SMCM 333: Networked Art

everybody's web projects

2006-12-15T10:09:00.000-05:00

Nate: http://www.smcm.edu/users/nastraus/netneutrality/
Ade: http://www.smcm.edu/users/aoadeyokunnu/space/index.htm
Tom: http://www.smcm.edu/users/tmconkwright/network_art/netneut/index.html
Nastia: http://www.smcm.edu/users/adkrylova/Al%20Love/index/open.htm
Lance: http://www.smcm.edu/users/lwkallon/nnwebpage/Homepage.html

examples of simple image mapping

2006-12-03T12:09:00.000-05:00

The sites below have a hand-made feel because the creators created images in an editor like Photoshop, saved as 72 dpi JPG, and then used Dreamweaver to designate areas they wanted to serve as links. NOTE: This does not work well for long blocks of text, but it is good for making small things with fancy fonts.

http://www.larahoke.com/
http://www.busboysandpoets.com/

end of the semester schedule

2006-11-29T17:43:00.000-05:00

I'VE MOVED THE SCHEDULE TO THE TOP SO IT'S EASIER TO FIND.

Mon 21 November:
final SOUNDSCAPE sites uploaded
-group assessment form
-intro to final project

Th 23 November: give thanks

Fr 24 November: BUY NOTHING DAY

Mon 27 November: creative brief due
-What is the site about? Include background information and references to other works and contextual information.
-What are the goals & objectives of the site?
-How will you measure success for your site?
-Profile the target audience. Who are they? What do they care about? What are their expectations for a website?
-How do you want your audience to use your site?

Wed 29 Nov: creative brainstorming due
post a collection of images (collage them in photoshop) & a word association of at least 30 terms about your site's subject to the class blog
in-class work day: FHT at U. of Delaware for artist lecture

Mon 4 Dec: drawn site map due
These should be legible enough that you could hand them off to someone else and they would be able to make the site template (without content) for you. These sketches should show that you have taken into consideration the visual DESIGN of your site with the concepts we have been discussing in class. Bring to class:
1- final project site map + hand-drawn sketches of each page of the site in COLOR
2- a typed list that shows how you've addressed or not addressed the following elements:
point, line, form, texture, color, type, pattern, movement
balance, rhythm, proportion, dominance, unity
Check out these sites for more info:
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_of_design/
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/elements_of_design/
http://www.digital-web.com/articles/principles_and_elements_of_design/
3- Indicate how your site will use techniques besides regular HTML. This could be Javascript, Flash, or other coding to make your site more dynamic through the use of movement, content management or user input.

Wed 6 Dec prototype of site due
rough draft of project due for feedback. This means at least 3 pages should be ready for viewing. Individual meetings with Fereshteh

Wed 13 Dec: 7 PM
FINAL project uploaded and ready for critique

Collage(Lance)

2006-11-29T16:20:00.001-05:00

1. unjust
2. justice
3. greed
4. free
5. cultural integration
6. less network traffic
7. protest
8. verizon
9. AT&T
10. corporation
11. prioritization
12. win
13. lose
14. hope
15. inexpensive
16. expensive
17. control
18. filters
19. FBI surveillance
20. Carnivore
21. programmers
22. lack of open source
23. less resources
24.another reason to drop out of school
25. communication
26. lack of communication
27. facebook
28. myspace
29. blogger
30. youtube

nast'a's collage

2006-11-29T16:20:00.000-05:00

st albert
worship
love
peace
faith
good
light
robes
shine
motion
pronounce
declare
save
help
explain
coerce
bottles
trash
pollution
earth
environment
bright
dark
smog
steam
paper
waste
death
endangered
fun
exciting
listen
speak

collage (Tom)

2006-11-29T13:32:00.000-05:00

Internet
Freedom
Corporations
Revolution
Politics
Fighting Back
Restriction
Censorship
Control
Greed
Techno-War
Advertisement
Capitalistic
Government
Apathy
Action
Media
Uncontrollable
Outrage
Hacking
Damaging
Backlash
Education
Un-American
Commercial
Sad
Limitless
Limitations
Tyranny
Invasive

collage(nate)

2006-11-28T14:55:00.000-05:00

1. net
2. neutrality
3. web
4. world
5. wide
6. internet
7. source
8. open
9. free
10. individual
11. company
12. corporation
13. business
14. exchange
15. money
16. information
17. download
18. upload
19. create
20. post
21. build
22. navigate
23. design
24. purpose
25. cause
26. opportunity
27. closed
28. bandwidth
29. line
30. end-to-end

collage(Ade)

2006-11-27T18:47:00.000-05:00

list of words:

1. space
2. rocket
3. stars
4. outerspace
5. astronauts
6. nigerian flag
7. telescope
8. coat of arms
9. planets
10. nasa
11. big dipper
12. gravity
13. moon
14. jupiter
15. far
16.poor
17. girl
18. darkness
19. black hole
20. satelite
21. ozone
22. camp
23. children
24. activities
25. money
26. kennedy space center
27. constellation
28. galaxy
29. wormhole
30. sci-fi

favicons

2006-11-27T13:23:00.000-05:00

http://www.degraeve.com/favicon/ : favicon generator
http://www.256pixels.com/ : daily favicon contest
http://www.chami.com/html-kit/services/favicon/ : favicon from pics and animated favicons

MON in-class screening

2006-11-27T12:54:00.000-05:00

Critical Art Ensemble Defense Fund
CAE on MSNBC (.mov file)

creative brainstorming tips

2006-11-27T01:59:00.000-05:00

For Wednesday, make a collage of images showing visual research about your topic and post it to the class blog by 4pm, along with a list of at least 30 words. This can be a free association, which means you should write down whatever comes to mind even if it seems like it's unrelated. I will give you feedback on these entries as you work on your site maps for next week.

Click here for an example of what your collage might look like, that I made about the subject of "video".

This research collage is from a designer who created Actively Mobile. Check out the link to learn more about her process.

good use of rollovers + movement

2006-11-20T22:34:00.000-05:00

BORDER film project - rollover with words of the title also serves as site navigation

This portfolio site for Matthew Voscovo makes use of Flash rollovers and movement.

This site for custom-made glasses frames was created in Dreamweaver with simple image maps and coloring with line drawings.

This site about mountain caribou in Canada features a simple animation that emphasizes that this animal is an endangered species.

Free Range Grain is a tactical media project with a graphically compelling web presence.

The Yes Men movie

2006-11-20T17:05:00.000-05:00

The entire movie is available for viewing on Google Video. LINK.
The Yes Men website
See also their most recent presentation about slavery at Wharton Business School in Philadelphia

St. Mary's Construction IN SOUND

2006-11-20T13:31:00.001-05:00

Heres a link to Tom and Lance's site.

nate, ade & nastia's site

2006-11-20T13:31:00.000-05:00

the vint mint anthology

network neutrality

2006-11-20T11:28:00.000-05:00

Here is the link for the open-source documentary video we watched in class:
Humanity Lobotomy

See also: http://www.savetheinternet.com/

Here is a RESOURCE LIST from Mark Cooley, an artist who will be visiting campus for a lecture next semester:

WHO OWNS THE MEDIA?
Media concentration, also known as media convergence or media consolidation, basically comes down to the fact that fewer and fewer companies own the media. Mediachannel.org has created a comprehensive chart of exactly who owns what. http://www.mediachannel.org/ownership/chart.shtml

Colombia Journalism Review provides a clickable list of the major media companies and their holdings. This web guide demonstrates the exceedingly far reach of these companies.
http://www.cjr.org/owners/

