Ok so like i mentioned at the start i felt i had the potential to do good at this course.  I have always used the internet..well for as long as i can remember anyway.  BUt this course has taught me alot like Art-Fag, that the internet is something that can be used in your favour.

Before this course i used the internet as more of a playground, than anything else i looked at cool games websites and genrally just used it to goof around.  NMP has taught me that yes the internet is for goofing around but if you wish to invest some time learning about it then its a whole lot more than that.

The iternet gives us as designers a free outlet for our work, we can host portfolios of our work, post information about things we are studying and really just get our names out there.  Or as the conveners will call it Network ourselves.

I have enjoyed learning ways to aggregate my favourite websites, useing things like google reader and feedly, before this course i had no idea things like this even existed.  The things i have learnt from this course i will take with me for as long as my little fingers will allow me to type WWW.

My blog content reflects what i am interested in, luckily it is a subject that other people are also interested in and i feel i have linked to them as best i can.  My chosen blog platform Tumblr has aided me in the networking process by allowing me to use the Follow feature.  This allowd me to follow individuals who i feel are interesting and have something viable to add to my studies of Networked Media Production.

The Three Posts that i feel best exhibit my Blog are, (1) Ninja Gaiden, (2) Web 2.0 (3) Psp Go

These three posts i feel link great with the concept of my blog, all about technology and lifestyle.  Withoute this course i feel like i would have alot of things i wanted to say but didnt have anyone to tell.  So this blog has been a great outlet for that.

I have enjoyed networked media production alot and it has really opened my eyes to the important of netowrking ones selfe and the potential of the internet now and the future.

So agian like art-fag said…im soo keeping this blog.  Or starting a new one soley for Graphic design.

So hopefully not for the last time Sam-Craka

^^^ its me.

Hahahah another WTF moment!

Ok so i decided that this week i needed to take a break from the mountains of homework that had been piling up on my desk.

My girlfreind and i decided that we would take a few days break not only from Homework but from Canberra (the most boring place on earth).  We went to sydney to see a Lilly Allen concert.

Ok so anyway we walked through the middle of Sydney to Elizibeth Street, which we were told is one of the only streets left that does not have pre paid buses. (cmon thats soo dumb how are tourists suppossed to travel around) We caught our bus to the Horden Pavillion, which we almost missed to, because Sydney buses are so crowded.

We walked to where we could see a line of about 300 people…..and we were early.  As we stood in line i looked around and felt (1) really Old and (2) like the only straight male in sight. It was freezing, crowded and i was surrownded by Teeny Boppers. You know the ones that talk like “OMG Stacey is such a B*tch”

We waited and waited and waited and waited, eventually the line began to move towards the gates of the pavillion. All i could feel was 5 ft 1in tall teeny boppers elbowing me in the spine to get to the gate first.

I was like “im going to shove back” even if they are girls.. “rabid wolves more like”

So we finally got our ticket scanned and got to the pavillion but……you guessed it more waiting. This time for the pavillion doors to open, and yes agian more elbowing in the spinal cord.

Finally we were let into the pavillion, every teeny bopper in site charged for the front of the stage to claim their peice of land.  My girlfreind and i got about 3 rows back… so pretty close.

So agian were waiting for the warm up act to come on stage….but this is when the most annoying thing in the world began.  THE MYSPACE SHOT!

Ok so let me give you a defintion of what the myspace shot is;

“The myspace shot is the typical picture taken by MySpace attention whores.

So to successfully take the internationally recognised MySpace shot, you have to position the camera above your head and look at it in a shy, coy or ‘cute’ manner. This is harder than this looks because you have to do this so that the picture is overexposed, therefore erasing any flaws in your appearance making you look more attractive than you actually are.

