Prototypes:
- grouping
- clarity
- usability
- aesthetic
- sequence

Grouping:
- as instruction set (unfolded form)
- as form (folded box)
- in relation to world/environment
- in relation to people/users

Watched:
Stefan Nadelman - Latin Alive
A52 - No Doubt video
The Kid Stays In the Picture

Suggested reading:
Evidence: The Art of Candy Jernigan

linear keyframe
X continuous bezier - select keyframes + ctrl click
effects > create keyframes for basic text in effects panel text

In class:
soft VNS - live video processing, preceded in MAX by ‘z.’

October 7 - David Ziggurelli(sp?) (owner of Cycling ‘74) speaking @ Parsons in DT lab (when?)

Midterm proposals due October 18 online, presented in class on October 20
Midterm showing November 3

For my midterm project I would like to focus either on building (or starting to build) my grand MAX video mixer or creating an easy to use interface to facilitate audience and/or performer interaction for Alexis Poledouris + Birds and/or Running With Guadalupe (what is needed for these performances?).

UPDATE
After reading Running With Guadalupe (old title, new title TBA) I do not believe that there is a need for MAX/MSP/Jitter, although there is some interesting physical computing work that could be implemented. There may be a place for some interaction work utilizing MAX in A.P. + Birds and my involvement in the project will be addressed shortly.

Post research URLs:

Video mixer:
Josh Golberg’s video mixing interface Dervish

A.P. + Birds:

Lecture topic: history of early computers / computing

Suggested reading:
Hackers: Heros of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy

Extra credit:
How servos can be used w/ Homework Board + implement your approach
document the process and hand in written document of method w/ photos of finished servo mechanism
*all information can be found on the Parallax website

Due October 11 lecutre

Suggested watching:
Afterlife (Japanese film)

For Friday:
packaging / studies beta prototype

For next Thursday:
continue work on world studies
write written scenario for world
* email by 6pm Wednesday

Brenda Laurel
Chair, Graduate Media Design Program, Art Center College, Pasadena, CA

Computers as Theater (book)

Design research (not market research)
-what to design

secondary research:
- literature surveys
- expert interviews

human centered:
- quantitative / qualitative
- ethnographic

formal research:
- designing findings for discovery
- design as research

How do you stage a transmedia experience?

brands as signifiers for persona creation
tweens want to tokenize or tangiblize their music

www.artcenter.edu/mdp

Semiotics
* began by Ferdinand de Saussure, a Swiss linguist
* A Course In General Linguistics (founding book on semiotics, published by his students)
* language as an interface between form + concept
* linguistic value - within a system of language one part is only understood as part of a whole - gains value through relationships with other forms

Saussure’s model:
signifier (form)

Name: Mary
Age: 27
Title: �Motivated � On the Go-getter�

Characteristics:
� Physically active
� Has many friends
� Always busy with work or socially
� Single
� Punctual
� Career driven
� Finds technology fashionable

Aspirations / Motivations:
� Stay physically fit
� Advance in her career
� Wants to stay up to date with contemporary popular culture
� Likes to know what music other people listen to
� Enjoys working out to new music
� Flirting through shared music network

Frustrations / Concerns:
� Doesn�t have much alone time
� Identity wrapped up in work and friends
� Isn�t exposed to enough new music through current social networks
� Sick of working out to her music
� Unwanted attention from people viewing her music

Offerings:
� Opportunity to meet that someone special
� Custom workout playlists at the gym
� Provide her with an interactive activity through browsing
� Features to allow custom level of privacy while sharing

Scenario:
Mary goes to work early every morning and listens to her digital music player on the subway ride to the office. She doesn�t have much time for music throughout the day but does eat lunch in the park on nice days. While she�s eating she enjoys trying to match people in the park to the shared playlists that she browses through. Almost every night after work she goes to the gym and is always looking for good music to motivate her through her workout. She gladly shares her music and would like to make her personal profile public in an attempt to meet someone but is wary of any unwanted attention that might arise. When she goes out with her friends at night she talks to her friends about any interesting new music she has come across.