This is a clickable chart of the ten largest media companies in the world, current as of Dec. 20, 2001 (it is important to note that media concentration is not only an American problem). It includes US companies such as the Walt Disney Company and AOL Time Warner, as well as international giants Bertelsmann and Vivendi Universal.
http://www.thenation.com/special/bigten.html

A graph of media ownership shows the number of corporations in control of US media plunging from 50 in 1983 to only six now. It is followed by a really useful list of links, which includes the major media reform advocacy groups.
http://www.corporations.org/media/

As FAIR explains, "Almost all media that reach a large audience in the United States are owned by for-profit corporations--institutions that by law are obligated to put the profits of their investors ahead of all other considerations. The goal of maximizing profits is often in conflict with the practice of responsible journalism."
This brief introduction to corporate ownership of the media is followed by a number of links to resources on the topic, including Normon Solomon's columns.
http://www.fair.org/media-woes/corporate.html

EXAMPLES OF A DECLINE IN MEDIA QUALITY
Print and broadcast media in the US have severely cut back foreign news coverage, leading to a poorly educated American public. This may be one of the reasons that Americans were so shocked by the events of Sept. 11--they have little to no knowledge of politics, ideology, and religion in the rest of the world. Meanwhile, coverage of crime, violence, sex and scandals has greatly increased. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/0927-03.htm

FAIR answers the question "What's Wrong With the News?" with a clickable list of very short introductions to the following issues:
- corporate ownership
- advertiser influence
- official agendas
- telecommunications policy
- the narrow range of debate
- the PR industry
- pressure groups
- censorship
- sensationalism
http://www.fair.org/media-woes/media-woes.html

DEREGULATION SPEEDS CONCENTRATION
This is an excellent and brief summary of the new push for deregulation of the media industry by the FCC. Generally, a source like this might be expected to take a sympathetic view toward any efforts to deregulate, but this article is surprisingly skeptical. It is particularly useful in briefly critiquing the almost utopian hopes of web advocates. Websites may be relatively cheap, but good (or at least flashy) content costs money, and the big media companies have used this fact to insert themselves as the dominant presence on the web.
http://www.moveon.org/r?11

This article discusses the FCC's move towards deregulation in more detail. Deregulation is based on the perspective that the media is a product only, a "toaster with pictures." There seems to be little or no recognition of any need for policies that maintain a diversity of opinion, thus serving the interests of the public as citizens; rather, the public is regarded only as a group of consumers. The results of this deregulation will most likely be an even more acute concentration of the media into the hands of a few big corporations. However, there is still time to fight it, and the article includes information on writing to the FCC. http://www.democraticmedia.org/issues/mediaownership

FCC Chairman Michael Powell is currently the driving force behind the continuing trend of media concentration. Nor does he seem very concerned about the creation of media monopolies. According to Powell, "Monopoly is not illegal by itself in the United States. People tend to forget this. There is something healthy about letting innovators try to capture markets." And what about diversity? Well, Powell believes that "[d]iversity and all that stuff is very important, but it's hard to get a consensus on what it is, other than that the goals are worthy."
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.03/mergers.html

Other resources:

http://www.mediastudies.com
http://www.prwatch.org
http://www.fair.org
http://www.mediachannel.org
http://www.znet.org
http://www.disinfo.com

promoting your site : 22 November

2006-11-14T20:09:00.000-05:00

You must complete ALL of the following for the launch of your SOUNDSCAPE site.
We don't have class that day, but please e-mail me the links and info about your promotions by 22 November (Wednesday). You may wait until after the Thanksgiving break to post the fliers for the site on campus.

-place key search terms in your META tag on every page of the site

tips from wikihow.com:
Regarding on-page scripting, the search engines are really looking for 2 things: keywords in the Meta and Title fields and keywords in the body of your website. Regarding Meta Tags, there are 2 very important fields:

Title Tag - arguably the most important SEO(search engine optimization) tag for any website. Google supports approx. 60 characters in the title, while Yahoo allows for up to 110 characters in the title. It is important to target the most critical keywords in the Title. Every page should have a unique Title.
META Description Tag - also very important for every page on the site. Some engines do display the description defined, while others do not. All search engines do read the description tag, and do utilize the content found within in the ranking process. A good rule of thumb is to create descriptions that do not exceed 200-250 characters. The META keyword Tag is essentially useless in today's SEO market, but is often times good to utilize as a placeholder for the keywords targeted.

-Get a Creative Commons license for your site

-Make at least 50 fliers and post them around campus.

-Submit a press release to at least one campus publication and one county publication (newspaper, radio, tv)

- Submit your site URL to the major search engines (Google, Yahoo, MSN) and directories (DMOZ).

- Seek out a forum at http://www.somd.com/ on a subject related to your site and join in on the conversation. Set up a signature linking to your site, and add it to your post. This will act as a mini advertisement for your site. Be sure to make relevant contributions, rather than posts that are obvious self-promotion.

AND at least 2 of the following:

-Purchase a unique domain name for your site.
It costs less than $10 per year but the return on investment is huge.

-Include your site link in your email signature.

-Link the project URL to your blog, MySpace, Facebook, Flickr, etc

-Get Clustrmaps for your site.

Blithe Riley's lecture (Nast'a)

2006-11-13T20:01:00.000-05:00

As an art student, I would first like to say that I am often humbled by the work of established artists and feel unqualified to critisize their methods or final pieces. Critiquing an artist without seeing myself as a lowly college student (tear..:) in the role of the critic is difficult, but I feel that it needs to be done in order to be honest in my response.
I find Riley's work to be interesting and confusing at the same time. (I must add that today's presentation did not do justice to the work because of the technological difficulties with the sound.) The work is interesting to me because Riley is looking to engage the audience. In "Shaker, Crawler, Wall" she invites the audience to browse the spaces that she has created, mostly by greeting the audience with a massive cylindrical structure in the middle of the room and more directly with the Wall component, that asks the viewer to physically penetrate the object on display. The "Belief Objects" project is the most direct- at this point in her process her and her artist-collaborator buddy are collecting interviews on the topic of the interviewees' belief systems. Riley flat-out said that she wants to learn from her audience. I also picked up that she was interested in observing people as they moved through the spaces of the "S,C,W" project and even evesdropping on their conversations (when she acted as the person hidden within the wall space.)

I found myself confused when I realized that I don't really understand the connections between the three elements of the "S,C, W" project. She spoke about the projects' seed as the election of 2004 and the misinformation of the time. The wall part makes sense when under the umbrella of the term "misinformation"- a person approaches a hard, cold looking object, inserts their hands into gloves patterned in brick and can see a prerecorded image of their hands interacting with another set of hands. In her desription of the Shaker part on the web, she discusses the dualism in the shaker as a celibate person who uses extremely violent looking gestures to reach a higher spiritual state. Even though I can kind of understand the logic of this fact being seen as dualistic- I can't really commit myself to believing that it is. To me it makes perfect sense that an ascetic would exhaust a certain type of physical and mental faculty but leave the sexual one untouched. There is also no indication in the video that the Shakers were celibate.

I liked the strange quality of the videos Riley presented. They have this early 90's feel to them, which says to me that the artist is interested in questioning the way that media presents information. The sound effects in the "defunct" tower project, however, seemed maybe a bit too outdated for the futuristic looking content. The character's movement from the video projections into real time was to me the most clear indication of her interest in reality vs. fiction and the media's ability to morph reality into fiction. This is about the only connection that I made to the mention of the election.

Looking forward to seeing where her "Belief Project" takes her!

