Archive EC - loaded at last, well not actually!

Ended up doing the simple thing. (simple to start, but not simple eventually)
Opened the big file (1.5 Gb) in iMovie. This took ages to load - I think nearly 15 minutes.
Did one 'sharing' that didn't reduce the file size at all.
Then found 'expert settings', set anything to automatic that I could, and put quality to poor.
Ended with file size of 2.3 Mb - that's more like it.
So let's see how it uploads.

Failure one - am planning to click cancel whenever it says it has lost contact with Blogger. Last night I let it go on for ages, the wheel turning merrily, but in the end, no results.
Try No. 2
Again the failure message. So pressed save. message disappeared. So did the spinning wheel. but the black screen is still there, saying Uploading video ...
Think I'll go down and eat breakfast
Wait a minute - I just clicked on the black square and got an error message from blogger, but couldn't rightly read it. Then it disappeared. Curiouser and curriouser as Alice said to the Cheshire cat.
Message is still incomplete, and so can't send a report to Blogger. Think I will log out and log in again, and see if that helps.

Trial No 3
When I logged back in and went to re-edit, the black square said 'missing video', which might mean that it was making progress, even though I couldn't see it.

Archive EC Video

Am going to try and upload the video. It's 85 Mb, so could take a while.
Hope it doesn't take too long for people to see it.

Well, it's telling me that it could not contact Blogger.com. Saving and publishing may fail.
However, it has autosaved at 1035, so that might be hopefull
At least the little wheel is still turning around!

No luck! I waited almost three hours, and nothing happened. Must be still way too big.

Anyway, meantime, I have been reading a very interesting tutorial on Using Blogger
There are 7 hours/over 100 videos on the topic. Very clear, and easy to follow.

FINAL ASSESSMENT notes

It's been far too long. I need to take Annelle's example, and get down to writing in this blog, at least every few days - it is supposed to be my VISUAL DIARY after all!

Anyway, here, somewhat belated are the notes I prepared for the tutors for my final assessment.
I'm not sure whether they read through them - there seems to be such a lot to cover.
But it was good for me to review my year, and especially to think ahead to the summer and to next year.

ASSESSMENT – End of Year 2007/8 – the final six weeks

GOALS

The goal I set myself for this six weeks was to further develop my familiarity with new (for me) software:

After Effects	Unrealistic expectations. Mark showed me what to do, step by step. Want to learn more, but maybe not just yet.
Final cut Pro	Reasonable progress. Studying a book belonging to Tech Staff. Plan to buy a copy of my own
Flash	Borrowed book (long-term) from a friend. Making good progress. Plan to study more during summer
Isadora.	Disappointed that I didn’t make any further progress this term. Again, hope to experiment during the summer.
Arduino workshop	Very helpful

WORK· GG –

This appropriation of a painting by a friend of mine is an experiment in using both After Effects and Flash. It is a way of showing some of the video and photos I took over the past year.

Self-evaluation: I like it for what it is – I like the effect of the movement behind the subtle colours of the painting.

I realize that the idea was over-ambitious in the light of my skill-base, but I’m glad I availed of the technical help available to me.

Possible developments

· I want to explore further what can be done with the Flash element. I would like the audience to be able to see as much of each piece as they wanted, rather than just a glimpse.

· I would also like if the audience could make other changes, perhaps the degree of opacity, and maybe even the choice of colours.

· I would also like to explore using other paintings and other video content, rather than simply using what was to hand.

· Eventually I would like to see what interactivity might be achieved using Wii remote (infra-red) technology

· Double Phone-call

The idea behind this piece leads on somewhat from the Student Dilemma piece I did before Easter. In that piece I was portraying myself in opposition/conflict with the outside world (the EU, the government, the college etc) In this piece, I portray myself in opposition with myself the sensible part of me, versus the over-excited part.

Self Evaluation

I like that this is a very short piece, yet plenty long enough to get the idea across.

I particularly like the way the sound expresses the anger of that part of me that seldom gets a chance to express itself. I also like the contrast between the tranquillity and light colours of the inset picture with the frenzy of the darker figure pot-bashing.

Only the small area of flickering computer-screen gives away the fact that the work-room can be the site of frenzy also.

The chap who helped me with the camera is willing to do so again. This is very helpful, as he is not a student, so I don’t feel bad about asking him for help.

I was able to plan what I wanted him to capture, and he did very well.

Potential Developments

I certainly want to do more of the inset picture idea (?wire-framing)

Other than that, I don’t have other development plans for this. I think it puts its idea over quite simply and yet forcefully.

· 80^th Decade Archive

This piece is also a kind of self-portrait, through objects which have touched my life over the past seven, and now into my eighth decade.

