5 ideas of product(Ade)

1. Pen that writes whatever you say
2. Cream that makes you invisible
3. Alarm pillow - pillow that vibrates to wake you up
4. Time machine watch
5. universal remote that controls everything including humans, animals etc.

artists screened in class today

Brody Condon
Nikki S. Lee
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
Ada1852 proposal
Avatar Body Collision

NON-EXISTENT

Using a text editor, create a 10-20 page website to sell or promote a product or service that does not exist and probably never will. Go wild! Be silly, absurd, and adventurous!

FRI 29 Sept, 6pm : 5 idea list due, posted to class blog. I will post my comments on the blog and you should comment on your classmates' ideas too.
MON 2 Oct: Greene p. 184-188 (short, only 4 pages!) & HTML 64-161
WED 4 Oct: bring 6 copies of your site map and proposal to share with class
WED 18 Oct: CRITIQUES OF FINAL SITE POSTED TO SMCM.EDU SERVER

Your page must include the following:
-at least 1 of each type of style sheets (external, internal, and in-line/local)
using the color, font, font-size, background-image, position, float, and overflow (do text with scrollbar)
-at least 5 images (JPG or GIF) with alt tags
-at least 1 image should be an image map with links
-at least 1 nested table with nested list

Design of your site should be clean and look convincing as a site for a professional company or organization. Keep it simple.

Look at these sites for inspiration:
Mejor Vida Corporation see also p. 180 of Greene
blackness for sale on e-bay p. 185 of Greene
Dot Store p. 187 of Greene
Rent-a-Negro p. 186
Cyborg Web Shop
Google Will Eat Itself
the first human male pregnancy
Preparing for Emergencies
Exxon Energy
The Heritage Foundation

schedule for 29 Sept - 4 Oct

::: schedule is subject to change, check blog often for updates :::

FRI 29 Sept by 6 pm
5 idea list for NON-EXISTENT posted to the class blog by Friday Sept 29 at 6 pm

MON 2 Oct
HW: bring screen captures, audio, video, photos, ephemera, and other documentation for days 1-5 (Wed-Sun) of IDENTITY SWAP to class
HW: read Greene p. 184-188, finish tutorials 64-161
in-class: site maps, work on simple website for IDENTITY SWAP

WED 4 Oct
HW: finish IDENTITY SWAP... Post a concept summary on the class blog with at least one image and make a simple web site with screen captures and other documentation to show the class
HW: bring 6 copies of site map and final proposal to share with class
in-class: mid-term evaluation, discuss your proposals
in-class: visit from Carrie and Michael Kline of the Southern Maryland Folklife Project

myDeathSpace

http://mydeathspace.com/

idenity theft in Second Life

Link to this news at new blog called Future Crime.

smcm.edu web space

Your web accounts are ready now.

You must use "SFTP" to the HOST www.smcm.edu.
USERNAME: smcm system username
PW: smcm system(email) password

For more information, consult the SMCM Tech Resources site.

creative uses of Second Life

Author JC Hutchins recently decided to hold a book release party inside of Second Life; and one of his fans even built special avatars of each character that fans can wear throughout the event. Read about it on the Second Life Blog.

Some World of Warcraft players have started planning their games inside of Second Life; they use Second Life on Tuesday afternoons, when WoW goes down for maintenance. Read about it here.

Glogger

If you are interested in taking the networked performance into real time and space, consider using a relatively new tool called "Glogger" which allows you to upload photos from your camera or phone in real time directly to multiple social networking sites.

ideas for identity swap(Ade)

1. flavor of love online, where I will select a girl to win 10, 000. Some one will be eliminated each day just like the show, and the last standing will win.
2. Flavor flav is gay. Be flavor flav, and say that he is actually gay.
3. Some girl was kidnapped, and texted her mother to find her. Be that girl.
4. Some Nigerian girl has been selected to visit space. I can create a profile as her, since I am Nigerian too.
5. This guy just had a penis transplant. Act like the guy and talk about the experience of not having a penis for a while.
6. Be saddam hussien, talk about on going court case, and how I was thrown out of court.
7. There has been news that acne medication causes depression. Act like a person who has been on acne medication and talk about how I was always depressed, not knowing why.
8. Apparently there has been news that brad pitts taking tom cruise’s job, since he was droppd from paramount. Act like the number one tom cruise fan, and make a anti-brad page.
9. Joe simpson, Jessica simpson father has been providing gossip and pictures about his daughter to a secret papparazi person. Come out as the papparazi person, and make a profile.
10. Kari Ann Peniche, a playboy playmate was proposed to by aaron carter of only 18 yrs of age. I am goinf to be kari and make a profile about how am just marrying him for his money, and say negative things about him to see what kinds of reaction I would get.