Blithe Riley TODAY

2006-11-13T11:22:00.000-05:00

Blithe will be joining us in class to critique your website before her lecture TODAY!

LIBRARY 321, 4:30 PM

Check out her recent project, shown here, at this link:
Shaker, Crawler, Wall 2005

WED 11-08

2006-11-08T12:57:00.000-05:00

Today we will spend some time analyzing DESIGN.

Although many popular and well-designed sites use Flash or advanced scripting, there is a lot we can still learn from the VISUAL aspects of the design itself: the color scheme, font, the sense of space and the aesthetics are important above any movement. Think about the structure and concept for your sites. Imagine them without movement, focusing only on the visual elements. Make a list of how they fit the parameters listed in this article from Digital Web Magazine: Principles and Elements of Design
With your group, compile a list to verify how the site addresses these parameters:
-balance
-rhythm
-proportion
-dominance
-point
-line
-form
-color

NASTIA, ADE, NATE:
Remember Segregation

TOM, LANCE:
Style Wars

More info to think about as you refine your project:
web-designers "pre-flight checklist"

reading questions (nastia)

2006-11-08T11:36:00.000-05:00

Software art is art that incorporates computer programs into the art-making process. Often this means that a piece built with software has a certain amount of autonomy, meaning that the artist steps away from the piece and lets the computer program direct its activity. The artist can still manipulate the piece by altering the source code of the program. Artists often create their own software in order to allow for more control of the project. Software art has been used as a tool of democratization, giving the artist control over areas predominantly powered by commercial and governmental monopolies and also by engaging the audience to participate in the piece.

An example of Tactical Media is the project “Barbie Liberation Organization.”
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, a group of artist activists, staged the “Barbie Liberation Organization,” a project in which they bought talking Barbie and GI Joe dolls from a store and switched the inside mechanisms that make the dolls talk. The toys were then returned to the store.

The original Carnivore is a program used by the FBI to access information that is being sent over the internet. The Radical Software Group learned about this software and became motivated to mimic it's activity. The technology used to do this "eaves-dropping" is called "packet-sniffing." The data that is collected by this technology is then converted into visual art when it is processed by artist created interfaces. The software has only been used in closed-in areas so far, but is supposedly going to be available to the average computer user.

Minerva Cuevas's site which features "Mejor Vida Corporation."
http://www.irational.org/minerva/projects.html

reading questions(lance)

2006-11-08T10:02:00.000-05:00

Software art is the art of writing programs in software that is capable of generating artistic figures. Due to the availability of open source, several artists write and share programs that allow a user to enter in their input that will modify the art piece.

The tactical media group, The Yes Men generated a lot of attention with their campaign ‘The Management Leisure Suit’. The group successfully infiltrated a Fabrics of the future conference at the Tampere Technical University in Finland. Two men posed as World Trade Organization representatives and gave a presentation about a management leisure suit. The suit was an outfit built for monitoring employee activity, via a wireless communication unit. Towards the end of the presentation, the two men demonstrated their invention which revealed a bodysuit with a monitor mounted on top. This infiltration was made possible by one of the websites owned by The Yes Men, http://www.gatt.org, which looks nearly identical to the WTO’s actual website, http://www.wto.org.

As a result of the FBI’s dataveillance software DC1000, the Radical Software Group was inspired by this technology and made a parody named Carnivore. Carnivore acted as an internet traffic surveillance system that monitored emails, instant messages, and web surfing in a specific local network. The clients that this system would monitor would be other artist.

Link (Glyphiti 2001 by Andy Deck)

reading questions (tom)

2006-11-07T19:44:00.000-05:00

Software art is a basically program that makes art. There are many variations on this concept, but usually it involves some kind of initial input which it then takes and modifies to create art.

A recent work by graffiti artist Banksy and Danger Mouse took Paris Hilton's new album and modified both tracks and insert booklet. They made 500 copies and placed them the stacks with originals. It walks a thin line of tactical media and culture jamming. There's some more on it here Link

Carnivore was an FBI program created to monitor a person's internet traffic. RGS took this and made an art piece out of it, designed to mimic Carnivore's gathering of information, while reinterpreting what it does with the information.

Link
Hardwood/Mongrel's Uncomfortable Proximity. Pretty much every link except for "home" takes you somewhere weird.

WED reading- Ade

2006-11-07T19:41:00.000-05:00

Software art is art that is made on a computer by using a software to produce it, either by coding the software or manipulating open source code to make software art.

Example of tactical art is maphub.com, which is an online interactive map for pittsburgh created by people at carnegie mellon where people share local information about their neighborhoods.

Carnivore was a FBI program that was created to basically spy on people and invade their privacy by monitoring all thier internet activitives like email etc. RSG responded by making thier own sort of mockery version of carnivore, where they have a server, and other artists act like clients.

Carnivore - rsg

reading for WED (Nate)

2006-11-07T15:57:00.000-05:00

Software art can be anything software generated on a computer without the input of the original artist/creator of the software beyond its initial programming. The software creates its art based on the programming rules it was given and external input (other users input if it is open software, algorithms to create procedurally generated output, and through routine based behavior in response to other users).

Fthevote.com: A work by the Carbon Defense League where they offered sex to anyone in exchange for them to sign agreement that they would vote for anyone but G.W. Bush.
(http://www.carbondefense.org/projects.html)

The original Carnivore was the nickname of an FBI created dataveillance software, DCS1000. RSG used the name to create a work inspired by the original program and in response to the increased surveillance/dataveillance laws passed after September 11. Its purpose is to comment on the collecting of information granted by these laws and with the original Carnivore.

Glyphiti- by Andy Deck

SHOPACALYPSE NOW!

2006-11-06T14:54:00.000-05:00

REVEREND BILLY AND THE CHURCH OF STOP SHOPPING

Performance: Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir
Thursday Nov 9, 8pm, Monty 25 (where the music recitals are held)

Lecture: Bill Talen and savitri d of Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping will lecture on their work
Friday Nov 10
10am-11am
Boyden Gallery

Workshop: learn how to be a retail interventionist!
Immediately following the lecture
Friday Nov 10
11am-12pm
Boyden Gallery

reading for WED

2006-11-06T12:05:00.000-05:00

For WED, read Greene 152-182

Answer the following questions IN YOUR OWN WORDS. You may look up resources outside of the book, but your answers should NOT directly quote the book or Wikipedia or other sources:

-What is software art?
-Give one example of a "tactical media" project that is not discussed in the book.
-What is the original Carnivore and what was RSG's response to it?
-Look up and link to a site of one the artist projects that are mentioned in the book.

PS files

2006-10-29T11:46:00.000-05:00

strand_keywest.psd
bigmean.psd
plumbago.jpg
banana_split.psd
ali_snow.psd

recording and Audacity

2006-10-25T12:54:00.000-04:00

manual for the Sony MZ-NF610

Remember, you will need a stereo mic and a stereo XLR-mini adaptor when you check out a microphone from Media Services.

Tutorials due for Monday: http://www.edhsonline.org/other/audacity/

CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.1- BEFORE you open Audacity, trash your preferences. This means that you will remove any settings and configurations from previous work sessions, so that you can start with a clean slate every time. Go to your HOME directory > LIBRARY > PREFERENCES > Audacity Preferences. It is a stand-alone file. Send it to the TRASH! (See above screen capture image for an illustration of the path).

2- Open Audacity directly from the applications folder, not from the dock and not by double clicking on your project file. Then open your .aup file through FILE > OPEN.

3- CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.
Before working in Audacity, EVERYTIME YOU OPEN THE PROGRAM, you need to set your scratch disks. This process tells the program where you will be storing your work files. Go to PREFERENCES > DIRECTORY and choose the FOLDER that you created on the DESKTOP for your project. You may have to restart the program, but you will not have to re-set the scratch disks until the next time you log on.

4- Save early and often.

5- Check the forums for advice

DC field trip Thursday 9 November

2006-10-24T17:15:00.000-04:00

still from Jesper Just's
Something to Love, 2005
Let me know by class time on WEDNESDAY whether you will go on the art department field trip to DC on Thursday November 9th. We will leave promptly from the parking lot in front of the rec center at 8:30 am to go to the Hirschhorn Museum together to see some moving images! We will return no later than 5:00.

Folks who don't go to DC will need to go to the Reverend Billy performance at 8pm Thursday in lieu of the trip, so you will need to choose one or the other (I recommend both!)

You will also need a waiver slip which is signed by your parents if you are under 21. If this is a problem for you, please contact me... Don't let this hold you back from going on the trip.

SOUNDSCAPE : project description

2006-10-23T11:22:00.000-04:00

SOUNDSCAPE: audio-visual portrait of a place
FINAL DEADLINE: 20 November
Teams: Lance & Tom ~ Nastia, Ade, Nate

You will build a website that creates an audio-visual portrait of a place. This can either be the college or another site of your own choosing. If you choose another site like a state park, business, or residence, you must be prepared for the the responsibility to travel there regularly to do your research and gather your materials.

1-Your first set of audio recordings will focus on concrete sounds, recording human-made, industrial, and natural sounds that represent different parts of the place and what goes on in the environment there.

2-Your second set of audio recordings will focus on the people who live, work, and play there. Depending on the diversity of the place, you should aim to target a broad range of people for your interviews: People of different AGES, ETHNICITY, GENDERS. Depending on your site, this may be a mix between personal and professional information, you need to decide what’s appropriate and interesting.

3- You will bring these audio portraits together for presentation through a website. You may use Dreamweaver, Flash, HTML, or any other tool that you would like to create the site. Use the Lynda.com tutorials for more information.

MON 23 OCT:
HW: read websites posted on the class blog – MANDATORY- each person will be asked to address one of the readings so you must be prepared to present a summary about one in-class. We will visit media services and try out our equipment.

WED 25 OCT: site proposals due – See handout for more details, but think about the following:
Who will you interview, what kind of sounds will you record? What is your schedule & time-line for the work? What is the angle? How will the audio fit with the site images and design? Who is the audience? What is your goal.
SITE MAP: make a site map on paper
DESIGN ROUGH: bring in full-color sample, printed, of what your page design will look like, drafted in Photoshop or some other imaging program

MON 30 Oct: Audacity tutorials & check out mics to start recording.
More info about Audacity here.
BLOG swap over the weekend with the following people (entries should be made by Monday)
Nastia will post for Ade
Tom will post for Lance
Nate will post for Nastia
Ade will post for Nate
Lance will post for Tom

WED 1 Nov: finish concrete recordings, be ready to edit

MON 6 Nov: VERSION 1 of site – at least 3 pages with uploaded recordings

WED 8 Nov: finish recordings for version 2, be ready to edit

MON 13 Nov: VERSION 2 of site + response to artist lecture by Rev. Billy
we will have guest critiques with visiting artist Blithe Riley

WED 15 Nov: PR for site and thank-yous

MON 20 Nov: final site up and ready for viewing/listening

5 for 5 for Monday

2006-10-19T18:09:00.000-04:00

Each of you will be responsible for presenting one of the following 5 sites to the class, but you won't know which one until you arrive. So you should be prepared to give a 5-minute summary about all 5. You can consult notes but you should be able to talk about each item without looking at the site itself.

1- Interview Guide - Sound Portraits
2- Principles of Design for the Web
3- The Art of Noise - 1913, Luigi Russolo
4- Site Structure (Section 1 only)
5- about digital audio (Audacity tutorial 1)

OTHER LINKS related to the next project:
Sonic Arts Network
Sonic Postcards
Janet Cardiff at the Hirschhorn
Phonography.org
Transom.org
Location-Dislocation
Listening to Nature
Falling Echos - Bill Fontana
I am Driving Through Sound Space
Silence of the Lands
Sound Transit
Wake up Call
Sonic City
Audiomobile
LocoSound
MapHub
Garbagescout in NYC
Frappr
Crossfade
Broadcast your Podcast

NON-EXISTENT project sites

2006-10-18T16:32:00.000-04:00

For each of you, I've pointed out a strong feature of your site, as well as a lesson that can be learned FOR EVERYONE as we create our next project:

Negated Socks - Lance
GOOD: The use of multiple but consistent images gives a good sense of the products available.
BAD: At 180 PPI, the images are too big, and take too long to appear. All images made for the screen should be set at 72 DPI. This is the maximum resolution for screen-based work (web, video, etc)

Spiritual Depth - Nastia
GOOD: Using an image editor to create the layouts for the site pages allowed her to have maximum control over the design elements.
BAD: The size of her pages are a little too big and thus can get cut off by those looking at the pages on a smaller screen or laptop. In this case in particular, the links are low and may not be visible unless the user expands the browser. A good rule of thumb is to make your website fit in a browser that is 800x600 pixels. See this link for an illustration of the sizes.

LogiCorp - Nate
GOOD: The copy reads easily and is low on typos and spelling errors. It's also funny.
BAD: The background color and site layout changes with each page, so the user doesn't know what to expect. Consistency and repeted elements are crucial to creating a cohesive design for the web.

Pillow Alarm - Ade
GOOD: site navigation bar remains consistent and user knows what to expect with each page
BAD: The color scheme doesn't seem to relate to the product for sale. The red-on-blue "vibrates" and is difficult to read. For more information on color theory for the web, go to this link.

Parental Rentals - Tom
GOOD: In a site with very few colors and a lot of text, Tom took advantage of changing font size & style and color-bar dividers to organize his information.
BAD: We associate underlines with links, so having unlinked items underlined can be a little confusing or distracting for the user. Remember that style sheets are cascading, meaning that they have a hierarchy of preference to those at the level closest to the item.

how to FTP

2006-10-16T21:00:00.000-04:00

Your server space accounts are ready now. Using Fugu (DO NOT USE CYBERDUCK), or any other File Transfer Protocol program (aka FTP), you can access space to store your files. You must make an index.html page for your site, as well as an image folder.

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.

mid-term!

2006-10-15T20:58:00.000-04:00

We are at the mid-term, and that means we need to assess our progress in the class.

WHAT THIS MEANS:

1-I will be grading the blog art projects on Monday 16 Oct, as well as the final component for ID SWAP, the exhibit we are hanging.

The blog project was due to have its first post on Sept 11, so you should have 6 entries by 16 October.

2- On Monday, we will meet in the classroom before going upstairs so that we can discuss the feedback you gave me on the teaching evaluation. Also, grades are now posted to Blackboard. While everyone works to hang the show, I will meet individually with folks to check-in about your progress. Please review your grades over the weekend so that we are on the same page and make sure to have all your ID SWAP exhibit materials ready, including any special items you might need to hang.

3- As some of our projects were postponed, we need to re-work our project and grade weights for the rest of the semester. I have e-mailed you a PDF with the project outline from the beginning of the semester. Please send me your vote by E-MAIL by Tuesday at noon.

4- Don't forget to post to the blog S. Rigg artist talk.

