Constructing Identity Online: Classnotes
1 What is identity?
Identity: the fact of being who or what a person or thing is, the characteristics determining this. (Concise Oxford English Dictionary)
2. Interview classmates:
How many online identities do you have? What are they like?
One. A name which attracts girl. E.g. sweet heart, Handsome
On your blog write a two paragraph report on a class member who has an interesting set of online identities (you may use pseudonyms ie fake names)
my interviewee is Lui Ka Yi. she got several fake names online. she usually used it in forum or chat room where many youngsters sought for boyfriend or girlfriend. her fake names were designed to attract people to talk with her. for example, Honey, sweet heart, your man, etc. such identity had great difference with her real identity. She changed her gender and act as a boy to talk to the girls to gain excitement from 'role play'.
the fake identity confided her to talk more and created an ideal role which she could not play in the reality. she was so dedicated into the role that she was confused with the fake and the real identity. the fake identity was more adorable and attractive to her that she got lost in the self identity. She even wondered if she was lesbian. But finally, when forum and chat room reclined, she also stopped this game. Now, she uses her real mean in the factory.
Contemporary understandings of identity are changing. Nowadays identity is thought of in more complex terms:
“In sum, the selves that we have are composed of multiple identities and contradictory experiences. In late-modern society, it is almost impossible to have a fully unified, completed and coherent ‘self’; rather, we all tend to have fleeting, multiple and contradictory selves”
(Charles Cheung “Presentations of Self on Personal Homepages”, p45)
2011年10月13日 星期四
Digital Photography
1. What is the difference between analog photography and digital photography?
digital photography is about a set of numbers scored in computer. therefore, it can be displayed on screen or used to create a print. Digital photography is also a complicated set of relationships among reality (the captured reality), data derived from that reality and the electronic processes of a computer. digital photography is encoded in the computer and then output to a screen or a printer as a bitmap with a set of binary digits. in short, digital photography is a process of creating, storing and manipulating numbers in a computer and then rendering them into visual images.
in traditional analog photography, photograph is created by a piece of film in camera exposed to light, then developed to produce a negative, which in turn is used to produce a print. it contains silver halide crystals or dye that are color and tone, a bitmap contains only zero and ones.
2. What use is digital technology to photographers?
digital technology facilitates photographers to edit on the body of work instantly without having to develop film and printing it out in advance for amendment. The liquid crystal display (LCD) shows the actual digital image created by the camera so that photographer can review the photographs that they have taken immediately and throw out those images they don't need or want. it dispenses the time of waiting of the photo in the darkroom. apart from the change of the tool, the computer programs also facilitates to manipulate images once they have been created by a digital camera. photographer used to make changes on a physical object. but for digital photography, the computer software helps to change the numbers that compose the photograph's bitmap. it offers photographers a greater degree of control over their work than before and it is easier and less toxic than traditional techniques. they can see the changes instantly on the screen where photographer see the result of the balance of the contrast or the color of an image.Finer tune can also be made. furthermore, changes are cheap to try. Also, many different versions of an image can be created too. in color photography, digital technology offers even more advantages because it gives the photographer control over saturation and contrast and the colors where that are impossible in the traditional darkroom.
3. Is photographic truth at an end? Has it every existed?
since the digital technology has appeared, photographers have higher possibility and ability to manipulate and amend on photograph they took than the traditional camera era. there is a tendency that the technology becomes more familiar and convenient to user, truth can therefore be changed and controlled. audience would become harder to distinguish what is true and false.
however, in my opinion, even the digital has not emerged, photograph can only reveal the part of the reality (the truth) because the camera limited audiences' view by the frame. the final photograph can only be regarded as representation of the reality.
in traditional photography, photographer can use their technology to change the photo for example, Lenin had purged the people by moving out them on the photo. therefore, this is not about the digital technology to make the photographic truth at an end. instead, photography itself has limited the scope of truth.
digital photography is about a set of numbers scored in computer. therefore, it can be displayed on screen or used to create a print. Digital photography is also a complicated set of relationships among reality (the captured reality), data derived from that reality and the electronic processes of a computer. digital photography is encoded in the computer and then output to a screen or a printer as a bitmap with a set of binary digits. in short, digital photography is a process of creating, storing and manipulating numbers in a computer and then rendering them into visual images.
in traditional analog photography, photograph is created by a piece of film in camera exposed to light, then developed to produce a negative, which in turn is used to produce a print. it contains silver halide crystals or dye that are color and tone, a bitmap contains only zero and ones.
