Blog changes and other stuff

From now on, can you guys add a label to each post you make? This is so your post gets added to your personal category on the right hand side.

The place to enter this is underneath the field where you type your post. Just start typing your name and a list will pop up with the full category.


I've also received word that my chrome plated juggling ball has now been shipped. I'll be using it as an HDR probe so we can integrate our CG and real footage elements believably.

Music Exeriments

Because 386 has been busy with the sound recorders im even lucky that i got one in the first place! Picking it up tomorow.
In the mean time I've been reading about sound and how to record 'wet' sound and 'dry' sound. riviting stuff. Theres some good precedents on youtube too.
Byron was looking at getting us a sweet camera for filming the second week of the holidays so Ill have a read up and play around about that too.
C u in the morn

Scott Update

Hi guys,

Just wanted to make the team aware that I haven't completely disappeared off the face of the earth. I have been very very sick since last Friday (day after I last saw you all) and hence unable to do any work unfortunately. I have now been to 3 doctors after 4 days of spewing up the drugs initially given to me and hopefully finally have a realistic diagnosis pending blood results I should be getting tomorrow. The doctors presume I will need another 4-5days to recover from what they now presume to be glandular fever. I will keep everyone posted and I hope to be back working with everyone at full capacity soon. Work looks good :)

Cheers

Scott

so with the seeds that grow the architecture on the body, i have been thinking about how they will attach to the body.

if the seeds were to attach them selves onto a body at birth, their pattern could follow the bloodstream through outer veins. this would mean the architecture would be unique for everyone.

piercing also could be present for this idea? these seeds could attach to the body like a leech by burrowing into the skin. this would mean the growth would be influenced directly by the bloodstream.

biddy biddy seeds have a unique way of spreading... they have spikey/ fluffy outers that when an animal walks past, hooks onto its fur. could possibly look into this idea through rapid prototyping..

Sound Experiments

First Video can be seen here
http://www.vimeo.com/10508998

First Audio Iteration
http://www.vimeo.com/10508998


We need an overall 'tone' for our vid.
We have discussed (briefly) and decided to run with sexual attraction for this presentation.  This will dominate the tone of our vid, photos, and audio.

So we have been working with the surface quality of the gelatine casts. some turned out pretty sweet.

attempting to laser cut the stuff didnt turn out as planned as it stuck back together as soon as it was cut but it did make some beautiful surface finishes however.

also working with magnetic skin. it effected the gelatine in a cool way by pulling it all over the show, but thats expected. how can the gelatine skin be effected by a third party other than a magnet?

Processing some stuff in processing.

Processing!
Patterns for laser cutting and they all also animate so we can do videos of them growing.
YAY.

Vascular berrys

Well I have been doing Processing sketches up until now some samples below (these all grow etc) I was going to 3D-ify them into solids, but that will take me too long, for too little output. (I'll post up those tomorrow)

I did however have an idea for some 3d print models: Basically berrylike things growing from stalks from ones veins. the berrys are like a cage filled with a jellylike substance :)

So Idea had, I set to learning houdini to achieve it :)

What you see here is just the jellyless shells attached to stalks:

And a single berry shell:

so ya those are screenshots of my WIP, my idea is to get these 3D printed then dye them, lacquer them then set the pods into jelly so they get filled with... well Jelly.

The berrys themselves have no back so they would sit against the skin and "stick" there and can be peeled off.

The models aren't quite done but I hope to have them mostly finished by tomorrow.

Chur

BITE ME

We should call ourselves BITE ME. Ross said :)


What are we all doing from here:

Scott: Working in solid words to make molds
Cam: Experimenting with CNC milling machine, making molds.
Ben: Form and motion for the website, and designing the growth pattern for the seeds.
Ron: (although not here) you have been nominated as 'laser cutter'
Byron: Charging on with motion tracking
Kev: Make molds and work with the gelatin
Medi: Files for laser. Working on combining the mold aesthetics with the laser. Audio.

