Process 1.9 Post Critique

The critique went very well even though I had to go much later. There were many things people enjoyed and a few edits I need to make tonight to have a final version.

- Getting rid of the jump that is made in the beginning of the shot with the light post
- The best transitions are when the tides look like their changing
- People liked how the horizon looked washed out and blended into the sky
- First three minutes do not match the rest of the video so perhaps focus more on texture and make these transitions make sense and fit
- Think about composition and how things line up
- Like the idea of this optical illusions

There were also some good tips on way to further this piece in a larger space if I were to show this again.
This idea was to use a really good surround sound system and have the water sounds cycle around the viewers and maybe even place with the vibrations. This with the video across the entire wall.

Scent Creations Activity

Religious Smell: Frankincense, Rose Absolute

Unpleasant Smell: Imitation Banana, Roman Chamomile, Cloves

Childhood: Frankincense, Patchouli

For Someone who smells: Ravensara, Citronelle Java

Place (Horse Barn): Texas Cedar wood, Lemon

Fresh: Lemon, Green Tea, Citronelle

Evokes an Emotion (Calm): Rose Absolute, Sweet Orange

Smell Creations

person - poison a lover - anise + passion

good at first but bad after smell

place - the dentist - peppermint + banana

recently went to dentist teeth and fruity

spiritual - confessional - lavender + rose

grew up catholic

unpleasant - chemical - frankincense + myrr + Texas cedar wood

laboratory

fresh - lemon + sweet orange

spray freshner

childhood island beach - coconut + vanilla + almond

I was born on an island tourist like paradise bahamas - isn

Smell Exercise

1. Create smell for another person
lemon and coconut for my sister

2. Evokes emotion
lavendar and rose absolute is calming to me

3. Reminds childhood
texas cedarwood really reminds me of my grandpa, mixed with frankincense

4. Evokes place
citronella java uncannily reminded me of where I used to ride horses, mixed with copaiba balsam

5. Makes you hungry
imitation butter, almond extract, vanilla

6. Unpleasant and why
cinnamon leaf and roman chamomile, smells like rotting licorice

7. Associated with religion, philosophy, spiritual
anise and patchouli - my only real association with religion and smell is with my paternal grandmother who is really religious and has a bunch of religious artifacts in her house, the anise and patchouli is a combination of that grandma and grandpa

8. Personifies freshness
coconut and jasmine intoxication

9. & 10. What you want/like - ran out of time! :(

What's that smell? (log)

6:56pm stale car
7:15pm cooking spaghetti
7:23pm brussel sprouts
7:25pm garlic
8:03pm stinky body
7:34am cat food
7:43am cheerios and milk
8:57am fresh rain/ozone
8:58am cigarette smoke
10:01am glazed doughnut
4:12pm cold room
6:39pm refrigerator spaghetti

Smell Log

24 Hour Smell log

2/23
5:30PM, Ink and emulsion, Screenprinting room
5:50pm, etching acid, printmaking room sink area
7:30pm, fresh rain on pavement, FAC parking lot
8:00pm, Marinara Sauce, Apartment Kitchen
8:15pm, melted chocolate, Apartment Kitchen
9:30pm, Moldy parking garage
10:30pm, fruity bubble bath, my apartment bathroom
2/24
8:20am, sweaty clothes, friend's car
8:35am, Krispie Cream Donuts
8:55am, Vienna Sausages, Undergrad art-tech studio
9:00am, Pine Sol, FAC Staircase
9:05am, Carly's Cigarette Smoke, Corner of 4th and 13th
10:07am, stale body, FAC 305
11:17am, sitting urine, FAC Bathroom
12:00pm, chick fil a, Art and Tech studio hallway
12:46pm, architecture floor smell
12:48pm, coffee, art history classroom,
3:00pm, emulsion, screenprinting room
6:00pm, chlorine, 6th floor parking garage elevator room
6:30pm, laundry detergent, apartment
7:00pm, fruity bubble bath, apartment bathroom,
7:45pm, onions and tomatoes cooking, apartment kitchen

smell log

1. Bathroom sink - shaving cream and toothpaste

2. dress shoe - hot leather

3. bar top - 409

4. pillow - bed head

5. scooter - hot tire and new leather

6. work desk - janitor supplies clean

7. sylvan learning center - no smell or slight kid smell

8. woods - pine swamp coal

9. school bus - kids and old leather

10. subway - processed meats and tomatoes

Smell Log

Locative Media Revisited Reading Response

This reading sparked my interest in tracking systems. I like to see all these different modes of tracking that utilize different technologies to show where they are in the world. To think that we can leave a mark on the Earth with where we position ourselves is very fun. It could take years to do and a lot of money, but in theory, someone could draw a very detailed picture on the face of the planet tracing their movements. That would be a really cool project that may take quite nearly a lifetime.

Location-based information art is a form of temporary art to me. This especially depends on the location of the art. The rt cannot be placed in a different place otherwise the meaning will change. However, if the location is only temporary (maybe able to be demolished or possibly can get washed away by weather or ocean) then the piece can only exist as long as the location.

I also think it is interesting that Buttons  by Sascha Pohflepp went from an art piece on an old style cellphone to a full blown app for the iphone today. It's interesting that this project changed overtime to fit a newer generation.

Google.Earth Derive

Here is the exported kml file of my derive around my neighborhood with google earth. I'm having trouble getting the kmz file onto this blog however I just put the jpg om so far:

Derive Walk Response From Carly and Rose

Claire and I struggled a bit to find all the clues as we walked along the path we thought Carly and Rose did. We found some picture subjects easily but we missed a good amount of them as well. We ultimately were confused about the order of the photos we were following because they seemed out of order but then we thought "what if they just walked in ab big circle?" In thinking this, we took a photo of the water in the location we decided to turn around and the original pond from the beginning of the derive in the same way they shot their photo.

