Bella Traición (Beautiful Treason)

Ophelia is an University student just like us, with stress, problems and friends that might not be who they are until you take their masks off. Here we got a record of her last moments where she unmasks her beautiful treason! She will guide to a few places in the university campus, once she has told you where to go stop playing the tape. When you get to the location, play the track again and you`ll know what happened there... YOUR POINT OF START IS THE FOUNTAIN IN FRONT OF THE VARI HALL!!
Here is the link to our audio project in mediafire:  Bella Traicion

Here`s the map!! 

Presentation on Embodiment!

Here`s my powerpoint presentation for my Embodiment exposition!! Click on the Link!!
Click Here!!!!

Rough Sound Project!

Here's our rough copy of our assignment, just click on the link and download the mp3 file! 
Audio Project Rough!

Group tasks and ideas....

I'm in a group with Jeff and Pablo. Jeff and myself are the ones in charge of writing the dialogs and script of our audio project, while Pablo is our recorder and recruiter of interviewees.

Our idea of our audio project is inspired by Jay Asher's book 13 reasons why, at the same time he was inspired by audio tours. The book is about a teenage girl who commits suicide but before she actually kills herself she records different tapes explaining 13 reasons why she killed herself.

For the moment we've spotted a few places around York and we're now trying to incorporate the history of those places into our script to make it more realistic. Any new information or changes will be provided later one throughout the process of our recording.

Dupont Subway Murmur!

This week's post is about an audio tour that we had to assist to for our class. Murmur is an oral project that takes place downtown which documents several number of stories and memories on specifics streets of Toronto. I went downtown and listened to one of these murmur documentaries that is on Spadina Ave, close to Dupont's subway stations. Brad Golden, who is the narrator of the memory, talks about how him and his friend Norman Richards won a competition that took place in 1991, right where the railways are now. He talks about the underpass on that part of Spadina Ave cast different kind of shadows that describe different stories of the city of Toronto. I believe it is interesting the way the murmur audio documentaries work because you can listen to the story they are telling you, and using your imagination you can actually create the whole scenario of that story.

S.I.R. (System Interior Robot)

Imagine that one night while you're sleeping a thief breaks in your house, but you don't know that he is in the house because you are sleep, but a sudden twit from twitter wakes you up and let you know that there is someone in your house and that you don't have to worry about anything. S.I.R. is a security guardian that will provide safety and comfort to your home and family while you are asleep or in vacations. It is designed to resist any physical damages, and to mobilize through any kind of surface. S.I.R. counts with a sophisticated extractor that will analyze the essence of the person who is detected and will also analyze his face's features, comparing it with its database that can be uploaded by the owner of the house by only ordering to S.I.R. to save the face's features of a person. When the person is considered an intruder, S.I.R. activates its defense mode and tweets the owner of the house to let him know that there is someone in the house, it also dials the police so they can come to the house. S.I.R. is equipped with attachable tasers that will electrify and immobilize the intruder until the police arrives to the house. Indeed S.I.R. is a security guardian that anyone would like to have at home, specially in those places where criminality is just around the corner.

link to 3D Model in Google Warehouse: http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=1fa05c2d035f6f03650d4b0de00a8f8c&prevstart=0

IMAGES:

My Relationship with my body?

For this week post we had to do a little bit of reading and answer the questions, what is my relationship with my body? and what is the relationship of my body with technology?

Mark Hansen, in his reading, Bodies in Code talks about how in embodiment the body is inside a body schema system which has two perspectives of it as body as an image and as an object. I believe that my relationship to my body is a body "for me" perspective, as the body scheme system defines. It is more oriented on its "potential movement". My body operates with different motor functions, having its understanding of its own world, it operates consciously as any normal or "phenomenal" body. This means it continues working without out concern, it has control over itself and its organisms.

On the other hand, the relationship of my body with technology is more a body as an image perspective, it only obtains a superficial view of the my body but not an understanding of what its happening inside it. Hansen gives an explanation of the way technology only takes a visual apprehension of the body, being a representation of ourselves. He also refers to the way we are able to percept emotions of others’ bodies and our own and in some way interchange of our body-image with others body-images.

Embodiment Proposal: The Guardian!!

I`ve been getting an idea after another and I have stuck to one that is similar to some software projects that I created back home. Many houses in Canada and around the world have been robbed when their owners are in vacation or at work, even at night so in order to stop this I shall create a house guardian... The guardian will be activated by the house`s owner every time he and his family go to bed or to sleep. There will be sensors in every door and window in the house that at the moment of activation will send a signal to the guardian, letting him know that there is a unknown person in the house... I havent come up with the design of the guardian yet but I am planning it to have the shape of a dog... So the guardian will come out of his little house and start looking for the stranger, once the guardian has found the stranger, he will scan the surface of the person and will detect his aroma and will determine whether the aroma belongs of someone living in the house or of a stranger, if it`s a stranger`s it will send a message to the police and will tweet the owner of the house, letting him know that there is someone in the house... The dog then will go on its protection mode, activating small darts that will contain anesthesia to immobilize the stranger!

