Final post, Thoughts on the class

So this is my 50th blog post, the big five O. Looking back on the class and everything we had talked about, done, etc. i feel somewhat sad knowing that the class is at an end. I'm going to miss those strange discussions that we had in class that we always so vague but yet at the same time interesting.

I have learned a lot more then i thought i would have when i first decided to take this theatre course. I really didn't think that we would have been talking about the real world and all those different things we talked about. Most of the classes that i have taken so far at Stonybrook are the classes where the teachers sit there and lecture giving their multiple choice testes. This class however was much different from the other classes, which i thought was a nice and welcome change. As i look back on everything we have done and all i have learned from the class i realize that what i have learned will stay with me and hopefully get me a better job then those pink collar jobs the professor always talked about.

Final: What worked and what didn't

So this blog i wanted to dedicate to what i felt worked well during the final and what didn't work so well. The touch OSC program worked very well, it did exactly what we wanted it to do. The thing that didn't work so well with the touch OSC program was that the people who had been given a port number didn't use the program when the performance started. So for half the performance the OSC program just sat there not doing anything. I don't know if it was because they forgot their number or maybe they just didn't know how to use it but that was something that could have went better. The projects overall were good. The images were easy to see and were not too distracting. The other thing that i think was pretty good was the VJ machines. I didn't get to see them much during the hamlet skin movie but during the R.U.R reading i was able to see the VJ machines, which were overall pretty cool. We had originally had a lot of things planed for the final but when we got there and started setting things up we realized that not everything we had wanted to do was going to be used. i think for the most part the final was successful and was a good way to evaluate what will and won't work if anyone ever wanted to do a similar project in the future.

R.U.R reading

At the final the graduate students also did an R.U.R reading. The reading was pretty cool, although they didn't have to memorize any lines or anything. The entire story of the R.U.R was very interesting. I had read about it before when the professor told us about it earlier in the semester. I had briefly glanced over the summary of the story, but this version that the graduate students did was a little different from the one i saw on wikipedia. The electronics we had going on during the R.U.R play was similar to what we were doing during the hamlet skin. We were mostly doing the VJ-ing which was pretty cool.

After the R.U.R reading, that night on the train ride back home i was thinking about that whole story and what it would be like if something like that actually ever happened. I thought about what would i do, where would i go, what would happen? There have been many movies over the years that had similar topics. Although the main idea was always the same, the idea was changed very slightly, some movies had zombies others robots. I came to the conclusion that if anything like R.U.R ever happened i would head for the Antarctica or the Sahara dessert or something like that. Because after all what zombie, robot, etc would want to go to those places?

Hamlet skin project

The hamlet skin project was pretty good i thought. Overall the students who were in the play did a very good job. They were all entertaining and kept my attention throughout the play. There were some mistakes and mess-ups here and there but that is expected when you only have a month or so to remember all those lines, on top of all those classes none the less. The technology we had running during the hamlet play ran relatively well. It was a bit hard to see it sometimes but then again you wouldn't want it to overpower the performance of the actors/actresses.

The hamlet skin was the project that was primarily geared towards my class. It was the project that we had been working on the whole semester. Seeing it finally in action was pretty cool and made me realized what the professor had been saying all semester. That the class was going to be about the real world, and be something besides just the walls of the classroom.

Setting up the final

The day of the final we all got there and started setting things up. Once we started plugging in all the projectors, laptops, cables, etc. the final project actually became a real thing. Up until that point it was just something we had talked about, something we had only planed. Now it was finally a real thing and we were going to be able to show everyone what we had done the entire semester. It was a good feeling setting everything up and getting it to work the way it was supposed to. Luckily there wasn't any major malfunctions with our electronics and the plays went relatively smoothly.

Trip to the city

So on the day of the final it was either i was driving to the city or i was going to take the train. I decided the best thing to do would be to take the train. I figured there was going to be no where to park and i didn't want to have to deal with just driving in general. The train ride wasn't bad, but it was the first time i took the train into the city. The whole day was a new experience to me. I wasn't sure how difficult it was going to be getting on the right trains, changing trains, finding my way around the city, and what not. It was surprisingly a lot easier then i thought it was going the be. The trains were pretty straight forward, everything was labeled and was easy enough to figure out. The streets of New York were all labeled and finding where to go was pretty easy as well.

The final gig

So today is the day that we are going to final do our final project. With all the technology that we have going into this event it makes me somewhat nervous. The event is pretty much solely based off technology and requires it to run properly. If a projector, computer, or something else were to work improperly it could be pretty bad for the gig. I have faith in the technology though. I believe it will pull through for the event and the gig will be a huge hit. The gig isn't only a final project after all. It is also an experimental project like the professor said. This is something that could become the future. Involving the audience in something is a great idea. When a person goes to a movie or a museum or something along those lines. Imagine if they could control one aspect of what they are viewing. The interaction would have to be quick though, no waiting around, because it's all about the quick feedback that gets the person involved in the show. When you do something and it causes something else to happen you feel more connected to the show because now you are a part of it. So when we go to the final gig don't think of it as only a final, think of it also as what could be the possible future.

Kinect

I would have never guessed that the kinect would have so many different applications when i first heard of it. I went on youtube and was looking at all the different things people had done with it. One guys was drawing with his hands, another guy had created an augmented reality, another guy was controlling a vacuum, and there were a lot of other things too. Seeing everything that was possible with the kinect it made me think about the future. In the furture it could be possible that they have a camera, like the kinect, set up that will ring you out. Instead of having cashiers you would have a camera that would know when you approach and ring everything out for you.