Process 1.11 Post-Critique

Here are points from critique:

• Fix audio
• End poem on "thank you" of end of bus ride
• Rerecord
• Maybe balance sound a bit more
• Fourth low level (almost vibration) track that ties together the different videos
• Gradually move audio from side to side
• Gradually have sound blend
• More repetition 
• No Spyglass
• Better ending
• More color of Gainesville shots (not B&W)
• B&W context takes away
• Gradually de-saturation and saturate

Process 1.05 Mid Process Critique

Here are some of the notes I took from mid-process:

• Shoot construction on 43rd
• Parallel in formal elements
• Man with  moving camera
• Matching motion of shots
• Overlay of low opacity or stretched transitions
• Man-made elements to created maps
• 3 recording of voice
• 3 mics in 3 places
• Poem of repetition to play with footage
• Utilize shaky camera aspect in poem
• Gloomy footage so far so think of opposites
• Blend footage well
• Color Correct!
• Blend audio as well

Process 1.10 Final Thoughts

I'm ready to see how everyone feels in critique about the project's finish product. I'm also interested to see how people interpreted their videos. ON TO CRITIQUE!

Revised Project 1: Seahorse Key - Cascading Tracks

https://vimeo.com/120340705

Process 1.09 Finishing Editing

It was a long night of nit-picky details I tried to work out in order to make the project work well in my eyes as I put the last parts of the video together in the timeline. I think it is looking good though. I went with putting a tint effect on the videos of Gainesville. I have been making the videos black and white to show the plain feeling and monotonous tone of being here to juxtapose the colorful views of the shots of seahorse key. I tried to play with the audio a bit more but there were some difficulties there. I recorded the audio several times and got the same results. Maybe it would have been easier to do so with someone to help me but I can get it done solo. I am just hoping things go well in critique. We will see!

Process 1.08 How IS It A Map

How is it a map? I hope it comes across well as a map of the memory I have of the time I spent in seahorse key. Maybe I need a shot of the actual maps I got from the map library to kind of tie in to that.  But it is not a map of seahorse key so that may break the purpose of the map. I don't know if I should put something involving lines to should that there was some sort of trek taken over time that I am remembering. This idea of a map is very abstract. It may not even come across as a map even. I guess that's ok. I mostly am going for the feel of the memory not the mapping. But overall, it is a representation of how my memories have mapped seahorse key. There is no real way to map a mind. So abstract is the way to go.

Process 1.15 - Revised Video

Seahorse Key Video v.2

Description Blurb for Vimeo:

In today's technologically driven society, you can visit countless places around the world while sitting on your couch. The interfaces and methodologies that generate this possibility are created by faceless corporations, such as Google. Thus, this piece explores the juxtaposition and subsequent underlying tensions between virtual and physical exploration of the private beach of Seahorse Key, where virtual is defined as navigating the interface of Google Street View, and physical refers to video footage I captured when I was physically at that same site.

Example comparison of color edit: v.1 vs v.2

v.2 is much more true to color with the actual place, which was an important point that was noted at crit. It still retains a widespread distribution on the color histogram though, keeping with a nice dynamic range, even without being completely in your face with beautiful, unrealistic, saturation (which is better conceptually for the piece as well)

I also re-did the audio for this piece. I took out the old audio and replaced it with different mouse click noises, and also a camera focusing sound, that play throughout the navigation/exploration within the piece. It's definitely a different feel, but is interesting to think about it conceptually in relation to what is actually happening in the video, and then fabricating that sound and mixing it into this fabricated digital vs. physical exploration. Regardless, it's an interesting development to the piece with the new audio.

Proj. 1 Process 1.9

Changed the audio to have wind overlay instead of seagull overlay and changed the end of the video just slightly by ending with the steps in the mud right after the shot of going up to the horizon and got rid of two small segments. I think this way, the end is more finalized. 

Proj. 1 Process 1.8

Video Critique Thoughts

• People want the crappy wind and not the seagulls
• People unsure if there were actual seagulls on the island
• Myself am having hard time remembering if there were (were there?? were there not???)
• Side note, though, I went through my video footage and there were definitely some seagulls! Hurray I’m not crazy
• But still, I agree with the people, wind might be better
• I should have gone with my gut
• Got across notion of physics, waves, abstractions, ...
• I’m glad this came across as it was something I increasingly became interested in
• Texture, surface, light
• oil; darker ones; cleanliness of water; pollution
• Relationship of reflections
• someone brought up alien communication?
• Quasar-y 
• (good)
• Soothing music works
• Stick with wind on camera; really bring out wind; add it into the music
• wind pushing the water
• energy
• movement
• wind is a kind of energy
• I wish I had thought of all these things before. Of course I should have gone with wind. I’m really glad that we have the chance to tweak our videos to really finalize them. 

Main thing to fix: audio. Change seagulls to wind. Think about surface, energy, abstractions. 

Proj. 1 Process 1.7

So, I’m looking at my video, and I think I was originally so caught up in space that I kind of didn’t notice how polluted a lot of my footage looks. Like, oil and grossness. I just realized this. But I think this can add to my video. Right now, I’m absorbed in texture, and light, and reflecting. And the idea of space as a personal thing as well as a celestial thing. At the end of my video, I have a shot that shows steps in the mud under the water; it’s clear to see man-influencing-nature with it. I think that if I add a sound to disrupt the calming and soothing music of Zabriskie, I can add to this idea of disrupting the cleanliness of the water and thus disrupting a person’s “space.” I hope that makes sense. Right now, I’m thinking about using seagulls crying to interrupt the tranquility of the video. There were definitely seagulls on seahorse key and I always find that they’re one of those species that are so affected by humans. For instance, they move wherever people move and will beg for food and can come to depend on humans for a lot of things. I think it’d be good to have a nature-y thing that’s affected by humans have a part in my video. Also, though, I thought about wind but I’m nervous that it would sound too much like the music and wouldn’t be disruptive enough. I really like the idea of using wind over the seagulls but I’m unsure. Also the sound that I got of the wind is really crappy and I don’t know if I’d want to get sound recordings of wind off the internet from some other random place. 

