Blog Entry 4 – Session 2

A new member has joined our group: Sahand Jalali. I caught him up on Facebook, added him to the group and exchanged contact details. He is a music student who was moved to our group to replace Theron UDennis - who has a poor attendance record.

I was thinking about my groups project before the session. Because I'd be the one to do the code work etc. I started thinking about how doable the piece was. Especially in the amount of time we have.

It wasn't doable to research how to make a program appear differently on two terminals/projection in the space of time we have. Neither would it be doable to test this before the exhibition and having two work spaces at the exhibition would never be accepted.

Not only that but the idea didn't really fit the criteria. So before class I tweaked the concept around avatars. This is because they are extensions of our personalities classing them as virtual forms of cyborgism. I also thought about portraying them in a virtual reality to add a sci-fi touch to it.

Avatar - Mr. House - Fallout New Vegas

When we got to class two of the photographers didn't show up, which at this stage makes the group "Forming" hard and makes them unaware of group progress. 

I pitched the idea change to the group that had shown up: Katie, Andrea & Sandy. They agreed it needed changing. Katie suggested making it just a video showreel that could be interactive via remote control. 

We decided to go with mine and Katies idea, Sandy pitched the idea of making it so we communicate with the audience by saying things like "Oi pay attention".

I came up with a visual concept of making it a computery looking room that is constantly glitchy, Andrea & Sandy were discussing how the ambience, music and sound effects should sound. I suggested mood music and for the ambience computery sounds, drips, dark and dramatic.

As a group we came up with this concept:

• An Interactive projection that is manipulated by us via remote control. 
• The format is video, that will be recorded on a green screen. 
• By keying out the green screen we will photoshop computery designs. 
• At all times there will be a male and female, who will have idle chatter. 
• Mood music will be played while the characters talk, emphasising the moods: amorous, hostility, comical, happy, embarassed etc. 
• "The Virtual Reality Comm." is glitchy and the avatars often glitch off the screen and are replaced with another one. 
• The avatars communicate with the real world: the exhibition audience, this is the main concept of the "Virtual Reality Comm." 
• There will be glitchy transitions and effects.

 

I came up with a couple ideas for the video:

Have computer stuff pop up every now and then, like:

- With the glitches, a "connection lost..." screen or "Stream ended"

- background protocals appear, in the back drop, which does not distract too much from whats happening (making it look more "techy")

After our session we had to plan for the presentation that was coming up the following week. So I negotiated a day with my team and set up the event on Facebook for those who didn't attend.

The team roles we will negotiate Wednesday - I'll be in the whole time so I'll co-ordinate everything fairly, for those joining and leaving at different times.