Doubt

When reading this, I think of cubism. His description of art and novelty and how we see things resonates with the primary focus of the Cubism movement. We can only imagine what looking at an early cubist painting would be like for an art enthusiast in the early 20th century. The paintings were a distorted rearranged representation of the world. This movement did exactly what he describes, "It is in the creation of disjuncture between the thing and its representation that we come to see the thing and its relation to other things anew"

Plan for Short Project

On one of the days that it was extremely windy I went on top of my roof and took pictures of a tree in front of my house. My plan is to use these images of the tree blowing and have words flow off of the tree like leaves. I'm not too sure how well this is going to work, I've never made an animation that is made primarily with images. We will see.

Finally

Our Animation!

Author vs Programmer

Our last few class discussions have touched on the topic of authorship and the idea of “new”. We asked, “how much originality is needed for a writing to be considered new?” and, “can a piece rely on aspects and ideas from other places and still be new?” The more we discussed these questions, the less clear and simple answers became. Are there any true authors anymore? Is there anything being created that is truly new? To add to the mess of confusion, we brought in the job of a programmer and his relation to (creative) authorship. I found myself thinking of how far I could take an authorship role over my Flash animations. Sure, I’ve created the line works, placed the tweens in the right places, and developed the ideas myself, but can I say I am the author of that work? Can I be called the sole creator of my animation? I think the answer is no. There are thousands of people’s work that I reflect when I do anything with a computer and software. I would never be able to re-create an animation ‘from scratch’. I have no idea what’s going on behind my screen, can’t build a computer or develop programs. So since my work relies on other peoples work, what does that mean? How original can it be?

In our last discussion, I tried to make sense of this by thinking of a sculptor and his work. Has anyone ever questioned the originality and true authorship of a sculpture because the sculptor didn’t recognize the man who created his chisel? Is the sculptor’s attempt at sole authorship diminished because he did not create the tools he used? I don’t know how much a chisel maker and a computer programmer have in common, but I think of them both as ones who develop tools for a certain group of people to use. The may share the most basic intentions. So how do the intentions of toolmakers compare to the intentions of the ones using the tools? I think of the two as completely different. The ones who use the tools are focused on expressing, describing, representing and showing.

The chapter, ‘Between the Academy and a Hard Drive”, in Digital Poetics by Loss Pequeno Glazier, he says that the ideas of ‘author’ can be trap in thinking and is unproductive in creating innovative writing. He makes a distinction between the two that I agree with. He says this about the author versus the programmer.

“The concept of a poet-programmer or prose-programmer is of a person who works among the tangles of the vines that yield the work. It is of one who sets up a series of events that culminates in the work as an action or execution of procedures. It includes a concept of intelligence that is more concerned with setting into motion a number of variables than with creating a representation…The focus is less on any individual product of that process, through individual products can be valuable as a documentation of a given process.”

The question of whether computers and the Internet offer anything actually “new” is apparently quite heated. This is surprising to me. I’ve come to think and know of the time period we’re living in as the “digital age” where new things are happening, and everyone is all excited. At the Poesis Symposium ideas where presented that challenge this assumption. Block and Cramer suggest that much of what makes up computer and net art in reference to literature can be traced back to historical ideas. I’m having a hard time thinking of the computer and Internet as not being innovative. Cantz thinking is more inviting.
If I write a word on paper, and then write the same on screen, the two are going to be fundamentally different. I’m not sure how one really argues this. The medium always will change the message. I think of the process of choosing a medium as choosing a tool to create or deliver a message. I think this concept is only amplified when considering a literary text as a whole.

...to be continued...

First Thoughts

Ideas for the short project -> involving words in any shape or form -

I would like to add some audio to this project. Maybe I could write a line or two - a short snippet of a song and animate the phrases that are being sung. Or possibly I could play some guitar over a poem. Just ideas.

Conversation Project Plan

While talking, we decided that the topic we will be animating will be the movie “The Social Network.” This movie has caused quite the stir, and has been widely criticized and praised for its portrayal of one of the most influential people on the internet; Mark Zuckerburg, creator of Facebook.com. We will be seeing the movie, reading about the criticisms of it online, and listening to people and why they are so upset about the content. The conversation will loosely follow a question I have asked plenty of people; Are you going to see “The Social Network?” We will use fonts, the speed of the text, and the positioning of the text in the frame to display differences in the two people talking.

Research Project

I found the work of Billy Collins to be very interesting. He is able to communicate ideas and feelings beautifully in his videos. He has a way of using video that adds an entire new dimension to his work, not just simply recreating the words that are being spoken. I hope to learn about Collins' process and way of thinking. From here on out I need to dive into all of the works by Billy Collins I can get a hold of. I need to research the history of his professional life and the projects he's working on, or hopes to accomplish in the future. I'm going to use the next two weeks for research, and then the week after for writing my first draft.

See my animation

SOUND!

Response to Feedback on Word Animation

I wasn't sure if I had effectively displayed sound in my animation. In the feedback from my peers, they mentioned that the animation did express the qualities of sound in silence. This was probably the most surprising feedback I received. If I had more time... tough question. I felt I had plenty of time so I think it would of ended up very close to how I created it in the first place. This morning however, I was trying to fix up the ending but my program kept freezing up. This is why the animation seems to just kind of stop. I spent an hour trying to accomplish what would take thirty seconds. I want to bring in more poetic aspects into my work. I feel as though all my strategies arise from visual communication. To challenge myself further I am going to try and take what I have done so far and expand on it through poetry.

