Future Cinema

Week 5: Oral Presentation Summary – Bush and Morris

Summaries of Vannevar Bush’s “As We May Think” and Adalaide Morris’ “New Media Poetics: As We May Think/How to Write”

Vannevar Bush “As We May Think”

-          Bush, writing this article in the post WWII period, asks the question of what the future direction of science will be. Bush describes that the scientists that have gone most off course during the war are the physicists.

-          Before moving forward with his projections of future technology, Bush states the benefits of using science for man as the following:
- It has increased man’s control over his environment
- It has allowed for the improvement of food, clothing, and shelter
- It expands people’s knowledge of their biological, physiological and psychological processes
- Lastly, it has allowed for communication between people, which in turn, allows for the evolution of knowledge (beyond one individual)

-          On the topic of research, Bush emphasizes the benefits of recording that knowledge so that it can be shared, as well as the drawback (e.g. too much time has been dedicated to researching and evaluating scholarly works, not all publications can be found once recorded, therefore a lot of texts are not appreciated in their time)

-          With the growth in technological pursuits, interchangeable parts for machines are available

-          On the topic of recording, Bush emphasizes the growing number of methods of recording (such as photography, film, and wax disks) and discusses that they will only evolve further
- E.g.: Photography: Bush predicts future scientists’ use of glasses that can capture photographs in the field without audible clicks. One can see how this has been echoed in technology such as Google Glass, which is mobile and able to take pictures without the audible click. In the printing process, one can not only have the display almost immediately after taking a photograph but they are also able to print in through the process of dry photography which Bush forwards.
à With Bush’s contemporary technology, he predicts that the speed of the technology will have to improve in order for its success

-          Returning to the topic of recording information, Bush emphasizes that future technology will take up less physical space. For example, an entire encyclopedia may take the space of a matchbox  (The hypertext that Bush suggests can be seen in the compression of encyclopedia such as Wikipedia)
Video: http://youtu.be/LJHpA2ugqXw

-          A major dichotomy that Bush emphasizes is the difference between scientific logic and rationale and the way in which people naturally think
-> If recording would continue to follow scientific logic, it would follow a process of selection (similar to the technology of the telephone: as each number is dialed the numbers considered are reduced until the entire number is dialed and there is the one and only option)

-          In the application of selection to indexing: The system of subclasses may only have documents in one place, or they would have to be duplicated in order to prevent this
(To find additional documents, one would have to re-enter a new search)

-          Bush emphasizes that “the human mind does not work that way,” it works by association. While this process cannot be duplicated, Bush draws on this reality to improve the permanency of recording

-          In this context, Bush describes his proposed “Memex” which is described as “a device in which an individual stores all of his books, records, and communications and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility.”
- Video: http://youtu.be/c539cK58ees
- The Memex would aid in man’s memory (he would not have to rely on it as heavily, as it could be consulted when a question or topic is raised)
- The text could be read as a book, one can see the various pages ( the way in which the pages are described as moving across the screen, echoes microfilm technology)
- Multiple files can be open at the same time, notes can be added to text for additional learning, and certain files can be combined according to a topic (in accordance with the mind’s associative quality discussed previously)
- Information can be shared between different people’s Memex
- Furthermore, specialized encyclopaedias for professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, will allow for them to consult the information more easily
- One can see how Bush’s vision of the Memex is clearly aligned with the technology of the computer, as well as the internet in his discussions of exchangeable and easily accessible records

-          In this evolving context, science “may implement the ways in which man produces, stores, and consults the record…”
-> Perhaps technology will allow for more direct paths for recording (through our physical senses, recording could be possible)
(Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbKqZfBoaXc)

-          In order for civilization to move forward records must be kept in a better fashion so that the past can be analysed more productively and current events can be objectively dealt with

-          Bush’s article has demonstrated the many ways science has enhanced men’s lives and the imperative need to move forward, otherwise too much information would be lost

Questions:

In Bush’s projection of different technologies’ futures, can you see the descriptions in any contemporary technology? How does Bush’s vision of the future compare to our reality?

