Future Cinema

Questions

Throughout the course, we have studied VR and AR and their potential to enhance reality and create new experiences. In Augmented Reality, Papagiannis distinguishes between VR and AR, stating that AR does not trade our world, rather it combines the digital with the actual. Both, however, aim to alter or augment our reality in one way or the other. Do you believe that there is more potential in one, either AR or VR, to create and construct new ways of thinking and new experiences that have a positive and influential impact on the world?

Papagiannis discusses the augmented human as a time when technology is seamlessly embedded into the body. What are the implications of such movement and how will regulation surrounding such technologies work?

Augmented Reality for Mental Illness

As someone who has struggled with mental illness for pretty much his whole life, one avenue I hope Helen Papagiannis explores (should there exist technology out there) in future editions of her book, is the role AR can play in treating mental illness.  She does go into detail in chapter 8 about the rise of “calm technology” but I think things can be taken further.  I offer a few thoughts as ways sufferers of mental illness can benefit from technology.

For people with ADHD/ADD, perhaps a kind of AR that simplifies reality in lieu of augmenting it.  For example, if someone struggles with information overload at say a shopping centre, the AR should present reality with FEWER distractions and not more.  I struggle with shopping malls all the time and I guess I wish there was a way to limit distractions so I can think clearer.

For someone with depression, perhaps a way to see the world in brighter, happier colours, to get one’s mind out of depressive thoughts and such…

For someone with schizophrenia, who say has trouble with hallucinations, an AR that can tell you what’s real and what isn’t…yeah I know, this is likely the start of a good sci-fi short story, but hey, just throwing it out there.

Augmented Human Presentation Notes

Hello everyone, here are my notes for today’s presentation on Augmented Human by Dr. Helen Papagiannis:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Y9rOX6SPBC0Vo30tP06K9_gbPOMR79-KWKgz_2s8Vck/edit?usp=sharing

While the summary itself is pretty long, the book itself is dense with examples of new technological advances and information on a wide range of technologies. Instead of focussing on all of them, I have opted to instead summarize and direct our attention to the things I found interesting, to the things we’ve discussed in class, or to things that are simply cool/weird/radical/mathematical/etc.

There are questions throughout the notes, so I hope you will take some time to look through them, ponder on my musings, gather some of your own, and prepare for a debate on what it means to be an augmented human.

Attached is also the list of videos I will be showing in class. If we run out of time, please feel free to peruse them at your leisure:

-       Treachery of Sanctuary: http://milk.co/treachery

-       Google Self-Driving Car: https://waymo.com/

-       Optical Camouflage Demo with Kinect: artandmobile.com

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qhXQ_1CQjg&feature=youtu.be

-       What’s missing from your VR experience?

• http://tacticalhaptics.com/vr-fan-reactions-from-gdc-sv-comiccon-svvr-2016/

-       Disney research areas: https://www.disneyresearch.com/research/research-areas/

-       Sensory Fiction: http://scifi2scifab.media.mit.edu/2013/12/19/sensory-fiction/

-       VEST: http://www.eagleman.com/research/sensory-substitution

-       Synesthesia Mask

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vLSuLL9xLA&feature=youtu.be

-       ‘Bubble Cats’:

• https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/5/15923930/apple-arkit-apps-ios-11-demos

-       Unbelievable [AR] Bus Shelter | Pepsi Max. Unbelievable #LiveForNow

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Go9rf9GmYpM&feature=youtu.be

-       110 Stories

• http://www.110stories.com/#about

-       Eternime: http://eterni.me/

-       Real Time High-Fidelity Facial Performance Capture

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMa2oT1wMIs&feature=youtu.be

-       TED Talk on 4D printing

• https://www.ted.com/talks/skylar_tibbits_the_emergence_of_4d_printing?language=en

-       Wearable blood glucose monitor

• https://ous.eversensediabetes.com/?whichSite=ous

-       Imaginary Phone

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtbRen9RYx4&feature=youtu.be

-       Noel Gallagher interview, in which he talks about electronic assistants and self-driving cars

• https://pitchfork.com/tv/22-over-under/watch-noel-gallagher-rate-kanye-west-mustaches-and-ed-sheeran/

-       Intimacy ‘smart’ clothing: https://studioroosegaarde.net/project/intimacy

-       “Arkangel” trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yef_HfQoBd8

-       Neurable: http://www.neurable.com

-       Mirages and Miracles (2017): https://vimeo.com/209064549

Enjoy!

—marko

(PS. While some of the questions are specifically addressed to Dr. Papagiannis (most of the ones addressed to the hypothetical ‘you’), and although it is unfortunate she won’t be able to join us today, I have nevertheless left them imbedded in the notes so that they may inspire debates of our own)

Helen has the flu

Sadly, the author of today’s text, Dr. Helen Papagiannis, has the flu. i’m sorry we won’t have her expert presence today, but the silver lining is that we’ll have plenty of space for unhurried discussion and your questions – be sure to come ready with them.

ar filmmaking

https://www.vrfocus.com/2017/11/the-future-of-augmented-reality-filmmaking/

“When it comes to immersive storytelling, one often thinks of holograms, interacting with posters/QR codes or images and of course virtual reality (VR). Augmented reality (AR) is more aligned to social interactions, training and simulation. Especially with mixed reality (MR) applications for Microsoft’s Hololens. AR is not immediately associated with storytelling, but new concepts are bubbling and evolving in the midst of the new era of AR, VR and MR. After seeing a prototype of an AR film, Mária Rakušanová curator of the VR Awards at Raindance Film Festival was keen to showcase it at the Festival. VRFocus spoke to Duncan Walker, the founder of Trashgames about his short AR film NEST and how he made it.”

Question for Tomorrow’s Class

When reading Augmented Human: How Technology is Shaping the New Reality, I was most struck by the passage on pages 96 – 98 that talked about Eternime (link:<http://eterni.me>), which essentially is a way of archiving people after they are dead. As such, I was wondering if we could ponder the ethical and ontological implications of such preservation?

- Theo X

Question on database and narrative

Eventhough interactive database films can be accessed simultaneously by many people, each user generates their own unique experience/narrative by interacting with the piece. What are the implications of this on collective viewing?

Narrative/Database Question for the day

Manivoch pointed out in the article that “Database becomes the centre of the creative process in the computer age”. He argues that narratives in media are inherently derived from database. To me, he sees construction of narrative as a process in which artists and authors synthesize “data”: ideas, content etc. However, this process of creation of narratives have been around before the age of computer. Does Manovich uses the term “database” to draw attention to how narratives in digitized media content are constructed? Or does he simply uses a word created in the age of computer to understand a process that always existed?

For David (and everyone else because Borges is awesome)

The Aleph
http://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/borgesaleph.pdf

The Library of Babel; An Examination of the Work of Herbert Quain; Pierre Menard, Author of Don Quixote
http://anthonywarnick.com/fms/week15/Borges,_Jorge_Luis_-_A_Collection%20_in_English.pdf

Database and Narrative

Database and narrative can be described as dots and line, line and shape, ingredients and end-products, colour and painting, or pixels and images. I also think of the relation similar to fashion; individual items (e.g. socks, shoes, jacket, shirt) and style. The concept of database and narrative seem to have been present in our pre-computer world in our minds. New media technologies have enabled to manifest the dual existences in the form of media work.

How can our own databases consisting of our experience and knowledge be affected by new sets of databases and narratives introduced by media? As we increasingly familiarize ourselves with multiplicity and accept it as a part of our media consumption, how does it change or does not change our view toward conventional Hollywood-type narrative plots which still prevalent?  Will it be obsolete? Do we become more critical?