2. What use is digital technology to photographers?
digital technology facilitates photographers to edit on the body of work instantly without having to develop film and printing it out in advance for amendment. The liquid crystal display (LCD) shows the actual digital image created by the camera so that photographer can review the photographs that they have taken immediately and throw out those images they don't need or want. it dispenses the time of waiting of the photo in the darkroom. apart from the change of the tool, the computer programs also facilitates to manipulate images once they have been created by a digital camera. photographer used to make changes on a physical object. but for digital photography, the computer software helps to change the numbers that compose the photograph's bitmap. it offers photographers a greater degree of control over their work than before and it is easier and less toxic than traditional techniques. they can see the changes instantly on the screen where photographer see the result of the balance of the contrast or the color of an image.Finer tune can also be made. furthermore, changes are cheap to try. Also, many different versions of an image can be created too. in color photography, digital technology offers even more advantages because it gives the photographer control over saturation and contrast and the colors where that are impossible in the traditional darkroom.
3. Is photographic truth at an end? Has it every existed?
since the digital technology has appeared, photographers have higher possibility and ability to manipulate and amend on photograph they took than the traditional camera era. there is a tendency that the technology becomes more familiar and convenient to user, truth can therefore be changed and controlled. audience would become harder to distinguish what is true and false.
however, in my opinion, even the digital has not emerged, photograph can only reveal the part of the reality (the truth) because the camera limited audiences' view by the frame. the final photograph can only be regarded as representation of the reality.
in traditional photography, photographer can use their technology to change the photo for example, Lenin had purged the people by moving out them on the photo. therefore, this is not about the digital technology to make the photographic truth at an end. instead, photography itself has limited the scope of truth.
Digital Games
1) According to the film, what are some pros and cons of playing video-games for individuals and societies?
pros: educational value
digital games are a new way of learning that new generation can feel reward and accomplishment. they are also able to experience a multiplicity of situations in complex environment.
apart from it, the video game can help the patients who are suffering from leukemia to let them realize their illness and the treatment followed. this can motivate them to fight the disease.
besides, video game can develop personal skill such as thinking faster or reacting faster etc. it gives an example of korean professional gamers. such personal skill helps player strike a job.
finally, it helps to recruit soldiers. it has been used as a tool in US millitary.
2) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?
yes i do think government have the right to ban certain games especially if the game involves racism and violence. the games also play the role to educate the children.
pros: educational value
digital games are a new way of learning that new generation can feel reward and accomplishment. they are also able to experience a multiplicity of situations in complex environment.
apart from it, the video game can help the patients who are suffering from leukemia to let them realize their illness and the treatment followed. this can motivate them to fight the disease.
besides, video game can develop personal skill such as thinking faster or reacting faster etc. it gives an example of korean professional gamers. such personal skill helps player strike a job.
finally, it helps to recruit soldiers. it has been used as a tool in US millitary.
2) Should governments have the right to ban certain games? Why or why not?
yes i do think government have the right to ban certain games especially if the game involves racism and violence. the games also play the role to educate the children.
Animation
1) What are the Pros and Cons of Computer Generated Imagery?
Pros: look real, inhabited character can not be seen in the movie, can put something which is hard or impossible to control into movie, e.g. ape, monster, still life, CGI can give life to them, cheaper and more convenient that producer doesnt need to build a real setting for shooting.
Cons: look fake, less skill acquired for the filmmaker. rely so much on the technicians, body movement matters more on body movement than acting which can be manufactured by CGI
2) Will Computer Generated Imagery make actors obsolete? Yes or No? Why?
it is imposible that computer generated imagery would totally replace actors. basically, they are different form of thing. our focus would be put on the emotion, acting and expression of the actors. but for CGI character, we focus on the technology used. The technique and the technology earn admiration.
would human being be replaced by robot in the future?