In what programs can we see the following of the associative versus selective process in researching?

What are some of the limitations you found in this reading?

Adalaide Morris “New Media Poetics: As We May Think/How to Write”

-          Morris begins her article with a discussion of Gertrude Stein’s discussion of the two types of knowledge: 1) That which we see and do 2) What we know because of what we think

-          Stein’s writing did not follow conventional formats; they were “machines for cognition” (contemporary conceptual categories can be exceeded)

-          What we see and do is conditioned by our technological environment (many concepts and understandings come from a world of print)
-> Yet technology does not necessarily reflect the way we see the world

-          While Stein argued that cognition would happen within an individual, since the mid-1980s the term of “districted cognition” has gained traction. In this case, cognition happens between people and with networked and programmable machines

-          Post WWII period: Rise of theories surrounding Cybernetics: “theories of the nature of information, information technologies, and the biological, social, linguistic, and cultural changes that initiate, accompany, and complicate the development of those technologies.” (4)
-> In this case, people in the post-human era are cyborgs (connection with technology, feedback between the two)
-> one of the common ideas in this context is the interaction between people and “intelligent machines” (4)

-          Ideas of synergy/ interaction can be seen in the field of literature and poetry as they engage with programmable machines
-> Through a consideration of new media poetics (use of the term emphasizes this field as an ongoing process), the computer as an expressive medium becomes apparent.

-          The field of new media poetics poses a number of questions:
For example: What field should it be studied in? Art? Art History? Communications? English?
(What would be the implications of jumping between fields?)
-> By considering its application in numerous fields, one can see how the computer is/ can be
used as a creative medium

-          Code is one of the elements which emphasizes how new media poetics/digital literature is different from previous forms (it is the code that the poet engages with in order to allow for the poetry to become visible for display on networked/programmable machines) Beyond the code, the set of rules of coding must be operable otherwise the text will be unreadable and the computer would be useless.

-          Another difference with new media poetics includes it ability to be edited, reused, or recycled

-          Morris also asses Bush’s “As We May Think” according to the fours words in the title to show his argument: 1) to emphasize the process of change discussed, 2) the importance of it being exchanged between people, 3) the potential of it following the projected path, 4) as well as the question of the role of mental activity in determining the world around us.
- Morris also discusses Bush’s Memex and emphasizes how it predicts technology such as desktops and laptop computers
(This technology, Morris argues “thinks with us,” coinciding with her argument for the partnership between people and technology in which people can be extended or “remade” in relation to technology used. (11) )

-          In early discussions of hypermedia theorists overestimated the abilities or new media. For example, the agency of the electronic reader was overestimated. In hypertext narratives the choices are pre-determined, therefore the agency of the reader is limited.

-          One important question, Morris raises is how what can new media poetics tell us about thinking and writing in an increasingly technologically reliant/ networked culture?

-          The author also discusses what it means to interact with new media and the importance of new media poetics performative qualities. When new media is activated, it is through our bodies that the art is augmented and amplified.

-          New Media poetry to Morris is “an active exchange between two forms of discourse: the late romantic print lyric, on the one hand, and the networked and programmable poem, on the other.”
-> The two types of new media poems Morris discusses are 1) “poems composed for dynamic and kinetic manipulation and display” and 2) “programmable texts” (20)

-          The six varieties of new media poetics covered by Morris are as follows: (20-30)
1) Literal Art https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZgKPc4RGro (overboard)
2) Poem-games

3) Programmable procedural computer-poems
4) Real-time reinterative programmable poems
5) Participatory networked and programmable poems
6) Codework http://www.rssgallery.com/pages/code.htm (code scares me)
-> The variants emphasizes the contingency of new media poetics, yet all of these poems are driven by “the energy of an age of information”
-> According to Morris it is “cyborganization” that is “recalibrating how we write and how we think.” (34)
(Poets as commentators on society’s use of programmable and networked machines, yet they can be seen as Stein’s “outlaws” who are preparing for the future that is here)

-          Morris then goes onto discuss later chapters in the text, which will cover three topics. The first topic is the context of new media poetry. The second topic is the nature of digital poetry and how it may affect the way we think. The final section discusses various theories regarding how to consider new media poetics so that its potential can be understood. Overall, the various texts described will assess the ways in which new media poetics differs yet also continues poetic traditions.

