Category: FlashOfFlash

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FlashOfFlash Miscellaneous

A time-stamp of today.

Thinking about this day, present time, in relation to other times, other days, past and future… I should be loving life. Why? Well, a semester worth or work is mostly done.

The ITP winter show is half over, with the second round starting in a matter of hours, to be followed by a major celebration. Fun! GROUP PHOTO

The Big Screens and NIME events were awesome and great opportunities to absorb amazing work and mingle with peers and others from artsy/tech communities. I’ve learned a lot and am getting the chance to generate ideas and design and make a variety of things. Many of the conversations I’ve had over the last months have also been ridiculously engaging and in some cases, enlightening. These have been with talented, inspirational, and “normal” folks, but they’ve also been with myself and my subconscious mind…no ghosts or animals (yet).

So anyway, I could go on in this fashion reporting more positives in other realms of my life outside of ITP, but my initial word choice “should be loving life,” includes a subtle implication that I’m actually not loving life. And the reason for discussing school related business, is that it directly relates to more school, yes and the career direction thereafter, not to mention that I am loving life in the social, home, etc. areas. Since perhaps that didn’t make sense, I’ll get back the little point about not loving life, which is sort of about the stress when analyzing and planning for the future, while considering what’s known from past occurrences, sensations, thoughts… and looking at myself at present. For me, there’s a certain satisfaction, confidence, comfort, and delight that correlate to order and proper preparation. When I was younger, it seemed a lot easier to maintain that state of control, but as people, books, and experiences in general, come and go with time, there’s a residue that accumulates. That residue affects perception and in my case, causes decision making to be more difficult. However, it’s not that I’m unable to say yes or no, this restaurant or that, New York or San Fran, shoes or sneakers, etc. — it’s just that big decisions are becoming more frequent, and with them comes a feeling of being less prepared.

So now I have almost a month before classes begin again. I have many tasks to accomplish in this month: design and build my portfolio website, update my blog and resume, apply to relevant spring internships, decide what is relevant, generate relevant project ideas, plan for a cross-country move. I have a calendar, a brain, a strong work ethic, supportive friends, family, and woman, intention and drive. However, I also have an appreciation for deserved relaxation, distance from stress, and flowing through time without fighting. As this time-stamp ends, I’m going to try to remember without needing to re-read what I’ve written that balance is happiness are individual, subjective realities. I can make mine what I want to a large degree. So, if I should be loving life, hrmm… let me keep loving it, yea? p.s. Dan Gilbert’s relatively new book has probably played at least a little part in this flow of thought. He has a couple talks on TED.

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CourseDescriptions FlashOfFlash

Flash of Flash (2008 Fall)

Instructor: Muon Thi Van

This course is an introduction to ActionScript 3 as an object oriented language and the tools used (Flash, Flex, AIR) to develop applications running into the Flash player with a particular focus on its creative potential. The approach is to develop a complete application every class from concept to developing and testing. Topics include user interaction and the concept of events and listeners, animation and sprite manipulation, audio, video and use of Adobe components, dynamic data support and the net and xml packages, text manipulation and the text engine.

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FlashOfFlash LiveWeb RestOfYou

HearMirror + Bubble-UP

Over the last week, I’ve put my focus into these two individual projects, while hoping to contribute in an efficient way to my group project next week (clinq.tv).

HearMirror has been in true conception stage for some time. It started with wanting to dump my brain out for added insight and communication improvement. It evolved into a project about voice recording and analysis as a method for getting at the content and abstract qualities from stream of thought with minimal conscious intention. Macspeech Dictate is a piece of software which I may implement for content, but this is unlikely, since the abstract aim seems to be more interesting. For digging into the abstract, I’ve spent a lot of time looking for off-the-shelf software applications focused on voice analysis, tinkered with the Minim library in Processing, and perhaps will ultimately write a script to utilize Praat, “a free scientific computer software program for the analysis of speech in phonetics. It has been designed and continuously developed by Paul Boersma and David Weenink of the University of Amsterdam.” This tool is useful in that it can record input or analyze existing files. The output can be numeric and visual, and there are lots of functions that I don’t even understand at this point. I’ve spent lots of time today trying to better comprehend the physics of sound and the ties between it and happiness, which in tern has led me through a flow of reading, video watching, and self-test taking… I should set a rigid plan if I’m to get this thing accomplished, and I need to submit some ideas for my Thesis project and the Winter Show. Ahhh, breathe.

Bubble-UP is coming along, but implementing all the features I want, while paying attention to time-consuming aesthetic details, and getting any kind of useful gameplay right are a bit overwhelming. Time is beginning to get away, but thinking bigger picture about “later” as only we humans do according Daniel Gilbert’s book Stumbling on Happiness, which I just started, has taken over my mind recently, which might be good or bad, but yea… I don’t really know. Sleep.