Another benefit of the Myspace shot is that it makes your eyes look bigger. Extra plus points are given if you purse your lips to the side cutely and give a puzzled expression like you’re not sure why you’re taking your own photo and making yourself look like an idiot”

Quoted from Naj me Tender

This is the most annoying thing in the whole world, every 15 seconds there was a blinding flash of light.  I swear i dont know how i even saw Lilly Allen because i was pretty much blind from all the flashes.

You know what made it worse the fact that the event organisers said we couldent bring water into the pavillion! WTF like 5 people fainted and had to be thrown over the barrier. I mean cmon its water not Vodka.

All in all i did enjoy the evening but its these Pre pubecent teens, that now pretty much own the internet that give me the shits!

Gee i would love for them to have a go at enjoying themselves, doing the things i did when i was 12… the internet had been around about… oh i dunno 3 years when i was 12? (dam makes me feel old)

So anyway thought i would leave you with a good old myspace shot.

Multiplicity the idea of manyness.

how does our perception change when presented with many?

Artists have experimented with this idea, one in particular Joshua Davis presents electronically generated graphic compositions of almost unimaginable complexity and individuality.  His work combines form in soo many different ways that it would be impossible to recreate by hand.

“working this way allows me to generate an infinite number of compositions, i set the boundraries and the rules but whatever comes out at the end is a suprise, it could look cool, it could fail, it could be life changing”

Davis’s process allow him to create multiple artworks quikly, each being unique from the last.  To set an enviroment and let the computer do the rest with a program leaves the computer to create what it thinks it should.

Another artist who follows the same process of creating multiplicty in artwork is James Patterson, an illustrator who hand draws his peices, and them imports them into flash, to let the computer create random and unique compostions.  This juxtaposed to Davis’s work, i a way that being handdrawn makes it more organic.  Therefore you get a mix of human and mahcine.

However Muliplicty is not only seen in the technological world, but also nature.  For example look at the spots on the back of a cheetah or a lady bug is this not muliplicty?

Muliplicity has changed the internet, there is now so much information you can find anything you ever wanted?  anything you wanted to read about or see a picture of is now somewhere hiding in the internet.

The idea of being able to make a copy of something with the click of the finger makes multiplicity on the internet the most important development.

So have a look at these images and see how you feel about multiplicty.

sam

OK so this weeks lecture was on Data visulisation, which i actually had some idea of what is was prior to the lecture.

So this week we were told how everything on the internet is JUST data, and how that data can be used in any way shape and form, to create new vibrant things.

A data visulisation is an image that can be more easily understood than numbers in a exel spreadsheet.  It is something that you need to have no prior knoledge to understand, a sucsessfull data visualisation should be understood by all.

I recentally bough an issue of IDN magazine, that was on Data visulisation, it showed some amazing work with the use of statistical data.  How many cups of tea, coffee ect. could be turned into a stunning peice of artwork.

A very good wesbite for collecting statistical data is Daytum, it allows users to insert what every type of data they like, and the application produces a very nice clean represeantation of the data.

One Graphic Designer inparticular Felton, has made a name for himself through the creation of his data visualisations, his most well known works are his annuals.

These take data from his everyday life over a one year period, this data is then represented in a very unique visualisation.

I was going to do a data Visualisation for project B but then i dediced i would rather work with the google maps application so keep an eye out for the final link for that.

Sam

Ok so this had to be one of my favourite lectures, for some reason i really like learning about web 2.0.  I learnt alot from the lecture but decided to do some of my own research.

Web 2.0 is about, actually not really sure because it dosent have a definitive definition.  So i put web 2.0 down to this.  Web 2.0 gives us the user the ability, to host, share, contribute, remix, Geo tag, Participate and converge with everything that is the internet.

It gives the user the ability to rate, rank and reccomend things to other internet users.  Back in the day if you wanted certain information you would look through perfectly organized books until you found what you were looking for.

Now with Web 2.0 something can have an ulimited number of definitions, this is the beuaty of 2.0, your original search for lets say…Madonna isnt just that, with web 2.0 it can be Madonna+Artist+gossip+fashion+adoption+human rights+music+producer. This list is unlimited it links you to the greater World Wide Web.