-          New media poetics shows one of the ways our experience is being negotiated and new ideas or perspectives can be seen in creative and critical forms.

Questions:

What were your general thoughts on the text?

How would you consider the relationship between yourself and technology in artistic pursuits?

How does this reading compare to early theorists of hypermedia?

- Erica

Tags: cyborg, hypermedia, memex, new media poetics

Shimon Attie projection

Strange Days & eXistenZ: POV & VR

Strange Days is a 1995 Kathryn Bigelow science fiction film featuring a device called a “‘SQUID’, or ‘Superconducting Quantum Interference Device’, an illegal electronic device which records events directly from the wearer’s cerebral cortex, and when played back through a MiniDisc-like device called a ‘deck’, allow a user to experience the recorder’s memories and physical sensations.”

TV Tropes: “Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes) is a grungy ex-cop eking out a lonely, miserable existence in the urban nightmare that is 1999 Los Angeles by dealing in dreams. He sells illegal “SQUID” recordings that allow the user to directly experience moments from people’s lives as if they were actually there, living every sight, sound, thought and feeling that the person doing the recording experiences. This allows the user to experience anything – sex, drugs, and even death…

For the first-person SQUID scenes, the film pioneered new, up-close P.O.V.-camera techniques for using headcams.”

Strange Days trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wE2dO6UyK3Q

Lenny explains how the SQUID works:

http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/strangeDaysTVshower.mov/view

http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/27/strange-days-indeed/

——

A couple years later, in 1999, David Cronenberg directed eXistenZ, which mashed up gaming with VR. Rolling Stone called it “A sci-fi thriller about sexy keyboard jockeys, corporate espionage and the infecting spread of terrorism, his ode to immersive gaming feels a beat too late to the modem-screech siren call of virtual reality. (The Matrix would come out a month later.)… a great unheralded Nineties sci-fi treatise on our perpetual addiction to a life lived online and a glimpse of the malleable realities on the horizon.”

eXistenZ trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAdbdUt_h9M

Bonus: in Googling to find stuff for this post, I came across a USC course on Interactive Media, which lists a number of other movies in the same general vein:

Videodrome
eXistenZ
Strange Days
Hackers
Johnny Mnemonic
The Game
Man with a Movie Camera
Serene Velocity
Being John Malkovich
Sleep Dealer
Inception

– Alison

7th IEEE Consumer Electronics Society Games, Entertainment, Media Conference 14 – 16 October 2015, Toronto

it’s very expensive, but maybe you’d be able to sneak in for a talk ;) … it’s an interesting lineup for future cinema-related materials:

click here for more

October 14

8:30- 11:30 Tutorials and Workshops
Workshop Game UI Design, Evaluation, and User Research
Tutorial Gamification: How to Gamify Learning and Instruction
Tutorial Gaming & Law – It´s part of the game, so what should I know
11:30- 12:30 Lunch
12:30- 3:30 Tutorials and Workshops
Workshop Game UI Design, Evaluation, and User Research
Workshop Smartphones and Interactive Story Development
3:30- 4 Coffee Break
4- 4:30 Opening of Conference and Art Show
4:30- 5:30 Steve Mann Keynote “Augmediated Reality Gaming”