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FlashOfFlash LiveWeb

James Clark knows music

For BUBBLE-UP, a game I’m developing for LiveWeb and FlashofFlash, I had been using backgroud music from the classic Nintendo game called Bubble Bobble. After all, this game from 1986 did play a large roll for my initial game idea. Anyway, I decided to get some original sound for the new version of my game, so talked to my good friend. With just a little initial guidance, he hit the target on the first try. Have a listen here.

Categories
CraftingWithData DesignForEmergingPlatforms FlashOfFlash LiveWeb Miscellaneous RestOfYou

What speed is 27 and what happened to cruise control?

There’s a belief that life in New York is a race, more so than in other parts of the country and the world. I sense that …yea for sure, but I’m actually more inclined to support the idea that belief is a matter of perspective, and perspective should be semi-controllable, hopefully to a healthy level. Last night, I stepped back and puffed on a nice cigar (old men do that at least once a year right) and reflected by watching my entire flickr photostream. Today, my perspective is loaded — honestly, it’s overloaded and fuzzy as hell. For me, moving forward is crucial, but keeping up a rapid pace seems increasingly difficult and decreasingly significant. As I begin the final lap at ITP and start to see how being 30 might look, anxiety is saying “hello there” … I wonder if I need to shift into turbo mode, focus on well-being and balance, or something completely different. I’m pretty sure I just need some air, a great meal, or a tough workout.

Anyway, on a practical note, I’ve generated some names for the projects I’m currently persuing.

  • clinq.tv (metal sound in reference to coins/slots for an online tv watching and betting experience) [emerging + flash]
  • plexinko (it’s a “bean machine, plinko, quincunx” thing made of plexi, metal, pegs, and marbles) [crafting]
  • hear mirror (i’m gaining insight / perspective on myself through the sounds of my voice) [rest of]
  • bubble-up (it’s literal in that bubbles are going upward in the game, but also a play on meetup cause players are connecting through bubble blowing) [liveweb + flash]

For next semester, I’m thinking of thesis, another class, and an internship…(RGA? BAM? Frog? Schematic? IDEO?…hrmm)

Categories
FlashOfFlash LiveWeb Miscellaneous RestOfYou

My last twenty hours

were kinda great — three main reason.

1. A talk on the ITP floor from…

Zoran Josipovic, Ph.D. is a research scientist and an adjunct professor at the Center for Neural Science and Psychology Dept., New York University. His main interests are the nature of consciousness and its relation to the brain, global versus local theories of consciousness, and the functioning of anti-correlated neural networks. Zoran is a long-term practitioner of meditation in the nondual traditions of Dzogchen, Mahamudra and Advaita Vedanta. He has also worked as a psychotherapist and a bodyworker and has taught meditation at Esalen Institute for many years.

2. AS3 progress for a game I’m working on for FlashOfFlash and LiveWeb. The late-night session was productive because I was alert, and all distractions from people were gone, as they were either asleep or out socializing.

3. The bomb dream, which was like a vacation to a new world:
… swimming like flight … large man-made pond with islands, pockets of people, couples, plants … warm and fluid … video game … exercise and adrenalin … strength and play … odd smelling … coaching with specific exercise advice … bday dinner with crab legs times two … gum gift wrapper with chocolate inside …

(4.) Also, a peer shared this super interesting video, which sounds like my initial thoughts for the RestOfYou final project. Thanks, Hulya.

Categories
DesignForConstraints FlashOfFlash LiveWeb Miscellaneous

Morning thinking aint bad

I got a good night’s rest last night and woke up with possible project ideas on the brain, initially for my Flash course. The train of thought gained enough momentum that I decided to boot up and write a little to start my day…

Flash is an application that motivates and reassures me sometimes. Why? Well, it’s a piece of software that combines technical coding (with Action Script) and visual design (with the ide). It’s a blend similar to ITP itself — on a micro or macro level, depending on your perspective. AS3 specifically seems to be more hardcore than AS1 or AS2, more closely related to other object oriented programming languages, so that’s positive in the sense that my draw to the application will automatically force me to improve my “engineering” self. And there’s Flex and Flex builder for development, which I still don’t fully understand, but seem beneficial, much the same as Eclipse is beneficial for Java and other software development. The ide with Photoshop-like tools and a timeline is much more natural for me to use, since I would consider myself a visually oriented person, and my instances of “flow” generally occur when I’m creating something visual. I remember spending many hours in a foundation design course on simple assignments, not because I hadn’t fulfilled the requirements already, but because I was so wrapped up in analyzing different possibilities until my eye was satisfied.