Proj. 1 Process 1.6

Talked to Katerie today and she mentioned Hearts of Space, which is this “blissful electronica” program that plays “space music.” Their website: https://www.hos.com/#null 

I’ve also been doing a lot of research on “space sites” like:http://www.spacesounds.com/home/index.html which has both actual recordings of NASA ground and spacecraft communications and the typical “space music” that is a lot of electrica and synth. http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/10/nasa-releases-actual-recordings-from-space-and-theyre-absolutely-breathtaking/ is another one that has the electromagnetic vibrations of sounds of planets like earth and jupiter. It’s cool listening to these things but I’m finding more and more that there is this whole culture to “space” and whether that means listening to space music to go into your own personal space or thinking about the “far out” space of the galaxy. With a lot of these sites, camp and science blend together to form this weird sci-fi place for people to go to, mostly to unwind or think about their lives or reflect on space, in general. It’s interesting and something I should think about for my video. 

Proj. 1 Process 1.5

Audio update

I’ve found this guy on freemusicarchive.org, Chris Zabriskie, who makes what I can really only describe to be space-y synth music. It’s cool and has the tempo and overall sound that I want. I was a little worried about licensing stuff but I went to his website and he’s under the creative commons license, which means that I can mess with his stuff (cut, overlay, whatever) as long as you can mostly tell that it’s his work and that you put his name somewhere in the video for the music. However, I’m not sold on just having his music. It seems just eh. I was thinking about adding in other sounds, like birds, or wind. I remember seeing a lot of seagulls as we were going to seahorse key but I’m having trouble actually remembering if there were any on the actual island. Something to think about. 

Proj. 1 Process 1.4

Today we went to see the maps at the library and it was so cool and interesting. I was fascinated by all of the maps and the differences in how different companies/people created alternating maps of the same place in order to cater to different audiences. For instance, two of the maps of Seahorse Key were meant for tourists and scientists and it was really interesting to see the representations of what they mapped and kind of what their agendas were. The tourist-y one, for example, was super colorful and cartoonish while the science-y one was very structured and professional-looking. It got me thinking about my video in terms of mapping. I want to map space, which could be both science-y and a little campy. Like, there’s the institution of astronomy and physics which is so serious, and then there’s things like Star Trek and Star Wars and that one movie that’s coming out called Jupiter Ascending which looks ridiculous. I feel like people are so fascinated by space and what could be out there but because we will probably never leave our solar system (at least for a very long time), it becomes highly romanticized. This idealized concept of space travel and space people become a part of what it means to go into space, into that final frontier, and thus making a video about space has a lot of connotations. I don’t know if I want to go directly into camp stuff, but I need to be aware of its connotations and I need to realize that space can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. 

Proj. 1 Process 1.3

Video

I have a lot of video. So much video. I’ve gone through all my footage and put the ones I really like into FCP and I have roughly three hours. I was unsure if I had wanted to use the other types of footage I had (nighttime, inverted, …) but as it is, I have so much film of the sun glare and I’m afraid that if I start using other stuff, not only will I end up having a crazy long video, but that the space thing won’t really come across. I’m actually afraid that nothing will come across. So, as of now, I’m focusing on the water with the sun glare pieces. A lot of the footage is very beautiful and I like working with it. 

Audio

I want something epic. Something space-y. I’m looking into a lot of synth music because I feel like music with words will cloud the whole space anthem I have going right now and I wouldn’t even really know what to look for in terms of music genre. But with the synth, I can get more of a mood across. Specifically, I want something that starts out quiet and then swells to a larger sound. I’m looking on free sound.org and freemusicarchive.org. Both sites enable to me do free downloads and most of the people who upload their sounds don’t care if I mess with them. 

Proj. 1 Process 1.2

link to my project proposal: 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/15ttRNrZGIqBAlnicUvI4u1RPf4IAK_PLqhijZRlTSg4/edit?usp=sharing 

The shots that I got all remind me of space/constellations. I have a lot of sun glares looking like the center of a solar system, clumps of mud looking planet-y, and cool effects with rippling water. I want to say something about the water and space and linking those two things together. I’m also interested in the idea of mapping. I’ve noticed how we make a lot of maps but don’t always use them. For instance, we have maps in our car and entire countries mapped in gps but how often will we actually use any of those mapped areas? And we have tons of maps of space things—galaxies, stars, planets, …—but we may never be able to actually use these maps. I’m thinking of making my video with the idea that you could easily move through space and kind of what would that be like. Being able to jump from constellation to planet to black hole as easily as you could travel around the planet using a world map. I’m also interested in the idea of “traveling” through maps and being able to look ahead to new places and locations. 

 In my proposal, I have several different shots that I’m considering using. I have water shots with sun glare, sand shots that I would invert and color correct to make it look otherworldly, and nighttime shots that have two different colored lights in them. I know I want to use the sun glare shots as my prime video but we’ll see if I use the others… 

Process 1.07 Thoughts While Editing

AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!

Editing this is very tedious. I should have known though. The film is tough because I am having trouble finding the shots to match. I haven't really figured out Premiere Pro and the function to group footage together yet so I am basically switching between windows watching the footage deciding if I want to use it then finding it in Premiere to drag it to the timeline.  It is a hassle but it is all I can do right now because I haven't been watching my tutorials like I need to.

Audio is even worse because it is what is setting up the footage. I have to zoom in realllllllllly close to see the spots I need to cut the audio in the wave forms. Some spots are very small cuts that need to be repeated as well so luckily there is copy and paste for that.