5:30-7:30 – Reception

October 15

8:30 – 10:45 Paper Sessions
Track 1: Human Factors, Interaction, and Game User Research
8:30 -9:00 Meng Luo and Mark Claypool – Uniquitous: Implementation and Evaluation of a Cloud-based Game System in Unity
9:00-9:30 Brent Cowan, Saad Khattak, Bill Kapralos and Andrew Hogue- Screen Space Point Sampled Shadows
9:30-9:50 Farjana Eishita, Allain Esquivel and Kevin Stanley – Quantifying the Differential Impact of Sensor Noise in Augmented Reality Gaming Input
10:00 -10:30 Margaree Peacocke, Robert Teather, Jacques Carette and Scott MacKenzie – Evaluating the Effectiveness of HUDs and Diegetic Ammo Displays in First-person Shooter Games
10:30-10:45 [short paper] Steve Mann and Ryan Janzen – “SQUEAKeys”: a friction idiophone, for physical interaction with mobile devices
Track 2: Art, Music and Experiments
8:30 -9:00 Miao Song, Serguei Mokhov, Jilson Thomas and Sudhir Mudur – Applications of the Illimitable Space System in the Context of Media Technology and On-Stage Performance: a Collaborative Interdisciplinary Experience
9:00-9:30 Mikael Fridenfalk – Algorithmic Music Composition for Computer Games Based on L-system
9:30-10:00 Daniele Loiacono, Renato Mainetti and Michele Pirovano – Volcano: An Interactive Sword Generator
10:00-10:30- Mei Si and J. Dean McDaniel – Creating Genuine Smiles for Digital and Robotic Characters: An Empirical Study
10:30-10:45 [short paper] Dave Pape, Sarah Bay-Cheng, Josephine Anstey and Dave Mauzy – WoyUbu: Experiments with Video-gaming in Live Theatre
10:45- 11 Break
11 – 12 Dan Scherlis Keynote : “Bringing games from lab to marketplace: Best practices for successful commercialization”.

12 – 1:30 Lunch – Posters and Demos
1:30 – 3:45 Paper Sessions
Track 3: Game Studies and Education
1:30-2:00 Katrin Becker, Habon Bair, Louis Cheng, Darla Gunson, Michelle Hayden-Isaak and Christine Miller – Gamifying an M.Ed. Course: A Post-Mortem
2:00-2:30 Laura Lenz, Katharina Schuster, Anja Richert and Sabina Jeschke – Are Virtual Learning Environments Appropriate for Dyscalculic Students?
2:30-3:00 Katrin Becker – 4PEG: A Structured Rating System for Games for Learning
3:00-3:15 [short paper] Victoria Mcarthur and Robert Teather – Serious Mods: A Case for Modding in Serious Games Pedagogy
3:15-3:30 [short paper] Anna Loparev and Christopher Egert – Toward an effective approach to collaboration education: A taxonomy of collaboration
3:30-3:45 [short paper] Karthik Sankaranarayanan, Fredderico Filho and Pejman Mirza-Babaei – Video Games to the rescue: Can game design make software based lab experiments engaging?
Track 4: Game Technologies
1:30-2:00 Ryan Janzen and Steve Mann – Swarm Modulation: An algorithm for real-time spectral transformation in multimedia user-interfaces
2:00-2:30 Steve Mann and Ryan Janzen – Sensory Flux from the Eye: Bio-Veillametrics for 3D Augmented-Reality Media Environments
2:30-3:00 Tony Morelli – Presenting a Standard Slot Machine as an Interactive Racing Game
3:00-3:30 Alexander J. G. Patrick, Curtis Gittens and Michael Katchabaw- The Virtual Little Albert Experiment: Creating Conditioned Emotion Response in Virtual Agents
3:30-3:45 [short paper] Raphaël Robert-Bouchard, Jerome Dupire and Pierre Cubaud Designing Indoor Tangible Games based on Fuzzy Localisation
3:45- 4:45 Special Panel Session : Lindsay Grace, Max Saltonsall, Justin Berry and Rubaiat Habib, moderated by Johannes DeYoung.
4:45 – 5 Break
5- 6pm Keynote: Azam Khan – “Synthius: Toward a Synthetic Human”