Anyway, needless to say, I think Flash is great, and I will improve my skills with it with time undoubtedly. But this entry should be more about my ideas interconnecting coursework and general career path / project direction. I took a class with Amit Pitaru called Designing for Constraints last year. It wasn’t a stressful course, but it was challenging, built new skills, and exposed my mind to various new concepts, which is really my ideal course. In the context of this mornings brainstorming, it is relevant for a couple reasons. 1- Amit is an interesting instructor and I suspect a really cool person, whose path I’d like to know better and potentially follow, and 2- I made a game in his class called Burbujitas, which I could work on evolving now. If I do expand the game, it would become a project both for Flash and Live Web; it would be significant enough to serve as a fundamental direction/pillar in my ITP work.

The game itself would be assistive, education, and social. The primary audience would be paralyzed individuals who are learning to use sip-and-puff technology and would benefit from a connection with others experiencing the same lessons who might be living in different parts of the world. In short, Burbujitas is a 2-player, lightly (ferociously) competitive game, with a goal of improved coordination and a prize of victory and virtual ice-cream delight. At this point, the controls are marginal and the design functional. As a Flash project, I could take the graphics and animation to the next level and migrate the code to AS3. As a Live Web project, I could add live video screens around or in the game itself to allow players to view their competitor in real-time. This would require the use of shared objects and the Flash Media Server.

Further, I attended a Web2NewYork networking event last night in the Lower East Side (LES), where four groups of young entrepreneurs pitched their concepts to what seemed to be a room full of middle-aged venture capitalists. How does this relate? So, there’s an overload of information in my generation, and ITP, a graduate program focused on technology and the information age doesn’t exactly reduce the amount of information, though it does offer ways of filtering and understanding the information at times. This perhaps is why I’m so drawn to meditation/sleep, exercise, and dreams as a form of escape. Additionally, maybe it’s part of why I want to keep “quality of life” at the core of my work. Getting back to the event last night, I’m reminded that much of what my peers and I are reading and thinking about is designing for and actually building the future of technology and thus the future of interaction and society. I’ve put myself in an environment where staying on the cutting edge is the aim. In one sense, I think of this as progressive thought and infinitely important. On the other hand, I think it’s super challenging to come up with original ideas for the traditional privileged audiences that seem to be easier to keep in sight. So, as the masses move forward, are their populations needing better designs, needing universal designs? Clearly. What’s keeping me from having my focus there?

End brain dump. A good night of sleep is… good.

Categories
FlashOfFlash

Elephant sleeping in space

The first class for Flash of Flash was true to the class name. We breezed through the basic menus and toolbars. The class site is a solid reference and I’ve installed the free educational version of FlexBuilder, but haven’t made use of it yet. Our first assignment was to create an animated splash screen for the final prject with motion and shape tweening. I’m not sure if this will be part of my final assignment, but I kinda like the bit I put together. Flash is becoming easier as I use it over time. Smile.

Categories
CraftingWithData DesignForEmergingPlatforms FlashOfFlash LiveWeb RestOfYou

Integration rambling

It feels pretty good when puzzle pieces seem in place. Looking up at the full moon last night reminded me that we’re not so big and important as we tend to imagine. But of course we have significance in our environments, and we have a lot of control of what we do in and with our lives. Tis hard to keep perspective sometimes when things are extremely bad, or good. Natural reminders are nice I suppose, as long as we recognize them from time to time.

As I exited the train this morning/afternoon, it occurred to me that a pattern has begun developing with my classes this semester. The assignment for Rest of You this week is to look at myself or some sorta biorhythm (?) I produce, and try to think of or use it in a meaningful way; meanwhile, get Arduino up and running with a sensor. The one for Flash is to create an animation as an splash screen for any project using motion/shape tweens, etc. The task in Crafting with Data is to log some data using a program already provided, and like Rest of You, use the Arduino. While I was unsure if I would have the time or energy to take Flash, I now feel that taking the 2 credit course is the perfect solution to my inability to improve my Flash skills over the summer. It will motivate me and support my skillsets in other classes and beyond. My initial hesitation to buy new pComp supplies has been comforted since I’m using the items in two classes already. Also, Liveweb and Design for Emerging Platforms are going to overlap for sure, and will benefit from the Flash lessons as well. I plan to attend Red’s class tonight, as I’ve heard the speaker should be relevant to Rest of You. Hopefully it’s inspiring. Hopefully collaborative projects will begin gaining strength. Hopefully I will remember to eat well, exercise, and share myself.

Categories
FlashOfFlash RestOfYou

Almost asleep…

It was late two nights ago when I decided to power off and get into bed. Throughout the day I had been trying to wrap my mind around a concept that would incorporate measuring breathing in some interesting way and allow me to use Adobe Flash. The idea that came to me as I drifted off was nothing revolutionary, but practical, challenging, and fitting of certain elements in my personality. I think I’m hoping to build an experience for anyone needing a little (or a lot of) assistance falling asleep.

…more details to come.