Project 1 and critique afterthoughts

Here is a video of me using the website interface

The biggest obstacle during this project was that I had so many hours of footage to go through. I spent so much time editing and converting video that I was overwhelmed especially since I caught a cold during the middle of everything. I want to go back and work on the suggestion that I received during critique. I will fix the blurriness of the faces and only place them over people who are undocumented. I will make the interface have more of a response when people use it like have the colors of the houses only show when the mouse is over the image. 


The following link will let you download the folder in order to view the map on your own computer. You should first open up the map.html file. 
map

Project 1: Mapping Process

Process

So after we couldn't go to seahorse key I spent some time trying to decide what local meant to me. I went to Payne's Prairie trying to find inspiration and things that were mappable. Although I liked looking at the alligators and at fish I didn't connect with the environment. To me it was just a nice place to look at and I don't really know much about the trees or the vegetation. I kept thinking that local to me is my home. At first it wasn't easy to see what was so interesting about my neighborhood, it was so boring to me growing up and I thought that maybe I could do it on the agriculture that is so prominent in my town. At first I wanted to focus on the effects that the agriculture has on the environment but it was really hard to find any information on the topic and as I was racking my brains trying to come up with ideas I just couldn't find anything that was local to me except my family.

I went home and decided to interview the people of my neighborhood. I interviewed three families since a lot of people were out of town and some people didn't feel comfortable being interviewed. I also got several home videos from my dad who spent my childhood recording us with a hi-8 camera.

I spent several days trying to get ahold of a camera and after I finally got one it took me several more days to convert the footage. I spent all of Thursday night in the studio trying to convert it by connecting the computer but that didn't work. Then I tried connecting it to a tv and connecting the tv to a dvd recorder but that didn't work. Then I tried connecting the dvd recorder to the computer to the tv but that didn't work and I don't think I did it right anyway because it was three in the morning and I might have been delusional at that point. Then I got and old computer from Michael and a different cord and using premiere I was able to capture the video.

I made a series of individual interview videos that featured my family members. They talked about their stories and the reason why they decided to leave Mexico and become migrant workers.


During mid process critique there was a unanimous opinion that I should blur the faces of the interviewees to protect their identity.

I also wanted to abstract the screenshot of my neighborhood. By abstracting the image it doesn't only become anonymous but it also creates an interface in which the viewer has to look twice to find what they are looking for.

I made the clickable spots the colors of the houses so that the user would have some direction. There is a video that pops up from the houses when they are clicked on and when clicking on the dirt road a compilation video pops up with a teaser of all of the videos combined. For my house (the blue one) I made a montage from home videos that my dad gave me and expressed my thoughts on how it felt growing up in this neighborhood. 

Kayla Evans Mapping Project Process

An image of the compiled, main map I created and based my metal map on; I marked my location by taking a screenshot of my position on Google Maps when I encountered an object that brought to my mind a slippage in reality, then compiled them together in Photoshop.

Kayla Evans Mapping Project Concept Development

Possibly incorporating the idea of ley lines as it relates to explaining flows through environment, dowsing

How do I relate to the concept of being local?
-Forming deeper connectons to the land when I'm clear-headed
-Also imagining what might have happened at a certain site, or mapping imagined movements in a site

Kayla Evans Project 1 Process

A link to info regarding image transfers onto metal:
http://www.ehow.com/how_14370_transfer-images-stone.html

For my project, I'm interested in both thin places and the potential that certain objects with a thin quality can have to become something else or be used/viewed as something else.

Kayla Evans Mapping Project

My piece of brass, which I tarnished naturally before covering it with soot

My piece of brass after ash has been placed on surface

For this project I was interested in slippages in reality as well as using soot as a fragile or temporary evidence; this also mirrors the ash placed on top of the metal. As the viewer sifts, more illusionary aspects appear, while the true points of interest are marked with etching.

