Sunday, December 18, 2005

Vito Acconci

I requested referrences from my Arts and Theories teacher Galia Yahav.
She suggested I look up a project called "seed bed" by Vito Acconci.
So far I found people that wrote about it, but no actual documentation or images by the artist.
Anyway- he is a very interesting body artist.

http://www.eai.org/eai/artist.jsp?artistID=289

Saturday, December 17, 2005

New Inspirations (?!)

Well, I'm collecting inspirations to put in my presentation for class.
So I'm putting them here first, and I'll add them to the links later.
The Prisoner:
http://www.retroweb.com/prisoner.html
The Milgram experiment:
http://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%94%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%99_%D7%A9%D7%9C_%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9C%D7%92%D7%A8%D7%9D
1984:
http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
Cube (specially cube2):
http://www.metrofilms.com/cube2/
Lost (I'm most of the way through season 1, it's creepyness and the secrets they are all hiding that got them there)
http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/show.html
Anyhow- this is it for now. Still no seriouse change with the ALICE stuff, but I think I'll try getting a flow chart started as well..

Saturday, December 10, 2005

Reports from the field: ALICE and I

Well- we certainly hit it off on the wrong foot. I had a short conversation with ALICE and decided to look into it a little more.
For the past few hours (!!) I've been trying to figure it out. It's a UIless application (Ben says it's a command line, but it's going to take some getting used to on my part).
It still crashes a lot, but I am far from scraping the surface of the possibilities in those AI's.
Given I carefully plan my moves on this thing, I think I can actually make it sell a convinving storyline.

I admit I only downloaded the very basic kit of this thing, and there is much left to investigate. It seems like a promising idea to maybe build over.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Organizing my thoughts. Only read if you read the "BOX" post first.

After meeting with Hila Dar, I now have a good partition of themes to ponder about and work through. I have several lists of problems, missions and challenges to think about and test...
This is very good, since now I can work through this bit by bit.
List of questions:
1*I have to define for myself- what do I want the user thinking when going out of the room.
2*How do I make the interactive videos work as a smooth video?
3*Do I want to use a regular letter based keyboard or custom make a pre-set one?
4*How am I going to make the cube?
5*Do I want to use "Alice" to feed in the verbal reactions.
6*What is the story with the character? Is there one character? Is there one story?
7*What are my handles going to be like? What are they going to do?
8*Do I put hints in the design to the fact the user is not an outside viewer but is also being
watched and tested?
9*Is there an ending?
Some beginnings for answers:
1*I think I want the user to be wierded out. I want the user to leave with frustration and a
flustered feeling, the kind that doesn't let go of you for a while, because something is
definitely wrong there. Amomnet before the user forgets all about it, I want them to realise
that as well as watching the prisoner, they were also watched and their reactions were also
tested.
2*The only Idea I have write now is to make the whole thing with interruptions. Statics in the
video all along, and not just in the connecting points.
3*I don't know yet.
4*I don't know yet.
5*Well, I still need to check it out, But it seems like a good idea, given I can limit "Alice"s
answers to certain themes only (no chit chat style convos).
6*The character gives the impression of being a victim, a naive, innocent victim. At this point I
don't think it is. I think the character is locked up that way for a damn good reason. I think it
did something terrible, but will never admit to it. It want to get out, and will manipulate anyone
that goes near it to help it out.
7*Well- that's a good question. Functionality wise there are a few things I want: (a) a handle to
control the temprature. (b) a handle to control a tiny trap door. (c) a handle that controls a limb
(probably an arm) of the character. (d) a handle that does nothing at all (maybe a microphone
shaped....). Regarding the design...I don't know.
8*I think I will. Hila suggested to hint about it at the entry- designing the door as a door to an
asylum booth.
9*I think there will be. I think it'll be time based, so at a sertain point the connetion just
terminates, no matter how far the user had gotten to go on the dialogue. I think I'll randomize
it, but I'm not sure.
Missions:
2*Test the video and the interruption effect.
3*Decide on the interactivity limits- how much can it really be the user's choice?
4*Look for solutions. LCDs? Screening?
5*Investigate the options in "Alice".
6*Try doing a stanislavsky style research on the character.
***Make a flow chart. The better it'll be, the easier time I'll have to point out the problematic
issues.***
Hila also told me about the show "LOST" apparently it's just like cube, only on an island.Hmmm.
Thats all for now.

Saturday, December 03, 2005

Box

My Idea is an interactive installation. Physically it is a room in which a big box is hanging from the ceiling. The Box can be moved around and has different handles on it. On The Box is projected an image of a person.
The user walks into the room where The Box is hanging. One of the handles on The Box is a keyboard.
The user can then:
1. touch The Box.
2. try the keyboard.
3. look around for a while.
In cases 1 or 3 the character notices the user and stirs and starts trying to talk to them, but without success, the voice is not transferred.
In case 2 the text being typed by the user appears on the wall behind the character, it notices it and notices a keyboard set in its room and type out an answer fitting for the user. The user watches the typing and hears a voice "translating" the typing into sound.
After the first communication method has been established there are a few ways this can develop:
1. There is a verbal conversation that last for a while, until after a certain time limit, the character will start making requests from the user (regarding the temperature, the angles of the room and aiding to escape).
2. The user will start operating The Box and its handles, effecting the character's immediate envinroment and causing it to react verbally until a dialogue is developed that will become option 1. After a while.
3. The user will start operating The Box and its handles, effecting the character's immediate envinroment and causing it to react verbally but the user will ignore it, which will cause the inevitable elimination of the character.
4. The user will walk away from The Box, the character will try asking it to stay and save it's life.
In cases 1 or 2, that end up in a dialogue, the character will share with the user what it knows about its world and will ask questions about the user's whereabouts. The character will also answer questions the user is asking. Eventually the handles will come in to the picture.
So far I have these ideas:
1. a handle controlling airflow into The Box.
2. a handle controlling the temperature.
3. a handle controlling an arm of the character.
4. a handle opening little openings (a different one each time) in the room from which the
character can try escaping The Box...never to succeed.
5. Moving The Box will have and actual one to one effect on the room in which the character is
living, including flipping and spinning.

That's it for now.