revised schedule for IDENTITY SWAP

for Saturday 23rd by 6pm:
1- Choose a news item/issue from the past 2 weeks as the subject of your project. Identify why it's of interest to you. What is your opion about it? Why do you want people to know about it? This will allow you to understand what the message of your project will be.
2- Brainstorm a list of 10 possibilities for the project and post them to the blog

for Sunday 24th by 6pm:
3- Post comments to your classmates' idea lists to give them feedback on their project ideas.

for Monday 25th by class time:
4- Bring in your full character development, having answered all the questions on the sheet provided in class
5- Make a storyboard using this template. Bring your storyboard, with images, outlining your plan of attack for each of the 7 days that the project will run: NOW Sept 27 - October 4.

Remember, take control of your narrative! Like reality TV, although it may seem like a lot of things are left up to chance and fate, they are actually scripted and pre-planned.

Other useful links:
-info on non-fiction storyboarding (aimed at journalists and web producers)
-tips on developing the character
-a list of great questions to answer about your character
-The American quiz show scandals of the 1950s were the result of the revelation that contestants of several popular television quiz shows were secretly given assistance by the producers to arrange the outcome of a supposed competition.
-reality tv shows are scripted (and your networked performance should be too)

don't forget

Please read the project outline below very carefully!

You need to do 3 things for WED:
1- READ the websites... do not rely on the skimming we did in class
2- WRITE a response to the websites. BE SPECIFIC and refer to the aspects of different projects that you thought were interesting or not and WHY.
3- WRITE a proposal for your IDENTITY SWAP project. This proposal should be at least 1 paragraph and it should discuss how your idea relates to a recent news event (national or international).

Bring your HTML books and be prepared to do some work on developing your IDENTITY in class on Wednesday.

Identity Swap Post (Ade)

i think that people should stop whining about phony profiles. if you hate it so much, just dont join the website. that is what makes it interesting, otherwise it would just be regular same old boring people. as long as people do not take it over the top, like the black people love us" is kind of pushing it, because it might offend some people. so the debate should be what is the limit instead of should they be allowed. on that note, i was thinking about making a fake myspace page as like dave chapeelle or something, and claim to be giving away 1 million dollars to a random friend to see how many friends i can get in a week, and what type os messages i would recieve.

IDENTITY SWAP: sites to consider

MTV has a new site called Virtual Laguna Beach which is top of the business news today in the New York Times. You will need to download software to your computer to create your avatar. Is this an exciting new game or just a marketing scheme for for MTV and its partner corporations?

There.com 3-D, free.

The Sims On-line gives you a free 14-day trial (usually it's $10 a month).

Second Life 3-D, free.
In August 2006, Suzanne Vega performed live in Second Life avatar form (!?)

IDENTITY SWAP : dates and project outline

PROPOSAL & BLOG RESPONSE: 20 September
LIST OF 10 IDEAS: 23 September
COMMENT ON CLASS MEMBERS' IDEAS: 24 September
STORYBOARD: 25 September
ACTION DATES: 27 September - 4 October, DAILY
EXHIBIT: 17-24 October
GRADE WEIGHT: 5% of semester grade

In response to a national or international news item from the past 2 weeks, create a false identity, performance, or action on-line. This can be on a MUD/MMORPG, internet forum posts, a chatroom/IM, Facebook, Friendster, MySpace, Craigslist, etc. This is not simply an exercise to create a profile, you already know how to do that. The work is in the kind of interactions your false premise will create on-line. Be careful! Many sites have codes of conduct and community rules that you must follow in order to participate. Some sites, especially personals, will block your profile if they detect that it is false.

You will maintain the persona for at least a week and report back to the class about it on October 2nd. Document all your conversations, pages, and interactions carefully, as you will be using these to create a print exhibition for the art hallway, which we will hang later in the month.

