The task for the RSA brief is to find a wall covering for a changing world AND a new way of offering personal care. The two tasks could not be more different. The only glimmer of a connection I can offer is sustainability, ecology and efficiency.
What is the future of wall covering? Paint or wallpaper? Is wall covering just the surface? What about texture, heat, putting up shelves, putting up posters, putting up noticeboards.
I have requested images of people's walls to get an idea of what a wall is for. So far my question so far has arrived with these (non-scientific) answers: privacy, setting space, decoration, symbolising personality.
The personal care aspects seems obvious but I'm taking nothing for granted. What is it we really want in hygiene? I've been thinking about recycling our waste products and splitting the products into water, fuel and cleaning products. The problem I foresee is that while people would be content with using bio-gas, washing in recycled clear water, bathing in a soap that was once faeces may prove unpalatable.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Monday, November 10, 2008
Needs and Wants
I'm working desperately on my dissertation. I can't believe it. I started this months ago and now I'm concerned that it won't get done for the deadline. I've certainly done all the primary research... All I have to do is get it all down on paper. My problem is that I edit as I go along which, I'm finding, is very dangerous if you actually want to finish something.
Following is the unedited front end of chapter one Needs and Wants. Oh yeah, I think I'm changing the dissertation title again to: Do we really need it?
In the United Kingdom in 2008 we are inundated with possibilities to consume as much as we can. The whole world’s markets and services seem available to us, if not on the high street then at a touch of a mouse button, via a postal request, through telephone services or even through the television remote control. Are we getting what we need or just what we want? And are our requests and eventual receipt of these products and services really our choice or are others deciding for us?
The American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) formulated a Hierarchy of Needs. His theory states that there are six successive levels of needs that human beings must attain in order to function and feel complete, beginning at the bottom with the most basic needs of air, water and food, and culminating at the top with the need for self actualization – to truly know that your life is complete and you need nothing more. Maslow claimed that it was rare for most to reach that level because humans almost always crave something.
* "I think of the self-actualizing man not as an ordinary man with something added, but rather as the ordinary man with nothing taken away. The average man is a full human being with dampened and inhibited powers and capacities" http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Self-Actualization.asp
The bottom tier of Maslow’s pyramid (fig 1.1) holds the fundamentals of life, common to all animal life. Maslow contests that humans are unique as a species in that once all the needs are met in one category they seek to fulfill other needs. Each need fulfilled opens up further possibilities: the need for shelter, the need to be loved, the need for sex, the need for status. It could be argued that beyond the need for keeping oneself alive there are no real needs, everything beyond the basics are wants or desires, that is, things that make our lives better. And in the twenty-first century is the second to fifth tier correctly placed.
* Many scholars point out that Maslow’s hierarchy lacks empirical verification. These needs may not always operate in a hierarchy, as Maslow says. For example, esteem needs may still motivate even when lower order needs remain unmet. http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/Maslow.htm
Since we no longer live in caves and hunt our own food the needs of life in an industrial and technological age, and especially in the western world, are well beyond those of our prehistoric ancestors. But have our needs changed? Do we still desire the same fundamental things? Is the need for social security still more important than the need for self-respect and esteem? How do we meet our needs? And is that getting within our own power? Who ultimately decides what we get in an industrialized free-market western economy in the early twenty-first century?
Design has played a crucial part in shaping the world to human needs. In order to meet our needs we design artifacts and systems, which sustain our lives, make it better and add to its quality and its comfort.
* The world we live in has been shaped in many important ways by human action. We have created technological options to prevent, eliminate, or lessen threats to life and the environment and to fulfill social needs. We have dammed rivers and cleared forests, made new materials and machines, covered vast areas with cities and highways, and decided—sometimes willy-nilly—the fate of many other living things. http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/chap8.htm#1
Within an industrialised western democracy it is accepted (and expected) that government make provisions for its citizens’ needs. These citizen needs are inalienable rights, provisions for which are stated in both the United States declaration of Independence, (JULY 4, 1776), and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August 1789), and are also implied within the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1949): Life, liberty , freedom, equality, the pursuit of happiness among others.
Governments in a democracy do not grant the fundamental freedoms enumerated by Jefferson; governments are created to protect those freedoms that every individual possesses by virtue of his or her existence. http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/whatsdem/whatdm3.htm
Should it be reasonable to believe, therefore, that systems are put in place that would ensure that at least the first two basic needs –– the need for air and the need for water -- are, while not necessarily provided for but are not intentionally withheld? Of course, as air is naturally occurring and is in boundless supply wherever people live and choose to live it cannot be given or taken away by anyone. However, the quality of air in a given area can be determined by decisions made by industry, transport, urban planning, farming etc, with permission by government.
Problems arise when people, institutions and corporations using their freedom to do as they wish have a direct negative impact on other citizens. A by-product, in this respect, of meeting needs is infringing others’ rights to meet basic needs. We may get what we want but we might also get a lot of stuff we don’t want: unintended but nevertheless, inevitable consequences.
The unintended consequences of industry are numerous and have been since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
* The industrial revolution transformed the ability of humans to affect the world's environment. Deforestation greatly increased on a global scale. So did water pollution from chemical and agricultural discharges into lakes and streams, and atmospheric pollution from combustion of huge amounts of coal. http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/eras/era7.htm
But now that the industrial genie has been released from the metaphorical bottles there may be even more consequences. The negative impact on the environment, through the use of fossil fuels, is still there and has large opposition, but with gas and oil reserves running low the west is dependent on Eastern Europe and the Arab states for supplies. And with the supply out of their control there is the risk of excessive price fluctuations, political crisis or a complete halt in supplies.
Finding a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels has been problematic. Viable alternatives (wind, solar, hydro power), are cleaner and while no harmful by-product exists there is still opposition. Nuclear power, possibly the most efficient source of energy, is the most vilified option. The nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 has made the public at large, already fearful of nuclear energy, even more concerned that it could happen in their own backyard. http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/chernobyl.html
The public fears of what could happen, however unlikely, determines what is allowed on these shores. We may want to reap the benefits of industry and technology but only if the risk to our lives and livelihoods is minimal. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/feb/15/nuclear.greenpolitics1
Rather more dangerously are catastrophic industrial accidents such as the Union Carbide (UC) disaster. Approximately 3,800 people were killed on that December day when dangerous methylisocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the tanks at the UC pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Thousands more were condemned to permanent and partial disabilities. http://www.bhopal.com/chrono.htm Those chemical plants exist to make agriculture more efficient and cost effective but the very existence in Bhopal took advantage of slack laws, regulations and health and safety measures that were well below the standards of those in the United States. Western Europe and North American restrictions would make it impossible for the Bhopal plant to exist in this part of the world. So while it unlawful to use the same lax manufacturing techniques in the UK or the USA it is perfectly lawful for those companies to exist and sell the products of those factories. In this respect we are benefitting from a cheaper product without the direct environmental consequences because someone else is picking up the slack.
