KEYBOARD HACKING TIME
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Project Two | Exercise Two | Ani-Remote
Today we started working with a new software called MaxMSP, a graphic programming software that can be used to write programs for virtually any purpose, our new micro project for this evening is to create a more detailed and advanced animation using animate.. then modfy a patch for MaxMSP that was given to use by james which allows uses to control the movements of our animation via an apple remote..
more to write shortly
more to write shortly
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Project Two | Exercise One | Animata
Today we learnt how to uses a new open source real-time animation software called Animata. I think there is an advantage to not having a received my macbook pro yet.. It seems that because I was not trying to follow along 'live' with what james was showing us but rather just listening, watching and taking notes on my iphone, I actually took in more information than the others.. as afterward I walked around and taught about 10 people how to use it (as they were to busy trying to do it and missed things that he said).. even though I hadn't used it myself..... I will continue to test this theory as I think it is pretty solid..
Any waaayyyy.. MORE TO WRITE SHORTLY
Any waaayyyy.. MORE TO WRITE SHORTLY
Monday, March 22, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Intro to Creative Technologies | Lecture Two
tooooo be written.... I have notes on my iphone that i need to transfer into here
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Lego Mindstorm NXT - The Assassin | Development
Character Bot:
Next step.. make a robot that will makes its way from the front door,down the hall to the BCT office and knock on the door.. or ask pat a question...
We could now design and program the robot anyway we wanted.
complete the course but do it in a way that is consistent with your chess pieces character..
'We are after an elegant solution'
After winning the previous challenge we were pretty excited to start this one.. Our initial concept once given the brief was to
Below are the pictures of our finished bot.
Next step.. make a robot that will makes its way from the front door,down the hall to the BCT office and knock on the door.. or ask pat a question...
We could now design and program the robot anyway we wanted.
complete the course but do it in a way that is consistent with your chess pieces character..
'We are after an elegant solution'
After winning the previous challenge we were pretty excited to start this one.. Our initial concept once given the brief was to
Below are the pictures of our finished bot.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Project One | Exercise One | Lego Mindstorm NXT | The Assassin
Today we started our first Project for the year, we got to play with Toys (rated 10+), Lego Mindstorm NXT as I suspected.. after a few minutes of playing all I had to say was, 'Wow! I wanna see the 10 year old child that can use this'.. the level on construction required was of medium complexity but the programing took a good while to get my head around.Step One:
My team of four.. Zoe, Leo, Oli and I created a new chess piece character we dubbed 'The Assassin'. We were originally thinking along the lines of spy or ninja, but decided that an Assassin was more logically in keeping with the royal formalness of chess. The Assassin is simple (minimalist) and immaculate in appearance, fast and accurate in action, cold, leaving no room for mistake in his purpose; and execution of orders (protocols). The Protocol we developed for our character.. after much serious debate regarding a functional strategy that would set it apart, yet be new and legitimate, developing upon the games current rules; we all agreed on this: The Assassin can only move Diagonally (symbolizing back allys as opposed to streets which I think lean more toward right angles - usual grid pattern of roads), he moves three new spaces per move and must turn twice (allowing for incredable flexibly of movement - 12 possible finishing points, which we felt linked the sneaky and striking notions that acompany our characters persona). Below is the Diagram we created to visually convey the movements of 'The Assassin':
Step Two:
after designing our caracter the prject was expanded.. we know ad to build a robot
Monday, March 8, 2010
Intro to Creative Technologies | Lecture One
tooooo be written.... I have notes from the lecture on my iPhone which I still need to copy into here
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Situational Shuffle
The Situational Shuffle was today's Micro Project.. Working as an expansion on our introduction to Data Visualization over the last couple of days, while it seems; is simultaneously setting up the transition to our next project - Robotics? my assumption is based on the fact that each member of our 4 person team was assigned a job acting as parts of a machine, actuator, controller, sensor etc.. which I assume will be using the Lego Mindstorm NXT..