HOW TO MAKE IT HAPPEN:
Strive to be constructive, not destructive. It's far more challenging to poke fun or critique people or institutions who hold positions of power, not ordinary folks who are using the internet in sincere and personal ways. In other words, a project that is simply fueled by spite (Craigslist Seattle), money/fame (LonelyGirl15) or trolling is not advised. On the other hand, consider the project Black People Love Us! How does this function? You should be able to defend your content. Cliches, stereotypes, racist, sexist, and/or homophobic content should not be used as methods for heedless provocation.

Use your persona on a daily basis, and document the interactions you have with other users. Make screenshots (using SHIFT-COMMAND-4 on a Mac), archive the website using "File > Save Page as" and/or save chat histories, etc.

RESEARCH:
- Darko Maver
- LonelyGirl15
- The Fakester Manifesto
- MySpace and commercial fakesters
- Seattle Craigslist sex scandal
- Black People Love Us!

18-27 September schedule

19 September
HW: Review your VIEW SOURCE projects
in-class: work on HTML book/tutorials, indiv. meetings with FHT, alter/improve your blog templates

21 September
HW: Read the websites below (the first & last are discussed in the Greene book) and post a response to the class blog, along with a one paragraph proposal for your next project, IDENTITY SWAP. Consider the elements of the"Fakester Manifesto" as you develop your idea. We will discuss these together in class.
- Darko Maver
- LonelyGirl15
- The Fakester Manifesto
- MySpace and commercial fakesters
- Seattle Craigslist sex scandal
- Black People Love Us!

25 September
HW: See schedule above about brainstorming blog posts and revisions. For today, bring your completed character development question sheet and storyboard, with images. ALSO, post comments for class members idea lists by SUNDAY AT 6PM.

27 September
HW: IDENITY SWAP 1 - on-line activity should start at the latest by 9 AM today to run for at least one week, until October 7. Bring your first static documentation of the site to class (screen captures, emails, IMs, etc.)

Q: italics & emphasize, bold & strong: what is the difference?

A: One type of tag is for describing, the other is for physical formatting. For greater accessibility, you should use descriptive tags. But which is which?

From an article on accessibility, form, and content from w3.org

Initially, there were a pair of HTML elements whose purpose was to indicate
that some portion of the text required emphasis; and this pair of elements
allowed for two degrees of emphasis. The elements in question are the EM
and STRONG elements. At a later stage, the elements for italic
and bold text were added; these are the I and B
elements. Here is an example of all of them, again as straight markup,

<EM>This is emphasized text.</EM>
<STRONG>This is strongly emphasized text.</STRONG>
<I>This is italic text.</I>
<B>This is bold text.</B>

and as rendered text:

This is emphasized text.
This is strongly emphasized text.
This is italic text.
This is bold text.

Now, the I element means, "render as italic text"; and the B element, "render as bold". Obviously, these are both formatting commands. However, a glance at the EM and STRONG elements reveals that they are also rendered as italic and bold, respectively. What is the difference?

The difference is that if the markup is EM or STRONG,
then the text is declared as requiring emphasis, but only that. It
does not go further to declare how the text should be emphasized. On the other hand, while using I or B does emphasize the text, it does so in a purely visual way. "Italic" or "bold" are type setting directives for printed versions of the text. What if the markup were passed to a voice synthesizer to speak the text? How does one speak text that is bold? Using B commits one to a specific way of rendering the text, specifically, a visual one; when, what is really desired is a declaration that this text is somehow different and to allow the expression of that difference to vary depending on the medium in which it is rendered. Indeed, even within a medium, there may be constraints, such as screen real estate, that alter how emphasized text can be drawn. Thus, the use of EM and STRONG elements is superior in the sense that they describe the content without committing it to a specific format.

tips for the VIEW SOURCE project

Some places to hide content:
1- Add comments
2- Meta tag
3- Don't forget to title your page.
4- Take advantage of the tooltips function for more places to communicate with your viewer.
5- not all your links have to be external... you can also link to areas within the same page or the same site, and link to files or documents.
6- remember you can use the BASE tag with the target attribute to specify how all the links on a page will open (see p. 53 of your text)

Mac OSX Tiger help

link to the manual, in PDF form

video tutorials

meta refresh tag meets ASCII art

This animation is created from 8 html pages that cycle through using the META refresh tag.