The lowest tier of Maslow Needs is universal to all life. The second tier, however, the need for social security, the need for family, and the need for protection, is altogether uniquely human. Also, while these needs may well be historically correct for a human civilization are the needs of a twenty-first century westerner be identical to those of say an Egyptian peasant in 3000BC, a Roman Centurion in 45AD, or a working class Londoner in 1948? The advancement in technology and living conditions has made it impossible to compare like for like because there has been nothing like this before. The western lifestyle we have grown accustomed to have created more needs that may possibly be need to be shoe-horned between the first and second tiers: The need to communicate, the need to travel, the need to know, the need for money.
As stated above design has been crucial in determining the shape of the world and the condition of human beings. The invention of the printing press made it possible to disseminate information, ideas and images at a more rapid rate than was ever possible before.
The invention of the telegraph meant messages could be sent rapidly over long distances.
Telephone enabled us to speak to people personally to others at length and often.
Automobiles, trains, aeroplanes serve mankind in that we can travel quickly, and relatively cheaply today.
The internet and the World Wide Web have made communication, both one-way and two-way affordable to almost everyone on the planet. We have gotten so used to these products, services and artifacts that they have become more needs than wants. But even then these needs come with a price tag attached.
The cost of driving, flying and ‘training’ is oil, a natural resource that is rapidly dwindling in the west and see-sawing in price if not getting more expensive. Even electric cars or hybrid engines (oil and electric) need to get their power supply from somewhere.
Even the cost of twenty-first communication is not free. While we sit at our computer terminals surfing the internet, sending emails or texting on our mobile phones there is still an environmental price to pay because the servers, the place where these bits and bytes of information are stored, passed through or transmitted need and consume energy, and give off emissions. In 2008 the emissions were equal to that of the entire automobile industry. By 2020 those emissions will be equal to the airline industry.
As if things weren’t bad enough.
The continuing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed over five million lives. Political commentators and aid agencies have claimed that the main cause for the fighting is Congo’s huge wealth of mineral resources one of which is Coltan, a mineral when processed becomes a “vital component in the capacitors that control current flow in cell phone circuit boards.” http://www.cellular-news.com/coltan/
Following is the unedited front end of chapter one Needs and Wants. Oh yeah, I think I'm changing the dissertation title again to: Do we really need it?
In the United Kingdom in 2008 we are inundated with possibilities to consume as much as we can. The whole world’s markets and services seem available to us, if not on the high street then at a touch of a mouse button, via a postal request, through telephone services or even through the television remote control. Are we getting what we need or just what we want? And are our requests and eventual receipt of these products and services really our choice or are others deciding for us?
The American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) formulated a Hierarchy of Needs. His theory states that there are six successive levels of needs that human beings must attain in order to function and feel complete, beginning at the bottom with the most basic needs of air, water and food, and culminating at the top with the need for self actualization – to truly know that your life is complete and you need nothing more. Maslow claimed that it was rare for most to reach that level because humans almost always crave something.
* "I think of the self-actualizing man not as an ordinary man with something added, but rather as the ordinary man with nothing taken away. The average man is a full human being with dampened and inhibited powers and capacities" http://www.abraham-maslow.com/m_motivation/Self-Actualization.asp
The bottom tier of Maslow’s pyramid (fig 1.1) holds the fundamentals of life, common to all animal life. Maslow contests that humans are unique as a species in that once all the needs are met in one category they seek to fulfill other needs. Each need fulfilled opens up further possibilities: the need for shelter, the need to be loved, the need for sex, the need for status. It could be argued that beyond the need for keeping oneself alive there are no real needs, everything beyond the basics are wants or desires, that is, things that make our lives better. And in the twenty-first century is the second to fifth tier correctly placed.
* Many scholars point out that Maslow’s hierarchy lacks empirical verification. These needs may not always operate in a hierarchy, as Maslow says. For example, esteem needs may still motivate even when lower order needs remain unmet. http://www.shkaminski.com/Classes/Handouts/Maslow.htm
Since we no longer live in caves and hunt our own food the needs of life in an industrial and technological age, and especially in the western world, are well beyond those of our prehistoric ancestors. But have our needs changed? Do we still desire the same fundamental things? Is the need for social security still more important than the need for self-respect and esteem? How do we meet our needs? And is that getting within our own power? Who ultimately decides what we get in an industrialized free-market western economy in the early twenty-first century?
Design has played a crucial part in shaping the world to human needs. In order to meet our needs we design artifacts and systems, which sustain our lives, make it better and add to its quality and its comfort.
* The world we live in has been shaped in many important ways by human action. We have created technological options to prevent, eliminate, or lessen threats to life and the environment and to fulfill social needs. We have dammed rivers and cleared forests, made new materials and machines, covered vast areas with cities and highways, and decided—sometimes willy-nilly—the fate of many other living things. http://www.project2061.org/publications/sfaa/online/chap8.htm#1
Within an industrialised western democracy it is accepted (and expected) that government make provisions for its citizens’ needs. These citizen needs are inalienable rights, provisions for which are stated in both the United States declaration of Independence, (JULY 4, 1776), and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen (August 1789), and are also implied within the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) (1949): Life, liberty , freedom, equality, the pursuit of happiness among others.
Governments in a democracy do not grant the fundamental freedoms enumerated by Jefferson; governments are created to protect those freedoms that every individual possesses by virtue of his or her existence. http://usinfo.state.gov/products/pubs/whatsdem/whatdm3.htm
Should it be reasonable to believe, therefore, that systems are put in place that would ensure that at least the first two basic needs –– the need for air and the need for water -- are, while not necessarily provided for but are not intentionally withheld? Of course, as air is naturally occurring and is in boundless supply wherever people live and choose to live it cannot be given or taken away by anyone. However, the quality of air in a given area can be determined by decisions made by industry, transport, urban planning, farming etc, with permission by government.
Problems arise when people, institutions and corporations using their freedom to do as they wish have a direct negative impact on other citizens. A by-product, in this respect, of meeting needs is infringing others’ rights to meet basic needs. We may get what we want but we might also get a lot of stuff we don’t want: unintended but nevertheless, inevitable consequences.
The unintended consequences of industry are numerous and have been since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
* The industrial revolution transformed the ability of humans to affect the world's environment. Deforestation greatly increased on a global scale. So did water pollution from chemical and agricultural discharges into lakes and streams, and atmospheric pollution from combustion of huge amounts of coal. http://worldhistoryforusall.sdsu.edu/eras/era7.htm
But now that the industrial genie has been released from the metaphorical bottles there may be even more consequences. The negative impact on the environment, through the use of fossil fuels, is still there and has large opposition, but with gas and oil reserves running low the west is dependent on Eastern Europe and the Arab states for supplies. And with the supply out of their control there is the risk of excessive price fluctuations, political crisis or a complete halt in supplies.
