Games

Watch live streaming video from coe2011 at livestream.com

The Review: Freak Factor

Review of  David Rendall’s “FREAK FACTOR"

 

This piece plays on the misconception that anyone that is different or not part of the so called “crowd”, I see thought of as an outsider and wrong, therefore ultimately needs to change. It also continues to discusses how people get caught up in becoming perfect. In this attempt people put too much emphasize into exterminating their own weaknesses; when in reality they should focus on improving their strengths.

One of the thing that is mentioned is “Forget It: Don't Try to Fix Your Weaknesses”, right away I was drawn in. it was fascinating to me because we are all expected to correct and remove whatever "weaknesses" we have. However, David makes some strong arguments against dismissing your weaknesses and focusing instead on your strengths. First, it is to much work to try an correct your self errors. Secondly, it hurts. It is not a fun journey to try and get better at something ones bad at. Thirdly, fixing a weakness is distracting. The time that we spend on making a weakness less weak could be spent on activities that complement our strengths or increase our skill in things we are good at.  Finally, and most importantly, David suggests that any attempt to fix a weakness will fail. Even if we are able to turn a negative trait into a neutral or slightly positive one, it's not a powerful strength. At best it's a mediocre strength that really isn't useful for anything.

Another section I thought was interesting was title “What's My Problem?” This section’s ideal is particularly significant to me because it's something that I've noticed all around me throughout my life. People seem to believe the misconception that if they have weaknesses, these problems need to be addressed and handled. But Weaknesses he says are in fact good signs, they point to the strengths that we all have.  The man who doesn't respect authority often is the man who starts his own business and takes charge.  The one who is disorganized is creative.  And the list goes on and on.  These so called weaknesses are admittedly problematic in typical workplaces...but when given the opportunity to flourish and work on their own, such problems reveal great strengths and the ability to succeed.

“Focus: You Can't Do Both" relates people to commercial stores.  The discussion’s main points focused on the idea that as a business you can only focus on fixing a weakness or building strength. Unfortunately, many people try to do both at the same time, and the result is largely that they fail at both. The example used was of Walmart and Target. Walmart's strength is low prices; its weakness is low quality products and unhelpful employees. Target's strength is the opposite: good quality products and employees, but at a higher cost to the consumer. Both stores focus entirely on constructing their strengths, while ignoring their faults, which is something we should all strive to do. Kmart was used as an example of a store that tried to both advertises its strengths while working on its weaknesses at the same time. The result was a mediocre store with mediocre products, with consumers who had decided not to shop there.  He relates it back to people in that your relations with people will result on how you approach your strengths.

In the creative process, my strengths sore in the aspect that I am very creative. I have a lot going on inside my head, many ideas, and many concepts. I also think that another of my strengths is that I am very interest creatively in fine arts as opposed to media arts. I think that this interest allows me to look at media in a more dynamic way. I have many weaknesses all well, and like the essay advises is that don’t focuses on them, and in my life I have tried to do just that. However doing this also creates a weakness in that now my art focuses sole on things that I know I am good at, allowing for a lot less risks being taken on my part, at least as it relates to fine arts.

The Review: Collapsus

Audio Commentary on the Trans-Media Piece, Collapsus, which takes a look at the worlds environmental concerns.

The Review: Heroes vs. Villains

I review other student's in my classes Hero/Villain projects:

Connor Gartland

I really think that this group used color as a means to differentiate their heroes and villains; all the characters are in contrasting colors from one another. The Hero, Minuteman is in all brown, a dark color. This opposes the two villains’, nearly all white attire. However the hues of white not keeping a complete affinity between the two preserve the difference between the villains. Hi-Hat is in a cream color white suit, with lots of gold accents. This hue is relates to him because the color is much more refined, suiting for someone of his wealth. Silver spoon however is in pure white, reminiscent of a lab coat, really playing of his sort of experimental existence.

Juliette Rocheleau

One of the biggest things that I noticed in this set of villain and heroes is the subtext and text they both utilize. The first is the villain Eros, a two-year-old super genius. This villain is incredibly bratty and unlovable however her name is Eros, which happens to be the Greek god of Love and beauty. This Sub-textual evidence is both a misdirection and ironic. Likewise the hero utilizes textual evidence where his name is Captain Stickman, and he happens to be a stick figure.

The Villain, Eros in the animation seemed to have not Weight in her movement. She floated around light and carefree, tumbling high up onto tree branches. I thought giving here this feeling of being weightless without a care is a great juxtaposition to her antagonistic behavior.