The worst part is the fact that that I am trying to make one sound in the left ear piece and one sound in the right ear piece and one sound in both ear pieces because I am working with headphones. I have to click each clip and change the settings to what I want them to be. I must have done it at least 200 times. So tedious.

Process 1.06 Getting Footage

Now I am successfully grabbing footage here and there like I mentioned before. I stopped ca few times when I was riding my bike to work in the afternoon on Friday (Feb. 6th) to film a deep drainage thing on this hill side close to 75 on Newberry Rd. It had a bunch of leave filling its bottom and lead to a giant black hole. I felt like I should have given the film to Carly. I also stopped when riding to Walmart the Sunday before because I came across a dead cat that had already been pretty decomposed. It was exactly what I needed unfortunately for the cat. I can use that shot to compare to the dead crabs on the shoreline.

I also shot some footage while I was in performance art and installation in the Warphaus. While I had some free time I took a derive around the area. I got some good film. Some nice pathways Beautiful sky to compare to the day we arrived in seahorse key. Slowly but surly I am getting the shots I need from around town.

Process 1.04 Ideation of film

I've been thinking more about what I want the finished product to be. I feel like I need to have at least a small vision of what I want it to be in the end in order to get there gradually over time. I want the footage to match the audio. Meaning I want certain pictures to come up when I am speaking. I think that has more effect fro the juxtaposition. I want the seahorse key shots to appear as I say words that correlate to what is shown. Then, when I am no speaking, I want the Gainesville shots to come up. That way, there is a steady and predictable thus flowing bounce between the two types of shots.

I want the film to seem like a memory in some way. Right now, I'm thinking of making it seem like a bus ride. I'll have footage of me getting on the bus and sitting down, then fade to black as if I am closing my eyes. Then, in the end, I will have it cross in from black to seem like I am waking up and show me getting up and getting off the bus. That way the duration of the film is like me "riding home". I think that should be interesting.

Process 1.03 Difficulties

I'm in a rut right now. Filming here is a lot more difficult than filming in seahorse key mostly because when we were on the trip, our time was mostly devoted to doing so. Capturing footage for a project to be completed. That was the trip. That was the mission. But when I am back here at home, there are all the other usual worries of life that bog me down and drain away my day so that I never get adequate time to try to shoot. I know it is all about time management. But, between classes, work, and trying to still be a human (sleep, eat, relax), it's a struggle.

I'm basically just carrying my camera with me wherever I go now like we did in seahorse key because that is the only way I can get film. To just stop and shoot like a photographer would. i'm stopping when I'm biking to work. I'm just stopping whenever I'm biking anywhere to get a bit here and a bit there.

I'm also having trouble writing this poem. I have some things in mind and yet I don't want to be too specific or say too much. It's like I know I want sound and for it to be my voice but the words are not there. I'm trying to find a way to sound abstract. That's so strange.

Process 1.02 Development

I have been doing more brainstorming of how to take the next step in my photo to actually get down to working with my raw footage. I think I need a way to story board what I want the finish project to read as. I'm thinking of the best way to match footage of seahorse key with footage of Gainesville. Honestly, I suppose it all revolves around me knowing what each of my seahorse key shots looks like so that when I shoot I know what to look for.

In my film want a great way to juxtapose how normal and everyday the shots of Gainesville are to how out of the ordinary and unique the shots in seahorse key are.  Because , after all, that was my only opportunity to have that experience. That is a feeling I want to capture. The memories I will always have that fit my personal past.

The audio is a whole different story because I have to try to combine them both in a somewhat seem-less way otherwise trying to juxtapose sound will be really weird when the picture is clashing enough already. I want there to be at least one constant sound so that the film doesn't seem too choppy with my quickly cut shots. We'll see how I go from here.

Process 1.14 Crit and Beyond

Notes from crit and beyond:

-my video horizons matched google earth (good)

-color work was really good/alluring, but maybe too much

-feels like survey/surveying map, military, weather map

-good decision to:

-play with the speed of the video

-layering choppy vs realtime

-pixelated to loading

-walking on water weird maybe to have them going out there at the end

-comparison between people vs. google camera guy, both documenting space for different reasons (it was cool someone mentioned this because I had written about this in a previous post)

-saudi arabia/desert expanse feel with some of the shots

-like the way it moves

-connect/disconnect

-harder to differentiate between my video and google earth

-too pretty/too jewel-y

-good that paid more attention to symbol

-people seem cartoony in highly saturated scene

-like tension between who is who

-what's surveillance and what's not

-beautiful island that's surveilled by artists vs by institution (also part of my previous blogging)

-another option for installing would be to have a projector that people could walk in front of so that they become shadows too (extending the aesthetic to another dimension)

-like a war movie

-other ideas for sound:

-mouse clicks/drag

-makes viewer attend to visuals more with different sound, don't want audio to compete with attention to visuals

-noise of camera with mouse click?

-think about what generates sound and movement (technology-wise)

mixed reviews on current sound:

-unobtrusive sound

-calming background noise

-hurts your ears

-anxiety inducing

-bass used as weapon

-way everyone is dressed - adds level of seriousness, prepared for environments, labor, working

-anonymous surveilled people, can't tell age or any kind of distinguishing characteristics

Process 1.8

After editing my video and working with the sound I realized I really should've tested more spaces out. I think from looking around at spaces and collecting sounds from Cedar Key, the underwater mic was either too sensitive or something else because my sound just involves a lot of clicks and I really don't like it. I will work on it more after crit once I get feedback and hopefully make it something that I can feel good about.

I do however like the color of the video and the video itself. The length of the video I think plays into what people said about it being long. i decided to not go with any transitions because I just couldn't find one that looked how I wanted and they actually came out better than I originally had thought. I like my change in aspect ratio and how it shifts the camera view and adds a panoramic effect.