Finding a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels has been problematic. Viable alternatives (wind, solar, hydro power), are cleaner and while no harmful by-product exists there is still opposition. Nuclear power, possibly the most efficient source of energy, is the most vilified option. The nuclear disaster in Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986 has made the public at large, already fearful of nuclear energy, even more concerned that it could happen in their own backyard. http://www.ibiblio.org/expo/soviet.exhibit/chernobyl.html
The public fears of what could happen, however unlikely, determines what is allowed on these shores. We may want to reap the benefits of industry and technology but only if the risk to our lives and livelihoods is minimal. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/feb/15/nuclear.greenpolitics1
Rather more dangerously are catastrophic industrial accidents such as the Union Carbide (UC) disaster. Approximately 3,800 people were killed on that December day when dangerous methylisocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the tanks at the UC pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. Thousands more were condemned to permanent and partial disabilities. http://www.bhopal.com/chrono.htm Those chemical plants exist to make agriculture more efficient and cost effective but the very existence in Bhopal took advantage of slack laws, regulations and health and safety measures that were well below the standards of those in the United States. Western Europe and North American restrictions would make it impossible for the Bhopal plant to exist in this part of the world. So while it unlawful to use the same lax manufacturing techniques in the UK or the USA it is perfectly lawful for those companies to exist and sell the products of those factories. In this respect we are benefitting from a cheaper product without the direct environmental consequences because someone else is picking up the slack.
The lowest tier of Maslow Needs is universal to all life. The second tier, however, the need for social security, the need for family, and the need for protection, is altogether uniquely human. Also, while these needs may well be historically correct for a human civilization are the needs of a twenty-first century westerner be identical to those of say an Egyptian peasant in 3000BC, a Roman Centurion in 45AD, or a working class Londoner in 1948? The advancement in technology and living conditions has made it impossible to compare like for like because there has been nothing like this before. The western lifestyle we have grown accustomed to have created more needs that may possibly be need to be shoe-horned between the first and second tiers: The need to communicate, the need to travel, the need to know, the need for money.
As stated above design has been crucial in determining the shape of the world and the condition of human beings. The invention of the printing press made it possible to disseminate information, ideas and images at a more rapid rate than was ever possible before.
The invention of the telegraph meant messages could be sent rapidly over long distances.
Telephone enabled us to speak to people personally to others at length and often.
Automobiles, trains, aeroplanes serve mankind in that we can travel quickly, and relatively cheaply today.
The internet and the World Wide Web have made communication, both one-way and two-way affordable to almost everyone on the planet. We have gotten so used to these products, services and artifacts that they have become more needs than wants. But even then these needs come with a price tag attached.
The cost of driving, flying and ‘training’ is oil, a natural resource that is rapidly dwindling in the west and see-sawing in price if not getting more expensive. Even electric cars or hybrid engines (oil and electric) need to get their power supply from somewhere.
Even the cost of twenty-first communication is not free. While we sit at our computer terminals surfing the internet, sending emails or texting on our mobile phones there is still an environmental price to pay because the servers, the place where these bits and bytes of information are stored, passed through or transmitted need and consume energy, and give off emissions. In 2008 the emissions were equal to that of the entire automobile industry. By 2020 those emissions will be equal to the airline industry.
As if things weren’t bad enough.
The continuing war in the Democratic Republic of Congo has claimed over five million lives. Political commentators and aid agencies have claimed that the main cause for the fighting is Congo’s huge wealth of mineral resources one of which is Coltan, a mineral when processed becomes a “vital component in the capacitors that control current flow in cell phone circuit boards.” http://www.cellular-news.com/coltan/
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
RSA: A changing world
The RSA competition briefs are out and I've decided to go for the A Changing World project. I presented the first draft of my idea, The Life Cube, supported by some presentation graphics below.
Friday, October 17, 2008
TV's best shows
It's good to know that there are at least three good shows on television. The bad news is two of them are on their last season. The really bad news is that the two that are concluding are the best two. Well, at least we still have Heroes.
If you like your TV as pure escapism you can't go wrong with Heroes. Okay, maybe all the plots are cast-offs of X-Men comics circa 1980 but it still has me hanging on to the edge of my seat. These guys have made me rush home to watch despite the fact that I could probably download all the episodes or "watch again" on the BBC iPlayer. I like the fact that I'm watching this when it comes out and I like that I "have" to wait to watch the next episode. It's like Christmas every week!
But of course that's because it's on the BBC. If it was on FX or the Sci-Fi channel I'd have to resort to downloading or buying on DVD. And since I absolutely hate watching movies on the machine I'd have to buy the DVD... which is what I had to do for my two favourite shows: The Wire and Battlestar Gallactica.
If you haven't seen either, let me just recommend them right here by saying that they are the two best show, not just on TV at the moment but -- and I'm sticking my neck out now -- the best written TV shows of all time!
The Wire is a gritty, realistic police procedural drama. Produced by HBO it profits from the fact that it doesn't have to race to solve the crime at the end of each episode. One of the reasons I love it so much is that solving the case is not at the forefront of the writers' story. It's really about life in Baltimore and how tough it can be whether you're a police (as they say in Baltimore), a drug dealer, a politician or a dock worker. Everybody's just trying to make a living and it's hard! In fact the only two people who seem to be having a good time most of the time is corrupt politician Clay Davis (with his catchphrase: shiiiit!) and the guy who's brave enough to steal from the drug dealers: Omar. This show should, however, come with a warning: If you've got a short attention span, if you want to see the good guys always win, if you want good guys against bad guys, if you don't like social realism, then this show isn't for you. On the other hand, every politician, teacher, policy maker, policeman, citizen ought to watch.
But the best show has got to be Battlestar Gallactica. If you've seen the original from the 70s, and I have to admit I have only vague recollections, then put it out of you mind. That's the sort of thinking that kept me away from this brilliant show for so long.
This show explores current social issues within a science fiction context. Like Heroes each episode is a self contained story and like The Wire there's an overarching plot that keeps ticking on. This is the only series that has you asking in the middle of the season if the people you've been following and rooting for are the good guys?
Unlike The Wire and Heroes where you pretty much see the problems in front of you Battlestar has you asking questions on just what it means to be a human being and what choices you would make if you were forced into impossible situations — a real allegory for our times.
I haven't seen any of the final seasons of The Wire or Battlestar I'm waiting for the DVD box set, in my humble opinion the best way to watch.
If you like your TV as pure escapism you can't go wrong with Heroes. Okay, maybe all the plots are cast-offs of X-Men comics circa 1980 but it still has me hanging on to the edge of my seat. These guys have made me rush home to watch despite the fact that I could probably download all the episodes or "watch again" on the BBC iPlayer. I like the fact that I'm watching this when it comes out and I like that I "have" to wait to watch the next episode. It's like Christmas every week!