I used two cameras, one more closely focused and differently angled than the other. In the editing, having overlaid them, I reduced opacity so that both versions can be seen. I edited them slightly out of synch. This has the effect on the one hand of deeming to delay the action, and on the other hand to give an impression of delaying the action, giving an opportunity to look at each part twice from a slightly different angle.

Self Evaluation

I like how this process (which occurred serendipendipidously while I was waiting for technical help) – I like how it works. I think the images are very interesting, particularly the angles of the edges of the table which keep changing.

I think the whole piece might be a bit long, and there are a few sections that could be shortened without loss of significant content.

The idea for doing something like this came from a piece by Patricia Esquivias Folklore videos at Berlin.

Potential Developments

I think the idea of the table with the hands but no face works well for this kind of piece, and could see myself using it again.

· Photography

I include three prints.

However, I regard photography as a way of collecting images for use in slide show as a way of contemplating something after the event. (maybe a bit like Wordsworth’s idea of ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’.

Self Evaluation

I don’t regard myself as a technically strong photographer, but my images do bring back objects and events in a way that pleases me.

The big print of the glass jug was made with a lot of help from Michael.

Potential Developments

I want to keep my image-making as spontaneous as possible, even at the expense of technical excellence. However, as time passes, I become more and more familiar with both the camera controls and what can be achieved by using manual settings.

NEXT YEAR

I also wanted to give thought to next year’s possibilities and to end with some idea of where I might be heading.

· Erasmus – definitely no, as have excellent resources here in Dublin

· Community art – Would like to get support to explore facilitating Graffiti Art in local parish in Tallaght

· Personal work: Do a piece around the See-saw performance

· Written work: Get support to carry out my plan to do my essays in the first two weeks of autumn term

NEXT YEAR DREAMS/WISHES

· Learn about OPEN SOURCE software and hardware. Dream that department would have two or so machines dedicated to Open Source, and promote the idea among some students

· Join with other students in setting up a Tech-Art Society among students (and interested staff) to provide opportunities to experiment with electronic circuitry, sensors, wiring, sound etc.

· Learn more Isadora/Arduino

· Continue with Final Cut Pro and Flash and maybe some After Effects

Elizabeth Cleary

May 16 2008

Sunday - Sunshine

I can't believe its nearly a week since I last wrote.
Very busy - Working on the ARchive project early in the week with julia, and on the GG Project Thursday and Friday with Mark.

GG is finished, apart from documenting it, Archive is still in progress.

Not only that, but I'm working on another short video about Double Telephone. David W will help me with the camera work this afternoon
Idea is of me having a conversation with myself about a proposed art piece. In a sense it is about inner conflict, a kind of reversal of Student Dilemma which was about external conflict.

Meantime I found this item Scream through the Rhizome website. I think its a good example of the kind of interactive art I would be interested in. You have to keep shouting at it - I think my husband was thinking I'd lost my marbles, sitting alone in my workroom, shouting at the computer screen.

BANK HOLIDAY hard work

This is just a note, late-ish on Monday evening, to congratulate myself for doing quite a lot of 'research' over the past three days.

Not only did I attempt the tutorial exercises in the Help file of the animation software, but a friend lent me a book and using that I am at least a bit familiar with the layout of the page, and have a vague idea of what the different panels etc are used for. So I won't be totally at sea when hopefully I have a session with Mark on Thursday.

As for the ARCHIVE project, I ended up doing it by myself as I wasn't able to contact David W to help with the camera-work.

I mounted the two cameras on the two tripods, one zoomed in on where I would be showing things in my hands, the other set further back.

I have the footage loaded on to one of the editing machines, but the chances of me getting to use them for editing are slim, since I think they are all booked up for the week ahead.

Anyway, hopefully I may manage to borrow something to help me, maybe on Wednesday if not Tuesday.
A short week also - only six days till the work has to be mounted on Wednesday week.

We'll see how things go.

PROGRESS REPORT ON PROJECT WORK SO FAR – May 2 2008

Self-set OBJECTIVES of Project:

1. Create a piece of interactive video which will show a review of the work I have done this year.
1. Show I have a good idea
2. Shows I can recycle work already done in an interesting way
3. Shows some of what I have covered during the past year
4. Show I can make it happen with technical help
5. Show that After Effects is suitable to part of the work
6. Show that Flash is suitable for part of the work
2. Create a video based on some of the archival material I have in the attic.
1. Show I can plan a video
2. Show I use materials well to convey an idea
3. Show camera skill level
4. Show editing skill level

What have I done?
· I have been reading about Internet Art, and getting a flavour of what other people have done
· Books Internet Art by Rachel Greene, New Media Art by Tribe, Mark / Jana, Reena, which covers similar material
· I have also visited many of the websites mentioned, and entered URLs and embedded videos on my Blog at http://betsywow.blogspot.com/
· I did the brainstorming sessions with Ralph early in the month

I did the workshop on using the Arduino chip to link hardware to the computer by USB Their homepage is at http://www.arduino.cc/

I can’t even see which of the little boards we used.