Lecture (Tom)

2006-10-15T20:02:00.000-04:00

I liked a lot of Rigg's ideas, and I liked the performative nature of her work, but I felt like some things could be either done or articulated a little better. She'd explain the point of a project and then say how something unexpected happened, and changed things some, ad wouldn't always explain how things were changed and what that really meant to her. I'm a fan of leaving things open and leaving things to chance, and letting circumstances change a project, but I would have like to have known more about her thoughts on what the changes meant for her.
The "Micro Army" project had a great concept, and I understand that doing it at night was an issue because of daytime security, but to have it simply swept away in the wee hours to not really be seen made the project almost a moot point. All that was left was the documentation which, while important, I think would have been much more effective if there was documentation of peoples reactions. Like if she got 40/50 people to storm the front steps during lunch hour, set everything up in 20 seconds and scatter would have been more effective then 2/3 people setting it up in the middle of the night.
I liked the "Trade Talks," much like the FolkTalk people there was a great ammount of information to be accumulated by random people. Another small peice of everything that is out there is documented somewhere. The street perfomance thing was also interesting to me. Having some friends who are interested in the "reclaiming of public space" and are into graffiti and things, this one had a nice twist of how to take control of a public space. To set the atmosphere of a block of so has got to be fun to be a part of.

Siobhan Rigg (Nate)

2006-10-15T16:28:00.000-04:00

Upon first entering Siobhan's website I was a bit confused on exactly what the artist's style was. One project had model tanks and planes made out of cigarette boxes, while another had people standing on street corners. At first, it was very hard for me to understand the goal trying to be achieved. Some of the work is based on veiwing reality in a different way and changing one's perception (like the circuit diagram, district C and castles for people), others attempted to point out/highlight information that might otherwise go unnoticed (redistributions, microarmy), and a few just appeared to about listening to people (liberty avenue, city inside, trade talks). I may be entirely off-base with this assumption of the theme of this project, but what I felt united all of these sepearate projects as a whole was not what the projects were about or the message they were conveying, instead they were about how people were to view them. They could interact with all of the perfomances and shows, however the contact was very passive. The subjects of each piece did not seem forced upon the audience, the audience could choose to react how they pleased and if they pleased. Even in the District C project, that seemed the most engaging to its audience, it depended still upon the interest of the listener to convey its message. I feel that there is something very moving about this style of presentation. I went to a show in the white room a few years ago that reminded me a lot of this method of audience involvement and perception of reality. The show did not tell the audience when to speak or even to speak but was sort of an onstage experiment as to when/wether the audience would begin to interact with the performance.

Lecture(Lance)

2006-10-15T13:02:00.000-04:00

During the lecture I found several of the projects that the speaker took part in very interesting. Fristly, "The Micro Army" was a project using four hundred to five hundred plastic soldieers. These soldiers were placed an attack on the SEI institute. They were asisted by tanks made out of cigarettes. The purpose of this project was that the micro army were invading an environment that was highly secured by the officials.
Another project that I found interest in was titled "Trade Talks". In this project she acted as a waitress serving lunch to people who were willing to talk about their working experience in pittsburgh, pennsylvania. She wanted to know the history about pittsburgh. I found this as an interesting method to obtain information from people. Overall, I enjoyed the lecture and the projects that she presented.

Siobhan Rigg (by Nast'a)

2006-10-12T20:57:00.000-04:00

I found Siobhan Rigg's lecture both inspiring and confusing. From what I understood, her work, roughly put, is a continual questioning of our perceptions of reality. "Reality" obviously involves everything, including history, science, news stories, celebrity gossip, ect. Her work shows the audience that the truth is constantly being constructed by the people who live in it or around it or at a distance. The beautiful thing about her work, even though it seems to be very politically driven, is that she is not pushing her own ideas down anybody's throat. Instead, she often engages normal people to participate in her work, thus creating an unscripted fate for each project. She sets certain parameters, welcomes certain expectations but then lets the project take to the wheel and shape itself into an event that becomes a learning experience for everyone involved, herself included. I particularly loved the little army guy's attack project, and could feel the frustration that must have arrived when the police showed up and swept everything up. If she has the chance and the motivation, I think this would be worth re-doing, perhaps in a more timely and/or discreet fashion, in the middle of the day. I think outside human interaction with the set up would have been extremely interesting to see, because the set up is so cryptic and silly at the same time.

The reason I found her presentation confusing was that there was no clearly outlined thread tying the various projects together. The other reason I found it confusing was simply because usually I have at least one question stored in my brain at the end of a lecture. This time, I couldn't come up with anything. Perhaps that is a good sign, because it might mean that she had answered all possible questions within her presentation, but for some reason I doubt that. I'm still confused about this, so I don't really know.

Lecture(Ade)

2006-10-11T21:59:00.000-04:00

the art talk today was very interesting, i have seen some one approach art in the way she did. it makes things alot more interesting than the usual type of art. i really liked the circuit one with the projection of the parade going into the wall outlet. it was cool how the bands looked like they were walking into the wall outlet. the one with the tour of the avenue in pittsburg was also very interesting. especially the part with the peep show, i was shocked to hear that he mad 60 dollars off that.

HELP! me decide!

2006-10-10T08:52:00.000-04:00

Fellow ART333 comrades- I need your creative help.

I am hoping to stage a short performance piece in Cole Cinema right before/after the screening of "Inconvenient Truth," St. Al Gore's movie. I was thinking about setting up the shrine outside and inviting people to bow down to Gore with me. Or should I just be a crazy fanatic? With posters and an outfit to match? Or should I actually interrupt the movie with an Al Gore worshipping rant? Any ideas? Suggestions? I'll do it! Help me look like a fool, please! Thank you!!!

A belated list of Nastia's Ideas

2006-10-10T08:40:00.000-04:00

I realize this is late and probably useless, but just to be (as) fair (as possible,) here is a list of ideas. I believe that I am going to go for #1 still, but if somebody has an objection, please do voice it! Thanks.

1. Spiritual Depth Pills
2. Clean Room Illusion (to trick mother)
3. A CD that Installs Friends on Myspace, Facebook, etc.
4. Rent a Chauffeur on Occasion (impress friends and co-workers!)

5.Ready-made Al Gore Shrines for Sale

nastia is writing something!

2006-10-10T01:43:00.000-04:00

Hello dear friends. I have finally (with much of Fereshteh's help) figured out how to post on this Blog. So yes- thank you and boy do I have things missing.

My project is as promised- an Al Gore Lovefest. Al Gore has been appearing a lot in the news recently, mostly in conjunction with his new movie "An Inconvinient Truth." I am pretending (not quite sure if still in the pretending stages or if I have successfully brainwashed myself) to be an Al Gore fanatic named Marina Vanylovna. The important detail is that not only am I a BIG FAN, but a fan who is completely obsessed by the idea that Al Gore is the modern day saint. St. Albert, as I have begun to refer to His Grandeur, enjoys a comfortable shrine in my living room, a worship space on www.myspace.com (the URL is http://www.myspace.com/115604100), on www.religiousforums.com (thank you for the idea, Tom!) as well as occasional appearances in chat rooms such as talkcity.

I have learned that Myspace, even though it can be idea-friendly, is mostly used as a social networking space. People are generally disinterested in engaging in any kind of meaningful conversation. Chat rooms are usually also used for two-syllable banter. Even those that are titled "depression help." The farthest I got in exchanging ideas there was a referal to a psychiatrist. Religious forums is where I have found the (closest to an) ideal space for conversation revolving St. Albert. Some people appear to be actually curious about my beilefs. This is outside of the fact that an article that I published on the site was quickly pulled due to a certain rule #19, which states that apparently, members cannot promote their personal beliefs on the site. Also an interesting thing, considering that the point of the site is to exchange ideas. Some have labeled me as a spammer and chose to ignore my posts. A number of my posts have been refered to the big fish and deleted. One Forum was a discussion of whether or not Jesus was and/or should have been a vegetarian. I asked if St. Albert is and/or should be also. Someone just couldn't handle the "silliness" and chose to report me to the religious forum cops. I almost got kicked off the site.

