Luciana Haill

Luciana's thing is how the brain works, she discovered her interest while she was ill in hospital and was staring at this strange equipment and now makes cyber dreams into reality utilising medical biofeedback technology. San Francisco scene inspired her and she bought a second hand IBVA (device that uses brainwaves to control visuals and sounds), this device can send signals to macs but she pointed out she is not a programmer. Travelling to Venice inspired her too in particular Miriko Mori, a New Yorker/Japanse Artist, Mariko had a credited input on the famous Minority report.

She has been to the Steim in Amsterdam. Advised us to look for Bio tracking in Brighton. People in Sweden created Brainwave and it works best when relaxed. She works alot with sound and has just done a tour around the UK. futureofsound.org also google lucianabrain.

People who buy it, has alot to do with hypnotherapy, lots of pop groups and artist buy it.

Sega has done a deal so in the future there will be games which involve ECG.

IBVA.co.uk and Institute of Unnecessary research.

Rona Innes

Really helpful talk today about physical computing. A book she recommended was Dan O'Sullivan - Physical Thinking. Rona brought in some Arduino boards to show us. We could purchased these over the internet. A website called www.wiring-org.co.uk tells the user how to connect these wires to the computer and to flash.

PHYSICAL COMPUTING


Stelarc (Australian performance artist): http://www.stelarc.va.com.au/


http://wiring.org.co/ Wiring boards
http://processing.org/ Processing
http://www.arduino.cc/ Arduino boards
http://www.nastypixel.com/instantsoup Flash Physical Computing



CONTROLLING FLASH WITH A WIIMOTE

Windows
http://wiiflash.bytearray.org/?p=52

Mac
http://screenfashion.org/releases/motedaemon/



WEBCAM INPUT


http://www.setpixel.com/ -digital art project using webcams

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/flash/articles/webcam_motion.html -good starting point, Adobe webcam capture tutorial

http://www.neuroproductions.be/portfolio/misc/webcam_tutorial - good starting point - Flash webcam games


MICROPHONE INPUT


http://www.kirupa.com/developer/actionscript/microphone.htm -controlling Flash animations using the microphone

http://imm.sheridanc.on.ca/imm2004/chin/tutorial/ -blowing grass


http://www.nastypixel.com/prototype/?page_id=73 -webcam motion detection
http://www.nastypixel.com/prototype/?page_id=86 -Gesture controlling Google Earth

http://gskinner.com/blog/archives/2005/08/flash_8_webcam.html -snowstorm & game etc

http://members.westnet.com.au/lmwan/projects.html - Wan's webcam experiments

http://www.protozoo.com/?p=179 - generate and pop bubbles

http://www.discombo.co.uk/cam-experiments.htm - cupid game etc


http://www.webcamtastic.com/ -webcam goo


http://www.extendedreality.com/webcam_games_info.html - eyetoys type games - Eyekanoid etc
http://cam.playdo.com/default.htm


FLASH WEBCAM INPUT BASICS


http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/action_scripts/actionscript_dictionary/actionscript_dictionary817.html

http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/8/main/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=LiveDocs_Parts&file=00001942.html _bitmap data

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/tutorials/fla8at_cameraobj/ -making a video box


TROUBLE SHOOTING: Not getting a webcam feed?

This issue is most common for systems with several video drivers. After making sure that you have a working webcam plugged into your computer, try this:

1. Right click on the flash application.
2. Click on 'Settings...'.
3. Click on the tab with the camera icon.
4. Choose the appropriate camera driver.

For Mac users, your choice would likely be 'USB Video Class Video' or 'IIDC FireWire Video'.

I really liked the idea of using an interactive web camera or a microphone.

More thinking

Recently all I have been thinking about is interaction obviously. What can I do my project on? I need a theme. I have been using loads of tutorials at home in flash. Some may say this is the wrong way round, maybe they would say get your idea first then concentrate on the output but I have to be confident I can use the programme before I can get out of my depth.

The main problem is the theme. I want the user to navigate the person around a room, not sure which room yet. I also wanted to design an interactive web site. This obviously needs more thought. More reading is a necessity as I missed a couple of the discussions in class about the text.