Just found a site, Adafruit Industries, linked off the Arduino site which supplies the whole caboodle for less than $100.

Well, since I would have to wait for the kit to arrive, there is no point in thinking about it for this year’s project. So I will put it in a box to separate it from the immediate concerns

PROJECT WORK DONE SO FAR
GG Appropriation

• I worked with Mark and got half the interactive project done.
• I have arranged with Micky that he will put Flash on my Mac today. That means that I can learn a bit about it over the weekend – the long week-end since Monday is a Bank Holiday.

Archive video

• I have assembled some items to use
• I have listed the decades
• I have selected a corner of the front room to film in
• I have brought home my second camera
• I have made a fixture to hold my phone-camera on the tripod
• Did an approximate trial to see what kind of talk might be possible . Keeping it very tight, I might get it finished in about 1m30s – at least that’s what I will be aiming for.

STILL NEEDS TO BE DONE

GG Appropriation

• Learn the basics of Flash
• Make the Flash connections so that people can see what is underneath Gerry’s painting
• Do any final editing needed it the material that will be displayed when the area is clicked
• Decide how this work will be displayed

Archive video

• List items already decided on
• Identify decades that I still need items for
• Locate suitable items, probably in attic
• Locate backing sheet if panelling ends up unsuitable
• Make notes for SCRIPT
• Make story-board using photos
• Take the footage using two cameras
• Take after shots, or stills of objects.
• Edit footage
• Decide how this item will be displayed
  

Visual Sound video at this website - delightful non-verbal human voice visualization:

Golan Levin Messa di Voce 2003

at the Daniel Langlois foundation.
Lots of examples on You Tube - just enter Golan Levin

Mission Eternity Sarcophagus

Well, here is a very sophisticated version of what I have in my attic. (see below)

I call it my Family Archive. I began formally assembling it when our daughter and her new husband invited each member of the family to contribute something to their Millenium envelope. They would be submitting it to the Dublin Millenium Capsule 1988. At that time I wrote a letter to my great, great grandchildren, even though I didn't even have one grandchild yet.

Later, around the mid 1990s I was exploring my Scottish family history. I became acutely aware of how I had nothing I could touch that would connect me to them - other than the church where many of their life events took place - baptisms, burials, and marriages.

By nature I am an inverate hoarder, so beginning with what I already had in the line of theatre programmes, serviette's, travel tickets, not to mention a huge collection of photographs, I have continued since then to add consciously to the collection.

I realize that it may be that the family will have no great interest in what I leave, but I have been assured that the National Library would be delighted to have it.

I was delighted to find this little video on the whole topic.




What a lovely presentation this is. Now I will visit the website

ARCHIVE PROJECT 2 - Thursday

Spent much of yesterday working at home, though I did go briefly into college to do my new job as shelver in the library.

I got a few more items from the attic including the box I mad back in about 1967 or so to hold my makeup. I cleaned this box out and packed the items into plastic containers. If I had thought of it, this process would have been worth videoing, but I didn't think of it.

In the evening, I began to plan a possible SET for the video, and found just j#how short we are of wall-space in my home. Virtually every wall has either a radiator, a window, or build-in furniture.

I settled for using the paneling in the front room. It wasn't fully satisfactory as there are knobs on it to open the concealed storage. I might be able to unscrew them temporarily.

Arranging the furniture wasn't simple, and I am not totally satisfied with the result - a chair, and two glass tables.

***

This morning I looked up Patricia Esquivias, born Caracas Venezuela, whose work I saw in Berlin.

When awarded a Simpson Award 2006, she describes her work as

Esquivias is a film and video major and when asked about her work replied, "My work has developed around creating economical narratives, first in the form of short sentences placed within the public space and most recently on video. I narrate situations based on a stretchable reality that places concrete issues under doubt."

There is a video of part of the piece, Folklore No1. 2006, that she had in Berlin Biennale 2008 on YouTube

What I like about this piece is that it looks amateur,especially the hand held camera.
At first I was thinking that she could have done it alone, but looking at it again I see that both of her hands are visible, so there must be someone else holding the camera. Maybe I should think of a conversation with a camera person - perhaps David would be willing to do it with me.

I think her piece would be too long for me - there is ten minutes on the You-Tube video, and references are made to fifteen minutes on other websites.

***

Time to go to college. Hope to tackle Flash with Mark in order to make the GG Appropriation interactive.