3 weeks until next crit.  We want serious material to work with for film and video by the middle TUESDAY of the hollidays!

Sun Tatoo

Laser File

Organic stuff to laser cut.  Give me some feedback and I'll keep experimenting with them

http://www.lizettegreco.com/roberto/nervio.html

Email from Anne

Hwy guys,

This is the email I received back from Anne Galloway



Hi Meredith,

So sorry for the delayed response but your emails went straight into my junk folder and I didn't see them until right now!

The Spanish word I mentioned is "nervio" - I did a quick search and found this interesting link:

http://www.lizettegreco.com/roberto/nervio.html

As for understanding bodies, you might start with these books:

"The Body: The Key Concepts" by Lisa Blackman

"Divine Hunger: Cannibalism as a Cultural System" Peggy Reeves Sanday (ed.)

"Beyond the body proper: reading the anthropology of material life," Margaret Lock and Judith Farquhar (eds.)

"The Anthropology of Cannibalism" Laurence Goldman (ed.)

Also, go to the librarian and ask how to place an interloans request for a book called "Inca Cosmology and the Human Body" by Constance Classen, University of Utah Press, 1993.

Hope this helps!

Cheers,
Anne


I'll look into this over the next few days. Scott you said you were keen to do this too?

Are we still keen for Nervio for a name??? (after researching it properly and confirming that it actually means what we think it does)

I'm also doing some filming with ice this weekend. Will post on vimeo and send you the link.

Group Meeting

Talking about the architecture.
Hiring a candyfloss machine?
Kev knows someone who working with food and chemical reactions etc. going to look into that.

How do we really show intimacy. Ross said the contact in our images was the strong point.

Looking over requirements for next submission.

Material experiments - looking at using ice, jelly, crystals. Things that shift and change.

Where to from here...

PRESENT BETTER! but meh. Our images were so good that we got away with it.

I think we need to be more brutal in how we say it. We are talking about honesty, and can get away wit the taboo. Work with intimacy. Be provocative with image and language. We just need to say "we need good food and good sex"

From here we probably need to split. Research, and Visual. Anne talked about what parts of the body can give you what etc. We also need to look at the film. I think film is where we are going to end up, we need really strong visual material.

Anyway...

Beer time.

time management calendar

hi,

can everyone please post their email address as a comment under this and I'll invite you to the Google calendar im creating that will form our time management plan for the project, cheers.

Presentation tomorrow

Ok so heres how I figure we'l go-

Starting with the critique of the Dolphins group, the critique is written below, Byron and I can go through this, we can decide in the morning how we'l split it up, il print a few copies at uni of all the stuff we need to cover to read from.

Ben will then take over with his discussion on the basis of our group and the meaning behind the name etc.

Medi will then take over with the more in depth discussion of our philosophy, maybe Kev can help with this? again wel figure out how to split it in the morning.

Then we'l play the video we've put together and I guess all of us can field whatever questions get thrown at us after this.

Sweet see everyone at 8:30, I will put together a rough time management plan for the next 3 months tonight, we will probably need to go through this as a group in the AM to discuss general areas of work for each member as although we don't necessarily see the point in this at the moment its on the brief.

Reviewed Philosophy

In 2090, most of Humanity’s conscious living will be experienced virtually.  The virtual world will be a means through which to satisfy our wants and desires, however the physical world will still be paramount to our existence as a species, particularly for nutrition and reproductive purposes.  In an age where data and information is infinite, and infinitely available and communicated, Humanity’s attention will shift to relationships and interaction; and communication of understanding and experience.

Every human has an architecture that looks after the physical body while the individual is virtually conscious.  Our architecture will provide the necessities of our survival.  While we are in the virtual world, our architecture produces growth.  When we come back to the physical, we share this growth with others, and vice versa, through taste.  The taste of this growth is based on our mental state in the virtual world.  Sharing growth with each other provides a snapshot of who people are, a reflection of their self.  Communication and understanding then becomes our sustenance.  We survive off what others produce through the nature of their existence.