So web 2.0 is really just the contribution of many, withoute that manyness the web wouldent be what it is today and what it is destined for.

While doing my rsearch i cam across some handy little Links on web 2.0 so check them out.

Doin Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog

Web 2.0 Expo

Mashable

Web 2.0 weblog

sam

Ok so its that time agian. blog time!

This weeks lecture was on API’s and Mashups, agian i never know what these things are until the end of the lecture.  But what i can gather from the lecture is; an API is a Application Program Interface.  It allows a user to source data from somewhere.  For example the URL in a www.*****.com

This data in turn can be used to create something new.

This is where a mashup comes into play.  A mashup is the process of useing the data that has been sourced to create a new way of doing something.

For example, if we were to use the API from the website twitter we could pull any kind of information we liked.  We could find every post with the phrase, i like to…

This could then be used to make something else:

We feel fine

Websites like this have already been created, i have listed some below for you to take a look at.

Helveti-Tweet

Portwiture

Boarding

Last FM Love Twitter

Ok so this week we looked at HTML and the processes involed in making a simple website.  This wasent really that new as i have another class that is purely about HTML and building websites.

But anyway i decided to use the resources from the other course to help with NMP.  I first went looking for a list of tags that were compilled into one sort of cheat sheet, so that i could refer back to it if i ever forgot what a <p> tag did?

I found just that a HTML cheat sheet, i swiftly printed it off and stuck it to my moniter screen for refrence.  The cheat sheet can be found here should any fellow classmates need it.

Next i went looking for simple websites, or just websites that got my attention, i felt these would be the best places to learn from.

here are some of the websites i feel, are very sucsessfull.

James Day Photo

Jeremy Cowart

Mail Chimp

Flash Gaming Summit

Nine Lion design

So i delved into these websites code and DAM was i suprissed, not because i couldent understand it but rather, i could read and understand most of what was written in the source.

So i used the resuources below to reseach and really get a grip of what HTML is.

Html help

Code Tutorials

Computer Hope

HTML tutorials

So until next time…..i will be reading source.

Sam

Ok so after last weeks lecture it got me thinking, i could probably be good at this course i mean cmon its about the internet.  Im pretty sure that where i spend most of my time, wether it be procrastinating or doing something viable like studying.

Ok so this weeks lecture was on the blog, before this lecture the only thing i thought of when i heard the word blog was Perez Hilton who is apprentyl the king of the blogging world.

So i began my quest for blogging knoledge, i researched all of the blogging services that were mentioned in the lecture.  I reasearched Blogger, Blogspot, Wordpress and Tumblr.  As you can proably tell by now i chose Tumblr.

Why you ask? because it is the most simple and easy to use.  It is not heavily text based like its couterparts, but rather it gives you the ability to post images, movies, sound files, quotes and really the list goes on.

I feel that tumblr is best for the creative type blogger rather than your normal amature journalist.

So with my blogging engine chosen i am ready to knock Perez Hilton off his pedestall!

Sam

U3025628

Sam Clarke

Tutor: Mitchell Whitelaw

Tutorial Time: Wednesday: 10:30-12:30

Project B : Geo Narrative

Project B: Rationale

For the second project in networked media production i chose to produce option 2: Create a Geo-narrative
Much like the first Project i felt that the Geo Narrative was the best way in which i could use my skills as a graphic design student.  I feel that it gave me the most creative freedom, which in turns make me work much better.

For this project i decided to stick to a topic that was close to my heart; Graphic design “no suprise there”.  I wanted to produce a peice that reflected Graphic design in a way in which people wouldent normally think of. 

My first concept was to create a fictional time line, that told the history of Graphic design but with me as the centre of the universe; every aspect in some way would relate to me and my development in the feild.  However i felt that this was too personal and could not be enjoyed by a wider variety of social groups.