Tanner Simmons

This hero and villain combination share a very obvious affinity, they both are or would be characters in roman times. This is reflected in their costumes and surroundings. The hero a roman soldier ( or s it appears) and the villain, the  tyrannical emperor, Caligula.  This notion would also demonstrate a direct textual meaning. This textual meaning clearly parallels the actual over through of the roman emperor Caligula.
A lot of the movement in this animation is a parallel movement. When the characters move there is only the movement of the actual character moving forward. Other movements such as the legs or arms do not offset this movement. This make the animations look very flat. This flat movement only stops when they utilize overlapping movement when a character would hit a wall or object and the arms and legs would drop simultaneously as the body is moving forward.

The Review: Game Presentations

When giving our game presentation I actually looked at the faces of the people in class as we showed them our concept. I did this mainly because then where in front of me but also because I wanted to gage their reaction to see if we had done a good job. Their expressions remained interested and fixed on either the screen or us. This told me that they at least understood the goals and objectives of the game. I think large portion of the credit goes to our use of audio, visual, and referential aids. We included the actual audio soundscape in our presentation along with images of our characters. Then also during the presentation we constantly referred to other games that audience my have played before.


However I do believe we could have supported the reality of the game but possibly being more specific in defining the games rules and mechanics. I think that possible a more structured game would help the viewer understand exact what the game is trying to get across as oppose to simply stating that he player would have free roam. I think it is important for the audience to truly understand you game mechanics and rules because ultimately that is the player interface when playing, it tells then what they can and cannot do, and how to do it.


I think it is more difficult to explain mechanics and rules. I think this is because it hard to create a world already. Then within that world creating rules and ways you have to follows to go through that world, things you can do and things you cant. Mechanics and rule ultimately determined what your goals and objects can be, because they cannot deviate from the mechanics in order to be accomplished.

The Review: This American Life

Professor Charles Xavier

I chose Professor X for superhuman power of mind control. I chose this because  think that it would interesting what kind of situation I could get myself into with the ability to control the one or obstacles around me.

The article This American Life

The Audio Review:

The Hero/Villian: Nexus & The Janitor

Nexus

The Janitor

The Animation:

The Release: The Crash & Deception

The Crash

Deception

The Review:

We took two very different approaches to our joke. The first, The Crash, is a literal interpretation of the joke itself. Where as the second, Deception, is a more abstract view of the joke. However much they are the different in their subtexts and text, they are similar in mechanics and binary. The two films utilized similar space and line, throughout the entire films. The two films also play with way information is transferred to the viewer.

The Crash and Deception utilize very similar space and line between characters. In the films the characters are placed right next to each other to symbolize mutual trust between the characters for this joke is base on deception. We when even further in The Crash and actually had the character with there arms around each other. Lines are establish between character eyes and since there is only two points of interest for the characters to acknowledge few lines are established. But these line lead the viewers eyes to the two characters, this line continually reestablished itself to reiterate this focus. Line is also very important to the understanding of these films. Line use in The Crash is very important because it is a silent film, so line is especially need to draw focus.

The two films are however differing in the way they present information to the viewer. In Deception we chose to go for a more didactive approach because there was a lot more information for the viewer to digest to we need to verbally give the information. Also because Deception is the more abstract of the two and the understanding of the joke may have been hard to achieve. However The Crash takes an active approach, letting the viewer watch and takes what they will and draws their own conclusion, this is done also with the help of the film being silent.

The Review: Halo Reach

How to Be Creative

Article can be found here at ChangeThis.com : How to be Creative

The Review: Panic Room

I review Panic Room, the scene where the burglars are trying to break in, in an audio commentary.