6- 8pm Reception

October 16

8:30- 11:30 Paper Sessions
Track 5: Game Design
8:30 -9:30 Tony Morelli and Taylor Ripke – Back-Pointer – Fitts’ Law analysis of natural mobile camera based interactions
9:00-9:30 Geneva Smith, Robert Teather, Jordan Lass and Jacques Carette – Effects of Interior Bezel Size and Configuration on Gaming Performance with Large Tiled Displays
9:30-10:00 Robert Teather, Jacques Carette and Manivanna Thevathasan - Uniform vs. Non-Uniform Scaling of Shooter Games on Large Displays
10:00-10:30- Daniele Gravina and Daniele Loiacono.- Procedural Weapons Generation for Unreal Tournament III
Track 6: Health, Exergames and Rehabilitation
8:30 -9:00 Adrian Schneider and Nicholas Graham- Pushing Without Breaking: Nudging Exergame Players While Maintaining Immersion
9:00-9:30 Victor Fernández Cervantes, Eleni Stroulia, Claudio Cesar Castillo Rojas, Luis Edgar Oliva Amezquita and Francisco Javier Gonzalez Siordia – Serious Rehabilitation Games with Kinect
9:30-9:45 [short paper] Robert Shewaga, David Rojas, Bill Kapralos and John Brennan - Alpha Testing of the Rapid Recovery Kayaking-Based Exergame
9:45-10:00 [short paper] Mark Claypool – Surrender at 20? Matchmaking in League of Legends
10:00-10:15 [short paper] Mario Andres Vargas Orjuela, Alvaro Joffre Uribe Quevedo, Norman Jaimes and Byron Perez Gutierrez – External Automatic Defibrillator Game-based Learning App
10:30- 11 Break
11 – 12 Jason Della Rocca Keynote “Independent Entrepreneurship: The Tension Between Starving Artist and Selling Out”

12 – 1:30 Lunch – Posters and Demos
1:30 – 3:30 Paper Sessions
Track 7:
1:30-2:00 Curtis Gittens and Paul Christopher Gloumeau – Does a Segmented Health Bar Increase Player Preference for a Game? A Pilot Study
2:00-2:30 Bryan Sarlo and Michael Katchabaw – Artificial Society Generation for Modern Video Games
2:30-2:45 [short paper]Katie Seaborn, Deborah I. Fels and Peter Pennefather A cooperative game for older powered chair users and their friends and family
2:45-3:00 [short paper] Ryan Janzen and Steve Mann – Fluid Input Devices for Multimedia Computing
3:00-3:15 [short paper] Mark Claypool – Measurement-based Analysis of the Video Characteristics of Twitch.tv
Track 8:
1:30-2:00 Kei’Ichiro Yamamoto and Victoria Mcarthur – Digital Economies and Trading in Counter Strike Global Offensive: How Virtual Items are Valued to Real World Currencies in an Online Barter-Free Market Hybrid Economy.
2:00-2:30 John McCormack, Joseph Prine, Bradley Trowbridge, Adriana Rodriguez and Ryan Integlia – 2D LIDAR as a Distributed Interaction Tool for Virtual and Augmented Reality Video Games
2:30-3:00 Imran Khaliq and Blair Purkiss – A Study of Interaction in Idle Games and Perceptions on the Definition of a Game
3:00-3:15 [short paper] Engie Natalia Ruge Vera, Alvaro Joffre Uribe Quevedo, Norman Jaimes and Byron Perez – Convulsive Treatment Game-based Training App
3:15-3:30 [short paper] Ingridh Ochoa-Casas, Gerardo Tibamoso, Lizeth Vega-Medina, Byron Perez-Gutierrez and Alvaro Uribe-Quevedo – Detection Of Central Venous Access Anatomic Regions Of Interest Using Augmented Reality Game-Based Learning
3:30- 4:30 : Artists Presentation of Work : Justin Berry, Jeffrey Scudder, Jim Parker, Rebecca Aston, Rubaiat Habib moderated by Johannes DeYoung
4:30 – 5 Break
5pm- 6pm: Wearables, Humans, And Things: The Veillance Games People Play (see full description below)
Closing

