This assignment was to develop a concept around a two-screen, live event experience; specifically, using TV and computer via internet. Our group’s concept was a variety-style, Gong Show inspired show with binary voting from viewers to determine via aggregate whether a performance was Fly (a rousing success) or Pie (a miserable failure) which received a whipped cream pie in the face. (We’re a classy outfit here..) (more…)
[written for Media Economics & Participation at ITP]
Slashdot users are seeking karma. However, gaining positive karma at Slashdot is just a means to an end; Slashdot users are seeking (limited) power and status among their peers in the form of fleeting moderator access for the vibrant comments component of the highly active, technology-focused news aggregation site. Moderators are chosen from among the registered users using a somewhat obscure algorithm which incorporates each user’s karma rating (a scale of Terrible, Bad, Neutral, Positive, Good, and Excellent), length of membership and randomness. Selected moderators are given special status and 5 mod{eration} points with an expiration window of three days. The moderation status ends when the points have been used in the act of moderating comments or have expired.
The moderation system has been borne out of necessity as the Slashdot community has grown large, bringing the signal-to-noise ratio down and decreasing the satisfaction in reading the raw comment threads. “Flamebait” and “trolls” contribute little more than instigation for starting arguments and fights among the users with typically strong opinions on matters which usually appear on Slashdot. Rob Malda, founder of Slashdot, explains this phenomenon on the Slashdot FAQ: (more…)
This is a rough collection of comments and notes on the assignment for week 2 of Site-Specific. (more…)
[assignment in the syllabus]
A driving force is a trend or factor, operating in the world today, which will influence the way the future evolves over the next 5-15 years. We were asked to identify a driving force, and it’s associated predetermined elements and critical uncertainties.
Driving Force:
There is a desire for immediate knowledge of trends and events in the physical world.
Predetermined Element:
The physical world will be entirely digitized, and monitored in real-time with a network of sensors. A comprehensive network of various sensors, and software to aggregate and analyze the gathered data will inform wide-ranging areas. These sensors may be built into other devices, such as mobile handsets and vehicles or may be standalone. Sensors need not only be inanimate; sentient beings may gather and provide rich sets of data.
Critical Uncertainty:
Rate of technological evolution for inexpensive, low/self-powered sensors. Also, the time frame of deployment of these sensors once available. Proliferation of ubiquitous wireless network access to enable constant connectivity with the sensors. Contingent on public acceptance of near-constant reporting of data.
The first bit of our notes from our observation of folks using tech in Brooklyn. I’ll fill in the rest of the notes and a cleaned up version of our discussion.
Progress on the sound sketch. I’m not satisfied with the sketch yet, but I’ve attached two screenshots of the result so far. The applet and source code are available.
Of the assignment description, the final sentences drew my attention:
“How would you explain it to someone who’s deaf. What is purpose of visualizing sound differently? Could you think of it as drawing with your voice?”
I happened to be sitting on Astor eating a sandwich after class and started thinking about these things. My initial notes:
Sound is time based…display the history (as a line, etc.)? Only show the immediate samples?
Sound is also layered and it is spatial. Think of a city street. There are sounds in all directions and distances. Is it the amplitude (volume) which is a clue to distance, or is it something like parallax?
Properties of digital sound: frequency, amplitude, sample rate, sample size, channels (stereo)
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As a drawing tool: sound volume is really changes in pressure. An airbrush or paintbrush change the thickness of their strokes based on pressure. Can the drawing tool use sound amplitude in place of physical pressure?How about opacity? Use the same technique? Have to hum lightly to make any mark at all?
What about color? Map a range of frequencies to a spectrum of color? Human voice, piano, etc? This is less useful in a noisy environment with many overlapping sounds.
I have started to create a drawing tool, but in the iterative process I have gone to a representation of the microphone’s sound in horizontal rows. Amplitude determines the height of each vertical line, the pitch of the loudest sample determines the hue. I have an alternate version using opacity to represent pitch. There’s much more experimentation to do.