3) Should digital characters be nominated for acting awards competing with humans?
the criteria to judge whether the actors deserves an acting award is most depended on the acting and the performance of the actors. they are highly praised when the actors can incarnate the virtue character created by the script writer convincingly to audience while audience get touched by them. what makes audience get touched should be the familiarity between the character and audience themselves. since human actors live in the same world that audience do, actors can communicate with audience through characters. However, digital characters are created or manipulated by the designer through computer. they can not really experience what human beings do. even the desiner can imput the formular into the digital character so as to acheive the sedired emotion, they are not all rounded and just formular. in this case, how can we put higher value on the mechanical-digital actors than human actors? if we do need to praise the performance of the digital actors, the designer of the digital actors should be awarded rather than the creation. moreover, it is inappropriate to compare human actors and digital actors.
4) What are the advantages and disadvantages of motion capture?
advantages: captures specific style of real people; help create more lively character but inputting real people's motion; can capture all fine details of human motion
disadvantages: expensive for the technique and equipment; time-consuming for post production stage; lots of equipment, spaces, and actors; not easy to edit and generalize
5) Should animation strive for photorealism?
It is hard to say 'should' or 'should not'. it is all about what the director wants for the movie. to strive for photorealism or not depends on the style of the movie. It is no doubt that audience desire realism on animation movie. however, animators should not merely strive for photorealism. they should balance between mimesis film and abstract film. it is unadvisable to pursue photorealism to show the skill on technology. this sometimes happens in 3D film where 3D is not necessary for the film.
Pros: look real, inhabited character can not be seen in the movie, can put something which is hard or impossible to control into movie, e.g. ape, monster, still life, CGI can give life to them, cheaper and more convenient that producer doesnt need to build a real setting for shooting.
Cons: look fake, less skill acquired for the filmmaker. rely so much on the technicians, body movement matters more on body movement than acting which can be manufactured by CGI
2) Will Computer Generated Imagery make actors obsolete? Yes or No? Why?
it is imposible that computer generated imagery would totally replace actors. basically, they are different form of thing. our focus would be put on the emotion, acting and expression of the actors. but for CGI character, we focus on the technology used. The technique and the technology earn admiration.
would human being be replaced by robot in the future?
3) Should digital characters be nominated for acting awards competing with humans?
the criteria to judge whether the actors deserves an acting award is most depended on the acting and the performance of the actors. they are highly praised when the actors can incarnate the virtue character created by the script writer convincingly to audience while audience get touched by them. what makes audience get touched should be the familiarity between the character and audience themselves. since human actors live in the same world that audience do, actors can communicate with audience through characters. However, digital characters are created or manipulated by the designer through computer. they can not really experience what human beings do. even the desiner can imput the formular into the digital character so as to acheive the sedired emotion, they are not all rounded and just formular. in this case, how can we put higher value on the mechanical-digital actors than human actors? if we do need to praise the performance of the digital actors, the designer of the digital actors should be awarded rather than the creation. moreover, it is inappropriate to compare human actors and digital actors.
4) What are the advantages and disadvantages of motion capture?
advantages: captures specific style of real people; help create more lively character but inputting real people's motion; can capture all fine details of human motion
disadvantages: expensive for the technique and equipment; time-consuming for post production stage; lots of equipment, spaces, and actors; not easy to edit and generalize
5) Should animation strive for photorealism?
It is hard to say 'should' or 'should not'. it is all about what the director wants for the movie. to strive for photorealism or not depends on the style of the movie. It is no doubt that audience desire realism on animation movie. however, animators should not merely strive for photorealism. they should balance between mimesis film and abstract film. it is unadvisable to pursue photorealism to show the skill on technology. this sometimes happens in 3D film where 3D is not necessary for the film.
Digital Cinema
Case Study: Voices of Iraq (2004)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2a6gV_JsWo
Discussion questions:
a) What is the ‘filmmakers’ role in the film
create a platform for the Iraqi to speak out and show the situation of Iraq. the filmmaker is like an observer and recorder, but at the same time, he is also one of the Iraqis. It is like true man show. for me, it seems it is much more convincing than other filmmakers who are not the local people.
b) What are the key enabling technologies that allow this to be produced?
the knowledge of operating the video, the angle of the camera and also the skill of editing.
c) Whose reality is being shown?
though it seems it is representing the reality of Iraqi, the eyes of the filmmaker matters more. because i do think the filmmaker has selected what to capture and the conversation which relates to the theme. therefore, i would suggest that this movie is capturing the reality regarded by the filmmaker.