Thinking about hidden messages

The Debian GNU/Linux package tool apt-get has an Easter egg involving an ASCII cow when variants on "apt-get moo" are typed into the shell.

Is there porn hidden in Disney animations?

Low-level All Stars is a collection of modified video start up screens from "crackers", those who hack/crack into video game copy protection.

What is steganography?

Da Vinci as cryptogropher

Then, the judge who ruled in a copyright case against Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown created his own secret message in the ruling!

embedding secret messages in sound and video files

Reading response ADE

i thought that some of the reading was actually irrelevant. however there were some interesting things in there also. i did not know that the tech term bug actually originated from a real bug flying into a computer, i thought that was interesting being that i am a comp sci major. and that Macs were actaully the first to introduce clickable icons since most people think that pcs were the first. i like the page about the world's first collaborative sentence, i thought that was pretty cool, however i dont know if i would go as far as calling it far, because most of it is jargons. i guess it all depends on one's individual definition of art.

faking the database

National Surveillance Agency

McDonald's spoof site

a type of form-art?
http://www.ronaldmchummer.com/

VIEW SOURCE : due 18 Sept

For the project VIEW SOURCE, use basic HTML to create a website with at least 5 pages, with one page of ASCII art in the source code and one page in which every word on the page is a link. Don't throw the site together randomly, think about what you want the site to be about (a theme, a topic, a story, an idea) and center your content around that. Worth 5% of semester grade.

FOR WEDNESDAY 13 September:
1-read Greene, p.6-64, post response to the class blog.
2-look at the examples of early internet art for inspiration:

-Make sure to view the source code of this project:
http://wwwwwwwww.jodi.org/ (1995)

-This is an example of a project in which each word on the page is a link:
Heath Bunting's _readme.html (1996)

-a weekly anthology of codework from Nettime (2002-2004)

-Here is some ASCII net art:
Deep ASCII, conversion of the classic porno film Deep Throat (1998)

-links to ASCII art generators- some are freeware that can be downloaded to your computer, some can be used directly from the website, and you can cut and paste the results into your text editor/HTML file

FOR MONDAY 18 September:
-finished site, no less than 5 pages. Don't forget your index.html page.
-You may not use a WYSIWYG editor like Dreamweaver of GoLive, rely only on your HTML book and any resources you might find on the web.
-The site should function as a coherent whole, not just something pieced together to fit the technical requirements.
-Upload it to your SMCM server space and check how it looks in different browsers.

BLOG ART : ongoing semester-long project

Your first assigment is to create a semester-long blog art project. Please see the my collection of blog art links to see what other artists have done. If you are new to blogging, I prefer that you use Blogger, but you may use other sites to host your project as well.

Many art courses will ask you to keep a sketchbook or idea log. Remember that "blog" is just a new word for JOURNAL. It is a collection of media that is posted over time. This media can include, but is not limited to: poetry, photos, audio, video, drawings, scans of images, site links, documentation of actions, anything that can be experienced through the web.

Please keep in mind that your blog project will need to be sustained for at least 3.5 months (September - mid December). Develop a concept that will allow you to post AT LEAST once a week. An idea that necessitates more frequent entries is okay too, but you must stick to this minimum. When developing your idea, make sure it is sustainable with your schedule (posting one entry every hour is definitely do-able but may require you to adjust your activities, like sleeping?!) Propose something that will remain exciting to you over the course of many weeks, or that might serve as a creative challenge to you. Also to consider: if your content relies on other people, how will you make sure that you are able to solicit their input in a timely way?

For Wednesday 30 August, please choose a blog art project to present to the class, and be able to talk about why you find it interesting. Also for Wednesday is the task of finding a very bad website!

Classes are not in session on Monday 4 September. Your homework is to develop a list of 10 possible blog art project ideas. Also check out my link to blog hosting sites and decide which one you will use.

18-20 Sept schedule

9-18
-HW: assignment 2: VIEW SOURCE is due
-in-class: Your SMCM Account, file structures, naming conventions, permissions, and using FTP.