But of course that's because it's on the BBC. If it was on FX or the Sci-Fi channel I'd have to resort to downloading or buying on DVD. And since I absolutely hate watching movies on the machine I'd have to buy the DVD... which is what I had to do for my two favourite shows: The Wire and Battlestar Gallactica.
If you haven't seen either, let me just recommend them right here by saying that they are the two best show, not just on TV at the moment but -- and I'm sticking my neck out now -- the best written TV shows of all time!
The Wire is a gritty, realistic police procedural drama. Produced by HBO it profits from the fact that it doesn't have to race to solve the crime at the end of each episode. One of the reasons I love it so much is that solving the case is not at the forefront of the writers' story. It's really about life in Baltimore and how tough it can be whether you're a police (as they say in Baltimore), a drug dealer, a politician or a dock worker. Everybody's just trying to make a living and it's hard! In fact the only two people who seem to be having a good time most of the time is corrupt politician Clay Davis (with his catchphrase: shiiiit!) and the guy who's brave enough to steal from the drug dealers: Omar. This show should, however, come with a warning: If you've got a short attention span, if you want to see the good guys always win, if you want good guys against bad guys, if you don't like social realism, then this show isn't for you. On the other hand, every politician, teacher, policy maker, policeman, citizen ought to watch.
But the best show has got to be Battlestar Gallactica. If you've seen the original from the 70s, and I have to admit I have only vague recollections, then put it out of you mind. That's the sort of thinking that kept me away from this brilliant show for so long.
This show explores current social issues within a science fiction context. Like Heroes each episode is a self contained story and like The Wire there's an overarching plot that keeps ticking on. This is the only series that has you asking in the middle of the season if the people you've been following and rooting for are the good guys?
Unlike The Wire and Heroes where you pretty much see the problems in front of you Battlestar has you asking questions on just what it means to be a human being and what choices you would make if you were forced into impossible situations — a real allegory for our times.
I haven't seen any of the final seasons of The Wire or Battlestar I'm waiting for the DVD box set, in my humble opinion the best way to watch.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Loadsamoney
I've always wanted to own a bank. Now, thanks to PM Gordon Brown and his Darling Chancellor I own five! Northern Rock, Bradford & Bingley, HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Lloyds TSB.
Happy days are here again.
Now the only thing left to make the world a perfect place is for the Americans to vote the right person in on November 4.
Happy days are here again.
Now the only thing left to make the world a perfect place is for the Americans to vote the right person in on November 4.
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Top 5 Sci-Fi Books
My top five SF books.
5. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
4. Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
3. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
2. We Can Build You by Philip K Dick
1. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Please, please, please ignore the crappy Will Smith 'adaptation' of I, Robot and read the book. You'll feel a whole lot better for it.
I've just finished watching Blade Runner: The Final Cut. All five (count 'em) discs! That's five cuts of the movie. The pre-release version shown to test audiences is a bit grainy, poor opening credits, and some dodgy sound in places. The US release version has the voice over (put in place for the test audience who 'didn't get it'). The International release version has added violence — about ten seconds of Roy Batter self-harming. Then there's the Director's cut with added unicorn and subtracted voice over and Kubrik-shot 'happy ending'. And finally there's the eponymous Final Cut: a cleaned up version of the Director's cut plus a few re-shoots/re-editing seamlessly included.
Also in the package are pretty comprehensive documentaries on the making, promoting and releasing of all versions. Although Mark Kermode's documentary is missing.
Which version do I prefer? I guess Ridley Scotts favourite one too: The Final Cut. It's a better movie. Simply by not having that voice-over the audience can add their own assumptions and be aware of more details that may (or may not) mean something. After watching the final cut I realised how clunky the voice-over was: lazy, stating the obvious or something we just saw. To be frank there isn't much of it but it's enough to irritate.
The strange thing is I remember seeing Blade Runner on its original UK release back in '82 and I loved it. As I remember it, it was supposed to be like a Phillip Marlowe crime thriller made forty years after Bogart but set forty years in the future. I guess that must've been the marketing people and not the Director or any of the principles involved.
Which gets me to my next point.
I read the Philip K Dick book the movie is based on a while back and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a completely different animal too. Like all of Dick's books it's funny, inventive and just plain weird. And there isn't that much action in it. It's strange (but understandable) how Hollywood takes a book, story, character and boils it down to the barest of elements. Ridley Scott in Blade Runner made a movie that bares very little resemblance to it source material but still managed to pull down the essence of the author.
5. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
4. Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
3. I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
2. We Can Build You by Philip K Dick
1. The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
Please, please, please ignore the crappy Will Smith 'adaptation' of I, Robot and read the book. You'll feel a whole lot better for it.
I've just finished watching Blade Runner: The Final Cut. All five (count 'em) discs! That's five cuts of the movie. The pre-release version shown to test audiences is a bit grainy, poor opening credits, and some dodgy sound in places. The US release version has the voice over (put in place for the test audience who 'didn't get it'). The International release version has added violence — about ten seconds of Roy Batter self-harming. Then there's the Director's cut with added unicorn and subtracted voice over and Kubrik-shot 'happy ending'. And finally there's the eponymous Final Cut: a cleaned up version of the Director's cut plus a few re-shoots/re-editing seamlessly included.
Also in the package are pretty comprehensive documentaries on the making, promoting and releasing of all versions. Although Mark Kermode's documentary is missing.
Which version do I prefer? I guess Ridley Scotts favourite one too: The Final Cut. It's a better movie. Simply by not having that voice-over the audience can add their own assumptions and be aware of more details that may (or may not) mean something. After watching the final cut I realised how clunky the voice-over was: lazy, stating the obvious or something we just saw. To be frank there isn't much of it but it's enough to irritate.
The strange thing is I remember seeing Blade Runner on its original UK release back in '82 and I loved it. As I remember it, it was supposed to be like a Phillip Marlowe crime thriller made forty years after Bogart but set forty years in the future. I guess that must've been the marketing people and not the Director or any of the principles involved.
Which gets me to my next point.
I read the Philip K Dick book the movie is based on a while back and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is a completely different animal too. Like all of Dick's books it's funny, inventive and just plain weird. And there isn't that much action in it. It's strange (but understandable) how Hollywood takes a book, story, character and boils it down to the barest of elements. Ridley Scott in Blade Runner made a movie that bares very little resemblance to it source material but still managed to pull down the essence of the author.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Gas Cooker Interface
First thing to do was research cookers. Went to John Lewis’ floor and looked at what was on how. Cookers (gas and electric), microwave ovens, fridges and freezers. All gas cookers work with nobs or a knob lever. Electric cookers and ovens have dials, buttons or both. Problem: to create a GUI for the gas cooker, an appliance that traditionally uses a SUI. I think there’s nothing wrong with the way cookers work now apart from the fact that:
1. you can’t always see the flame with a pot over it;
2. liquid boils over and puts out the flame but keeps the gas flowing;
3. absolute control of the flame with the knob is impossible;
4. some knobs go clockwise, others anti-clockwise; and
5. no matter how many times you use it you can never remember which knob operates which griddle.
