Looking back on doing the goals post the first week of the semester, it feels like so long ago. We’ve already done so many things in this class, and I’ve been able to experiment with different programs and media creation. I definitely feel like I’ve learned a lot not only in reading articles and watching videos about editing and audio, but also through experience, which is so helpful outside of the classroom. I really wanted to gain experience through this class, and not even halfway through the semester I have definitely reached that goal.
Category Archives: blog
The Bees Knees
The video essay I created was an analysis of the Black Mirror scene examining the surveillance bee that had “malfunctioned” and was involved in a death. It was interesting to examine how the editors most notably used different camera angles to shift the audience’s focus, and to also set the presence of technology. I noticed more closely the usage of close ups to convey emotions of characters by focusing of their eyes as was frequently mentioned in the videos and had a lot of fun looking more into a show past its initial context/plot. Please take a look here!
On the Air
For the radio show, I think it would be cool to include a segment similar to that of True Crime, where one or multiple characters are involved in a scenario that would fit their archetype. It would be an interesting way to show off their personalities and also have interaction with other characters. Another idea I had for the show was just having conversation among the hosts regarding a topic, taking music or sports as an example. Music would be a great topic as it would be related to hosting a radio show and also connect music to the tech noir theme of the class as well.
Limetown Radio
I tuned into DS106 radio today on Wednesday February 5th and was impressed by all of the different moods presented through background sounds and ambient noise. The limetown episode was intriguing, and the clarity of the voices varied throughout as the background sounds changed. At some points, the ambient music conveyed they were outside while at other times the voices were more clear because they were in a car, and it shows the power of sound affecting location and was really interesting to listen to in a podcast episode.
Moon Graffiti
The first thing I noticed in the recording was the contrast between the voices of the Astronaut and “home base”, as home base had multiple people in the background and was more clear to hear whereas the Astronaut sounded like communication over a walkie talkie. This was an immediate way to distinguish the two ends of communication and establish sides of each party. The crash then depicts a distinction from history creating an alternate timeline, but the sound being so loud conveys the seriousness of the event. The cut to a different voice lets the audience know the change of time and then cuts back to a more static like communication between the Astronauts. They talk about the crash and there’s many different sound effects, most notably the sound of a camera shutter taking a picture.
Overall, the sounds of this podcast created a hypothetical alternation to the Moon Landing that was hyper realistic and an insight to what could’ve been if the original astronauts crashed. The sounds and layering of voices included make it immersive for listeners and allow for a more detailed visualization of time and location of each person.
Mastering the Art
After reading the articles and watching the videos it’s really astonishing to see the prominence of graphic design and how its trends shape our perceptions of different items and tones. I never really thought about how similar movie posters look based off of what genre they are and conveying the audience each movie is trying to draw in. It was very eye opening to see in the VanityFair video many different posters of similar style movies next to each other in comparison because of how apparent the similarities are. I thought about how difficult it is to otherwise grasp how many factors play into those movie posters because of how far apart each movie is released. A continuous theme I noticed when reading the articles and watching the videos were trends. People often look back to the past in order to gain inspiration for the current design project. This is seen in the Stranger Things Retro Title video using title designs and technology from the 80s to make the well known title logo that is seen in the show. Furthermore, this trend is seen in the article about Chip Kidd and all of the subtopics that go into design such as Symmetry vs. Asymmetry and Simplicity vs. Complexity. Overall, the articles and videos made me reflect on how frequent and influential design is and will continue to be.
Technopoly
Simply after reading the Introduction Reading Postman in 2020: Towards Technopoly, I could see the many connections that Neil Postman’s ideas and work had to The Terminator, the film I watched last week. Postman initially discusses the dangers of society becoming overly dependent on technology, losing its critical thinking and traditional values in the process. Throughout the reading, the author examines Postman’s critique of technology and its evolving impact on society, particularly in today’s context with a more advanced and developed digital age. The first chapter uses Thamus’ judgment as a metaphor for the modern-day skepticism about new technologies, particularly digital media. This sense of skepticism is especially relevant in the context of social media, smartphones, and other technologies, and is seen in The Terminator with the rise of rogue technology. The 2nd chapter focuses on a state Postman calls technocracy. In a technocracy, experts in technology and data hold significant power, and technology begins to shape the priorities and values of society. In the terminator, the development of technology begins to move from being a neutral tool that humans control to a driving force that fits the noir theme in wanting to gain control over its creators. The first two chapters really drove the other three, reviewing other aspects such as an “improbable world”, but all support a renewed awareness of the ways technology influences every aspect of life. The author also challenges readers to reconsider how they engage with it, aiming for a more balanced and thoughtful approach to its integration into society, furthermore relating to The Terminator resulting in its viewers having increased awareness of its quick development.