Mission to Earth
1) What is new or different about this example of digital cinema when compared with a) traditional ways of telling a story b) and constructing a film?
Mission to Earth is a movie made by Lev Manovich. it belongs to soft cinema. there are 4 ideas that soft cinema explores:
the first idea is algorithmic editing of media materials. it uses a series of rules defined by the authors so that the software controls the screen layout and the number of windows as well as their content. The authors have the total power to choose to exercise minimal control leaving most choices to the software; also, they can decide what the viewer will see in a particular moment in time. becasuse the editing process is performed in real time by the program, the movies can run infinitely without repeating the same edits.
the second idea is Macro-cinema. In Soft Cinema, the computer program breaks the screen into a number of square regions of diffeirent dimensions and show at the same time on screen. During the playback, different clips are assigned to diffirent regions. In this way, the software determines temporal and spatial distribution of a work.
the third idea is Multimedia cinema. video is used as only one type of representation among others including 2D animation, motion graphic etc. rather than simply using different types of representation for a simple visual effect, Soft Cinema investigates whether it is possible for fictional narration to use them.
the forth idea is the Database Cinema. the elements of the movie is based on a large database to construct many different narrative films and even the different versions of the same film.
these ideas are totally different from the traditional way of story telling and film construction.
reference: http://www.softcinema.net/form.htm
2) What other art (film, digital art, painting etc) does this film remind you of?
this reminds me the collage animation. it also collects the data (the fragmented pic) first and than put them together to form a work. soft cinema and collage animation requires a large database.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2a6gV_JsWo
Discussion questions:
a) What is the ‘filmmakers’ role in the film
create a platform for the Iraqi to speak out and show the situation of Iraq. the filmmaker is like an observer and recorder, but at the same time, he is also one of the Iraqis. It is like true man show. for me, it seems it is much more convincing than other filmmakers who are not the local people.
b) What are the key enabling technologies that allow this to be produced?
the knowledge of operating the video, the angle of the camera and also the skill of editing.
c) Whose reality is being shown?
though it seems it is representing the reality of Iraqi, the eyes of the filmmaker matters more. because i do think the filmmaker has selected what to capture and the conversation which relates to the theme. therefore, i would suggest that this movie is capturing the reality regarded by the filmmaker.
Mission to Earth
1) What is new or different about this example of digital cinema when compared with a) traditional ways of telling a story b) and constructing a film?
Mission to Earth is a movie made by Lev Manovich. it belongs to soft cinema. there are 4 ideas that soft cinema explores:
the first idea is algorithmic editing of media materials. it uses a series of rules defined by the authors so that the software controls the screen layout and the number of windows as well as their content. The authors have the total power to choose to exercise minimal control leaving most choices to the software; also, they can decide what the viewer will see in a particular moment in time. becasuse the editing process is performed in real time by the program, the movies can run infinitely without repeating the same edits.
the second idea is Macro-cinema. In Soft Cinema, the computer program breaks the screen into a number of square regions of diffeirent dimensions and show at the same time on screen. During the playback, different clips are assigned to diffirent regions. In this way, the software determines temporal and spatial distribution of a work.
the third idea is Multimedia cinema. video is used as only one type of representation among others including 2D animation, motion graphic etc. rather than simply using different types of representation for a simple visual effect, Soft Cinema investigates whether it is possible for fictional narration to use them.
the forth idea is the Database Cinema. the elements of the movie is based on a large database to construct many different narrative films and even the different versions of the same film.
these ideas are totally different from the traditional way of story telling and film construction.
reference: http://www.softcinema.net/form.htm
2) What other art (film, digital art, painting etc) does this film remind you of?
this reminds me the collage animation. it also collects the data (the fragmented pic) first and than put them together to form a work. soft cinema and collage animation requires a large database.
2011年10月6日 星期四
original
photoshoped!
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