Archive for June, 2009
going-away-and-maybe-not-coming-back-party
This is my small contribution to Project TOTO. I borrow Sony Z1P from COFA to have my hands on during the semester break and bring it to Stilgherrian’s farewell party at our local pub, Kelly’s on King aka Afternoon Office™. Mark Pesce suggests that we should do a vox pop on his big journey and I agree. The hard thing in making this video is I like to enjoy the party as well as run around make people talk to the camera. Later on Stilgherrian has a play with it himself with some cutaway shots until the tape is run out.
Stilgherrian is leaving for Tanzania in just one sleeps. I’m certain that he is psyched up about this project. We are looking forward to the two world meet.
To Tanzania with Love
In the next few days Stilgherrian will be travelling to Tanzania for Action Aid’s TOTO project. It is to set up and teach local officers to make use of social media to communicate to the world. Ideally, he is going to Africa to teach them how to blog their activities.
It has been hyped up on Twitter and bloggersphere for a while. And this could be a study case in many ways. It will be some culture shocks between revolutionary waves, organisations and Stilgherrian’s own struggle.
We are talking about a colonised country that has not been industrialised in this hyperconnected world, a non-government organization exposing and reflecting themselves through social media and a person who only once has been out of his motherland.
Although it is only a week he will be there, this test match has so many layers in it. Hopefully, they will achieve quite an experience working in Tanzania.
State of Emergency
My final work is an attempt to create an illusion of Horizontal Parallax Only. It is supposed to reflect the unravelling situations in the world today. After the hard work of composing those primitive objects to form the word PANIC and the exploration of the possibilities in Maya, it came down to the artistic choices to make this concept work.
I decided to use plain texture with cold tone tint on the main subject to illuminate it from the background. The 2D mapping background was my own photograph of an old railway workshop. The rusty corrugated iron wall provided a semi-realistic sense to the scene whereas the floor was more abstract. It reflective surface displayed the positions of the original shape even though the viewer is in the readable a spot.
I was not really sure that how 3D models from an online library would collaborate with my design until I browsed it and found a models of an eye ball. It was modified eye colour and added blood vain. I put it symmetrically on each side. A model of a skyscraper was imported to the scene as tower for the eyes. Although they became strong figures, they are quite far away from working area. Hopefully they will not distract the subject in print.
Those eyes were animated to keep an eye contact with the camera to give a feeling of paranoia as if being watched. By that time I discovered how to use keyframe animation in Maya, I wanted to explore more with shape. So I created transparent spheres as eyelids and made them blink when the camera moved.
The main lighting that cast the shadows is from straight above the composition. Like the reflection on the floor, it is the stationary map that exhibits where the objects actually are whether they form the word in the viewer’s eyes. This is the illusion of 3-dimensional space to create 2-dimensional mirage. Ironically, the physical matter of the work is just a 2D print in 3D environment.
The installation will definitely have an impact of how the audience will experience the work. If it is hung in a narrow space that people can only walk pass, the time they see the word PANIC will be limited. On the other hand, if there is more space in front of the print, it can be animated more freely by the viewer’s perspective. This is a good example of the temporal aspect of hologram that is the interaction between the work and viewer.
It will be interesting to see how viewer will interact with this image. I am eagerly looking forward to seeing the final print.
Clean and Green Box
Posted by 'Pong in Advertisement on 02/06/2009
I am very pleased to live in this commy village. And this is one of the reasons. Marrickville Councils is distributing No Advertising Material with the message:
Dear Residents,
Australia engages in a common practice of using household letterbox distribution as an advertising medium. In fact, approximately, 10 billion catalogues, unaddressed flyers and leaflets were produced by retailers and distributed letterbox last year.
To reduce amount of paper that goes to waste each year and support litter prevention, Marrickville Councils has produced a ‘No Advertising Materials’ sticker you may like to place on your letterbox.
If you still receive mainstream bundled catalogues of advertising mail you don’t want, call Distribution Standard Board on 1800 676 136. They will take action for you if it relates to print material of a commercial nature.
To stop junk mail that is addressed to a ‘household resident’, register with Australian Direct Marketing Association on 9277 5400. This will reduce addressed and unsolicited mail from ADMA member companies and organisations.
Marrickville Councils thanks you for your support in helping to improve our community.
Minimun Waste Maximum Recovery
The sticker has been put up on the letterbox because we are too lazy to pick those catalogues and put them straight to recycle bin. They are sometimes useful for lining kitchen or cleaning cat’s poo but we are not going to drive to a shopping mall to get a dozen of $0.5 cheaper eggs.
Every household has ‘No Junk Mail’ sticker except Junk Mail Experiment by Michael Gormly. But it does not stop them sticking unwanted mails into our letterboxes. Now the voice of a local government would probably make it clear get out of our mail boxes even though we are convinced what actions will be made when we lodge a complaint.
However, it is clear that the Councils’ message targets at corporate retails and leaves room for small local business. I am more than happy to support a Thai home delivery or a hippie yoga school in the suburb.
It will take some time for these organisations to get into the new world called the Internet. There is no web address mentioned above not even the Councils itself. It makes me think how I miss a hypertext. I have to put their links for them.
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