Mapping Parker Road Process

Thoughts on what to do with the maps. Ive been worried of them competing. I want the rubbings to be the "real" physical representation of the place. So I want it to be noticeable. 

Book-

I thought of making a atlas with the rubbings because of their size. but then decided that would get forgotten on a pedestal while the video was playing.

Path-

I went back to Shimul's idea of making a path with the rubbings. And I realized that doing this would depict the rubbings as an actual road, which is what I want to remind the viewers of when they see it.  I wan them to realize that these rubbings have an actual physical connection to the road and are a better representation than any video could be. So I played around with playing them in the black box and I accumulated some sand to overlay to give it more of a road and path allusion. 

I would love for the viewers to become interested in the rubbings and inspect them closer. I lightly labeled them in the corners of what part of the road they belong to and I laid them out accordingly.

PROJECT 1: LOT 088 - Jen Herrera

LOT 088:

Video and Still Frame Documentation:

Lot 088 from Jen Herrera on Vimeo.

About:

This piece explores memory and mapping through a CG recreation of my childhood home, from memory. Placed within the CG environment are archival images and audio taken within the house and placed back into the environment. This creates small spaces of defined memory, while the rest of the house is rather vague. There are often gaps of vagueness in real memory highlighted by instances of interest, so that is what I was seeking to visually represent with the house.

The space was modeled from memory in Maya, and all the walls were textured with the colors I remembered them to be. The images and audio were gathered from my phone, camera, and backups of my devices going back for years. I picked only the images that were taken in the house, and tried to place them back where they were taken. This left most of the house empty. The small snippets of auditory memory helped to fill in the gaps. The sky was textured with a sunset skybox, as it is the last light of the day, fading, like a memory. The format of a game allows the viewer to explore this memory of a home and the gaps between information; the video documentation is only for instances in which the game cannot be played.

The title comes from the lot number of my house in the layout of my neighborhood.

2/23 - Project 1 Process Post #5 - Jen Herrera

 With some help from Jack, I got my Unity project working the way that it needs to! I was having some trouble with the audio triggers, but after a bit of finagling and cleaning up the mess I made trying to learn Unity on my own, I managed to get the sounds placed in the scene. And WOW, walking through the scene is like a whole new experience. I didn't know how much of a difference they were going to make in the long run, but they REALLY give me the feeling of memory. They're also short snippets taken from cell phone video around my house, so they're a little grainy, a little mysterious, and make you wonder where they might have come from. The whole piece seems even more ghostly; when I hear a noise I find myself twirling the camera around for a source even though I know it's not there. It really emphasizes the negative space that is created in this piece; The pictures give a clue as to what's not there, but the addition of sound really makes the emptiness felt. It reminds me of a residual haunting, memories of a time past that are ingrained in the environment. This is my digital recreation of that feeling.

I have a collection of gathered images and video(for sound) that I thought I'd share a screenshot of. For process and all that!

 

While at first I was really daunted by this piece, I think I can see it coming together now. I have to Build + Run the program now, and also take some video of it for documentation (and also in case all does not go well for live crit tomorrow.)

2/22 - Project 1 process post #4 - Jen Herrera

Thinking about my project, I’m considering every aspect and how it relates to my concept of mapping memory. The photos and video I’m using are a sort of digital memory of the home that I’m mapping. At the same time, the game is a digital recreation of this space utilizing this digital memory. The game places the viewer in the digital space in an interactive way and allows them to explore the incomplete picture. In a way, it’s like experiencing a memory that someone shares with you; the basic idea is there, but you don’t have all the details.

The game is functioning at the moment; the model is in Unity and the camera can be walked around in first person. I’m currently placing the pictures and sounds in the scene; I’m just a little wary that I have a lot less material photo-wise to work with than I thought I did. I really would like to find a ton more, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to. For today, I’ll at least place everything that I have and then re-evaluate the piece from there. If it’s not working, maybe I can find a way to change it or add another layer of memory that makes it work.