The group brainstorming session brought up loads of ideas and as a result some people ended up going in the same direction as me (or maybe I went in the same direction as them)!
One idea was the cooker would recognise wherever the pot/kettle/pan was and light that spot. Had an idea of strings (or some type of heat resistant fibre lattice) above the cooker surface with sensors that read the position and fed back that position to the user interface. Tiny gas outlets beneath the lattice would ignite and heat the utensil.
Another idea was to have the pans come with the cooker. They could be replaced, renewed or more ordered directly from the manufacturer at minimal cost. These pans would ‘talk’ to the cooker, sending back information on the temperatures of the pan or its contents.
I remembered my mother’s cooker had a gun attachment but I couldn’t remember if that was a pilot lighter with a flame. Had to be that. What else could it be? Maybe a water supply, like the ones you get in pubs, but this one would have cold water or hot water at a touch of a button. Maybe another gun with oil. Or maybe the gun did both oil and water. But, it was wisely noted, that water could be plumbed in, whereas oil would have to be replaced. Too much trouble unless you buy your oil by the truckload. But I think the most important thing is the interface. I wanted to keep it very simple. All the graphics had to be self explanatory or, if not, feedback from a touch would inform the user of an event. I also tried to make each icon or button unique so each item could only do one thing and there would be no confusion between them.
I recognise an error in the design. The microwave icon is identical to the grill heat level and the grill shelf.
2. liquid boils over and puts out the flame but keeps the gas flowing;
3. absolute control of the flame with the knob is impossible;
4. some knobs go clockwise, others anti-clockwise; and
5. no matter how many times you use it you can never remember which knob operates which griddle.
The group brainstorming session brought up loads of ideas and as a result some people ended up going in the same direction as me (or maybe I went in the same direction as them)!
One idea was the cooker would recognise wherever the pot/kettle/pan was and light that spot. Had an idea of strings (or some type of heat resistant fibre lattice) above the cooker surface with sensors that read the position and fed back that position to the user interface. Tiny gas outlets beneath the lattice would ignite and heat the utensil.
Another idea was to have the pans come with the cooker. They could be replaced, renewed or more ordered directly from the manufacturer at minimal cost. These pans would ‘talk’ to the cooker, sending back information on the temperatures of the pan or its contents.
I remembered my mother’s cooker had a gun attachment but I couldn’t remember if that was a pilot lighter with a flame. Had to be that. What else could it be? Maybe a water supply, like the ones you get in pubs, but this one would have cold water or hot water at a touch of a button. Maybe another gun with oil. Or maybe the gun did both oil and water. But, it was wisely noted, that water could be plumbed in, whereas oil would have to be replaced. Too much trouble unless you buy your oil by the truckload. But I think the most important thing is the interface. I wanted to keep it very simple. All the graphics had to be self explanatory or, if not, feedback from a touch would inform the user of an event. I also tried to make each icon or button unique so each item could only do one thing and there would be no confusion between them.
I recognise an error in the design. The microwave icon is identical to the grill heat level and the grill shelf.
Saturday, May 3, 2008
Iron Man's a blast
Okay, I admit it. I'm a geek. I might not look like one or act like one in public but I am. I've just watched the Iron Man movie, and I can't get rid of this ridiculous grin I have over my face. I loved it! I'm not the biggest Iron Man fan in the world — I'm sure I have fewer than a hundred issues of the comic, but something about the movie clicked with me.
The story: When arms manufacturer Tony Stark is held hostage by terrorists and ordered to create a devastating weapon for his captors he surreptitiously creates a super powered suit of armour to escape. Now he decides to stop building weapons and to use his genius and an upgraded armour design to fight terror and tyranny.
Robert Downey Jr is perfect in the role of Stark with an ability to flip from a devil may care attitude to indifference to tortured soul with ease and sensitivity. Gwyneth Paltrow, Terrance Howard and a bald Jeff Bridges have enough clout as character actors to ensure this movie stays firmly on the right side of fantasy-action adventure.
And for all you comic fans out there: please please please please stay for the end credits — that's the VERY end credits. Past the Best Boy and Foley and the hundred of bods who help erase the strings, past the song credits, yes, even past the Paniflex and MPAA logos. There's about a minute of more movie. If you love comics — Marvel Comics that is, then you have to see this last scene. I won't spoil it for you, but suffice to say that's why i still have the grin on my face. If you don't read comics then go home and save yourself five minutes. Nuff said.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Filming the audience
Celebrity Red Carpet
We have now achieved the most important part of the project: The Audience! Without a virtual crowd the project could not happen but we've got that out of the way now.
The Process.
Jenny and I decided on the actions and reactions we wanted the crowd to have and their behaviour: Jeering, cheering, throwing things, holding up placards, booing, disdain and contempt, admiration. We ruled out spitting.
We needed to have the camera back far enough to a distance that someone could take six full steps in full view. We found an appropriate spot where we could effectively get enough people that looked as though they were part of a much larger crowd. Unfortunately we couldn't use get access to the HD camera but we did get hold of the next best thing, Sony DSR 500, filming on DV. This took up most of the morning. However, the area we were shooting in was very overexposed and the strength of the light forced me to see if I could find another place. An offhand remark by a passer-by lit the light bulb in my skull: aperture and shutter speed. With so much going on sometimes you forget the basic principles. Ten seconds later the picture was perfect.
We got a group of about 30 people together and bunched them up in a 3 x 1m space. Jenny held up the flash cards with the instructions of 'BOOOO' or 'Very Excited' on them while I counted them in and out. The whole 'shoot' took about fifteen minutes. And everyone, but everyone was happy. One thing I would have liked, however, was possibly more girls in the frame. The few we do have are all at the back!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Celebrity Red Carpet: Update
The project has gotten off to a pretty good start, if not in actual work, in enthusiasm. I have Jenny Do and Milad on my team, and Jenny's enthusiasm has taken me by surprise. That's a good thing.
We both want the project to be as good as it possibly can be.
We visited the Science Museum for inspiration, motivation and education. Observing the way the exhibits were put together, the care and the attention to detail, plus some of the methods used has inspired us.
Originally the idea was to have the user (as 'celebrity') walk down the red carpet against a blue screen. I thought it might be an idea to have a real time composite relayed against the opposing 'wall', back-projected so that observers outside the exhibit could see what was happening. plus the 'celebrity could see the crowd.