Posters
Miguel A. Garcia-Ruiz and Pedro C. Santana-Mancilla Development and Usability Testing of Simulated Wind in a Racing Video Game
Robinson Diaz, John Prieto, Jeferson Pardo, Camilo Zambrano, Alvaro Joffre Uribe Quevedo, Enit Godoy and Byron Perez-Gutierrez Development of a First Person Shooter Game Controller
Ryan Janzen and Steve Mann Ambiguized and obfuscated vision in games, security, and everyday life
Weina Jin and Diane Gromala Serious Game for Serious Disease: Diminishing Stigma of Depression via Game Experience
Xin Tong, Dr.Diane Gromala and Christopher Shaw - Encouraging Physical Activity with a Game-based Mobile Application: FitPet
Carlos Soto, Hugo Vega, Alvaro Joffre Uribe Quevedo, Norman Jaimes and Bill Kapralos - Stereoscopy and Haptics Human Eye AR App
Steve Mann, Ryan Janzen and Additional Authors - Bright Ideas: A wearable interactive “Inventometer” (brainwave-based idea display) for idea games
Mikael Fridenfalk The Introduction of a Quantum Mirror in the Game of Life Cellular Automaton
Bradley Trowbridge, Joseph Prine, Ryan Integlia and Johm McCormack Game motivating exercise
Tony Morelli Face Race – Face Down Extreme Virtual Reality Racing Game
Demos / Art
Victor Fernández Cervantes, Eleni Stroulia, Claudio Cesar Castillo Rojas, Luis Edgar Oliva Amezquita and Francisco Javier Gonzalez Siordia - Serious Rehabilitation Games with Kinect
Jonah Warren Factor: A Game About Matching Common Factors
Lorene Shyba Giving in to Temptations (of Consuming Electronics)
Miao Song, Serguei Mokhov, Jilson Thomas and Sudhir Mudur Spatial UI Experience and ProjectionMapping on Stage with ISSv2
Miao Song, Serguei Mokhov, Sudhir Mudur and Jean-Claude Bustros Demo: Towards Historical Sightseeing with an Augmented Reality Interactive Documentary App
Deschanel Li and Miao Song Video artwork – its only a game
Joseph R. Fanfarelli Teaching the Brain through Games – Medulla
Final Panel on Veillance

The Internet of Things (sensors for things), like the game box that captures pictures of you in your underwear in your living room, and streams encrypted data back to the “mother ship”, is surveillance. “Surveillance” is a French word that means, in English, “oversight” (over-watching, or watching over). The other veillance (sight) is undersight (”sousveillance”, more recently known as “Quantified Self”, “Body Hacking”, “biohacking”, or “transhumanism”). WHAT (Wearables, Humans, And Things) happens when we put oversight (surveillance) and undersight (souveillance) together(?) WHAT is veillance(?) Games are not always formal and they don’t always require a computational device. In real life, we also play games, as popularized by Eric Berne’s seminal book, “Games People Play”.

Consumer electronics devices, such as a known game box, spy on us, yet are often of a “closed source” design so we can’t look back at them (e.g. it is difficult for us to understand what’s happening inside them).

“Veillance Games People Play” since the relationship between the surveilled and the surveillors may be thought of as human relationships gone awry as outlined in the field of Transactional Analysis. For example, in stores that use surveillance cameras but do not allow the customers to take photos themselves, the store or security guard takes on the role of “Parent” and this causes an inherent clash when an “Adult” enters the space and doesn’t want to be an “I’m not OK, you’re OK” child. The best situation is “I’m OK, You’re OK”, which can never happen with surveillance.

