Outside Event 1 - Hydrarchy and Globalization panel discussion

I hadn't really seen the exhibit prior to attending the panel discussion so I think I went into it having an entirely different impression of what it was going to be about.

Based upon the description of the panel (and my understanding of the exhibit), I thought there would be more discussion of the dynamic of the ocean and globalization.

Ultimately I felt as though much of the discussion was based upon imposed and man made geopolitical dynamics.

Truth be told, I did arrive late due to MUNI and a standing appointment with another professor that had been moved 4 times so I missed some of the presenters but was present for

• Weston Teruya
• Victor De La Rosa
• Paula Levine

I was familiar with the work of Paula Levine and Victor De La Rosa, having taken classes with them a number of times. 

It was interesting to hear Weston Teruya discuss his work. 

Do Your Feet Hurt? Part II

After a bit of tweaking, I think I got 1000 miles down to my liking. I used a total of 24 images created by walking through diatomaceous earth across black paper that were then scanned into digital copies.

I originally just worked with the copies as is and created a video that features 1000 images played at a steady pace, but it didn't feel right.

I watched it and it made me feel as though it was a tightrope walk, so I decided to do some additional work on the piece. 

I decided to take the images into Photoshop and widen the images (area to the left for a right foot, area to the right for left foot). This allowed a feeling of steps being properly aligned instead of walking the tightrope. 

For the revised version I also played with timing. I varied the playback speed randomly throughout to mimic the varied patterns of gait when we walk. Our walk speed depends on so many things: energy level, terrain, shoe, weather, etc. Our walks change constantly - from minute to minute even. 

I considered doing a bit of data bending to add some audio to the video but didn't find that the sound output enhanced the video in anyway. 

As I watched through it several times, it made me feels as though it was a silent meditation on the journeys we take every day. Remember, this distance was not as though I set out to reach it. In fact, the times I was out doing things that would have boosted my mileage the most, I was not wearing my tracker at all.

These miles are the accumulation of the mundane. Going to the grocery store. Going to school. Even going to the bathroom. 

We don't often observe the small details of our lives. In some ways, personal trackers allow us to observe the small details after the fact. Personally, I think the tracker has made me more mindful of what I do. 

APPs that MAP: Field Trip

I stumbled upon a mention of an app that vibrates when you approach locations where women made history but then couldn't remember where I saw it.

I spent the last week racking my brain trying to figure out where I saw it finally found it.

Apparently it is part of the effort of the SPARK Movement and Google Field Trips (neither of which I was familiar with before reading about the addition of notable women to Field Trip).

A bit on Field Trips:

"Field Trip is your guide to the cool, hidden, and unique things in the world around you. Field Trip runs in the background on your phone. When you get close to something interesting, it pops up a card with details about the location. No click is required. If you have a headset or bluetooth connected, it can even read the info to you."

Since we have talked a bit about AR and some of the applications of AR, this seems like an interesting application. The app uses your geographic location to populate information (both historical and current) about your location.

Here's a screenshot from me sitting in my office. Much of the historical stuff is about a mile east of me in downtown San Leandro, but the Weekend Sherpa article about Oyster Bay Regional park features a mention of Drake's Barrel House, which is below my office.

It seems like a cool app in theory, but I don't know if I like the idea of it running in the background and collecting my location information at all times.

I'll play with it and see how I feel after a few days.

Do your feet hurt? Part 1

I wasn't really sure where to go with the revision of my first project. I considered doing at "virtual tour" based on my weekend trip... Which then morphed into looking at my Fitbit data.

In a one year period, I walked about 1000 miles. I get a lot of whoas and wows over that, but really, it could have been higher. Considering dead batteries, forgetting to put it back on after charging and thinking it was dead a couple of times (it died just after the one year mark in February - I just got a new one today), 1000 miles was a conservative mileage.

I had an idea to photograph the soles of my shoes and make some sort of image out of that using the number of steps I had taken (3mil plus), but that was going to be super time consuming.

Working with the idea of my shoes, I considered making imprints of my soles using some sort of white powder on black paper (going back to my desire to map my yoga mat at the beginning of the semester).

I came home one night and used diatomaceous earth to create impressions of my feet on black art paper.  I was a bit saddened and felt like I was wasting perfectly good paper that I had purchased for another project, but it was the only paper I had that would allow me to do this. (I did find out later that with a chamois, I can actually remove most if not all traces of the DE from the paper).