Original Panic Room: Breaking in Scene

Re-Framing: Ben Goossens

Re-framed

Original

The Review:
This Ben Goossen piece is very interesting in its completeness. It eludes many visual cues, dealing with rule of thirds, and visual movement and rhythm. How ever when I when to re-frame this particular image I found that a Close Up on the girl in the foreground give the most visual intensity and interest while still retaining an affinity to the original. In the original each point of interest falls within the rule of thirds, when the image is divided up, the girl the tunnel, the closest girl’s face, eyes, and mouth all fall on these lines. This also holds true for my re-cut image. The visual movement of the original image is more active than mine, in that the three women hint at a forward motion, because the small women is in the back in a dark tunnel while gradually getting bigger till all you can see is a large head of what looks, like an identical women in the front. This movement and rhythm this increased with the path below them and the lines that each of them make as they move forward. My photo on the other had is very static and has not motion, actual it looks as if the women could be posing. This re-framing takes away the background, which gave the women motion and movement, unlike in the other image where it looks as if she is going to move right out of frame. In think that my re-framing gives a little more of a visual intensity by focusing the eye on thinks that normally are over looked when smothered by background. Like the eyes and the lines that are created from them, the color and shapes pronounce the interest that is upon her face. With that said both images are very much the same in affinity and subtext. Both images elude the same somber feeling, the overcasty grays and melancholy presence on the faces of the women all harkens back to the same solemn tone.

The Review: Song Critiques

A Critique Annalisa,Danny and Jon's Lab Assignment Songs.

Sounds

My Song:

The Review: "Brainwashed" by Seth Godin

The article “Brainwashed” is an interesting idea and one that I strongly agree with. The idea is that our education system has been set up so that we are taught to stride for being average and taking the safe road through life because that is reliable. Grodin advises seven layers or ways if you will, that we can reinvent, and thrive in society by pushing or "nudging" out of line and the system.

Of these layers is the idea of "Acknowledging the Lizard". The instinct that shuts us down when there is a chance at failure, this is the so-called “Lizard”. The Lizard, it is this fraction of our DNA that tells us to follow suite, obey the higher ups, do as we are told, and behave as a cog in a machine.  When one realizes there is this fear of failure, or  “Acknowledge the Lizard”, is when one will create something greatly innovative.

Another Layer that interested me was the seventh layer. This layer stressed that it was "the key to the others” – it is learning. It suggests that school is a misnomer and that it not all encompassed in the time one spend from kindergarten to college or graduate school. But more of a Life-Long process in which you are always in a state of learning and absorbing new things. When this thoroughly understood, one will learn that people rapidly change and that one can be outside the box and still flourish.

The Lizard layer is connected to blogging in that creative writing and spreading information is a artistic venture, in which you have to step out of you shell, always revealing the possibility of f failure. But taking the risk to express thoughts is worth the chance of that failure. The seventh layer is the very essence of blogging to share information, to learn. Like the Internet our minds are constantly expending, gaining knowledge, we don’t simple stop being school when we leave the institution of school. One must continue learning, sharing information between each other. Through blogging and these blogging assignments we are gaining the ability to learn on a larger scale, a global scale. These assignments make me a better and more rounded person, for the simple face through the blog ordinary people can share their thoughts, and these people could be on the opposite sides of the earth, sharing things that they would otherwise not have known.

The Review: Ryan Nord & Juliette Rocheleau

This was a very interesting soundscape I have to say. The emotion was remorse, however the emotion I got out of it was something more along the lines of disoriented or confused. I really think I actually started to become a little dizzy. With the ‘’CooCoo” bird clock “Coo-ing” along with ticking, the hovering sound panning from right to left all in combination with baby crying being played all at once was too much.

The Review: Mark and Tanner's Soundscape

This Soundscape was definitely very dark. To me it eluded to all the cause of a premeditated murder. It definitely drew a scene in my mind. The ominous outdoor cicada sound follows by heavy foot steps hints at a darker tone of the. These minor dark pretenses are quickly dwarfed to the sudden chopping of what I could only imagine is a knife and racing heartbeat. A shrieking scream rings out but is muffled by an extremely loud gunshot. If that was it creepy enough, it is top off with a good dose of sadistic laughing. There emotion was fear and I think it definitely portrayed fear to a T, However I have to say to me the most fighting part was the laughing at the end, it reminded me of a clown at some demented circus.

The Review: Tony Hermane Soundscape

The part of this soundscape that really captured my interest was the sound of this pinball machine-ish, electronic spring-bounce noise. The sound really reminded me of one those Rock ‘em Sock’ em games back when I was little. Then the sound of the cheers really enhanced and reinstated that feeling. So when I listened to the soundscape again with this Robot boxer mindset, the beginning started to sound a little different. The hollow drips sounds, now, almost as if the could be in some sort chamber where the robots would be before the match. And as they appear in the arena the volume rises and the match begins, fans cheering for their victor.