After the kinect came out it got hacked in about a week or so. Since then so many people have been playing around with it trying out new things. It was pretty smart on Microsoft's behave that they made the kinect so people could hack it and experiment with it. Just by them doing that, the kinect has so many more applications now. Comppanies like apple, which try to make sure that none of their products can get hacked, are less likely to experience progress because no one else can try to play around with the new things they make. I mean it's only logical that the more people you have playing around with something the more new things you are going to create.

The Other

In class the professor talked about the other. When he first mentioned it not many people knew what he was talking about but as we went on with the discussion it became clear. The other is someone out there in the world that is unknown to you, they watch you closely and try to take from you what they can. One day you might be on a website and forget to log out, then all of the sudden you account gets hacked. They watch for the perfect opportunities to "attack' you.

The professor mention a story where one of his friends had lost a credit card, or someone had gotten the number, i can't remember. She ended getting her account drained by someone while she was on her way flying home. It's scary to think that someone can get access to your accounts and drain them in mere minutes. In this age of technology it is even easier for people to get your information nowadays. With everything being done on the computer people can monitor everything you are doing and gain access to your accounts. Thats why it is important that websites encrypt their script, and that you also don't give away import information over the computer, such as your social security.

With new technologies on the horizon, it is more important now more than ever that people learn how to protect their information. Hopefully though with all these advancements in technology there will also be some sort of improvement in security. All we can do it wait to see what the future holds.

Here a a video i found on youtube of a red drop being dropped into a glass of water. It was filmed in slow motion which is pretty cool.

Final project-wiimote

I have been looking online about the wii-mote and how it could be used in the final project. The wii mote can be connected to a laptop through a bluetooth connection, as long as there is a bluetooth client or some sort of bluetooth application that allows you to pair bluetooth devices to the laptop. Once the wii-mote is connected to the laptop there are many things you can do. You can use the wii-mote as the mouse, you can get the values of the tilt, movement, etc. I think once we get the wii-mote to connect to the laptop finding a way to utilize the wii-mote should be fairly easy.

Messing around with Byrce

Here is an image i made in byrce. I messed around with some of the features. I was playing around with the trees and the mountains trying to make a cool looking landscape. The features of Byrce are pretty cool but is limited at times, when there is a lot of objects on screen it gets difficult trying to select certain objects.

Max

In class past Thursday we got to play around with the max programs some more. The programs are pretty fun to play around with, especially since It's always cool when you get to see your videos in a new way. Putting the videos into max then altering them was also fairly easy. All you have to do is choose a file to load then mess around with the colors, tolerance, pitch, etc. I continued to play around with the programs over the weekend and had a lot of fun. My personal preference was the max programs that were more visual, rather than the ones there were primarily sound based. I'm going to try and get some videos or something up some time tomorrow.

Set Designs

In class the professor talked about set designs. He showed us different pictures of various set designs that he had gathered together. The thing about designing a set is that you have to be able to catch the attention of the audience within the first couple seconds, but you also don't want it to take away from the actual performance. There has to be some equal medium between the two so that the show, play, performance, etc. can amaze the entire audience. Throughout the course of human history theatres have always been an important part of our culture. There are many possibilities as to why that may have been bu the most import reason is that they amaze us and keep us interested. Think about anything you have done in your life, much like a theatre you asses the situation or whatever it might be. Within the first couple seconds you have an idea of what is going on. That might be one of the reason people stress so much about first impressions because people judge you and asses you when you first meet them and if you don't amaze them and keep them interested they'll want nothing to do with you. Just my thoughts...

Sketchup video

Here is a model a made in sketchup. Warped the image, changed to colors and moved around the image.

R.U.R

I read the overview of the play on wikipedia because i wanted to know what the play was about. The play seems like an interesting concept. In a way the play had a lot of aspects that related to the origins and history of the human/ american people. The robots were in a way slaves to the people in the set future of the play. They worked for the humans doing everything they were asked to do. They were not paid or allowed to do anything they wanted. Eventually the robots become a major part of the new worlds economy because they are doing all the work and labor, the cost of living goes down. This is in a way the same thing that happened during the industrial revolution. As factories became more abundant things became easier to make and the cost of living went down. The "robots" as they are called in the play later form a rebellion and storm the factory where the human live, killing all human but one. The one human they spare was a man who worked with his hands just like the robots. Now the robots are in command and eventually there are two robots that develop human emotions, love, for one another. They are in a sense the new adam and eve of that new world that has been created. The Adam and Eve concept relates to our cultural with the bible stating that life began with one male and one female, Adam and Eve. There was a lot more stuff about the play but i just wanted to state my opinion on some of the things in the play. Overall it seems like a really interesting concept and idea for a play. Many other people, such as the hollywood producers also liked the idea and made their own movies, plays, etc. Such as the movie I-robot.

Poser and second life

We talked in class about how the professor had taken peoples faces and placed them on 3d models and put them into the virtual reality world of second life.

More Machine Textures

Here is another video on found. This one was done in a 3d animation program like bryce or maya. This one is really cool because there are a lot of gears that all have reflective properties and everything in the frame is moving.

Machine Texture

Here is a video i found on youtube of some car parts moving around. It looked interesting to me so i decided to post it on the blog.

Byrce

Here is an image of something i did in Byrce. I played around with the mountain/ terrain effects as well as the fog, water, and some other stuff. Byrce is fairly easy to use and and has a lot of options available. Now I just have to play around with it some more so i can become a pro at it.