what is your opinion of the experience?
Would you do it again? Is there anything you’d change?”