Process 1.13

Suggestion from Katerie:

I know it is the 11th hour. I am writing my lecture for the grads and came across a researcher called Lisa Parks. Her blog is http://lisaparks.blogspot.com/

She says that Google Earth  offer us images that are really a pastiche of old and often incorrect images (and thus a realist compounding of postmodern representation)

In going through her blog, a lot of the primary focus is on her trip to Mongolia and basically chronicling that and how it develops into an installation piece. Mixed in are also different things that's she's published or edited, mostly regarding satellite technology.

So I dug a little deeper and googled her in conjunction with with Google Earth and some articles that she'd written came up. Here's one that I thought had many applicable points:

http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/people/faculty/parks/earth-observation.pdf

And these are some points that I found to particularly stand out with regard to my process, ideation, and what I'm working with in general conceptually.

"When Google Earth first emerged in 2005, geographers suggested that the virtual globe would have the potential to catalyze greater public involvement in mapping and celebrated it as bolstering practices of participatory or volunteer geography that had begun with geographic information systems (Elwood, 2009; Goodchild, 2007)."

"As Leon Gurevitch observes elsewhere in this issue, “The digital globe interface communicates with renewed vigour the centrality of the human agent, elevating the scopic powers of that agent through an interface that deploys a ‘code of spectacular vision’ inherited from Renaissance perspective” (2013, p. XXX)."

Something I've thought about before, comparing "virtual" exploration and mapping with "physical":

"My wandering of the site led me to think about broadcast infrastructure very differently than when I viewed it in Google Earth. Rather than a massive system that could be seen from above, infrastructure became something that could be sensed, felt, and mediated by my own body. Mapping the signalterritory in this more affective and physical way required recognizing that the site, which looked quite orderly in Google Earth, was actually quite eclectic and messy on the ground (Figure 9), a scattered archaeology of transmission equipment that was more akin to “high-tech ramshackle” or “twenty-first-century hillbilly.”"

"...it also enabled me to think about issues that I would never have considered by examining this site only in Google Earth. Some key aspects of the site were completely invisible inGoogle Earth. The series of gates and trespassing signs I encountered in geophysical space, for instance, contrasted with unfettered access to the site in digital space..."

"In an era in which the world can be navigated in Google Earth and seen in Street View, accessed through Google’s search engines, or streamed from YouTube’s archives, media researchers seem to spend more time than ever at screen and computer interfaces, and less and less time venturing out in the field, wherever it may be. It is worth thinking carefully about how our critical practices and methods are shaped and informed not only by our social subjectivities, technological literacies, and intellectual training, but also by the geophysical positions we are willing to engage with, occupy, or explore. How often do we move beyond what Mark Andrejevic calls the digital enclosure (2009) or what Nick Couldry calls the media centre (2003)?"

Process Continuation, mostly sound considerations:)

So in seeking out some new ideas to inform my work, I watched a Jean Painleve compilation that Katerie kindly let me take hostage lent me (thanks so much!).  It was the most emotional and exciting scientific footage I have ever seen, so it was super exciting and motivating for what I am doing in this Seahorse Key project.

Thinking about the audio in his work, which is all based on scientific video, nature and laboratory footage, and both the original audio (from 1920s thru 1980s or so) and the alternate Yo La Tengo special soundtrack that was on the first disk, I thought about how sound can shape the mood of and personify otherwise scientific footage, like microscope slides. In the Yo La Tengo special, the music was shaped to match the feeling of the remaining subtitles of the narration in the footage, which read like warm personifications of the creatures in the videos. I liked the idea of "subtitles" that are already fanciful crafted narrations and whimsical music on top of that. Aesthetically and mood-transition wise, the Yo La Tengo special was influential to me, but really I loved the old scientific 70s and 80s sound in some of the later color footage by Jean Painleve. 

The footage with no voiceover seemed like an imaginative children's book

Black and white microscope shot that's just like one I had

Liquid crystals are ridiculously beautiful. The original audio with this was awesome 80's synthesizer science music that I would love to have something similar to for my piece

I like this type of audio because it fits the context in which the majority of people would look at microscope slides/"scientific specimens" in usual life -- in educational films and television, which often have a hypnotic and retro-futuristic aesthetic, especially in their soundtracks. I watched some of these on Youtube and found out about the early electronic musician Raymond Scott in my research. He was originally a successful composer for commercials, but starting in the 1950s he was also one of the most early pioneers to create electronic music, coming even before Moog synthesizers or anything advanced. As a result, I think his sound is something really unique and perfectly capturing the mood of an old scientific educational movie without being obnoxious, having its own poetry to it. Here are some examples:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrY8XLT917o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVYegoSeySw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2f3xXHRUHmY

I'm still finishing up the final edits on my project for tomorrow but wanted to post this bit of process I've been working with.

Process 1.12

Left screenshot = exported video

Right screenshot = from Premiere working window

Why is there a discrepancy in color quality? The exported one is dulled and I can't figure out why for the life of me and it makes me sad because color is really important for me in my works :(

I will post more about this later after I keep trying different export settings (even though color has never been affected through export whenever I've done video pieces in Premiere in the past)

Update: I've played exported footage on different monitors and each one is slightly different, but it looks good now :)

Also, a note on audio: a weekend or so ago I recorded electronic/ambient/running "hums" with the mic in the sound booth and have been working with that audio ever since. It has really come together nicely with my video to augment the strange/uncanny world/spaces that I have constructed, but which is rooted in technology.

Process 1.11

I was thinking more about authorship, which as a train of thought, kind of resurfaced from previous brainstorming/ideations/suggestions earlier within the process of this piece. And this idea of authorship was directly linked to the fact that the Google camera man left his trace within the documentation photos (his shadow) and how this abstract surveillance/documentation corporate entity (Google) now became anthropomorphized and singled out as a specific person, or concept of a person, in a weird way.