Mapping Process Work with the Great George Banks w/ paragraph

I did some color correcting on my clips and added some audio. It definitely gives nature the creepy vibe, here's a clip of one of some of the footage.

Often times we see vacation spots creating videos of scenic areas that their resort has to offer for vacationers. The landscape is shown to us as a perfect, peaceful, and scenic place to be. Photographs can not always be trusted. What happens when these same kind of places are shown to us as a scary place, or a place where we don't want to be. By physically mapping and journeying to the scenic areas in Gainesville, such as Devil's Millhopper, I'm creating a horror themed photographic brochure that maps Gainesville as a creepy paradise.

Mapping Project Progress | Madeline Morales 2/22/16

So during the in-progress critique, someone mentioned making the paper I print the maps on out of camellias, which I really loved, so I got to work and made about 7 pages (plenty of room for error) and they came out really nice:

(in the corner is my pile of drying flowers)

I've also noted the locations of all the camellias I encountered East and North of campus. The routes I took were not pre-determined, and were wholly random. The only parameter I set for myself was that I didn't want to walk down somewhere I was familiar with prior to the spring semester (which was particularly easy for the area north of campus, where I had never been before.) Some fun observations: common plants found near camellias are red shrimp plants and saucer magnolias (neither of which I knew existed before this semester?); the more likely you are to find a camellia bush, the less likely you will be in an area with side walks or traffic lights; camellias are never found near apartment complexes, only residential areas (either local residential areas or homes that have been converted to student housing but have not had their lawns tampered with.)
I also went to the botanical garden in hopes of finding out the names of the species of camellias around here, but aside from the genus and species (camellia japonica), determining the breed is almost impossible because so many look identical to each other. The people at the botanical gardens did set me up with the email of the person in charge of the Gainesville Camellia Society (their website, it seems, hasn't been updated since 2006 at the LATEST), so I will try reaching out to her, but by the time she replies the project may already be done.

All in all, I'd put the project at around 75% completion--I've done all the background work, I just need to make the physical project.

Concept:
For me, the camellias are a metaphor for areas of Gainesville I didn't know existed--the idea of "local" got me thinking about how I know next to nothing about the city I've lived in for the past 4 years. Untreated mental illnesses prevented me from venturing out of the comfort of my living space for many years, so I was wholly unaware of anything outside of places I absolutely needed to be. However, now that I'm receiving treatment, I've begun to try to expand my understanding of the area. While on a walk in an area of Gainesville I had never been before earlier in the semester, I encountered a huge camellia bush, but I had never seen that flower before and assumed it was like, a rose or something. After our class field trip around local neighborhoods, I learned that camellias were planted all over the area, and it made me want to explore Gainesville to get a better understanding of it. This project alone has had me learn more about this town that I have in the past 4 years. I visited the botanical garden and learned all about the different flora that live here, and my walks have forced me to familiarize myself with the streets outside of campus. In a way, this project is mapping areas that were previously unknown to me, using camellias for a landmark to emphasize that they inspired this journey and forced me to explore further and further.

Mobile Interface response

Mobile Interface Response

The article begins addressing the invention of facetime now vs the initial facetime in 1964. It discribes the feeling of disembodiment from person and location with the creative of cell phones and then filling that disembodiment with facetime. With the enacting in embodiment across interfaces we are more aware of the inheret link between our bodies and space. But all this is said with the idea that embodiment is practiced not given. Our embodiment is not dependent on physical space, out vital communication is very real. The virtual has began to stand in for ideas of force and power.

This article makes me directly think about two of my friends who began their relationship across country through snapchat. Ive heard of plenty of relationship beginning through social media like facebook and myspace but snapchat is relatively new so I was very surprised when this happened. Mostly because snapchat doesn't give as much virtual connection as facebook or other social sites does, but I guess this is a testament to how our lives, communication and relationships evolve with the evolution of our surrounding technology.