It took a few pages. At first I was having trouble understanding where Drucker was coming from and what she was addressing. After reading further, I became interested in learning about one of the first authors to experiment with typography. I never thought of typography's role in the shift in thinking that came with modernism movement, especially in relation to literature. I found the early forms of typography grids and guides very interesting. The concepts Mallarme used in early 1900s are the same I'm learning and reading about in graphic design. The way Mallarme spoke about those "successive, incessant, back and forth motions of our eyes" gives a better reason than any to experiment with and explore our options with typography. I would like to use the thinking that Mallarme used in manipulating the typographic from, and think of the "hierarchal figural form" the way he did.

Response to The Art of Immemorability

I have never been taken through the history of language before. Reading "The Art of Immenmorability", was an eye opening experience in many ways. The distinction between textual and transcriptive and the role this played in the development of written language is new for me. I'm very interested in how this distinction resonates today with how our technology is encountering our use of language. I was caught by Bernstein's statement, "Writing tells us more than what it purports to tell". I don't think I've considered the importance of analyzing texts by its mode of telling just as well as the tale it tells. With this, I learned that language and cultural reproduction is about variance and morphing more than storing.

As far as what was hard or easy with this reading, I would say the difficulty in reading this is connected to my limited vocabulary. The time spent reading this text took much longer than I expected. It felt as though I was reading from my desktop dictionary for an amount of time comparable to reading the assignment.

Bernstein touched on one topic that I want to take with me throughout the rest of this class. He said, "…acknowledge the value of using a medium to do what can only be done in that medium". This is a big deal. So now I'm asking myself, what can only be done using kinetic type? What are the strongest aspects and advantages of animated writing? How can I implement these qualities into my work in a unique, concise, and original way?

A Video on the Letter G

Video Critique

There is probably over four videos in class today that grabbed my attention the most. Of these four there is two that shared a common feature. Implied sound. The first is of the brrrreak dancing ‘r’. I love the rhythm of the video. I would start beat boxing to the video if I was any good at it, or if I was alone. Dapa Dapa Dapa DaaaaFall! From an aesthetic perspective it could use a little work. Mainly, I would just encourage a stronger use of the composition and frame. I like the marks that were made. They fit well with the message. Another video I enjoyed was the snake. The letter S is so often affiliated with a snake that it would seem redundant and cliché, but it didn’t so much. I loved the way it made be want to speak.

About My Vid

When I looked at the letter 'g' in the typeface SF Orson Casual, I knew exactly what I wanted to animate. I exploited the two actual forms that are apart of this letter: line and circle. I concluded that the best way to animate these forms is to visually show balance in action. This works as a part of the letter animation because the video does not start with seeing the actual letter itself. There is nothing that alludes to the video having anything to do with the letter in the first four seconds of the animation. G is the surprise!

A Little History on Letter G

Unlike many letters in our alphabet, the letter g has a known date of birth. In 312 B.C., freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga created the letter. Before this, the Phonetician letter gimel had represented both the 'g' and 'k' sounds. This was much too confusing, which made the case for this new letter to be created. Adding letters to our alphabet was a touchy subject around this time. The powers that be (Roman censor Appius Claoudius, and others) were so set in the number of letters in the alphabet that the letter 'z' was tossed after 'g' came along. Our friend Claoudius found the 'z' to be just too tasteful and foreign. Thus, 'g' becomes the seventh letter in our alphabet.

Today we the lowercase 'g' in two different forms: the single story or opentail, and the double story or looptail. The single story form is derived from the uppercase letter G. The scribe starts with making the form c, then continuing by inclosing the circle, and finally adding a tail curved to the left. The double story was formed similarly, yet more ornately. The form became popular with the introduction of printing the Roman Alphabet, as the looptail allowed for more words to be printed on a page.

I'm very interested in exploring the differences between the two forms of the lowercase letter 'g'. In an animation, I could portray the many variations of this letter as time passes. Seeing the differences in a letter as time progresses would offer viewers a greater understanding of the letter 'g'. It may also offer some general knowledge about other letters and how our alphabet has changed over time. By animating this letter with some type of personification in mind, viewers will be more intrigued and interested in what knowledge I'm offering. A very important aspect of this and all letters is asking the question: why this form? What makes this letter so recognizable and easily read. I intend to explore and answer these questions in my animation.

{gimel} {Single Story} {Double Story}

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G

http://www.fonts.com/AboutFonts/Articles/Letterseries/LetterG.htm

http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/scripts/letters/historyg.htm

Images:

Looptail

Opentail

Gimel

My First Annimation

Describing the Letter 'g'

For my first assignment in animated writing, I will experiment with animating the letter 'g'. I see this letter as a form with potential movement and expression that is just waiting to be released. I plan on balance and movement in the animation. I much prefer the lower case letter 'g' rather than the capital letter. I will be using this lowercase form in the typeface SF Orson Casual.