9-20
-HW: read Greene, 65-116, post to Blackboard
-in-class: Images, scanning. jpg, gif formats, compression, palettes and bit depth, web-safe palette (216) and attributes.(height, width, border, etc.) background images

1969 art by telephone show

you can listen to an MP3 of the recording from this show at this website.

artist presentation topics

Lance - Nam June Paik
Tom - Lev Manovich
Ade - Alexei Shulgin
Nast'a - Julia Scher
Nathan - Tetsuo Kogawa
Sandra - SubRosa

Eleanor Antin

As more inspiration for your blog, consider the work of Eleanor Antin. In the 1972 piece "Carving, A Traditional Sculpture", Antin photographed herself over the course of many days during a diet, documenting her loss of weight as a kind of "carving" into her own body.

She also created a series of postcards in which she photographed hundreds of boots in different locations across the U.S.

11-13 Sept schedule

MON 11 Sept
-HW: You will present your findings about an artist/project to the class. I will be choosing the subjects for each person (please see "ASSIGNMENTS"). Plan to speak for 8 to 10 minutes and show examples. Find out as much as possible about the author(s), and be prepared to answer questions about the work.
-in-class: your presentations, intro to assignment 2: VIEW SOURCE. FT screens work. Bring your HTML books to class! Create and post your first entry for the blog art project. You will email the links to FT in class, and sign up for a Blogger account.

WED 13 Sept
-HW: read Greene, p.6-64, post response to the class blog...
-in-class: Complete pages 1-63 in HTML book. Work on assignment 2.

where is your local site?

When you create your first HTML page in the text editor, save it as "home.html" inside a folder called "web" on the desktop. When you go to the web browser to open it, this wil be the address that you will type into the browser to open the page:

file:///Users/YOURUSERNAME/Desktop/web/home.html

Of course you could just double click or drag it into the browser shortcut in the dock, but it's important to know the PATH, the set of directions to where your files are contained on the hard-drive.

Try it in different browsers: Firefox, Safari, Explorer.

Sophie Calle

French artist Sophie Calle often creates situations that allow her to investigate other people's lives.

In the series "The Hotel" (1986), she took a job as a housekeeper and took photos of other peoples' belongings, eavesdropping while she cleaned.

In another piece called "The Sleepers" (1979) she asked people to come sleep in her bed for 8 hours, each person replacing another, photographing them every hour and writing down everything they said.

And in 1983, the newspaper "Liberation" offered Calle 1/2 a page a day for the summer for a project. Calle used an old address book she found on the street, visiting each people listed inside asking them to tell her about the owner.

See a list of her projects in Wikipedia.

On Kawara, the original blogger

In a long-term piece called the "Today Series", On Kawara paints the day's date in black and white, each identical to one another. Each painting takes about 8 hours to create, and each that can't be finished on the same day are destroyed.

In another ongoing series started in the late 60s, Kawara sent postcards and telegrams to his friends which stated simply:
I AM STILL ALIVE.

He has also done another series called "I Went", a collection of maps in chronological order that mark he daily movements.

blog art : project 1

blog art :: project 1
Your first assigment is to create a semester-long blog art project. Please see the collection of links above to see what other artists have done. If you are new to blogging, I prefer that you use Blogger, but you may use other sites to host your project as well.

Many art courses will ask you to keep a sketchbook or idea log. Remember that "blog" is just a new word for JOURNAL. It is a collection of media that is posted over time. This media can include, but is not limited to: poetry, photos, audio, video, drawings, scans of images, site links, documentation of actions, anything that can be experienced through the web.

Please keep in mind that your blog project will need to be sustained for at least 3.5 months (September - mid December). Develop a concept that will allow you to post AT LEAST once a week. An idea that necessitates more frequent entries is okay too, but you must stick to this minimum. When developing your idea, make sure it is sustainable with your schedule (posting one entry every hour is definitely do-able but may require you to adjust your activities, like sleeping?!) Propose something that will remain exciting to you over the course of many weeks, or that might serve as a creative challenge to you. Also to consider: if your content relies on other people, how will you make sure that you are able to solicit their input in a timely way?

For Wednesday 30 August, please choose a blog art project to present to the class, and be able to talk about why you find it interesting. Also for Wednesday is the task of finding a very bad website!

Classes are not in session on Monday 4 September. Your homework is to develop a proposal for your blog art project (at least one paragraph) and post it to the Blackboard "Blogs" section by 11 pm Monday.
Also check out my link to blog hosting sites and decide which one you will use.