I am to create this weird tension and juxtaposition within the compositions of my composited video with the use of this trace of the Google cameraman shadow and the silhouetted "shadow" remnants of other people exploring the same land.

Both Google and the people in my footage were mapping and exploring the land, but both for very different purposes, (paid/job responsibility/obligation/corporate/work/objective/removed/planned/restrictions/necessary criteria or way of working vs. art/subjective/conceptual/derive/unplanned to an extent/freedom within work). This clash of corporate work world vs. conceptual work world is also something that's been huge in my mind since I interned at Citrix as well.

Furthermore, Man with a Movie Camera kept coming up in discussions about my work, so I re-watched it to be further informed and for more process development/inspiration. There was this one scene in particular which was striking to me in the way it was shot and the way the cameraman in my scenes echoes this aesthetic.

I think it's such an interesting aesthetic and conceptual choice to flatten someone's image into a seemingly 2-dimensional silhouette or shadow-like figure. To remove all of their individualizing characteristics, what they consider makes them 'who they are' essentially, and render them almost this anonymous, usually imposing/intimidating/strange, human form that the viewer can project anything or anyone into.

Process 1.7

Setting up Underwater Mic

Still to do:

- Keep making video piece longer

- Mix Sound and put it in a rhythm of the video

- decide on transitions

Process 1.6: Cedar Key Trip

I was formulating ideas about whether or not I wanted to focus on using Bright Signs to have the video projected on all walls within the black box when I discussed with Katerie about what I should do. After a short discussion we both agreed that the separation of the video onto walls would not support my concept and would break up the horizon. Thus I scratched that idea and went with a more simple idea of perhaps changing the aspect ratio so that it resembled a "panoramic" video.

We also discussed about the sound I wanted to use and Katerie suggested that I go to Cedar Key and collect underwater sounds there instead of trying to fake it in my bathtub/bathroom. With that the following day I took Shanna and we headed for a short break trip to the island.

It actually turned into a decently nice day once we started driving. With the weather being nice, I didn't have to worry about my computer getting rained on and I could collect some cool sounds off this moving dock. It took me a little to figure out the mic and the sounds i ended up getting are really interesting and have these strange clicks to them so I am pretty excited to edit them together and change the speed and volume. I got about 8 sound clips totaling roughly 15 min of sound. So I should have plenty to work with for the video.

As for the video like before I said I am working on making the piece longer and feel this idea of emptiness. I might switch over to Final Cut X since the deadline is approaching and working with Premiere while learning it is making me fall behind.

Process 1.10

Here's a screenshot of what I've been working on today:

In addition to my aforementioned concept, I've been thinking a lot about navigating space and remnants or evidence of navigation. Especially when they aren't physical alterations to the landscape, and may only exist contemporaneously with the navigation itself. For instance, someone could know that you're navigating a landscape without actually seeing your body, but only your moving shadow. 

This shadow is basically like (thinking in terms of technology) a projected image overlay over the landscape that is tracked with your physical body. The shadow is morphed, distorted, hidden, and revealed as a direct result of the different terrain you encounter, the angle of the sun in relation to your physical body, and thus what physical planes it's projected onto within the environment. 

Yet, even though it morphs in so many ways, it's still always recognized/coined as your shadow, forever linked to your being. Thus, can it be considered an extension of yourself? If someone saw my shadow, could they say that they saw me? What linguistic implications does that have in conjunction with what's accepted within the concept of having "seen" someone in society?

If someone sees a photo or video of me, does that mean they "saw" me? Thinking about this now, it's all relating/circling back to my original ideas of memory and existence, virtual experiences vs physical experiences, thinking about what is "real," photos and videos and their validity as remnants of experience, comparing photos and videos to memory of the very same experience, do any of these comparative situations have more value in one or the other outcome?

I'm not seeking any real concrete answers to any of these thoughts or questions, because I feel like there is no concrete answer to be had, but rather I'm very interested in juxtaposing or intertwining my work with this dialogue.

Thus, all of that has been culminating and coming out in aesthetically in my video with the use of the Google guy's shadow and create silhouetted figures out of my original footage. 

Process 1.9

In class today Caitlyn and I were experimenting with transitions and found out that glitchy things happen when you use non-additive dissolve:

Here are some more screenshots of stills/composites that I've been working with/developing within my working video:

I am IN LOVE with this composition and aesthetic:

I also screenshot the entire interface so that I can refer back to the settings and layer order 

Also super excited about this one too:

Project proces 1. 8

To do list:
- Edit through video and select best footage
- Research on noises that camera's make
- Create flashing red button/ work out the kinks of how to get this work properly/ camera display
-  After effects for data collection
- Processing Filter for screen 2
- Data collection for screen 3
- Audio Editing and effecting'

Trevor Paglan Response

Trevor Paglan's work crosses a line between conspiracy obsessed and beautifying technological advancements in obscurity. In his discussion this ideas about the representation of secret societies and showing what isn't supposed to be there is the main conversation behind his work, how he can show a massive amount of information on public spaces that are considered to be controversy for even visiting, however it is open for anyone to view but why do we not want to view these government run operations. Are they just not of any interest to us or do we just not allow ourselves to think about the surveillance at which we are absorbed in. These are the questions that Trevor arises in his work and within society.

GIS mapping experiment (Arc GIS)

In my map, I combined a map of crime index in the US with the distribution of African American population throughout the US. I notice that it could be said that in areas of slightly higher crime rates, there are slightly higher populations of African Americans. I want to weigh the validity of the social notion to suspect blacks in American to be more likely to commit crimes. I find that if just these two maps are combined and compared, there is some truth and reasoning behind those types of racial profiling thoughts. The first map of the orange is the crime index. The next map of the blue is the African American population. The last two maps are the same maps with bubbles that show cities.