My reflections and Dr. Oblivion’s response heard here were positive. I agree even more with the author’s reflection on Postman’s ideas after rewatching The Terminator in the context of analyzing it. It wasn’t super eye opening or unexpected, but it’s a needed reminder or realization in the more digitized age we live in today.
We’re creative because we care
1 Reply
I asked Dr. Oblivion if digital storytelling students should continue to experiment with AI in making art, and got responses from both sides of him. Has he ever steered us wrong?
For our final final week, let us celebrate the creativity of the class. Consider these two prompts:
- What is the best thing you saw in the course? Explain why it was good.
- What was the best thing you made in the course? Explain what you got out of making it.
We at ds106 have had some legal threats from Aggressive Technologies, even as they profess to love us. So let’s frame our closing week as the Aggressive Technologies conference, where we will each do a brief video, less than two minutes, addressing the above prompts and making a case for why Aggressive Technologies should support ds106. You can do this using your character, or as yourself, or as someone else. You have total power, as our old friend Bob Ross would say. Have fun with it. Embed the video in a post and tag it ATconference. My plan is to put a menu link on the http://ds106.ai/ site that collects all the posts with the tag, so they will all be in one spot.
Final project: “A robot uprising would be a bonus”
I asked Dr. Oblivion for his thoughts on the final project. I don’t know how helpful they are though. So here are the final project details:
- You have the option of doing the final project individually or as a group project. If you do it as a group project, each group member needs to blog about it.
- Your project should showcase the multiple digital media skills you have developed over the semester. It could take the form of a post or a subdomain with embedded media, or a complex video incorporating audio production and design, or something else if you have a different idea.
- Potential final project prompts:
- Aggressive Technologies vs ds106. See the visit from AT’s legal counsel. How should we respond, individually or as a group? The idea of pitting the class against its own creation has a sort of Frankenstein or Utron appeal to me. What do you think? ds106 takes no guff from corporate lawyers.
- Characters and Aggressive Technologies. Bring some of the story threads the class has developed over the past several weeks to a conclusion. You might build upon the radio show project, or go in a different direction. This concept has good potential for collaboration because you could develop intersecting or interrelated storylines and work remotely and asynchronously. It would be interesting to see how many stories we could get to intersect, or even connect tangentially.
- Analysis of pros & cons of artificial intelligence based on course experiences. What can we do with AI? What should we do with AI? What would Dr. Oblivion do? In spite of that last question, this would be an option to take a serious approach to issues of artificial intelligence. Has AI helped you be more creative in ds106, or has it felt more like a cheat or a crutch? Perhaps a little of both?
- As with everything else in ds106, you have a great deal of freedom as to how you interpret these prompts and execute the project.
- One of the things that makes ds106 what we know and love is the student input. Perhaps you find the above prompts lacking. Do you have ideas for final project prompts? It should be something that builds upon what we’ve been doing, involves the use of a variety of digital media, and gives people room for creative exploration. Feel free to post ideas, thoughts or questions in the #finalprojects channel in Discord. Take advantage of this if you’re looking for collaborators as well, or if you have questions about the assignment.
- Project size: You want the project to showcase what you can accomplish with digital media. It is a two-week project, so it should represent a fair amount of work. Your write-ups for each week should detail the thought processes and effort that go into the project. Ideally it should be something that you will want to archive and show off to family, friends, and future generations.
Timeline
Due Friday, 4/19, by midnight: a weekly summary outlining your project and detailing the work done so far. It would be a good idea to post one or two progress updates during the week, to share ideas and get feedback from the class, and to prevent procrastination.
Due Friday, 4/26: the finished project and a weekly summary reflecting on the work and your creative process, and describing how well it represents what you have learned over the semester. The project and the summary could be separate posts or they could be included in one – whichever works better for your project. Again it would be a good idea to post a progress report during the week.