Once I was kicked out of a chat room that was for teens only and another time I was silenced because everybody became annoyed with my sappy story. St. Albert and I have definitely been on quite an adventurous whirl through the cyber world. Keep a lookout for Marina's performance piece at Wed's screening of "An Inconvenient Truth" in Cole Cinema.

9-16 October schedule

2006-10-04T21:40:00.000-04:00

MON 9 Oct : no class, reading day

WED 11 Oct
-finish tutorials ~ p.161
-organize files for the hallway exhibit & bring files to print in color (FT will pay/swipe card)
-bring INDEX page for NON-EXISTENT project

+++ REQUIRED ART LECTURE: Siobhan Rigg, 4:45 PM WED IN LIBRARY 321 +++

MON 16 Oct
HW: all items for hallway exhibit should be printed and ready to hang, including sculptural objects and other items for your characters
HW: post response to class blog about Siobhan Rigg artist talk
HW: deadline to clean-up your BLOG PROJECT for the mid-term grade
in-class: we will be hanging the show

WED 18 Oct
HW: NON-EXISTENT site due, posted to smcm.edu. Go here for review of how to FTP.

PIMP YOUR BLOG : October 16

2006-10-04T21:00:00.000-04:00

I will be assessing your blog projects for the mid-term on OCTOBER 16.
This is your deadline to clean-up anything and to include content you have yet to add or design changes you want to make.

I will be checking for the following items:

- you have signifiicantly changed the design of your blog template and customized your blog as it applies, such as changing colors and fonts or adding extra content like contacts, groups, comments, etc
- you have created a full profile with name, your photo, and project or personal info
- you have created links to relevant websites on your blog (side bar is not set to default)
- you have added images to audio posts or audio to image posts, as relevant, or notes to photos in the case of Flickr (photos should be of the actual events and people, not stock images from the web)
- you have created specific descriptions for your entries that give additional and interesting information about the post... if you are having other people contribute to the blog, then we need to know something more about them, your relationship to them (did you find a stranger on the street, and what made you stop to talk to him/her, etc)
- if you are asking other people to create content for your blog, you have made an effort to solicit a wide range of people, not just your friends
- you have made an active campaign to get the word out and encourage people to comment on your blog

ID Swap Summary(Lance)

2006-10-04T14:45:00.000-04:00

For my identity swap I created an avatar name Alejandro Gallacher. This character was synonmous to the character Duarnis Perez that I read about in a news article. Duarnis was a victim of injustice. He was an immigrant who became a naturalized citizen through his mom. As a result of a drug conviction, Duarnis was deported back to his country. Upon his entrance back into the US Duarnis was captured and placed in prison for 3 and a half years. Acting as the character Duarnis placed in a position where I justice had to be served. I find that the bureaucracy is at fault for deporting immigrants that are citizens of the US. I feel that it is their responsibility to keep track of everyones status. In second life, I was able to convey my thoughts to other avators. Some were supportive and some were passive. Overall I recieved a good feedback from several. It was worth making a project about especially in the second life community.

ID swap summary (Nate)

2006-10-04T14:37:00.000-04:00

My original project design was to log on to one of these MMORPGs (secondlife, there.com, simsonline) , create an avatar, and have that avatar tell her story of how she was caught up in a military coup in Bangkok, Thailand. And. how suddenly it became to dangerous for her to stay there so she dissappears. Eventually she would return to tell her online friends that she is ok and safely back home. Unfortunately not everything goes according to plan and it appeared harder get the hang of, and especially to tell my story to anyone in There.com. So. I tried to get the used to talking to people and although it took a little longer than I expected I eventually told my story of how I am this 30 something journalist who is presently in the middle of the coup going on in Thailand. However, I changed my story with the more I researched about the event. And, I actually told people that were interested that I was in fact perfectly safe and the most troubling part of the whole experience was that my boss was ending my stay in Thailand because of a misunderstanding in how peaceful the coup actual was. So thats my project. I talked to a few people and sent some emails, witnessed some very strange behavior (crazy vehicles, strange places, weird clothing), and above all else I did not ever seem set off anyone's bullshit meter, despite being a complete fabrication.

ID swap Summary cont. (tom)

2006-10-04T14:36:00.000-04:00

Forgot to add a link to the forum i was on: http://www.religiousforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39172
Just to be clear, I am both Dougel and Krash2000 on these forums.

Id swap Summary

2006-10-04T13:24:00.000-04:00

While the discussion that spurred from my initial post was not exactly what i had hoped, it was a learning experience. My chacter did change with the information given as i had planned, but much more upon his own will, then the reaction to other peoples will as i had planned.

id swap concept summary(Ade)

2006-10-04T12:55:00.000-04:00

After completing my identify swap, i would say that it was quite an interesting experience. it was funny to see people respond to my messages, and acutally believe that i was that person. now i can kind of relate to why people make false identities, to get a rise out of people, and see how far you can push the envelope to see what people will believe. at the end of it all, i have about 22 friends that dont even know who i am. the sense of having online friends might help people feel better about themselves if they have no real freinds.

more creative interventions in Second Life

2006-10-03T21:18:00.000-04:00

Ars Virtua is a Second Life art exhibition space.

Snapzilla is a photo sharing site built specifically for Second Life.

Pixel Dolls, Meat-Space and Everything All At Once is a broad-ranging project developing and exhibiting works exploring the Internet-based virtual world Second Life. The project consists of a series of "physical" exhibitions and an ongoing evolving virtual exhibition in Second Life.

A blog about the Second Life library.

Read more about it here.

nigerian space girl myspace link

2006-10-02T15:13:00.000-04:00

http://www.myspace.com/113602809

more inspiration for NON-EXISTENT

2006-10-01T21:09:00.000-04:00

Suspicious Looking Device

Dept of Network Performance

2006-10-01T19:14:00.000-04:00

When thinking about your documentation for Wednesday, also prepare to submit your IDENTITY SWAP projects to this new MySpace art venue: the Department of Network Performance.

video screen-capture

2006-10-01T18:40:00.000-04:00

To create a video for your IDENTITY SWAP project, use a screen-capture video program, available in various forms. Check to see if they have a FREE DEMO before buying.
iShowU, $20 for MACS
Screen Broadcasting, $10 for MACS, unregistered version gives you 5 min
Easy Screen Recorder, $30 for Windows
Replay Screencast, $30 for Windows

For a list of more suggestions, gohere.

And check out this link about text-to-speech recordings in Second Life.

5 ideas(Nate)

2006-09-29T20:59:00.000-04:00

1. the toaster tv, "toasts while you tube"
2. genetically modified, but also organically grown orange-apple.
3. 1 year sunblock (10950spf), also gauranteed to cure melonoma
4. linguisitic robot that communicates only in sign language and a boolean version of pig latin
5. hover boots

7 Ideas (Lance)

2006-09-29T15:32:00.000-04:00

1) Remote control that you can page.
i) Purchase a TV that comes with the paging remote.
ii) By a universal paging remote kit.

2) A pill that would prevent you from all STDs wether or not you use protection.
3) Motorized shoes that doesnt require an individual to ever take another step.
4) A computer that stores all of your clothes and selects and outfit on a daily basis based upon your preference.
5) A refrigerator that generates a list of things to buy once a item is near completion.
6) A fan that blows warm air in the winter and cold air in the summer.
7) A pair of socks that adjusts its temperature according to the temperature outside.