Reading Reflection: Locative Media Revisited

The assigned reading helped open my mind, presenting several artists' creative and innovative artwork projects that serve as interpretations of studies on location data. I admired Hojun Song's Open Source Satellite Initiative and the project's inclusiveness. Since it was crowd funded, participants were invited to setup satellites, launch them, and also communicate with it once it was off Earth. I was somewhat left confused by the purpose of Song's personal satellite, as a lottery numbers generator made through collected data of "cosmic microwave background emissions in order to help prove the existence of the Big Bang." Still I thought the whole initiative to be creative as it seemed to allow users to work beyond the constrictions of government and yet participate in space exploration in a subtle and personal way.

I also admired Brian House's Quotidian Record, as a artistic means of interpreting GPS data. He recorded his locations and had a mobile device convert the data into musical notes to be recorded on a vinyl record. That he was able to record a year's worth of traveling and locations and share that year with an eleven minute sound piece is amazing. The details House honed in on, concept and design wise ,are inspiring. Makes me want to open up my mind more in terms of researching and mapping out different ways of portraying immense experiences in mediums beyond two-dimensional visuals.

Locative Media Revisited Artist Reflection

For my artist reflection, I was interested in (I'm sure not too surprising), one of the artists who dealt with imagery from Google Street View. The Institute for Infinitely Small Things with Sophia Brueckner's work restaged Yoko Ono's historical work, but within a new context of contemporary technologies. Compared with Ono's Sky TV,  iSkyTV isn't just a live feed of video that's limited to a specific place. iSkyTV accesses Google Street View, and there are infinite possibilities as to where you can experience this specific sky view. I thought it most interesting thinking about how such technologies act as the 'lens through which we see our thoroughly scanned and digitized planet today.' This notion dovetails with much of the dialogue we've been having throughout the semester surrounding exploring and derives in Google Maps (specifically reminding me of Claire's work).

Process 1.8

I don't know if it's just because I watched La Jetee yesterday, but it was funny and kind of interesting that it came up as one of the "related" videos on youtube when the Trevor Paglen video ended. Just for argument's sake, let's just say it wasn't because of cookies or tracking or whatever, but it actually came up as related out of the blue.

Paglen was talking all about surveillance and government operations and secrecy, which are all ideas that are very much inline with the outright narrative of La Jetee. But also when thinking about La Jetee and when I watched it this time around, I couldn't help but think what is so different about this piece vs. an episode of the Twilight Zone (side note: which can also be related in ways to the concepts of Paglen's talk as well).

Yes, the Twilight Zone is much more mainstream/commercialized, and has a specific structure and often corny somewhat predictable outcomes, but there are gems out there that really just make you feel unnerved at the resolution or unresolved ending. La Jetee's narrative setup reminded me of this aforementioned structure, as well as, of course, the black and white shots and duration of the work, but also the odd narration and cadence throughout. It's even described as a sci-fi piece by people posting it on the Internet.

Nonetheless, La Jetee is not an episode of the Twilight Zone, and the use of still image and subsequent jump cuts create and support even more this odd cadence of the work and emphasize its uncanny and almost seemingly subversive nature. The use of gaze is very important and what shots transition to and from each other. There's also importance on repetition of certain shots as well, and one that sticks out is the bald authority figure's head in the middle of the frame, I think shot from a lower POV, so that he's looking down.

Thus, don't worry, I'm circling back to my project, this idea of transitioning between gazes or ambiguous figures or implied figures is something that actually came up when I was working before and after mid-process crit. In particular, one transitioning that I was playing with was the silhouette of Caitlyn looking like this weird nomad person who's walking and looking out and then looks down to the ground. At that moment I timed the layered footage to reveal the shadow of the man with the Google camera, so that the viewer's eye follows the Caitlyn's gaze to this other intrusion or intervention of the space and to create tension there.

I'm definitely going to keep experimenting with different ways or opportunities to create tension as was suggested at mid-process crit, and also dealing with repetition of some layers and seeing what response this garners throughout the piece.

Process 1.7

Continued feedback and development of concept:

-WATCH LA JETEE
   -moves her eyes scene

-play upon when reality peaks out or doesn't within compositions
   -tension between Google Earth and reality

-can play with spinning, upside down imagery or video

-interesting to think that everyone captured by Google is still
   -no one moves

-serene shots of Google earth

-looking for remnants arteficialness?

-how to resolve or don't resolve at the end
   -could go the direction of feeling incredibly unresolved

-reality of beautiful place, always being surveilled

-audio:
   -computer hum
   -blowing noise in room (projector)
   -sound from servers
   -camera shutter sounds
   -weird absence of sound
   -fan
   -when you turn on a camera and the lens comes out/focuses

-human desire to capture a place fully (through photos) without living in the full experience (like a tradeoff)

-relationship between interface/technological symbols and figures
   -both become figures that mark the space in different ways
   -can become a source of tension

-think about how to show the video

Process 1.6

Initial feedback from ideas and further brainstorming of concept:

-shadow of Google guy
   -man with a movie camera

-writer/installation artist: made work about London, but never actually went to London until a year into their project
   -first person experience of that
   -historical novel

-how often do you actually go back and look at photos from an experience
   -who looks at these
   -continuous reminder of our death (photos)
   -Camera Lucida

-believability
   -validity of experience
   -less valid or not if someone were to explore Europe on street view vs getting on a plane and actually going there

-technology today
   -ways to represent space
   -photos and Google maps legitimizes representation vs paintings which don't have some validity

-look into Google camera operators
   -authorship
   -corporate entity owns, but doesn't usually author
   -anonymous person, but because we see a person in the shots, enlists idea of authorship
   -shadow = signature

-don't want people on the island because of the birds
   -what are other places don't want Google or people

-what are dangerous places that street view goes to or doesn't go to?
   -armored Google car?
   - North Korea not on Google street view

-how often is the footage/imagery updated?