Natural selection is the driver of evolution, however in a world where humanity faces few individual environmental threats, sexual selection; or the criteria through which a species chooses a reproductive partner, is what shapes the future of that species.  To keep our species sexual selection a natural process, humans must continue to reproduce physically, even though it is possible for us to do so virtually.  This is because the virtual world will always be an easy medium through which to deceive.  In 2090, humanity will rely heavily on taste to choose a sexual partner.  An individuals taste communicates their emotions and experiences, and gives an over all sense of who they are.  This can be shared with family and friends, and more widely in the community.

Humans will live biologically and in ways that are sustainable in 2090.  We will have developed an eco system of our own that does not negatively impact those already contributed to by others that share our planet.  Our sense of physical community will have changed exponentially since the early twenty-first centaury.  Our architecture is capable of movement at a walking pace, while our conscious mind is experiencing the virtual.  This keeps the body fit and capable, and gives a means of travel that effects the environment to the same capacity as a hunter gatherer culture.

Humans form communities of physical bodies.  These are similar to, and as varied in size as the communities and cities of the early twenty-first century.  Humans are born into a specific community, but may choose to move within this community, or to a new once several times in their lifetime.  It is the decision of the individual to move communities, and if so, how frequently.  Many humans, however, appreciate the fact that their communities are reasonably static as a contrast to their fast paced virtual existence.

Critique

The Dolphins group philosophy has been portrayed through their work in a rather cryptic fashion. At a basic level the concept of ‘dream-based’ architecture is easy to understand. It is difficult however, to work out if something is happening at a deeper level than simply having a body moving physically controlled by our subconscious thought. This difficulty arises from a seeming lack of information in the series of images and small amounts of supporting text.

This project possibly needed the supporting verbal presentations to obtain a full understanding.

The way Alms departs from the Dolphins is in the discussion of intimacy. The Dolphins asked: “How does intimacy translate into a virtual context?” Whilst we might ask “How does intimacy remain honest in coexisting virtual and physical contexts?”

The Dolphins state:

“As we are unconscious, away in our own dream world far away, our bodies seem to come alive and move in strange and unexplainable ways. It’s important to know if we can harness or even learn from what our bodies do while we are in an unresponsive state. The importance here is not to look at our mental selves, but to look at our physical body and the states and shapes it takes while our minds are not there to control it.”

We find this to be an interesting starting point for thinking about how our virtual and physical consciousnesses might communicate with one another. We propose that even in a deep sleep our minds are still subconsciously aware of our physical presence. Whilst we mentally traverse the digital world we are not completely detached from our physical bodies, the movement of our physical self is directly tied to the consciousness of our virtual being.

The architecture that we grow will need to cope with many factors while our minds are virtually conscious: protection, nutrition, warmth and community being the basis of these. However this is not to say our architecture must always be a completely encapsulating form. To live in a truly balanced manner with the physical world our architecture must be fully integrated into the natural environment. This can offer protection and sustenance as is needed, and change with environmental conditions as required.

We further explore the Dolphins statement that “Distance and proximity are collapsed by technology.” We do agree with this statement, the idea of a completely intangible world would remove nearly all difficulty in achieving anything. This means we can return to the physical world to lead a Hadza-like lifestyle where social interaction and creation take the majority of our time.

critique of architecture

Explanation

Pores on the body release silk genes that quickly solidify in response to frequencies emitted by the body. This material forms threads from our pores and then weaves together to form a structure.

The structure communicates the mind-state through the thread and the movements the body make while virtual.

We believe that communication can be enriched by translating our virtual experiences and state of mind into another medium that can be shared with others.

The dolphins believe their architecture was designed to complement nature. The form is not rigid and does not control the space, rather it grows on the landscape available.

We see the potential to not only avoid intruding on nature but also to contribute to nature through using our bodies in a productive way.