Panelists

Dr. Steve Mann, University of Toronto. The “Father of Wearable Computing”
Dr. Marvin Minsky, MIT. The “Father of AI” (Artificial Intelligence)
Dr. Joseph Ferenbok, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
Dr. Martin A. Katzman, Clinic Director: START (Stress, Trauma, Anxiety, Rehabilitation and Treatment) Clinic for the Mood and Anxiety Disorders, Univ. of Toronto
Dr. Nahum Gershon, The MITRE Corporation
A New Type of a Conference Panel

This panel will be different from the usual conference panels since the discussion will not be limited to just an hour during the conference. The panel discussion will start before the conference, continue face-to-face at the conference, and continue after the conference. The pre-conference discussion will take place in a Facebook blog format – see: https://www.facebook.com/WHAT2016. The conference attendees will be invited to write papers about these topics after the conference. Following a review, the accepted papers will be published in a journal, magazine, or in a book.

Tom Gunning lectures this week

Please join us for two upcoming talks by film historian Tom Gunning presented by the Department of Cinema and Media Arts and the Graduate Program in Communication and Culture.

Flyers attached. Please feel free to circulate. Thanks!

The Peter Morris Memorial Lecture featuring Tom Gunning
Wednesday October 7 at 3pm-5-pm
Sandra Faire and Ivan Fecan Theatre, Accolade East Building (ACE)
‘The Ghostly Ontology of the Projected Image: From Natural Magic to Nosferatu’

The Ioan Davies Memorial Lecture featuring Tom Gunning
Thursday October 8 at 4pm
Nat Taylor Cinema (N102 Ross)
‘Is Digital Cinema Out of Touch? Elusive Touch, Evasive Grasp, Open Gesture’

Tom Gunning is Edwin A. and Betty L. Bergman Distinguished Service Professor in the Division of Humanities at the University of Chicago, where he teaches in the Department of Cinema and Media Studies and the Department of Art History.

A noted film historian, Gunning has lectured widely on film style and interpretation, film culture and the history of film. He is the author of numerous books, including D.W. Griffith and the Origins of American Narrative Film,Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema, Brought to Light: Photography and the Invisible (1840-1900), and The Films of Fritz Lang: Allegories of Vision and Modernity. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Career Achievement Award from the Society for Cinema and Media Studies.

Admission is free. All welcome.

The annual Peter Morris Memorial Lecture features internationally recognized scholars working in the area of cinema and media studies, with a particular emphasis on histories of screen cultures. Previous presenters in the series have been Ian Christie (October 2011), David Bordwell (October 2012), Wendy Hui Kyong Chun (January 2014) and Lisa Gitelman (January 2015).

http://cma.ampd.yorku.ca/events

Tags: Gunning, magic, projection

(Very) last minute opportunity: VR film fest SUNDAY OCT 3

Hi everyone – please see below. I only received this last night. Sorry for the short notice. – Caitlin

*****************************************************************

I am a producer for the Kaleidoscope Virtual Reality Film Festival. I am reaching out because students from York University could be a perfect fit for this VR film fest.

The 2015 Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival is a 10 city event series showcasing the best in virtual reality filmmaking from independent artists. The festival is coming to Toronto, Sunday, Oct. 4th. We’re also in serious need of volunteers who get some nice perks that you can read about below.

If you think your students would be interested in attending or volunteering please send them this info. They will be working closely with Rene Pinnell, founder of Kaleidoscope VR, VR filmmakers, gamers, and entrepreneurs.

——

VOLUNTEER FOR VIRTUAL REALITY FILM FESTIVAL

Help support virtual reality filmmaking and sign up to volunteer at this link:

http://goo.gl/forms/5fBdIhJtR1

Volunteer for the Kaleidoscope VR Film Festival and get the chance to experience all of the films in the program before the festival starts, receive a 2015 KVRFF t-shirt, mingle with VR filmmakers and game changers, and receive (2) complimentary tickets to give away in Toronto as long as availability allows.

WHEN: Volunteer hours 12pm to 9pm, Sunday., October 4th.

KVRFF VIP ticket holders have early access from 4pm – 5pm.