Mapping Process Work

I have a lot of good footage from four different family members. I wanted to be sure I had enough commentary to make this project, but now I am slightly concerned about the length of the video. It is going to be at the least 10 minutes long. I don't want to make it any shorter because at that point it will be snippits and disjointed.

While working I have been thinking about the artist Ross McElwee. I watched a lot of his videos in Video Art. He does a lot of raw documentation of  his family and overlays is with his own commentary. Through my video, I am trying to imaging the walking and rubbing footage is my personal commentary that I am overlaying on the interviews.

Watching and re-watching these interviews, I think I can pin point the exact reason the Parkers began moving to live else where...

Marriage. This makes me want to do another project about marriage. My uncle never moved out of the house he was raised in because he never married. My Pa did marry but of course, it was my grandmother who relocated. My father relocated to where my mother lived, but I feel like that was because she married when she was so young. Living so close allowed her support from her family. My mother's sisters married when they were much older, so they didn't need as much support.
But this is all just an opinion. I don't want to seem like I am shaming or judging anyone with this project. Personally, I would love to permanently live on Parker Road, but I don't think there is any way for me to have a career in any sort of digital media located in Bonifay.

Summarizing Concept:
Making an indexical map of Parker Road. This map will break the way humans have come to know the world through representation. This indexical representation will be physically linked to its place by an actual physical connection. It is more accurate than the accompanying video. The rubbings also act as a physical field study of Parker Road while the video is a study on its history.

Process

Having some issues with google earth but im adding more facebook pics. i've taken out the info i actually put in the post, except for the year and name of the person, place, or thing.

Process

Today I interviewed one person, my mother, to serve as a voiceover for my project.

I intend to interview two more, mainly because they're older than my mother, so they'll HOPEFULLY have more to offer in terms of information.

Mapping project process 3

So, Micheal is great and SKetchUp is now installed on all the computers in 302. So I can work on importing terrain from google Earth! which is great and a whole lot easier than just using maya.

 

This creates the terrain in an overall manner, but not the detailed way that I wanted. I would like to recreate the way that 3D topograpy is generated in streetview. I'll try this again at a greater resolution. 

Tried again at greater resolution. 

Didn't work well, trying different area with more dramatic changes in topography. 

Lets try Nevada. 

 

It seems to work better on natural terrain than man-made structures. Very well then, SketchUp. Very well.

Mapping project process 2

I found this game which is really cute and simple and has a fantastic aesthetic. It's called Unravel.IJust some of my inspiration here,

In progress Work

I went to Devils MillHopper to film some scenic environments. i got about 30 minutes of film.

Happy Maps & Rhizome

Rhizome:

I never really saw maps as "power," as Ronnenberg puts it. But the idea is definitely sound. They give us direction, and allow us to actually find and reach our destinations. They give us insight and hey hold a certain power of either giving us want we want, or ultimately rendering us lost. Especially in my family, where our sense of direction relies heavily on Siri, we become slaves to this little device, that we shamelessly blindly follow in the hopes that their technology won't fail. 

Happy Maps:

Made me want to go out and explore my neighborhoods. I love this idea of having the option of the "scenic" route. We automatically take the shortest route to our destinations in the hope of arriving on time, or beating the rush, and ultimately saving time for ourselves later on. But what's interesting is most of us would use the "time" that we save with the shorter alternatives to simply relax. By incorporating routes that automatically create such feelings of ease, I believe we'd all be a lot happier at going through our routes, and turning our destinations into journeys. 

Happy Maps and Rhizome Artist

Happy Maps

It happens to me all the time when I put in directions into google maps and it gives me the route with the most tolls. When I'm traveling fast distances I don't necessarily want the fastest way but the one where I don't have to pay. When I worked over by the airport last summer the GPS told me that the fastest way to get there was through 8th avenue. After a few weeks of using this road I realized how congested it got at 8am and 5pm. I tried using different ways to get there such as 16th, 23rd and 39th. My favorite was 23rd avenue. Although it took the most amount of time it went through some curvy roads under some trees that I would like to speed by (but not too fast) and there would be no other cars and it was fun. 