Reflective Statement:
My assumption was that each person in the group was meant to represent parts of a machine, to start teaching us the basic concepts of interdependent systems working in unicin to complete a singular task, which could not be completed without all parts. However our team machine was like no machine that has come before, as we all had a little go at each others rolls over the course of the exercise. As directed by James we set out with a desire to push the boundaries, which definitely lead us into situations we would normally never have experienced… following random people, one woman in particular into an elevator and up to the secured level of a building where we were denied entrance. We were also harassed by two men claiming to work for the Auckland city council who threatened us, grabbing a female team member by the arm to stop here taking photos. Over all it was extremely enjoyable and I look forward to discussing everyone else’s to come to an better understanding of the wider meaning of the exercise.
Reflective Statement:My assumption was that each person in the group was meant to represent parts of a machine, to start teaching us the basic concepts of interdependent systems working in unicin to complete a singular task, which could not be completed without all parts. However our team machine was like no machine that has come before, as we all had a little go at each others rolls over the course of the exercise. As directed by James we set out with a desire to push the boundaries, which definitely lead us into situations we would normally never have experienced… following random people, one woman in particular into an elevator and up to the secured level of a building where we were denied entrance. We were also harassed by two men claiming to work for the Auckland city council who threatened us, grabbing a female team member by the arm to stop here taking photos. Over all it was extremely enjoyable and I look forward to discussing everyone else’s to come to an better understanding of the wider meaning of the exercise.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
...Random Thought...
Just sat down and watched a few minutes of television... something I never ever do... have you ever noticed how the media in all its forms often normalizes the inherent dysfunctionality of families and society as a whole?
The direct and indirect indoctrination most media outlets perpetuate through stereo typing basically maintains the status quote. Think about American television shows in particular.. Most High School related shows enforce and normalize the concept of segregation; races, classes, ethnic groups, religions and groups such as jocks, geeks, and cool kids. When a young generation grows up with a face glued to television, crafting there reality and aligning it with something so destructive, how can we ever expect to evolve into a civilized world.
SIDE NOTE:
When a corporations base incentive is Profit over and above whats best for the Planet and secondly the Consumer; it is easy to see how as technology naturally evolves global employment rates will plummet as machines become cheap enough to replace humans in most jobs. It is always a better business decision to use a machine as they don't get tired, lazy, can work 24/7 with out breaks, do not require benefits and are not part of a demanding labor union. If people lose there jobs they cannot fulfil there 'role' as a consumer, forever weakening so called economic growth. Thus technology will always be paralysed for the sake of maintaining this dysfunctional system.
Now if that doesn't cause an economic collapse how about the SIMPLE fact that we live on a finite planet of which we are exponential destroying itS resources with out regulation, to accommodate the over population, yet we use an economic system which demands infinite growth... let alone the fact that our incredibly large population is dependant on one main thing for survival... Energy.. more directly cheap non-renewable oil. If you look at the graph below you can see the relationship between our energy consumption and growth over time. MOST of that energy is oil based.. agriculture on a global scale is almost completely dependent on cheap oil.. according to OPEC we hit peak oil production in July 2008. Petrol prices will skyrocket to lower demand and we will reach a tipping point....
Yet I have faith that we will Eventually see the design flaws in our economy and the redesign of our world in a holistically integrated way will be undertaken through a process of global unity; this will be the beginning of the civilized world. However it will likely get much worse before it gets better.. the recession has only just begun.. when the American stock market crashed on October 9 1929 it wasn't till 1933 that the depression really struck.. What goes up must come Down.
Research 'COG' - Continuity of Government
I call it Political Redundancy...
Hey, I could all ways be wrong... regardless, the subject is undeniably worthy of YOUR OWN PERSONAL RESEARCH : ) The ball is in your court
The direct and indirect indoctrination most media outlets perpetuate through stereo typing basically maintains the status quote. Think about American television shows in particular.. Most High School related shows enforce and normalize the concept of segregation; races, classes, ethnic groups, religions and groups such as jocks, geeks, and cool kids. When a young generation grows up with a face glued to television, crafting there reality and aligning it with something so destructive, how can we ever expect to evolve into a civilized world.