5 Ideas (Tom)

2006-09-29T14:28:00.000-04:00

1. Selling bottomless cups.
2. Rent my parents. "Don't like your parents? Rent mine!"
3. Easy rubix cube (same color on all saides, or glued together)
4. Negative light bulb, a light bulb that turns everything its opposite color.
5. The thinker, it'd be like the clapper for lights, but it reads thoughts.

5 ideas of product(Ade)

2006-09-29T00:46:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-27T14:56:00.000-04:00

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

NON-EXISTENT

2006-09-27T11:27:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-27T10:50:00.000-04:00

::: 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

2006-09-25T19:51:00.000-04:00

http://mydeathspace.com/

idenity theft in Second Life

2006-09-25T13:44:00.000-04:00

Link to this news at new blog called Future Crime.

smcm.edu web space

2006-09-25T11:31:00.000-04:00

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.

Ideas for Identity Swap (Nate)

2006-09-23T21:08:00.000-04:00

1. refugee from Bangkok, left for US before coup; wants to return to his country now that PM is overthrown, but needs money to get back
2. crocodile who loves steve Irwin. Gives an online eulogy. Or maybe thinks he can channel him from beyond grave
3. alien from planet Pluto demanding its reinstatement as the ninth planet in our solar system. Or maybe construct an homage to planet Pluto since secondlife seems to allow you to build a building online
4. resident of texas that suffers from the unfortunate circumstance of being named George W. Bush, not unlike the current president (maybe the W stands for waldo, instead of walker) but he is an extreme leftist. Or maybe same thing but as a woman: Georgia Wanda Bush.
5. same thing except tony blair and he is from England instead of Texas, obviously.
6. Woman claiming her baby to be the reincarnation of 3.3 million year old hominid Australopithecus afarensis child
7. Gu Gu, the panda bear who was bitten by drunk Chinese man
8. The Devil, supporting hugo chavez in his statement against Bush and the UN
9. Travel agent trying to get people to vacation in Jerusalem
10. Victim of Bengal bay storm. One of the lost fisherman, perhaps? Or some0one looking for one of the lost fisherman.

Ideas for Identity Swap (Lance)

2006-09-23T16:50:00.000-04:00

1. Creating an avatar similar to Duarnis Perez who was an American citizen at the age of 15 but didn’t find out until he had been deported and then jailed for trying to get back into the country.
2. I will create an avatar that promotes the aid in the Sony PS3 in helping(computational) mankind find the cure of some diseases as Parkinson disease that are a result of improperly formed proteins.
3. Act as a cab driver who is being sued by a playmate that claims that I accused her of being armed and dangerous which resulted in her restraint by the police.
4. Create an avator acting as the mother who was a victim of a stabbing by her husband on an interstate. She will tell the story of how things led to the stabbing.
5. Act as a priest who is about to be sentenced for stealing over 800,00 from the parish. Will narrate all of his spending.
6. Will act as Perez, a man who lived in the closet of a married couples house and then suddenly kills the husband. Will tell the story of the reason why he finally decides to kill Mr. Freeman(husband of Mrs. Freeman) and the affair that he had with Mrs. Freeman.
7. Act as a pizza delivery guy who is upset of the fact that my boss wouldn’t match the 25 cent increase in wages that other competitors were making. Will discuss the formation of a union for the safety of the drivers and wage increase.
8. will act tell the story of a drunken asain who was bitten in the leg by a panda when trying to hug the panda.
9. Will act as a six flag official who dares customers to eat Madagascar hissing cockroaches for unlimited line jumps.
10. Will act as a teen who works at applebees’s who receives a 6,300 tip from a customer.

Ideas for Identity Swap (Tom)

2006-09-23T15:02:00.000-04:00

I was having a lot of trouble coming up with anything else, so I'm just gonna bite the bullet and do this.
I have a list of proposed charaters that I could portray their reactions to the Pope's speech and the outrage that followed.
1. A non-violent muslim, offended by the pope and the violence his fellow muslims cause because of it.
2. A catholic dissaproving of the pope's actions, and questioning his faith.
3. A fundamentalist christian (probably go with southern baptist) who supports the pope.
4. An extremist muslim, calling for action.
5. A protestant priest (probably go with lutheran) critisizing both sides.
6. A buddhist looking at it from an outsiders perspective, and the rediculousness of it all.
7. An atheist who sees it as a good thing, hoping each side wipes each other out.
8. A catholic who totally backs what the pope said and his lack of an appology.
9. A jew also commenting on the rediculousness of it all.
10. Pose as two or three of the above characters and see who joins in on the debate.

creative uses of Second Life

2006-09-22T10:50:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-20T19:41:00.000-04:00

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)

2006-09-20T15:53:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-20T15:07:00.000-04:00

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)

Addition to Post(Lance)

2006-09-20T13:14:00.000-04:00

For my project I intend to create a character either on the Sims Online, There.com, or Second life. I will be impersonating Kobie Bryant. In doing so I hope to establish a relationship with several females on these servers.

Identity Swap (Nate) part 2

2006-09-19T22:28:00.000-04:00

So in continuation, completely disregard everything I said previously. I thought all the projects had their own appeals. "Craiglist Seattle", "Fakester Manifesto,"MySpace", and "Black People Love Us," were all interesting projects in their own right (with the exception of "MySpace"), however ultimately seemed a little too two-dimensional in their design, or philosphical for my taste. The ones I thought were the most interesting were the "LonelyGirl15" and "Darko Maver". What I found so engaging about these two projects was where on the other examples they merely created a kind of "avatar" if you will, or a persona to which they could convey their veiws or at most talked about this kind of internet fascade, these two created entire people; thoughts, personalities, art exhibitions, etc. One was a little more extreme then the other (Maver), but the idea was the same. Create, mold, and basically narrate a human life. Kind of like a Sims game where the sims are us or something. They reminded me of that movie Simon with Al Pacino where he creates that actress on a super computer...or Wag the Dog with Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro, in which they fabricate a war to the American people. Kind of like the combination of those two. Anyways, the girl seemed very real, except for her amazing video editing and effects. Also that article was right about her pluto episode, which was a bit disturbing. And, while this was rather short term and rather limited in the reach of its exposure, this Darko Maver character seemed to be flawless in his design. The idea of him seemed very real and thought out. And, also a little eerie in how easy it was to be simply created like that, and believed to exist. Both of these were funny and scary at the same time, I felt.
---
For my identity swap project I was going to create an avatar on either there.com or or secondlife and record what I do on those servers. I plan to make an avatar known as Thaksin Shinawatra in light of the recent military coup in Thailand that overthrew him. I will pretend to be him and maybe attempt to takeover secondlife or something in the same military fashion.