We have updated this idea, simplified it and, to my mind, made it better. We plan to pre-film the crowd in various levels of celebrity-awe and use that as a projection. No blue screen. Sensors/buttons will trigger the appropriate response. The exhibit could then be completely open to the public and eliminate the use of blue screen and the need of a camera.
Tomorrow we start filming the crowd. We intend to use the Sony DSR DV. That way we can ensure a good quality image enlarged. Once we get the footage we need we can explore the best ways to project. Back projection still seems the most positive although the image does end up being wash out. Jenny has suggested we find a way to enhance the colour and I'm sure that's possible. With front projection we run the inevitable risk of people moving between the projection and the screen. However, with BP we have to find a space where the screen can be far away enough from the projector without someone still getting between the two.
We both want the project to be as good as it possibly can be.
We visited the Science Museum for inspiration, motivation and education. Observing the way the exhibits were put together, the care and the attention to detail, plus some of the methods used has inspired us.
Originally the idea was to have the user (as 'celebrity') walk down the red carpet against a blue screen. I thought it might be an idea to have a real time composite relayed against the opposing 'wall', back-projected so that observers outside the exhibit could see what was happening. plus the 'celebrity could see the crowd.
We have updated this idea, simplified it and, to my mind, made it better. We plan to pre-film the crowd in various levels of celebrity-awe and use that as a projection. No blue screen. Sensors/buttons will trigger the appropriate response. The exhibit could then be completely open to the public and eliminate the use of blue screen and the need of a camera.
Tomorrow we start filming the crowd. We intend to use the Sony DSR DV. That way we can ensure a good quality image enlarged. Once we get the footage we need we can explore the best ways to project. Back projection still seems the most positive although the image does end up being wash out. Jenny has suggested we find a way to enhance the colour and I'm sure that's possible. With front projection we run the inevitable risk of people moving between the projection and the screen. However, with BP we have to find a space where the screen can be far away enough from the projector without someone still getting between the two.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
New Blog Site
I've been working on my own self contained weblog site. Haven't quite ironed out all the glitches but it's up. Click here to go there. For the time being this will run in parallel.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Celebrity Red Carpet
... or If You Can't Take The Heat Get Closer
Andy Warhol said, "...in the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes." Well, it looks like he may well be right. As part of Ravensbourne's Rave On Air, the BA Interaction Design students are putting on their own little side show: The Village Fete. We will be trying to raise (virtual) money for repairs to the (virtual) roof with the exhibit/stall that raises the most 'money' getting a prize.
My idea is the celebrity red carpet, where anyone can experience what it's like to be a star and walk down the red carpet. Of course there's always a prize to pay...
Monday, April 21, 2008
Hey! I'm still here.
The fact that I haven't posted for a while doesn't mean anything except that I haven't posted for a while. But I think I owe it to you, my loyal reader, to let you in on what I've been doing.
... a little bit at a time though...
About a month or so ago I published book with a very very limited run. If you can find a copy keep it safe. It might be worth something one day. It's called Questions on Design: How to make things work better. The text is reproduced below.*
Chapter 1. Keep them fat and Stupid
Design should fulfil a need. The fulfilment of the need could be the seemingly trivial idea of putting an eraser at the end of a pencil or designing a guidance system for a nuclar device. Design — true design, as opposed to art — should not justify its own existence but should fulfil a need, whether that need is to quickly rub out a drawing, or to potentially erase lives.
We’re being sold a dream of a brave new world, one that we’re continually being compelled to join in or miss out... and who wants to miss out on the future? So, while we wallow in the mud of either useless products or technology with built in obsolescence, the marketeer unveils yet another upgrade. Why are we so eager to snap up the latest one when the last one was doing perfectly well a month ago.
And with the world’s markets opening up everybody wants ‘one’. What ‘one’ is doesn’t matter just as long as it’s got a great sounding name, a great logo and a fantastic marketing campaign behind it.
Is today the world of tomorrow that was predicted so many yesterdays ago or are we sleepwalking into a marketeer’s dreamworld? And is it a place where everything presented to us is wonderful and should be snapped up before it goes out of fashion?
We cannot afford to be complacent, either as consumer or designer. As consumers we have to be wise to the market’s attempt to sell a product that adds no value to our lives, our homes, our work or the world. As designers we must take the responsibility that our work should solve a problem, not create one.
Fulfil a need.
Chapter 2. Guns don't kill people
Look around you. Do it now. What do you see? If what you’re looking at isn’t alive, chances are someone made it. Someone had the bright idea that it should be built that way. They thought about the materials that would be used, thought about what it would look like, and where it might be positioned. They thought about how it might fit in to its environment and how it should be, could be and would be used.
Still looking?
Does it do its job?
Be useful.
Chapter 3. Does democracy work?
HD DVD is no longer with us. It has gone the same way as Digital Compact Cassettes, Laser Discs, and Betamax; technologies that could not survive in the market. Its worth as a product can now never be accurately tested. We will never know how good it might have been because it did not have the financial muscle to survive the fight against Blu Ray.
On the other hand, should the masses decide what is good, what is needed? They may know what works but they may not necessarily know why it works. Should one solution be formulated once every voice is heard? Or should multiple solutions be produced and tailored to individual needs?
Having an abundance of choice is not always a good thing. Too much choice causes paralysis in decision-making, escalates expectations and ultimately results in dissatisfaction when that object inevitably fails to live up to such high expectations. In fact, a Google search for ‘Does Democracy work?’ netted 2,670,000 results in 0.17 seconds. Which result should I use? The first, the last or one of the millions in between.
Ultimately all the masses want is something that works well.
Be functional.
Chapter 4. Seeing the light can blind you
Stone Age, Iron Age, Bronze Age. The Industrial Revolution. The Digital Age. You can’t hold back progress. Evolve or die. Each progression should make us better. So why should we be cautious as we walk into this new era, this world of new technological progress?
Answer the following questions.
Who are the real beneficiaries of that progress? Who controls the progress and what power do they have? Where did they get it from? In whose interests do they use it? To whom are they accountable? And how do we get rid of them?
Make us better.
Chapter 5. Everybody's wrong about the future
We live in a world that’s forever changing. Every day something new is unveiled, a new magazine, a new TV show, a new movie, new fashions, new technology... every one of them hoping to be the next big thing, every one uncertain of their place in the present much less the future.
The only thing certain about the future is its uncertainty.
We look at the present and attempt to predict the future.
In 1970, when we thought about 2010 these didn’t come to mind: A computer in every home, the Internet, mobile phones in every pocket, social networking, Google, Wikipedia. We did, however, think about flying cars, robot servants, colonies in space, global famines and nuclear catastrophe.
Our vision of the future will always be the unatainable and fanciful. The real future creeps up on you naturally selecting the things that deserve to be in it.