SIDE NOTE:
When a corporations base incentive is Profit over and above whats best for the Planet and secondly the Consumer; it is easy to see how as technology naturally evolves global employment rates will plummet as machines become cheap enough to replace humans in most jobs. It is always a better business decision to use a machine as they don't get tired, lazy, can work 24/7 with out breaks, do not require benefits and are not part of a demanding labor union. If people lose there jobs they cannot fulfil there 'role' as a consumer, forever weakening so called economic growth. Thus technology will always be paralysed for the sake of maintaining this dysfunctional system.
Now if that doesn't cause an economic collapse how about the SIMPLE fact that we live on a finite planet of which we are exponential destroying itS resources with out regulation, to accommodate the over population, yet we use an economic system which demands infinite growth... let alone the fact that our incredibly large population is dependant on one main thing for survival... Energy.. more directly cheap non-renewable oil. If you look at the graph below you can see the relationship between our energy consumption and growth over time. MOST of that energy is oil based.. agriculture on a global scale is almost completely dependent on cheap oil.. according to OPEC we hit peak oil production in July 2008. Petrol prices will skyrocket to lower demand and we will reach a tipping point....
Yet I have faith that we will Eventually see the design flaws in our economy and the redesign of our world in a holistically integrated way will be undertaken through a process of global unity; this will be the beginning of the civilized world. However it will likely get much worse before it gets better.. the recession has only just begun.. when the American stock market crashed on October 9 1929 it wasn't till 1933 that the depression really struck.. What goes up must come Down.
Research 'COG' - Continuity of Government
I call it Political Redundancy...
Hey, I could all ways be wrong... regardless, the subject is undeniably worthy of YOUR OWN PERSONAL RESEARCH : ) The ball is in your court
AUT Bachalor of Creative Technologies - Day Two
Today we did a social networking exercise. We answered a series of simple socially loose questions about our lives, then using the studio wall, some postick notes, drawing pins and pieces of coloured wool we mapped the similarities and links within our group (above photo). Once this was complete numbers were assigned to peoples names, the connecting threads of wool and each set of linked answers.. this data was then recorded and arranged to create a .net file for use with a graph creation software called Gephi(Gephi.org). The image below is a screen shot from the software of my completed graph. The size and color of each dot indicates the number of connections (to create an addition element of visual information). Simple, free software. Highly recommended.
I choose to arrange the graph with the members of my group in numerical order in a line down the centre, with the two alternative answers symmetrically on ether side of the line. Additionally the answers on the left have a higher number of links than the answers on the right.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Ctrl Z - March 4th - Visuals by VJ Th!nk (me)
Drop your ass down to The Carpark this Thursday Night and rip off the floorboards for _Ctrl Z_ !FREE!, Ill be mashing pixels up in a fruity cocktail of HI-RES Earthscape Timelapse Shots, Insects and Archetecture, Alice in Wonderland and Pictoplasmic Artworks. A feast for ye eyeballs.. be there or be a squarewave.
Guerilla Cinema - Free Public Documentary Screenings in Auckland
Guerilla Cinema is a Weekly Free Documentary Night in or around the Auckland CBD. A friend and I decided we needed to bring to light the true depths of corruption in modern society. So we decided to whip out the Projector, Laptop and Speakers to screen Informative and Socially Educational Documentaries in obscure locations such as on city street walls, parks and other public places for everyone to enjoy. Be entertained while being informed. Ignorance is deadly.
This is not for profit, this is for the education and freedom of human beings. Please support.
Just bring a chair or a mat to sit on and an open mind. Come watch, learn and be entertained. Please remember though that these screening are in public and thus public laws and liquor bans will still be enforced : )
Knowledge is Power
NEXT EVENT:
BEST OF TED TALKS - FREE SCREENING
- http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=317597515381&ref=mf
Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke of insight
Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. An astonishing story.
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html
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