Identity Swap (Tom)

2006-09-19T21:41:00.000-04:00

Momma always said "Don't believe everything you read." With that in mind the entirety of the interent should be taken with a grain of salt. The net offers so much more then just things to read, but visuals of pictures and moveis that we are for some reason more likely to believe. There is also a HUGE thing in having or dealing with a fake (or potentially fake) identity is that there is some kind of interaction. It'd be one thing to create a fake person, stick them up on facebook/MySpace for a good laugh and then leave it alone, but people follow through with these fake identities and makes them seem more real. To know that there is a living, breathing, typing thing on the other side of the discussion board instills some sense of trust. I'm not sure if trust is really the right word, maybe believability works better, but until someone is given a reason to be suspicious their gaurd is usually down. People are on the internet in the comfort of their own homes, usually some place familiar and "safe". I think where they are in the real world gives them a false sense of security in the virtual world of the internet. To walk or drive to a place you've never been to before can be a little uncomfortable. To be some place new on the net is a million times a day thing, and theres always the trusty back button if you go somewhere you don't want to be. The web usually feels safe, and so when interacting with others on the web we feel safe, and open. Which is why, (like the seattle craiglist scandal) when someone gets fooled/betrayed, they are so offended. You wouldn't give a naked picture of yourself and your phone number to some random person on the street would you? Because its the same kind of random person on the other end of that post.

don't forget

2006-09-19T18:44:00.000-04:00

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 (Nate)

2006-09-19T16:36:00.000-04:00

The anonymity of the internet, I think often allows and probably even promotes the creation of false identities by giving people the ability to communicate without any kind of physical or verbal affirmations as to who they really are. Being these "fakesters" appears to come in many forms, some seem strange and satirical (Black People love us) while others are incredibly offensive (Crailist Seattle). Although, as clearly different as these two experiments were, the line that is drawn between them still seems vague to me. Both were intended to be jokes, however one's punchline seems to have recieved more of a mainstream acceptance than the other. Does that make it any less offensive?..or do people just need to grow and get a better sense of humor...probably. Like all those responders to Fortuny's post. Maybe they just need to take a minute and reflect on how they originally percieved the publication of all their personal information. Information they so freely turned over to some supposedly 27 year old woman from Seattle. And, perhaps they will realize that what they are actualy upset about is not that they were lied to and publicly humiliated on a grand scale, but that this woman does not actually exist which means they can't have sex with her and on top of that they had their chains yanked by this non-existant 27 year old nymphomatic tennis playing woman who turned out to be some dude with a sick sense of humor. I think they might actually all get a good laugh out of it. Or maybe not. Who's to say where freedom of speech ends and where the incringment on other people's freedoms become a form of liable on the individual?

Identity Swap (Lance)

2006-09-18T16:15:00.000-04:00

I believe that creating a false character and misleading your viewers into wrong interpretations of this character will ultimately lead to the dissapointment and questioning of the integrity of the material once the truth is evaluated. For instance, in the making of the video narrative titled "lonelygirl", many viewers became engulfed in the story that this fictional character would tell in several short video clips. As the suspense of this character builds, people began to wonder if this character was the real deal or was it a phony. Ultimately, this character was a fake. As a result of this, the suspicion that lurked the minds of many were now set to rest. I believe that situations like this would cause several viewers in not trusting or finding a reason to build interest in various materials that seem to be "real". But then again it is in the quest for finding the truth in the material that some may seem to enjoy. As for my proposal, I may create a fictional character using the Sims Online trial edition. With this character I hope to establish a relationship w/several others.

Identity Swap Post (Ade)

2006-09-18T15:47:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-18T12:47:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-18T00:29:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-17T20:58:00.000-04:00

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?

2006-09-17T18:28:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-17T15:36:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-13T16:04:00.000-04:00

link to the manual, in PDF form

video tutorials

meta refresh tag meets ASCII art

2006-09-13T15:50:00.000-04:00

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

Thinking about hidden messages

2006-09-13T14:05:00.000-04:00

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 Nate

2006-09-13T13:14:00.000-04:00

After finishing I have found myself with mixed feelings on the topics covered in assigned text. Even though it was a little dry I enjoyed the brief history of the internet. Mostly, I enjoyed the funny pieces of trivia, hidden within, like the origin of the term "bug" and poweroutage in philiedelphia. The rest of the reading was a tad confusing and at most times I felt very lost about what I was reading, yet when I knew what it was talking about it was enjoyable (especially parts about information coded in webpages and what I could understand about the purpose of Nettime). What I really latched onto was about how the interent acts as a bridge between art and science. I really felt, I guess with my background being what it is that that aspect of the internet had never really occured to me before in that way. It was somewhat enlightening and I enjoyed that part of the reading the most.

nast'a's response

2006-09-13T13:05:00.000-04:00

I must first express the fact that this reading heightened my already booming pride of being of Russian origin. :) I have always known that Russian people tend to make use of new technologies quickly and with extreme diligence, but was excited to learn that one of the main motivating factors for the use of the internet was the idea that it could be used as a tool for democraticizing (is that a verb?) the flow of information. Having exerienced the last breath of the Soviet system first hand, I can recall the pains that people went through to push the flow of information deemed unacceptable by the government. My parents had friends who would stay over-time at their work sites (a high risk thing to do) in order to manually retype texts coming from abroad and/or from locals who worked under the radar of the Soviet government. It is exciting to learn that the second computer access was available, Russian people were scurrying to make this spread of information quicker and less draining.

It comes as no surprise, then, that even today when the government calls itself a democracy, people are still participating in the not so unrisky behavior of placing often controversial content online. The interesting thing, I found, was that this content often took the shape of visual art and not just pure text. It makes me simply happy! that people are so adaptive as to see the use for a simple tool as text outside of its prescribed use and turning letters into shapes and visually interesting AND meaningful symbols.

Russia aside, the information that Green presented was fascinating in other respects. Even though I would have to agree that her generally complicated writing style (a reason I think a number of us found the reading to be boring) is sometimes difficult to follow, I thought that the vivid examples that she gave and the often hilarious facts serve as a successful way of keeping the reader on track. EX! when she talks about one of the first computers and that its powering on resulted in a dimming of the lights in the surrounding geographical area- I don't know. It made me giggle. The call-in project also struck me as super keen. Imagining all of those phones singing in and out of unison makes happy goose-bumps appear on the back of my neck. Please don't make fun of me after reading this. :P

OK. I have other things to say but do not want this blog to freeze on your screens due to overload of rediculous content. Thanks for listening, if you are still here. :)

Reading Response (Lance)

2006-09-12T23:27:00.000-04:00

I found the reading very boring but interesting in some aspects. What first struck me is when Greene mentioned that email, software and web sites are easy to overlook as art because of their functionality or location. Therefore, users do not acknowledge the internet as a form of art. Personally I've never looked at the internet as a form of art but I've used the internet in search of other forms of art. What I also thought was interesting was that the Mac was the first company to develop the clickable icon.

Reading response ADE

2006-09-12T22:22:00.000-04:00

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.

Reading Response (Tom)

2006-09-12T21:09:00.000-04:00

I hope this is how we're supposed to be doing this.

The reading certainly broadened my ideas of what internet art could be. Personally i don't really have a definition of art, though i do believe it can be practically anything, regardless of whether I like or understand it. Internet art has proven itselft to take many (possibly infinite) forms. From the jodi.org site, hiding its visuals in itself, to The Bomb Project simply amassing information (way more then just images), to Group Z, Belgium's Home playing around with the cinfines of the internet, and its borwsers capabilities, to the Siberian Deal which is more an art project that is being presented on the internet. There are a million in-betweens and variations on so many ideas and how to present them I find it mind boggling. Where there is creativity and an outlet, it will be used.

faking the database

2006-09-11T19:46:00.000-04:00

National Surveillance Agency

McDonald's spoof site

2006-09-11T19:12:00.000-04:00

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

VIEW SOURCE : due 18 Sept

2006-09-11T10:48:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-11T10:44:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-10T19:06:00.000-04:00

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

2006-09-06T22:47:00.000-04:00

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

artist presentation topics

2006-09-06T13:58:00.000-04:00

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

Eleanor Antin

2006-09-06T12:54:00.000-04:00

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.