I then hung the imprints at various intervals around my room and allowed them to "record" my day to day life. A brush here and there disturbed the dust and left traces of our lives on each imprint.

I scanned them and am currently assembling them into an animation.

Walking Games...... (Jurassic Journey)

Okay, this ended up being a bit more complicated (yet easier) than I thought and it could have gone on forever.

We had hoped to use AR to create this event, but we were unable to find an AR engine that was easily accessible and free.

That sent us back to the drawing board. We wanted to try to send people to new locations they may not have been aware of based on a series of choices. We checked out a few different chose your own adventure generators (cyocyoa, inkle, quest, Google Docs) and ultimately decided on Twine.

Using a program called Twine, we created an interactive text based game. Depending on your level of coding knowledge, this platform can get very involved. There are additional ways to code video and sound into the story, but I have really basic coding skills at this point and need to work on that.

Candace and I decided to make an interactive game that can be found here.

Or here:

We also prepared a physical map that accompanied the tour.

While I think we had envisioned using more technology involved in the project, I ultimately enjoyed the outcome. I could have continued on and on with choices and locations.

And now I may be addicted to creating choose your own adventure stories.

We hope you enjoy it.

AR Generation

I'm still in the really early stages of AR research but have found a few things to check out.

I haven't actually checked any of these out yet, but they are on my to do list.

https://zapcode.it/

http://www.augmentedplanet.com/2012/06/layar-creator-code-free-augmented-reality/

http://www.junaio.com/get-started/

http://www.instructables.com/id/Creating-your-Augmented-RealityAR/

http://www.metaio.com/creator/

http://www.mobilefish.com/services/pattern_marker_generator/pattern_marker_generator.php

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/02/daqri-build-your-own-augmented-reality.html#.VPi0L3zF_To

www.daqri.com

Threes

I am a walker by nature.... It's where I do most of my thinking... but I still have trouble thinking of it walking as art. I'm trying to be open to it... and hope that looking at the work of others will expand my thinking.

Walking is contemplative...Walking can be solitude. You can use it to walk away from your problems. You can use it to walk toward resolution.

I had an interesting conversation about walking with the Chaplain of the hospice program my brother was in and it lead me to realize that I often use walking as a means to escape my problems... She had mentioned that she spent an entire summer walking in her youth (it was some tremendous distance that I can no longer recall) but after a while, she realized that she was trying to distance her self from a problem in her life.

At that time, I was probably walking 2-3 hours a day.... If I wasn't at my brother's home, the yoga studio or making food to take to my family at my brother's, I was walking in the woods. It gave me something other than my thoughts to focus on.

As I look back, the other time in my life that I spent that much time walking was when I was about 16. My parents were getting a divorce (we didn't even know they were having problems) and I walked.... and walked and walked. And ever really thought about why I was walking (I did lose a bunch of weight so that made me super happy).

Walking is a meditation for me. And I am having trouble trying to translate that into an experience for others.

A few of the artists I have found that use walking are:

Vito Acconci

Vito Acconci created the Following Piece in 1969 by following a random stranger through NYC until they entered a private space of some sort.He did this every day for one month and created a photo series that reflected his action.

A little creepy in my mind. I would be a little weirded out by some guy following me until I went into a private space. If you think about all of the space we cover in a day that is "public", a person could be followed for quite some time. This totally just feeds in to my paranoia about being followed. 

Elastic City

Todd Shalom and company create curated walks that are "non-recorded journeys" and that patrons should "live as they happen."

"Elastic City artists work in a variety of disciplines, including poetry, urban design, dance, painting, architecture, photography, filmmaking, screen printing, sound art, theater and psychotherapy.

Each artist forms their walk/way in their own terms. Some map it out beforehand and then make changes. Others set out walking and then take notes. Most are adapting their talents to the walk format for the first time. For those offering "ways," they are pushing their craft through an experiential workshop whose limits are still undefined.

All of the artists are provocative in their questioning and rigorous in their design. Please click on their names for more info."

walkyourcity

While not necessarily and artist or collective, I came across walkyourcity.org and though it was interesting that people are getting involved in publicly placing signs to guide others. Users basically plan a walk and submit it to walkyourcity and they print and send you signs to put up in your area. Users are then able to scan qr codes and get directions to follow the signs.