Be invisible.
*Please note all references are presented in the published piece's bibliography but just to be sure I'm not breaking any procedures I represent them here, even though some are references to quotes not presented above. 1 Palahniuk, Chuck, 2003, Fight Club, Random House
2 The Prestige (2007) Director Christopher Nolan
3 The Thief of baghdad (1940) Director Michael Powell
4 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias
5 Moore, Alan,1986, Watchmen, DC Comics
6 http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/03/are_designers_t.html
2 March 2008
7 http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer. cfm?key=b_schwartz 2 March 2007
8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn#In_government_.281964-1970.29
9 McLuhan, Marshall, 1967, The medium is the massage, Gingko Press
... a little bit at a time though...
About a month or so ago I published book with a very very limited run. If you can find a copy keep it safe. It might be worth something one day. It's called Questions on Design: How to make things work better. The text is reproduced below.*
Chapter 1. Keep them fat and Stupid
Design should fulfil a need. The fulfilment of the need could be the seemingly trivial idea of putting an eraser at the end of a pencil or designing a guidance system for a nuclar device. Design — true design, as opposed to art — should not justify its own existence but should fulfil a need, whether that need is to quickly rub out a drawing, or to potentially erase lives.
We’re being sold a dream of a brave new world, one that we’re continually being compelled to join in or miss out... and who wants to miss out on the future? So, while we wallow in the mud of either useless products or technology with built in obsolescence, the marketeer unveils yet another upgrade. Why are we so eager to snap up the latest one when the last one was doing perfectly well a month ago.
And with the world’s markets opening up everybody wants ‘one’. What ‘one’ is doesn’t matter just as long as it’s got a great sounding name, a great logo and a fantastic marketing campaign behind it.
Is today the world of tomorrow that was predicted so many yesterdays ago or are we sleepwalking into a marketeer’s dreamworld? And is it a place where everything presented to us is wonderful and should be snapped up before it goes out of fashion?
We cannot afford to be complacent, either as consumer or designer. As consumers we have to be wise to the market’s attempt to sell a product that adds no value to our lives, our homes, our work or the world. As designers we must take the responsibility that our work should solve a problem, not create one.
Fulfil a need.
Chapter 2. Guns don't kill people
Look around you. Do it now. What do you see? If what you’re looking at isn’t alive, chances are someone made it. Someone had the bright idea that it should be built that way. They thought about the materials that would be used, thought about what it would look like, and where it might be positioned. They thought about how it might fit in to its environment and how it should be, could be and would be used.
Still looking?
Does it do its job?
Be useful.
Chapter 3. Does democracy work?
HD DVD is no longer with us. It has gone the same way as Digital Compact Cassettes, Laser Discs, and Betamax; technologies that could not survive in the market. Its worth as a product can now never be accurately tested. We will never know how good it might have been because it did not have the financial muscle to survive the fight against Blu Ray.
On the other hand, should the masses decide what is good, what is needed? They may know what works but they may not necessarily know why it works. Should one solution be formulated once every voice is heard? Or should multiple solutions be produced and tailored to individual needs?
Having an abundance of choice is not always a good thing. Too much choice causes paralysis in decision-making, escalates expectations and ultimately results in dissatisfaction when that object inevitably fails to live up to such high expectations. In fact, a Google search for ‘Does Democracy work?’ netted 2,670,000 results in 0.17 seconds. Which result should I use? The first, the last or one of the millions in between.
Ultimately all the masses want is something that works well.
Be functional.
Chapter 4. Seeing the light can blind you
Stone Age, Iron Age, Bronze Age. The Industrial Revolution. The Digital Age. You can’t hold back progress. Evolve or die. Each progression should make us better. So why should we be cautious as we walk into this new era, this world of new technological progress?
Answer the following questions.
Who are the real beneficiaries of that progress? Who controls the progress and what power do they have? Where did they get it from? In whose interests do they use it? To whom are they accountable? And how do we get rid of them?
Make us better.
Chapter 5. Everybody's wrong about the future
We live in a world that’s forever changing. Every day something new is unveiled, a new magazine, a new TV show, a new movie, new fashions, new technology... every one of them hoping to be the next big thing, every one uncertain of their place in the present much less the future.
The only thing certain about the future is its uncertainty.
We look at the present and attempt to predict the future.
In 1970, when we thought about 2010 these didn’t come to mind: A computer in every home, the Internet, mobile phones in every pocket, social networking, Google, Wikipedia. We did, however, think about flying cars, robot servants, colonies in space, global famines and nuclear catastrophe.
Our vision of the future will always be the unatainable and fanciful. The real future creeps up on you naturally selecting the things that deserve to be in it.
Be invisible.
*Please note all references are presented in the published piece's bibliography but just to be sure I'm not breaking any procedures I represent them here, even though some are references to quotes not presented above. 1 Palahniuk, Chuck, 2003, Fight Club, Random House
2 The Prestige (2007) Director Christopher Nolan
3 The Thief of baghdad (1940) Director Michael Powell
4 Shelley, Percy Bysshe, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozymandias
5 Moore, Alan,1986, Watchmen, DC Comics
6 http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/03/are_designers_t.html
2 March 2008
7 http://www.ted.com/tedtalks/tedtalksplayer. cfm?key=b_schwartz 2 March 2007
8 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Benn#In_government_.281964-1970.29
9 McLuhan, Marshall, 1967, The medium is the massage, Gingko Press
Friday, February 8, 2008
Order - Chaos - Order
entropy [en-truh-pee]: a hypothetical tendency for the universe to attain a state of maximum inert uniformity.
Welcome to our latest interaction project. The task is to create a content management system that will bring order to the world, or at least a tiny part of it.
Something that has always annoyed me is the way the public transport services don't 'talk' to each other and how the commuter has to make decisions without truly knowing the options. For example: should you wait for the bus when the train station is only a ten minute walk away? But if you walk to the train station the bus might pass you on the way... or maybe the bus is stuck in a jam that hasn't appeared at your stretch of the road yet... but the train might be delayed... or it might be just quicker to walk the whole way… and what about the cost? Travel card, Oyster, cash?
Many options but which is the best one for you.
Downloads may exist. The information is also available on the internet. Usually, however, these matters are only important at the time you need it and once the frustration is over you tend not to think about it until it happens again. My proposal is interactive maps that adjust to the user's need — how far, how long, how much — updated in real time, taking into account delays, weather and other problems.
It's a daunting task realising this project. Fortunately I'll be work with Craig Dennis, who's pretty damn good at most everything. We're going to be just taking a tiny section of London. I've mocked up a map; it was small when I started.... hmmmm.
Welcome to our latest interaction project. The task is to create a content management system that will bring order to the world, or at least a tiny part of it.