Rhizome

I liked the project of the Guy building his own satellite. I think the communication device is really cool. People have to hold hands in order for it to work and he calls it a collaborative fantasy. I like Buttons. I like the idea of taking a photo that already exists and acting like you are taking a new photo

I really liked the piece of Border Bumping since it deals with a similar concept as my project. It reminds me of when I was younger and my dad would travel to Mexico there was a time when he would be there and we could still talk to him and we would just know that we could loose communication with him if he traveled too far. There was always an eerie feeling thinking that he was in a place where the reception was not suppose to work but it did. 

2/10 - Mapping Project Development and Process

My idea process for my mapping project is moving away from the idea that I originally proposed. I received a lot of feedback during my proposal about the way in which I suggested approaching my concept. A lot of people felt like it was too impersonal and because the subject matter of hate crimes is something that the public is desensitized to now. I don't know if I agree with that particularly but I did agree that my proposal needed some work.

I decided to veer away from the context of the "archive" and to go back to my original thoughts of not ever feeling like a local. Because of the constant moving around my family did plus our cultural differences that stood out in a lot of the areas we lived in, we were always treated like outcasts. I think referencing our experiences and relating them to the places in which we lived will create an interesting dialogue.

2/16 - Locative Media Revisited - Jen Herrera

While reading I was fascinated with Brian House’s Quotidian Record. The concept of turning location data into a record was fascinating, and the sound is actually quite interesting to listen to as well. It’s mechanical, robotic, sort of sounding like sci-fi futurism from the past. It makes me think of satellite and location systems that must have sounded like science fiction in the past. The one thing that grabbed me the most, enough to have me choose this piece for writing about, was the way that he brought the concept into the construction of the piece; We talk about this a lot as students, but when you see it done and how it just ‘works’ it makes it more clear; I’m specifically talking about how the record is physically segmented by 24 hours and 365 to create the year. I also think the ‘randomly assigned’ notes were within a spectrum that would sound good together when mixed and matched. Even though the record sounds chaotic when played, there is an underlying structure there.

If you didn't go listen to it:

In Progress Critique | Madeline Morales

http://prezi.com/kzez4mttsmeu/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Google Earth

Monday, February 08, 2016

Thing to try out google GE

In GE please demonstrate via screenshot that you can

placemarks

customize a placemark

lines

measuring a line or a path

putting in a polygon and extruding polygon from surface

putting in text

measure distance and somewhere

recording a tour

The happiest dog

tour

tour download

Then work on a derive

Has to have 10 places, include images/markings/shapes/place and text

derive

The format of the derive should be a tour.

Mapping Project 1 Process

Learned a lot from this dry run of filming on my own, through the judgmental streets of Gainesville, Florida. Funnily enough, people are perfectly fine with someone walking around practically appearing to be talking to themselves on their headphones, but I can't be walking around by myself talking to my 35mm GH4- sad times. 

I did garner some clips, but i'm not particularly proud of them, simply because they have the feel of what I want, but not the look, and I believe that comes with the fact that I was having to do both tasks at the same time– with the mix of holding a heavy camera, and trying to hide the fact that I was talking to myself, and doing so all in a neighborhood I had no belonging too, all by myself, was a little unnerving. Though the documentary is visual, I believe the importance lies with my own commentary, or it would simply just be a video on the stuff you typically see anyways. 

Nonetheless below I've added my very short trailer of my vision, and I brought some photos that practically depict in order the kind of flow I want my video to follow. 

Google Earth Derive

In GE please demonstrate via screenshot that you can

placemarks
customize a placemark

lines

measuring a line or a path

putting in a polygon and extruding polygon from surface

putting in text

recording a tour

tour to the rietz

measure distance and somewhere

Then work on a derive
Has to have 10 places, include images/markings/shapes/place and text

The format of the derive should be a tour.

derive