All ticket holders 5:00pm –  8:00pm

WHERE: Twist Gallery, 1100 Queen Street, West Toronto, ON, M6J 1H9 CAN

TICKETS: http://kaleidofilmfest-tor.eventbrite.com/

WEBSITE: http://www.kvrff.com/

PRESS: New York Times (http://nyti.ms/1eTdGb8), Wired (http://wrd.cm/1MNNcXx), Variety (http://bit.ly/1P8k3V7)

How to Create a Hologram Onstage

The stage illusion “Pepper’s Ghost” is about 150 years old:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper%27s_ghost

Here’s a modern high-tech version, which uses a mylar screen instead of glass. Musion’s “Eyeliner” system was the one used to bring Tupac back from the dead at Coachella, and to let Madonna sing with the Gorillaz:

http://www.eyeliner3d.com/musion_eyeliner_setup_video.html

Water screen

The prototype AquaTop display uses whitened water as an interactive screen – the most “immersive” media ever!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=fYJneaa2O8I

Developed by the Koike Laboratory at the University of Electronic Communications, Tokyo.

– Alison

DBZ anyone? The mini-hologram I mentioned in class.

I think thats what it is anyway.

751251198307228

~Sarah

seminar schedule

click here for a pdf of the seminar schedule (opens in new window)

GS/FILM 6245

Future Cinema – seminar schedule

Week 3, September 30^th Virtual Reality

Oliver Grau, “Intermedia Stages of Virtual Reality in the Twentieth Century”

AND/OR

Eduardo Kac “Beyond the Spatial Paradigm: Time and Cinematic form in Holographic Art”

Sarah Stang

Week 4, October 7^th, Augmented Reality

Jason Farman, “Mapping and Representations of Space” Mobile interface theory: Embodied Space and Locative media

AND/OR

Gaston Bachelard The Poetics of Space

Week 5, October 14^th, Hypermedia/narrative/digital storytelling

Required:

Vanevar Bush “As We may Think” (online) AND Adalaide Morris “New media Poetics: As We May Think/How to Write” in New media Poetics: Contexts, Technotexts and Theories

AND/OR

N. Kathryn Hayles “Timely Art: Hybridity in new Cinema and Electronic Poetry” (online)

Aly Edwards

Erica Melamed

Week 6 October 21^st, Database Cinema

Martha Kinder “Designing a Database Cinema” (FC) AND Lev Manovich “database/narrative” (online)

AND/OR

Thomas Elsaesser, “The New Film History as Media Archeology.”

Cody Pentzos

Nanna Rebekka

Week 7  October 28^th Game Narratives and Architectures

Espen Aarseth “Ergodic texts” (online)

AND/OR

Noah Wardrip-Fruin  First Person : New Media as Story, Performance, and Game  (excerpt)

Sarah Voisin

Mark Mungo

Week 8 November  4^th Games2

Jane McGonnigal Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World

AND/OR

Creating for the Multi-Platform context Mobile Nation

Alison  Humphrey

Jonathan Clancy

Week 9, November 11^th, Mobility/Connectivity/Distributed networks

Kathy Rae Huffman “Video, networks and Architecture; some physical realities of electronic space”;

OR

Deleuze “Conclusions” (Cinema II—The Time Image) (online)

AND/OR

Being there: uncanny medium, methodological multipplicity and proliferative embodied creativity in The Haunting  Mobile Nation AND The Haunting: voices from beyond in mobile experince design  Mobile Nation

Sam Rickford

Week 10, November 18^th, Digital Cinema/animation

Virtuosity, Special-Effects Spectacles and Architectures of the Senses, Neo-Baroque Aesthetics and Contemporary Entertainment

AND/OR

Manovich – what is digital cinema? (online)

Vivian Sobchack “Nostalgia for Digital Object”

Oksana Unguryan

Jeff Young

Week 11, November 25^th, Translocality/Globalization/Tactical Media

Required:

Galloway “Tactical Media” in Protocol;

OR

Gene Youngblood “A Manifesto for the Internet”.

Norman Klein “The Future of the Cinematic City” (FC)

Andi Schwartz

Week 12, December 2^nd: Final class :  No seminars (final project presentations)