Name: Tom
Age: 32
Title: �Exploratory tinkerer�

Characteristics:
� Technologically savvy
� Uses technology in novel ways
� Has a few close friends but spend a lot of time alone
� Extremely analytical
� Early adopter

Aspirations / Motivations:
� Shares a variety of media with his digital music player
� Can time-shift missed events, programs, lectures
� Shares newest music with others at work

Frustrations / Concerns:
� Doesn�t like allowing people he doesn�t know see his music or accessing his digital music player
� Reception is sometimes poor and drops signal while he�s listening to something
� Does not allow for legal transmitting of media

Offerings:
� Multiple media formats to share
� Product reviews at CompUSA
� Open source software

Scenario:
Tom regularly attends technical conferences across the country as part of his work. During his many travels he like likes seeing what other people are listing to in different geographic areas. When attending a conference there are often lectures being given simultaneously and he cannot attend all of them. In the evenings, the hotel housing the conference hosts the audio recordings of the lectures and he is able to catch up on what he missed. Tom and many of his co-workers are big fans of experimental electronic music and they communally host listening parties of new releases at the office while they work.

Name: Matt
Age: 18
Title: �Culture sponge�

Characteristics:
� College freshman
� Skateboarder
� Dorm resident

Aspirations / Motivations:
� Wants to meet new people / make friends
� Has a limited music collection
� Wasn�t exposed to a wide variety of music in his home town
� Wants to find people who have similar taste in music
� Wants to explore other genres of music
� Is thinking about being a college radio dj
� Can�t afford to buy music

Frustrations / Concerns:
� Is worried that others might think negatively about him based on his music collection
� Spends too much time looking for music when he should be studying
� Can�t afford to buy all the music he finds out about

Offerings:
� Expand access to new music
� Allow him to listen to new music for free
� Meeting new people through social network
� Inspiration to become college radio DJ

Scenario:
Matt just moved into his dorm room and is starting his freshman year at college. He doesn�t know many people and is a bit shy having just moved from a small town. When he opens his digital music player he is astonished by the number of people sharing music within range of his room and the wide variety of music available. Within a couple of hours he has discovered three really great bands and by contacting some of the music sharers he has found a couple of other skateboarders and has plans to go skating later in the day. The interaction allowed through this music network has made him more comfortable and is feeling more socially confident.

Name: DJ superphantastik
Age: 28
Title: �Active seeker�

Characteristics:
� Club DJ and music maker
� Always looking for new tracks to take spin
� Energetic and motivated to make a name for himself
� Technically savvy

Aspirations / Motivations:
� Career - wants to find new music to play as a DJ
� Enjoys the scavenger hunt feel of finding new music
� Wants to promote his own music, get a record deal
� Music is his social and professional life
� Likes being knowledgeable about music

Frustrations / Concerns:
� Cannot always find the music he finds being shared at the record store
� Doesn�t want anyone �stealing� his music
� Afraid other DJs might begin using too much of his music
� Is concerned that the technology might limit musical innovation

Offerings:
� Ability to organize and categorize music and browse by advanced filters
� Exposure of his own music
� Access to new music
� Extends social networks
� Provides additional library of music to share at work through club-goers playlists

Scenario:
DJ superphantastik works until dawn in various clubs all over the city. He sleeps late but always makes the rounds of the record stores and the nearby cafes and bars where other DJs gather. His social group consists mainly of electronic music enthusiasts and they have created an organizing system for music broken down by subgenre and BPMs to allow each other find what they might looking for. DJ superphantastik also makes his own music and shares it freely with others in hopes they will play it in the clubs and gain him some attention and maybe earn him a record deal some day.

Watched:
* Divorece Italian Style - opening credits
* Terry Gilliam

Suggested reading:
* Peter Beard
* Dan Elden
* Martha Rosler

Keyframes
- be economical, user bezier handles for simple motion

Keep them wanting more

For next week:
text redefined (see syllabus)
- layers, be innovative
- no effects

Basic Stamp Yahoo! group:
groups.yahoo.com/group/basicstamps

For next week:
- read PBasic manual
- pick one project from Parallax to complete