Tanks Attack!!

For the first week of the term we had to create an structure using Google Sketch-up which is a 3D modeling program. For my assignment I decided to create a tank which took work to get it done but at the end it was all worthy. Here are a few images of my tank from different perspectives and firing at the enemy! 

ARTE Interactiva ONLINE!!!

OPEN IT IN MOZILLA FIREFOX!!!
To go to my Website Click Here!

To login...
username : User
password: Pass

ABOUT MY WEBSITE?

I based my design on Deviant Art's, I created different categories depending on my artworks. My main idea for this website is to show how images can contain the same theme as music, in every image's page there is a small music player that plays a song or piece of music that relates to the image, also linked the name of the images with different videos. In other words music, images, and videos can interact with each other and in a way linking people's ideas through them. Also thanks to sites like deviant art, youtube and music sites like 4shared.com, people are able to show their works such as in deviant art and youtube or share their content in sites like 4shared.com..... Networks allow us to do all of this processes of sharing and presenting works and content which I think is very useful because now people are able to show their works of art easily, and also receive feedback from other people which may help them to do a better work in the future.

Arte Interactiva!!!

For this week post I will explain my idea for my Website assignment. I will create a website mimicking DeviantArt`s design. It will be similar to a portfolio but I will also add a couple of more features to it such as music and others. I want to show the interactivity between images and music, how they both are able to portray the same idea and feeling of a theme on their content. I have decided to name it ARTE Interactiva, not only because of the interactivity between arts and music but also giving it a little bit of my own taste. At the same time with this idea I want to show how networks allow us now to share our artworks with the whole world when we use these sites. We can meet people from other sides of the world and appreciate their talent. Also we can get some feedback from other people that may help us to get a better sense of what the world wants and to do a better job.

The Interconnected Society!!

For this week, I will discuss the readings from two articles assigned in class. Malcom Gadwell and Clay Shirky talk about the effect of the Media and how the Media connect the population of our society.

I believe that Shirky`s argument is more convincing because besides she tells you the story about this guy who helps his friend find her phone using his social network website, bringing a large amount of people involved in the issue of the cellphone to the point where they are able to find the person who had it (sasha), and even convinced the police to arrest her with the support of million of people who knew and were helping them on the search of the phone.

Shirky`s argument clearly shows how our society is connected through the media, how we are able to get information about people we don`t even know and how we can use it for our own benefit. Also shows a great example how the presence of all these people who knew about the loss of the phoned helped to press the police get involved and do something.

In her explanation of how Media has changed society and how people are social beings, she makes good points and the metaphor she gives about how people are like bees clearly exemplifies how people need of the media in order to make society subsist, because it would not be able to do it by itself.

It is incredible the power of the media!! how people are able to connect with others in a matter of even milliseconds and be able to share a topic or issue with million of people around the world. Indeed the Media has changed society in a way that most of the things we do are involved with it, from the tools we use at work to the spread of news.

My Webpage and Remix Website Mini-Assignment!!

For this week I had to create a website containing my Remix Assignment. Here is the link to my website and in the menu you can click on the link to go to the Remix Website!... CLICK HERE TO GO TO MY WEBSITE!

The enviromental hackers!

The environment has recently become one of the most discussed issues, but there`s still people out there who do not really take a look to our planet and see what we have done to it and instead of helping us to conserve what we still have, they destroy habitats and the beauty of our planet.

For this week`s blog we had to read the article "Yes Men!" which talks about how a group of environmental protectors hacked CHEVRON`s new program called "We Agree". Chevron had to protect its image sending emails to its clients and representatives, explaining them how a group of people prank them.

The real issue in this article is not the fact that this group of people hacked Chevron`s website, but the message they`re trying to transmit which gives Chevron a bad image. The main goal of this "prank" may be to make the company`s owner and other companies realize the damage they`re doing to the planet, specially after what happened in the Gulf of Mexico where a lot of oil spilled into the ocean damaging a big section of the environment, and wild life as well.

I found this image in the net, and it actually depicts the reality that people may leave in the future if we continue destroying our natural life and resources. 

We must take care of our environment, and I believe that this group of people, even though they may have done something illegal, they had an awesome idea and stood up for our planet!

Where`s Morality?

For this week we read chapter 3 from Lawrence Lessig`s book Free Culture. In this chapter he talks basically about the way that networks work in the internet and in search engines such as Google, yahoo and others. He presents the case of Jesse Jordan, who was sued by a search engine company when he was still in Universtity. As Lessig asks in his article I ask myself where`s the morality of the company who sued him? It is ridiculous to blame someone for doing something terrible when he was really talented.