The second concept i came up with was to agian produce a time line, but as accurately as possible, taking the 12 most important moments in graphic design history and placing markers onto the countries from which the events occured.  Agian i felt i could make this work but it would only be exiting to people that had prior knoledge of Graphic Design or history.

The Third concept i came up with, was using the same timeline from concept 2 to pick out influential and important artists throughout the history of graphic design and add a placemark to the country they were born or lived in at the time of their invention/concept/idea. This like the previous concepts was a little stale and boring.

Lastly my final concept was to use the same Timeline, but create a sort of map of the stars.  Sort of the kind you find in hollywood that tell you the location of Famous peoples houses.  With this idea i used part of the the timeline from concept one, part of the timeline from concept two, i added important artists to the mix and then added place marks to show exacly where each of these individual graphic designers lived.  So it ended up becomming a Graphic Design Star Spotting Map.

The technical process that i undertook to make this project was:

First i researched the google map application, i tested how i could add placemarks to certain areas and connect them.  I tried different ways to connect one point to another. The first was to use the line tool, i connected all the dates together to see what shape it would make, however i decided this was pointless and removed it.  Next i experimented with putting text in each placemarks box, this was the most important aspect of the assingment as the information is what brings the project together.

Next i researched and played with putting images above the text, so that the geo-narrative had some flare.  At first it seemed as though only medium sized images would fit “530px-440px” withoute stretching the content box.  Until i was shown that i could indeed stretch the images to any size i wanted it was just fiddly and time consuming.  I then chose my 6 photos from other artists to place in the narrative.  I chose the first 6 dates on the timeline as i thought taking images of things that were invented thousands of years ago that are only in museums would be impossible.

I searched through flickr for images that were creative commons so that i was able to remix them to fit in with the style of my geo narrative.  The last 6 however were a mix my own own illustrations and photos from flickr, i then remixed and edited these in photoshop so just like the first 6 they all worked well together and gave the project a sense of unity.  The images that i created were all hosted on imageshack.us, i used this service because i am currently using it for 2 other assingments and i was familiar with the way it worked with images and how they were hosted.

Next i added all the historical information to every placemark, this was the flesh of the project, it was what held it all together and connected one placemark to another. I then resized the type and changed the font to something that could be easily read, in hopes that people would actually read it and not just look at the pretty pictures.  Next i added the 6 creative commons images and my 6 remixed photos and illustrations, i did this through editing the HTML code of each place mark, so that the images were placed exacly where i wanted them.

Once all the content had been postioned in the placemarks, i realed that by reading the title of each placemark you couldent tell what year each important event happened.  To fix this i pulled the date out of the main historical imformation and added it infront of the title.  So now by just glancing the user can see exacly when that event happened and can decide on weather or not thats what the want to veiw.

To place the project in a cultural context i researched, other ways people had expressed themselves on the google maps application.  A personal favourite was the tokyo street walk, this allowed a user to walk along the a busy street in Tokyo and take in the sites withoute having to rub shoulders with anybody else. It showed places that unless you were a local you wouldent have normally seen.  I wanted my project to give that feeling of something new and undiscovered to every person that veiwed it, i wanted them to take just a little something from it.

In relation to the use of google maps with graphic design as the subject matter there isnt really anything noteable or exiting, most maps consist of Business name,location, phone number and mabey a street veiw of the business.  So it was very difficult to base my assingment on anything that had been done prior to Project 2.  So like mentioned before it was based more on trying to teach the History of graphic design in a fun way and in a different medium.

All in all i feel that my map does what it is set out to do very well.  It gives an indepth look at the history of graphic design with a modern twist. 

Links to modern day websites and blogs break the monotony of reading walls of text,  it aslo allows the veiwer to compare and reflect on how far graphic design has come.

This project like the last has given me a wider perspective of what the internet is, especially web 2.0.  I have learnt how to use new applications and how content can be provided to an audience.

So heres the link to my google map:

Graphic Design Timeline Google Map