Locative Media Revisted Response

From the reading "Locative Media Revisited" I particularly liked the piece Buttons. The original creation of it in a camera-like container is interesting to think about because the viewer doesn't need a camera with a lens to have a picture of a particular place. It is interesting how the artist felt like the box should resemble a camera. It seems like that is the purpose of cameras, to take pictures, so I can see why they chose it, but what would make it different if the piece was made of something different? It later turned into an app which was user friendly and used the phone as the camera-box and has gps installed onto it. The pictures are interesting and because of the gps feature I wonder how about which picture gets shown and how the internet chooses that for us in a way. The idea of the phone as an "everything box" including camera, gps, web, alarm clock, etc. is interesting but that's another project.

I also found Street View by Doug Rickard interesting because of the idea of the gaze in modern day and looking into that as something that has no driver and carries a gaze of its own.

Process 1.5: Post Mid Process

In mid process critique I was getting a lot of feedback on how my piece gave off a feeling that there was something coming or something about to enter and a desolate space. Rose brought up an interesting point about how there was a post apocalyptic feeling in a place that is so thriving with life. I read the last parts of "The Awakening" and thought that it was interesting how the words were chosen to describe the action and that it was left open ended but in a way that felt like it had closure.

I looked up the artists Lars Von Trier and Doug Aitken and after looking up a few pieces and viewing clips of the film I have a good idea of the sound I want (if only I could get sound clips from the clifs of Ireland.) I will be collecting sounds in either the school bathroom or my own bathroom with the fan on and then mixing with maybe some underwater bathtub sounds if I can get the equipment. Thus the sound should be more interesting and dynamic while fitting into my over all concept. I had thoughts on an immense sound for the immense space.

People in the class were saying they were getting a trapped feeling which I thought was interesting. I was originally focusing on an idea of immensity but as my piece continues I feel like it is turning into this beautiful and large space that really holds an absence that the viewer wants to be filled. In this I want to make the piece decently long so that the viewer truly feels the immenseness that I am trying to portray. 

I got a lot of good suggestions including that I need to do more coloring and focus on getting contrast enough for subtlties to come forth. I have been thinking more about transitions and if I want to use them I am going to try them and see if I like them. I like the idea of making the aspect ratio a little different and longer thinking about panoramic video and the ideas of that. I also need to think about how I want to present it and with which materials.

GIS Layering Assignment

The layers of the map that I was playing with in the GIS system were:

1. Median Household Income

2. Crime Index

3. Private Schools

4. Social Vulnerability

I had never heard of the term "social vulnerability" before, but even just the name of it intrigued me. So I looked it up and: "In its broadest sense, social vulnerability is one dimension of vulnerability to multiple stressors and shocks, including abuse, social exclusion and natural hazards. Social vulnerability refers to the inability of people, organizations, and societies to withstand adverse impacts from multiple stressors to which they are exposed. These impacts are due in part to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions, and systems of cultural values."

In Progress Critique

Some advice given:

Projection on floor. This is really cool because it's how people would usually approach a hole, especially on seahorse key -- on the ground.

Sound -- breathing, vaporware chill vibes remixing of scientific 80s video -- this is where I've seen most of the microscope slides I've ever seen so it makes sense to me somehow. Also would lend a contemplative and spacey vibe.

After effects help -- Layering and blending to make the footage look really situated in the hole. Warping the footage to fit the topology of the space. Making it so the rectangle video lines aren't apparent -- blends off into the floor.

I would like each new hole to fade in from the darkness of the floor.

Arcgis map layers

florida citrus mgmt

florida fishery

2 florida hurricanes

florida land and water boundary

florida protected nature areas

after layering you can see the 2 hurricanes both cross into the land boundaries and affected the citrus mgmt and nature protected areas. However, west hurricane cross through florida while east hurricane looped into florida. Furthermore, east hurricane affected the more fishery than west hurricane. 

Map Library Questions

1. We looked at a Sandborn map of Gainesville from 1913 that is close to where Caitlyn lives near the "downtown" area. There seems to be very square buildings in a row with a series of wells attached to them.

2. We looked at the "Holy Land" maps from the glass casing. W found they represented the holy land, stories of christ/God, and genealogies. The agenda of the maker to the audience seemed to be conversion, sharing religion, and why this lands exist.

3. We compared two maps from the Cedar Key area (The cartoon/tourist one with the ariel map.) We found that each have different agendas and represent accordingly. The tourist map has a lot of bright colors with lots of slang terms and images that are not exact and to scaled with skewed perspective. The ariel view was very exact and showed the specific coordinates of the water and the land with the basic colors used to show these.

4. The buildings that are here in Gainesville now used to not be here or were in a different place as ore people populated Gainesville.

5. The naming conventions of the African maps seem to be "accurate" and how the rivers are depicted in general. The unknown is mapped by mythological creatures or simply not mapped at all. In today's time what is unknown can be described as not being able to zoom in on Google Maps or something that a satellite cannot see.

6. The old map that Carol pulled has a border around it of myth and mapping the whole world. The audience could be for Europeans and the concept of the "other." It seems to be commissioned and not quite made for accuracy.

ArcGIS 4 Data Sets

For my GIS exercise, I decided to make a little narrative of a day in San Francisco -- Steal a bike, then go on a bike path to an alcohol outlet, get drunk, and look at some public art! I really don't know why there's public art in the middle of the ocean. But there seems to be a good correlation with bike paths and public art, as well as bike thefts and bike paths. Convenient. And alcohol is just all over the place.

ARCGIS experiement

With travel there are relationships to cell phone connection an now importantly internet connection. The two pictures below show the correlation between the WSDOT Railroads and the Hotspot building permits. These hot spots are only in areas of industrial zones and not in space of travel. 

 Railroad track layer  ^

  Hotspot connection map - Transportation and internet connection

  Aerial Lidar Bare Earth Hillshade OSO Slide

^ Tornado imagery