Ellie Rees

Ellie talked to us about her interest in fine art with a touch of clasiical music and drama background. She emalgamted these aspects together and showed us some videos she made. Her first main influence was the Radiohead video No Surprises other influences included William Wegman, Maria McGramovich, Martha Rosla, Sylvia Plath - The day of the 24 cakes. Sophie Calle. She has a very theatrical approach to her work with a huge interest in opera. The first video was with James Redwood - a musician with whom she did a synchrinised musical piece with their toothbrushes. 

Another piece she did was including her interest in pop music and it was an Elton John classic. She had her arm in a coat pretending to be a man and another arm pretending to be a woman. She likes unedited film.

Discussions in class

Discussions about Interactivity, Beyond Inclusion, Interactivity is a tautology?? We discussed Marshall, Cybernetics and covered surveillance. Talked about Beyond Inclusion explaining how the users are becoming the actor. The users of new media are becoming the content of form. Points raised were how are we immersed into this media world. Are people more aware of the way media manipulates people. Do we feel that TV shows like Lost are a bad thing?.

Some websites in which we looked at for inspiration, this was an idea from Dan just to really start us off and see what floats the boat. Really good one was Tokyo-Plastic others were:

http://www.neonbible.com/
http://www.box10.com/
http://www.samorost2.com/
www.multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm
www.ferryhalim.com/original/g3/spider.htm
http://www.vansowerwine.com/
http://www.hoogerbrugge.com/
http://www.creaktif.com/
http://www.youthedesigner.com/
http://www.korn.com/

I really want to do a website for this project that interacts. I spoke to Dan about my idea of an interactive flash site but he did explain that I need to think of a theme and an end result - what is the purpose of it?. I am interested in Red Interactive agency - http://www.ff0000.com/. I love the way this site is so interactive and so addictive - with that I mean it keeps me hooked something Dan mentioned I should remember. The user doesn't want to be bored. Another website was http://www.feedthehead.net/ also love http://www.hoogerbrugge.com/. Like their whacky style but still kept the look clean.

Interaction project

Mike Blow

Mike spoke to the class on Monday 26th November about Physical Computing, examples like museum exhibits i.e. walking towards something and voice starts. and walking into a room and saying lights which come on.

We talked about Affordance which is an offered way of using something e.g. a handle to pick up a cup. Ergonomics designing things for us to interact with. Multi-touch like Tenon-on, Jazz Mutant, Graphic tablets, Microphones, remotes etc. also links to the way we play the guitar for example.

We looked at sensors like switches to pressure pad. Certain sensor names may include: Proximity that tells you where something is, PIR like a security sensor. Light sensors for example street lamps. Sound sensors in microphones, hydrophones (underwater), accelerometers, vibration. Infrasound this is used in haunted houses.

Analog and Digital input and output

• Analog Signal, continuously varying in level, non-discrete e.g. photoresistor.
• Digital Signal, only two levels, discrete e.e. switch

Output

Some devices can be controlled directly from the output board others like motors need circuits. Anything can be controlled electrically like LED's, lights, buzzers, sounds, smells, air, playback and household appliances.

Sarah Strickett

Sarah started her talk off from the very beginning, she was extremely honest which I admired her for. The film that she reallt aspres to is Close Encounters of a Third kind. Others were Journey to the Moon and Monty Python. She loved David Bowie especially Ashes to Ashes and Terry Gillian producer of Brazil. A pointer she made was to look up JIBJAB. Her website is http://www.sasskid.co.uk/. She showed a couple of her movies the favourite of hers had some snipets from the "White as the come" film, the original dracula movie also she had her friend perform as a mad guy. Many animations and lots of After Effects used. A video she showed was from Chris Shepard whom is her main influence at the moment. She mentioned she worked on 2DTV and Have I got News for You. Her advice to us was:

• Keep sketchbooks


• Listen to music


• Look at CD covers


• Take pictures


• Go to exhibitions


• Go to student shows


• See films


• Look online......One dot zero, resfast.

I really liked her work. We had a chat afterwards and because I was thinking of doing film at this point she mentioned I may want to look at Chris Cunningham or Sophie Calle.