Something that has always annoyed me is the way the public transport services don't 'talk' to each other and how the commuter has to make decisions without truly knowing the options. For example: should you wait for the bus when the train station is only a ten minute walk away? But if you walk to the train station the bus might pass you on the way... or maybe the bus is stuck in a jam that hasn't appeared at your stretch of the road yet... but the train might be delayed... or it might be just quicker to walk the whole way… and what about the cost? Travel card, Oyster, cash?
Many options but which is the best one for you.
Downloads may exist. The information is also available on the internet. Usually, however, these matters are only important at the time you need it and once the frustration is over you tend not to think about it until it happens again. My proposal is interactive maps that adjust to the user's need — how far, how long, how much — updated in real time, taking into account delays, weather and other problems.
It's a daunting task realising this project. Fortunately I'll be work with Craig Dennis, who's pretty damn good at most everything. We're going to be just taking a tiny section of London. I've mocked up a map; it was small when I started.... hmmmm.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Biting the bullet
There comes a time when one realises that you can't just work around things, to do the job you need the best tools, and if those tools aren't available you have to just go out and get them.
I thought I could make do with a Mac at home, PC desktops at college and a tiny Linux laptop in my pocket. Now I know I know I have to get a PC laptop if I'm to have at least a snowball's chance in Hell in successfully completing the virtual environments module and the PHP databases project.
I'm off shopping.
I thought I could make do with a Mac at home, PC desktops at college and a tiny Linux laptop in my pocket. Now I know I know I have to get a PC laptop if I'm to have at least a snowball's chance in Hell in successfully completing the virtual environments module and the PHP databases project.
I'm off shopping.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Frustration cubed
Very, very tired. I've spent three hours trying to do just one (apparently) simple task on 3D Max. The frustration has given me a headache. All I wanted to do was assign a different colour to each side of a cube. Couldn't do it. The Help isn't particularly helpful because I don't know how to phrase the question since I'm not familiar with the nomenclature. What's going to happen when I need to assign sound to the faces?
What I have so far is a model of the cubes within a larger cube. The larger cube will open up, throwing out the smaller cubes — I'm going to have to come up with a name for this thing — whilst in the midst of the 'chaos' and noise there'll be what I call the Cosmic Cube that the user will use to control the environment. Well, that's the idea. I still have to figure out how to use this programme and then it's on to Visard and making the whole thing interactive.
I live in hope.
What I have so far is a model of the cubes within a larger cube. The larger cube will open up, throwing out the smaller cubes — I'm going to have to come up with a name for this thing — whilst in the midst of the 'chaos' and noise there'll be what I call the Cosmic Cube that the user will use to control the environment. Well, that's the idea. I still have to figure out how to use this programme and then it's on to Visard and making the whole thing interactive.
I live in hope.
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Back to work
It's been a while. And though it may appear that I've been doing nothing — sitting back, hands behind my neck, feet up on desk gazing lovingly at my Bart Simpson slippers — I have actually been working hard. In fact, I've been doing many things. All at once.
Like what?
Virtual Environments: Exploring the possibilities a three dimensional environment offers in the interaction with, and organisation of content. Managing content within two dimensional interfaces is commonplace now — everyone has a PC or mobile telephone — but adding an extra dimension changes the way we view content and the relationship among the elements of that content.
My idea is to create a three dimensional Rubik's cube type game. Like Rubik's game the object is to put the cube back in the right order. My cube has, however, instead of coloured sides, sound sides. The cube can be taken apart completely. Each side emits a sound. The task is to put the cube back together in such a way that only the harmonious sounds can be heard and the cacophonous ones are stifled by the inner sides of the cube itself.
I'm also learning Processing. It's slow going. Any kind of programming/coding is new to me, so bear with me. I am enjoying it, so much so that I'm sharing the fruits of my labour with y'all. It doesn't quite work... to be frank it really doesn't work at all. The right paddle moves, the ball moves, but the left paddle doesn't do what I thought I programmed it to. Oh well, as Chairman Mao once said, "Even the makers of GTA had to learn to use a computer." Oh, by the way the game is Pong. Enjoy.
Finally, I'm working on a comic book. It's already written (plotted), and drawn. I'm in the process of scripting and colouring the first 24 pages. It's called Genus, a kind of Grange Hill meets X-Men, and depending on how I feel I might just post it up panel by panel as I complete it. For the time being here's page 5 sans script.
Like what?
Virtual Environments: Exploring the possibilities a three dimensional environment offers in the interaction with, and organisation of content. Managing content within two dimensional interfaces is commonplace now — everyone has a PC or mobile telephone — but adding an extra dimension changes the way we view content and the relationship among the elements of that content.
My idea is to create a three dimensional Rubik's cube type game. Like Rubik's game the object is to put the cube back in the right order. My cube has, however, instead of coloured sides, sound sides. The cube can be taken apart completely. Each side emits a sound. The task is to put the cube back together in such a way that only the harmonious sounds can be heard and the cacophonous ones are stifled by the inner sides of the cube itself.
I'm also learning Processing. It's slow going. Any kind of programming/coding is new to me, so bear with me. I am enjoying it, so much so that I'm sharing the fruits of my labour with y'all. It doesn't quite work... to be frank it really doesn't work at all. The right paddle moves, the ball moves, but the left paddle doesn't do what I thought I programmed it to. Oh well, as Chairman Mao once said, "Even the makers of GTA had to learn to use a computer." Oh, by the way the game is Pong. Enjoy.
Finally, I'm working on a comic book. It's already written (plotted), and drawn. I'm in the process of scripting and colouring the first 24 pages. It's called Genus, a kind of Grange Hill meets X-Men, and depending on how I feel I might just post it up panel by panel as I complete it. For the time being here's page 5 sans script.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Fully recovered and fighting fit
It's 2008 and I'm rearing to go. Yeah, I know it's already nine and three-quarter days into the year but better late than never. The possibilities of doing some great work, learning new skills, exploring stimulating ideas and engaging with interesting people have made getting out of bed in the morning exciting.
Unfortunately I was struck by a flu virus. To be quite honest I can't remember ever being this ill before. In my whole life I've never taken a day off for real illness. Yesterday I thought I'd turn up for classes anyway and the day would take care of the flu — just brush it away like so much chaff. No such luck. I could barely stand, barely talk, barely had enough energy to raise a brave grin. I should have stayed in bed. To anyone who may have caught my germs: sorry.
I'm feeling much better now!
Unfortunately I was struck by a flu virus. To be quite honest I can't remember ever being this ill before. In my whole life I've never taken a day off for real illness. Yesterday I thought I'd turn up for classes anyway and the day would take care of the flu — just brush it away like so much chaff. No such luck. I could barely stand, barely talk, barely had enough energy to raise a brave grin. I should have stayed in bed. To anyone who may have caught my germs: sorry.
I'm feeling much better now!
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