Soundscape

By Ashton Harrell & Ryan Newell

Finding your Howl

In Flaum’s article Find your howl there are two stories, one of which is the story of the Red wolf, Mumon and the deer. While on his journey in finding his howl, Mumon hunts down a deer and before could capture it, the deer stops and speaks with the wolf. The deer asks Mumon how he learned how to hunt, Mumon replies that he didn’t get taught he just knows…the deer tells him that it’s the same way with your howl, something natural and embedded inside you. Then the deer flies only to be finally captured by Mumon and eaten, while Mumon eats he cries, he is ashamed. As he awakes after his nap a raven who finished cleaning the bones of the deer now speaks with Mumon. He tells him not to fine how he must shed himself of the shame he feels for what he is, and that it is the same as feeling shame for being born into this world. Flaum makes through this story the point that in order to survive and move ahead in this world and in life you must accept who we are.

"Pioneers, O'Pioneers" By Walt Whittman


Excerpt from the poem, read by Bryan Floyd

Ditkoff 14 Suggestions

Tolerate Ambiguity: When Thomas Edison was asked how it felt to fail 800 times before coming up with tungsten as the filament for the light bulb, his answer was a revealing one. “Fail?” he said. “I didn’t fail once. I learned 800 times what didn’t work.” Edison had the ability to tolerate ambiguity. I think that this breakthrough means that if you can withstand failure and mistakes you can achieve great accomplishments. Others may think your ideas are crazy and your time is not worthwhile but in reality the more you can take and use uncertainty, the chances of you birthing a breakthrough idea increase. So don’t dwell on your failures but rather study them, learn why they did not work and build off that.

FantasIze: n 1989, Gary kasparov, the soviet union Grand chess master, played a two game match against “Deep Blue,” the reigning supercomputer of the time. kasparov won easily. When asked by the media what his competitive advantage was, he cited two things: intuition and the ability to fantasize. Ditkoff goes on to explain why that few of us are ever encouraged to fantasize, and yet, fantasizing is exactly how many breakthrough ideas get their start—by some dreamer amusing the seemingly impossible. Fantasizing is massively important to the creation of ideas. If people didn’t dream of the extraordinary then the ordinary wouldn’t exist; for the ordinary is a branch of extraordinary thinking. A current challenge of mine is be able to make films, in a way that I could total if not major of freedom to what I would like. And If I had the ability to have a fantasy solution, I guess it would be have my own film/production company. With that I would be able to have liberal freedom to make the movies I wanted how I wanted them.

Notice and challenge existing Patterns and Trends: Noticing patterns says Ditkoff, is crucially important and it closely ties to the successes of people who make there living on noticing patterns, people in the business of futurology, meteorology, air traffic controlling, and stock brokering. Breakthrough thinkers often hit the gravy train by challenging old patterns and then reconfiguring them in new ways Ditkoff explains. I too also think that great success is related to ones ability to find patterns; patterns in the economy, in rating, demographics. Patterns are not just important to know what has happened, but is also crucial in determining what will happen. The trends in the market that I most closely follow are the trends in what people are watching. Like in film, people are very interested in vampires and zombies. However this trend will shift like all other trends in the movie industry and soon it will be on to the next crazy; in my opinion I think it will be western and UFOs that is not to say that they are already not a promenade tend now.

Hang out with Diverse Groups of People: When I first read this suggestion I really got to thinking about my own social life and the people that I hang out with. I began to realize that much of what suggestion was saying about typical behavior applied to me. Slightly embarrasses that I thought of myself as pretty well diverse, turns out that not the case. So I asked myself how many different groups of people do I spend time with on a weekly basis, I think I came up with two; two very similar groups of people. Once again I feet small and unrounded. Ditkoff suggest that one needs to break the so-called “bonds” of the familiar and hang out with different crowds. Not just stop there but to also go beyond the usual people that I would befriend and spend time with but to look for outcast and oddballs. So I challenged myself, and sort of building of off the challenge that Ditkoff confronted the reader with. His challenge asked us to make a list of ten people or groups of people out your traditional “Posse” who you can spend time with this month. I decided to not make a list but instead to actually do it. I would spend a month spending each week with a new classmate or work associate’s group of friends, hang out where they hang out and do the type of things they do. Through this activity I would hope to gain a broader knowledge of how people interact with on another, where people are from and how that measures in how they interact and view others.

