First of all, thanks for the reminder email. Totally forgot to do this. And, secondly sorry for taking so long in getting these up. I’ve been up to my eyes getting assignments done and finishing the funding applications, so I hope I’m not too late with my comments on the presentations last week.
AUGMENTED REALITIES
Lia “The Use of AR for Decolonization”
Great Presentation. I love how new social activists are using technology to pursue justice and change when they cannot actually organize in person in the streets. Its one of the best uses of social technology so far. My one question is this: How can people who do not have money to use this technology, use it? What I mean is this type of demonstration and social rebellion limited to those who have access to the technologies used. Does this mean social rebellion will be led by the middle-class?
May Massijeh “Memories Collide”
I love how you created a great AR project that is both personal to you, and at the same time, a great idea for your entire community. It was very nicely conceived and executed. I’m not certain what I can add, but to agree with Caitlin about adding video and audio.
Casey Robertson “Exploring Sounds as a Means of Agency in Future Cinema”
Why, in movies, does the sound support the image and not the other way around as recorded sound was created first and the visuals were created to go along with it? The study of sound is something that is drastically overlooked in cinema studies and yet it is one of the most interesting aspects of it. You are using interesting theories to examine your subject and I suspect you are going to write a very interesting paper.
Rory Hoy “Transmissions of Algorithmic Emergent Narratives”
So, what you are doing is not creating a narrative so much as placing somewhat related images together and then the viewer creates the narrative in their head. I suppose this works the same way as paintings in an art gallery work. It arranges its images, symbolism, motifs and allows the viewer to create the story behind it. It seems to me that this is a new digital version of a long tradition in visual art.
Nicole Alexander “A Day in the Afterlife”
Watch “Caprica” for a more serious and literal version of what you’re doing. They take this concept literally. A cult tries to build a digital afterlife for its members when they die by creating avatars that are identical copies of you down to your personalities. Its a little difficult to explain properly and you have to sit through a mediocre series to get it all, but its interesting none the less.
In addition to this, I just realized that I also forgot to post my questions for The Rise of the Videogame Zinesters, and so here they are:
We’ve talked a lot in class about VR and videogames ability to educate and help people understand and have empathy for those from different lifestyles, cultures or refugees etc.
Government funding agencies have funds to create new media, but making the games is one thing, the question remains how can we get people to know of their existence and play them?
If making games is an expression of one’s culture or social/political ideas, then isn’t having other people play these games something to be pursued, especially if you are trying to evoke empathy?
Should government funding include marketing, not necessarily in the same sense as a game like Call of Duty, but some sort of grassroots campaign to attract at least some sort of an audience?
It strikes me, when I read this book how history seems to repeat itself. On page 98, Anthropy writes that working in the game business is, “unpaid overtime. Your masters want the game done by Christmas, so you don’t leave the office until its done. This is why people in the industry arent’ healthy, this is why they burn out and quit games within a few years. This is why you miss the second year of your daughter’s life.” This reminded me of the old movie studio system, but even these studios would occasionally produce a ‘prestige picture’ because it would be good for the entire industry.
Why can’t game studios adopt this idea by occasionally producing something different, prestigious, or an art game to push the entire industry forward?
“Gang Rape…is an example of using the capabilities of games…not to indulge in escapist fantasy, but rather…to educate players about the dynamics at work within a horrible real life experience, and how those dynamics might come to be as a product of individual choices and responses” (60).
This is a great idea, but how much input was given to real rape victims, psychologists etc., in the design of the game?
Do the game designers have the responsibility to ensure the game they design represents psychological truths in the choices that the characters make?
When you try to create a game that is supposed to educate, it this no an important consideration regardless of the content?
Do games like this need more than just a designer and programmer?