Daily Creates
Daily Creates are optional for these two weeks.
Week 11: Where do we go from here?
1. ds106radio
The class shows will be broadcast Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 7pm. I would like to do it at noon, but so far only three people indicated that they could be available. If we get a few more we may add a noon session. We will listen on ds106radio and discuss in Discord in the ds106radio channel. If the tech is cooperative and people are willing, I would like to get people on air to talk about their shows. Those may be big IFs. We would like at least one person from each group to be listening and on Discord when the group’s show is broadcast to answer questions about the show. Everyone should listen to at least one other group’s show and blog about the experience. Tag this post showlistening.
Schedule:
Monday 7PM: Ravioli Radio, Logic Pod
Tuesday 7PM: Pop Perceptive, Three Point Chatter
Wednesday 7PM: Digital Agencies, Aggressive Testimonials
2. Video
For weeks 11 and 12, we will expand on our video work, specifically looking at what we can do with manipulation. Some people were able to animate Dr. Oblivion a few weeks ago with the Wav2Lip script, and someone even got Frank to say a few words. Let’s experiment further. You can use that script on other videos. Some points to be aware of:
- For Wav2lip, video clips cannot be more than 60 seconds or the script will fail
- videos appear to work best when one person is talking, more or less directly at the camera. See video above.
- Google Drive may take issue with attempts at deepfakery, so it may be best to work with public domain sources
- List of films in the public domain in the United States
- Free to Use and Reuse: Public Domain Films from the National Film Registry
- There is also public domain video in the Internet Archive, for example in the Prelinger Archives. Some content there is in questionable taste, so proceed cautiously.
- People found a few other ways to animate characters. Whatever works is okay. Even if you have to resort to the level of fakery from the other week’s video.
- If you find the idea of fakery objectionable, feel free to find another way to animate. There may be useful tools on the Week 8 list or in people’s AI pitches.
The video project for this and next week should have some sort of narrative involving the course theme of AI, your course character, Aggressive Technologies, Dr. Oblivion, or any combination thereof. As always, it is up to you to decide how to interpret this, and creativity is encouraged. You may choose to build off of ideas developed in your radio projects, or you may try something different. The project must incorporate editing, clips, audio, graphics and text or titles. It should have an opening and an ending.
The point here is to create a video narrative, and to push your boundaries by experimenting with a variety of video components and techniques. I am not specifying a time length because it can take hours of work to plan and produce a well-edited two-minute video, or it could take almost no work to point a camera at something for twenty minutes. If it’s something you want to show off to people and it gives you a lot to blog about, it is a good project.
You all have the option of working in groups on this project. All group members must blog about their work for the project. You can also work independently.
Due Friday, 4/5 by midnight:
- A blog post on the radio show listening experience
- A blog post on your video project plan and progress. Tag this videoplan. This post will include a detailed outline or storyboard of the script.
Due Friday, 4/12 by midnight:
- Embed your video in a post tagged videoproject, along with the usual detailed reflective analysis.
3. Daily Creates – Let’s do 3 each week.
4. Commenting – as usual.
5. Looking ahead
We have five weeks left in ds106. Here is our plan going forward.
- Week 11 & 12: ds106radio listening and video project planning
- Week 13: final project planning
- Week 14: final project completion
- The final project will also be an optional group or individual project.
- Your project should showcase the multiple digital media skills you have developed over the semester. It could take the form of a post or a subdomain with embedded media, or a complex video incorporating audio production and design, or something else if you have a better idea.
- Potential final project prompts:
- Aggressive Technologies vs ds106 – see the visit from AT’s legal counsel
- Characters and Aggressive Technologies – bring some of the story threads the class has developed of the past several weeks to a conclusion
- Analysis of pros & cons of artificial intelligence based on course experiences. What can we do with AI? What should we do with AI?
- One of the things that makes ds106 what we know and love is the student input. Do you have ideas for final project prompts? It should be something that builds upon what we’ve been doing, involves the use of a variety of digital media, and gives people room for creative exploration. Feel free to post ideas, thoughts or questions in the #finalprojects channel in Discord
- Week 15: wrap-up: Aggressive Technologies conference
- Everybody gets to do a short video presentation, no more than 2 minutes, on their experience with AI106. We hope to get these on ds106tv