Artist of the Week: Kanye West

Runaway Film

All of the Lights


Love Lockdown



With his release of “Runaway”, a short film compiling all the songs on his latest alum titled My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Kanye West once again solidifies himself a one of the most influential artist of our generation. Runaway pushes the envelope in ways that no other music video has before.  In my view I am more attracted to the way the film looks. My main interest in media is video production and I think that the shots and colors utilized are amazing. The camera movement through the use of pans, tilts and tracking is a great contrast to the use of static shots, where the characters are centered. The stylized film could be interpreted as a thickly layered metaphor for Kanye’s journey to fame, which he has compared to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Prince’s ’80s video hit “Purple Rain.”, both videos that have transformed the way the music industry looks at the standard of the music video. The metaphor is reflected in scenes like when Griffin crashes his MTX Tatra V8 in the forest echoing West's car accident that was the inspiration for "Through the Wire", and Revolutionary ideas like this full-length film are on of the reason why I view Kanye West as an inspirational artist to me.  Another is his mass array of collaboration with various artists, along with his tendencies of mixing genre like hip/hop and rock. One of his song in which he utilizes both is “All of the Light”. In this song he collaborates with several different artists like Alicia Keys, Charlie Wilson, Elly Jackson, Elton John, Fergie, John Legend, Kid Cudi, Rihanna, Ryan Leslie and The-dream. When each one of these artist is featured in the song their individual segment changes from the rest of the song, putting pleasantly unorganized feel to the song.  Also in this song he mixes traditional marching band rhythm and melody with traditional orchestra and choir, having them perform at a modern pace and speed, creating unique melody that is completely original. Kanye West also merged genres on his album named 808’s and Heartbreaks. On this album West experimented with auto tune, electric guitar and techno-electronic. The song Love Lockdown is the epitome of what he came up with on this album.  The use of the high-pitched auto tune, and the low bass throughout give the some a distinctive sound. He also does something interesting with the rhythm. It beat at a constant rate like a heartbeat drawling; analogous sound, in reference to the plot of the song as well as the title. The sound also has that flatness in the bass that we are not used to hearing alluding to the strange techno-futuristic approach. These are just some examples why I am an admirer of Kanye West and also why he is our Artist of the week. His strives in not only music but also in video design, letting his videos speak to the audience while his strong collaborations and new age approach provides distinctive music. 

Kanye West Covers Peter, Bjorn & John's Young Folks

Kanye West cover of Peter, Bjorn & John’s Young Folks is a freestyle combining much of the feeling of the original song while adding in the hip/hop and soul Kanye is known for. Peter, Bjorn & John song Young Folks lyrics tells the tale of a couple who is just content with spending the rest of the night with each other, regardless of what they were in the past and what others are doing. This deeper more serious plot is in contrast to the happy-go-luck harmony of the beat, giving the subtext and ironic undertone. They are sang in a slow rhythm making it seem almost as if they are sitting next to each other talking these lyrics like causal conversation. This feel is enhanced by the back and forth switching between female and male singers. The melody is a causal, very rounded sound, steadied at a moderate pace to follow the movement of the so-called conversation. The melody then picks up speed when, at the chorus the both singers lyrics unite, raising intensity with the quickened drumming and louder singing. There is also high-pitched whistling through out the entire song, a key feature in the carefree, light attitude of the song. This whistling is carried on onto Kanye West’s cover of the song, along with everything else. The rhythm and melody are pretty much identical, except for the a beat this only present in the Peter, Bjorn and Johns chorus is continued throughout Kanye’s entire piece, giving the organization a bit more of a chaotic feel. However the speed is also increased just a bit along with quicker paced lyrics also add to the chaotic and noisy feel. That lead to the major difference in songs is the lyrics and performance of the lyrics.  Kanye’s song is freestyle, a form of rap, where as Peter, Bjorn and John’s Young Folks is more of a storytelling. The freestyles content is Kanye’s thoughts on how he is interpreted in the media, in interviews and people thinking they have him figured, but in reality “they have no idea”. Without any major changes to the melody and rhythm of a song the feeling and idea and be completely displace by who performs in conjunction with it. I would have to say, in my opinion, Peter, Bjorn and John’s original Young Folk is the best version of the two. I think that the song is more composed and structured. The intensity is best when it just spiked during the chorus. But that shouldn’t be a surprise since Kanye’s version is freestyle, which most likely didn’t get as much care and consideration. I think they lyrics are not necessarily right for the tone of the beat, and that the melody is diminished when it is sped up. The intensity is best when it just spiked during the chorus, like in the original.  However I thoroughly enjoyed both songs.

Transformers 3 Trailer

World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles Trailer