Copyright has become one of the main problems for those who try to grow their knowledge and show their talent with the risk of being sued by using others ideas. It would be absurd to say that these people need to be punished by committing such "terrible" acts, but the reality is how people can explore and challenge themselves in develop their own inventions when copyrights close the doors in their faces?

Also it is pathetic and ironic how big companies are willing to ask for millions of dollars from people when at the same time they complain about how economy is going down. The truth is that company owners only cares about something, and that is money.

Julian Schnabel: Art and Film at AGO!

I decided to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario to attend Julian's Schnabel exhibition. Schnabel was born in New York and his artwork has been inspired and dedicated to multiple actors, writers and people that have had an impact in his life. Schnabel uses the medium of painting and film, and mix them together to create his works of art.

His collection contains different kind of paintings, including the ones on his unique technique of plates. Schnabel uses broken plates, embedding its fragments to add a sophisticated texture to the image of the painting. He also uses tarpaulin to add a glassy texture to the paint on the canvas.

My favorite artwork was Anno Domini, which Schnabel dedicates to the bullfight, one of his major inspirations. Anno Domini contains the feeling and movements of the arena, you can actually feel the moves of El Torero at the moment he's persuading the bull. It actually feels more like he is dancing with the bull rather than persuading it. The colours of Anno Domini caught my attention because of its vivid red colour over the canvas that are similar to blood spots. With this artwork, Schnabel is trying to describes the scenario where Anno Domini, El Torero, kills the bull; in other words the red spots are the blood spots that the bull has sprang over the arena.

I recommend this exhibition because it not only contains different works based on films and artist but also the beautiful artwork of Schnabel give the actual feeling and emotion he wants to give to the public.

Latinoamerica's Reality

So here's my Remix assignment... you can see the face of a boy in the first picture, he has the map of Latin America over his face, symbolizing his land. There are a couple of pictures that seemed to be engraved on the background that show the violence and the suffering of latin america, the tears of blood and the eyes of the boy reflect the reality that these people live. I want to give a little "taste" of a day of these people with the video. I used videos that practically show the images that you get to see everyday on the TV. Also the piece of music that I added give a more dramatic taste to the video. At last with my second picture I described how peace is not respected and how there is death and despair in these countries...

                                          

Video

I got the pictures for the images in google.ca, and creative commons... The videos are from youtube and blip.tv, the music background's composer is Edvin Marton and the piece is called Tosca Fantasy...



Image sources:
texture - http://shadowh3.deviantart.com/art/Wall-Texture-73682375
gang picture -http://walterguerra.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/campana-en-contra-la-delincuencia-en-esquipulas/219/

Video Sources:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_LQFTgK5YI&p=36EE5457394B3CF0&playnext=1&index=14
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8xslhaxnOU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PzTZmHBTc4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhObBgRxXqk
http://blip.tv/play/hdFj%2BYRHAg

New Assignment Remix Theme

I've been thinking about different themes and ideas about my remix assignment and I have decided to change the life and nature theme to violence, focusing more in the violence that exist in latinamerican countries from where I come from...

Violence nowadays is one of the problems that the world has struggled with during the whole history. It affects to million of people everyday, not only with assaults and robs but also with assassinations and more... My new idea is to show the reality of the latin population that is somehow depicted in movies and shows, but people are not able to understand it at all because they are not living in that kind of situation...

With my images and video I want to give the reality not only of latin american countries but also of the whole planet...

For this week I want to describe my remix assignment. My idea is to create two images and a video showing how beautiful life can be using nature as a medium. We are able to express and give different meanings to nature, for example we can give the meaning of growth and success to a tree, or the meaning of peace to a white bird.

I want two create two different scenarios that will show two aspects of the life... the first one how beautiful is, and the second one showing the difficulties that we may struggle with throughout our whole life. In the video I want to show what people are missing living more concentrated in money, work and not enjoying their life...

Wanna get in shape??... Get Wii Fit!!

One of these days on my way home, I met a guy in the bus who told me that he likes to work out and stay on shape, and that one of the games for Nintendo Wii helps him to stay in shape and work out. The Nintendo company now has given a step further, allowing us the advantage of being on shape with Wii Fit.

Wii Fit is a balance board that is connected to the Nintendo Wii system. It contains different kinds of workouts, you can decide to do pushups or Yoga and the balance board detects each of your movements and displays them on the screen. so you don't have to worry about going to the gym anymore, when you can just work out comfortably at home with the Wii Fit.

The idea of creating a video game to get people to stay on shape is a success, not only because the game allows you to work out, it also makes you challenge yourself to get better and better, beating your old scores and it gives you different tips when you've gain weight or when you've lost it... Technology will keep on taking more steps further, in the future we may use 3D glasses to get the feeling that we're inside the game, and we'll get more sophisticated control systems as well...