[[This is Matthew Leavitt]] I took notes in response to the lecture; they have the basic details of the entire lecture. I also put in some of my own comments as I was not there and they are indicated by a RED BOLDED "SIDE NOTE:"
Notes for Lecture // Jan. 24th , 2008
- Humans are obsessed with communication since the earliest times of oral tradition.
- Each person (even if you are on a webcam with each other) experiences differently and therefore interprets differently.
SIDE NOTE: I had a conversation with a friend a few days ago while we were having a three way phone conference about how I could hear my own voice echoing after I had already spoken, which meant that she was receiving the message a few moments LATER, therefore experiencing it in a different time than I was, even if it was just for a few moments with any communication the perception and reception of data almost exists on two different planes of existence: transmission and reception.
- As humans we use our skills of communication to collect data and then communicate the data to other people. (I.E. – scientists to formulate experiments, artists to express emotion, politics to make generalization about a populous)
Early history of Time Based Media
- Venetian – earliest forms of writing, creation of the alphabet, which was used mostly for recording trade information (2 sheep for a 10 vegetables, etc.)
- Greek and Roman – theater, plays, a specific beginning and end to a performance.
- Began to record different types of information, which formed narratives (historical and cultural)
SIDE NOTE : In a sense when talking about the history of the Roman empire, you have to understand that it is true that ALL history in one sense is a NARRATIVE because it is a retelling, but digging even deeper into that portion of the argument, each person experiences life differently based on their experience, therefore always a bias, which makes no history 100% (even if it is 99%) because of that factor alone, making it the ultimate invisible time based narrative.
Narrative
important for time-based media. Does not have to be super instructive, but in this class we will let narrative become FLUID. Needs to start and end. Viewer needs to ENGAGE, and need to be introduced to the narrative. Paintings and Photographs cannot have this. Beginning of a story – "once upon a time" and the Ending "they all lived happily ever after"(time-based media CAN have this) . Time-based painting can have a refolding effect where it has a narrative, yet not a traditional structure.
- Computer as a form of gathering, storing, transmitting data, whereas the written word is the ultimate form of this same process (cannot just lose a book in the same way). Best forms of archiving information, but problematic due to accessibility and spacial restraints.
- Stratified cultures – experience narratives through theater due to social structures (low-class illiteracy)
- Guttenberg and the printing press (reproduction of written word) important to become literate for everyone. After that historical transition, narrative opens up in the culture so people can produce and create (write a book, print and distribute).
- Photography – on e point in time in light, capture history in time in that moment (time travel).
SIDE NOTE : Microfiche is an older technology that allowed the same thing, it allowed a string of images of written words to be distributed across libraries for periodicals.
- Spoken word becoming important (such as the internet) – moving into a culture of image and sound. Cinematic experience (film, TV, records sequences) are dominant.
Interactivity
- Cognitive interaction is one of the most important forms of interactivity (nodding heads, etc.). Computers do not INTERCT (pre-determined responses), but are unable to make cognitive assertions based on experience or synthesize new responses.
- In New Media, when we say "build something interactive" , we really mean build something interesting that RESPONDS to human interaction.
- Film can be interactive – as a system (contains a narrative, information, time-based, experience). Turn off body, and experience a film in time. Willing suspension of disbelief – viewer becomes a participant in the narrative (stop believing their life, and they start living the life of the film). Go Hidalgo, Go!
- Psychokinetic (physical responses – moving forward, jumping) experiences. Mind is sending signals to the body, which is the reason a cinematic experience can be interactive. "Continue living a story that a person tells" – can happen in books as well.
SIDE NOTE: to expand on what Stephen said in the lecture about horror movies, I think they are a great example of this kind of response. I know I have been watching horror since I was about 6 years old, but a lot of my friends are not as familiar, so when we see a horror movie, sometimes they go as far as to scream. Some of my friends are so scared they won't watch it because they get anxiety attacks (I know, intense!), so that shows the amount of INTENSITY that just putting in time based elements into a piece of film can cause a person to react.
- Well done meaning can engage the view (viewer participation), unlike wallpaper and ambient music (not meant to engage). Engagement goes from view to participant QUICKLY.
- Stopping narrative is truly interactive
- Websites can have fields of information that generates new information (but it is responding in you, and is not participatory). System of response.
- Difference between the web and TV is "real time" (direct experience vs. response).
Modern Day
- Digital Cameras (no more cranking, production, expensive – not everyone could participate)
- New Media - technology that is changing , not the narratives (cinematic, written). Gathering, collection, organizing, distributing are the modern paradigms of new media. New Media is not the technology but the process of engaging information (constantly changing).
- We can all be speakers, writers, time based artists, and musicians.
- Raphael is going to the moon in a couple of months
- Multi-tasking systems on the computer
Edit on 12 Frames (A2)
- Thing of cognitive interaction and change viewer to participant. Open up what narrative can be (story, emotion, etc.)
- Create a time-based information system that interests others (not response driven – mental /emotional response/psychokinetic response)
- Visual creation – color / light / volume all matter in a composition. Aesthetically engaging is an act of seduction (non-long term relationship).
- Accomplish 12 frame edit , but also create an engaging system.
- How do you create a visual system that will engage the viewer enough to make someone stop and think about the piece? (6 senses – intellectual sense as an additive) Think, reflect, and respond.
- Multiple Distribution systems (does it look good on 3" and 14')
SIDE NOTE: Over break, I was in Seattle and went to a show. The opening band was called "Awesome", and they came out in tuxedos with red ties, and starting doing all sorts of weird things. When they first came out they all had red balloons they released, and throughout the show they had weird objects like doorbells they were playing with, and one guy pretty much did a seizure dance. It was ENTERTAINING to say the least, and I thought "I like these guys". I got home and listened to their CD's and I said to myself, hm.. I guess they are more of a performance band because I didn't really enjoy the music outside of the show, but I would see them in concert again for sure!
