joesart.org

I think I’ve managed to recover from my February Plan. I was feeling very down-trodden at that point. Things seem to be just about in-hand. I even managed to do a few things that weren’t on my list, I made a video “Ups & Downs” (or I might call it “The Ups & Downs of Life” – I’m not sure) and I’ve actually managed to do some good music. Track count for album is going up. Also I’ve been experimenting with HDR photography.

Chorlton Waterpark in HDR.

Looking back to Febuary’s plan, this has been the progress:

• Prayer 2.0. I’ve fixed all the major technical problems with Prayer 2.0 and I’ve redeveloped the code so that it is almost “modular”. I’m planning on having various other websites (thenewspam.com, whatiswebtoopointzero.com) which will be part of the Prayer 2.0 system. They will look and feel like separate websites, but will all actually be doing the same thing. I’m playing around with the idea anyway.
• Photobombing. I applied for funding to travel the UK, and take Photobombing on tour. I failed. On the plus side I think I’ve arrived at the technical solution for Photobombing, after extensive research into different possibilities. I think I can do everything that I need to using Wordpress (like this website), Gallery2 (gallery software….) and various other plugins for both systems; a Google Maps plugin for geotagging and WPG2 to integrate the two systems together. Hurrah!
• Second Life Project. Clicks and Links’ Designer is working on a first prototype!
• Feedback w/Zimmy. We did a few test runs of running the video feed into a computer, then digitally manipulating the image before projecting it. We were attempting to use a hand-based movement sensitive controller to allow the viewer to change the image just my moving their hands (in free space). The desired result would be lovely-looking fractal-like images. Unfortunately it didn’t quite work out, but I think the problem is simply a computer-power one. I need a faster laptop. Other than that it worked great. I’m going to suggest to Zimmy that he applies to have his work projected onto the side of Urbis as part of the Diesel Wall 2008 (crappy advertising, but cool at the same time).
• Phase Loops. I didn’t take this very far, but I got quite a good effect simply looping several 2 seconds samples of Branka saying “This is my mind” and having them slowly work their way out of phase. I played this to my year group, but lost confidence and skipped out about 2 minutes… silly.
• MMU Wiki. The Wiki, is no longer a Wiki. But it is up and running! I’ve decided to run a Joomla system, rather than a Wiki. I spent several weeks researching different user-based systems, starting out with Wikis, but ending on more traditional CMS.

So I think all that is just about going okay, though there is still a long way to go. I’d really like to have my collaborations with Branka and Zimmy go further, but I also don’t want to “gatecrash” their projects, as well as being slightly preoccupied with my own things. The MMU site is probably the most daunting and difficult to pull off, and it also has little value to my practise, so I’m going to try and not get too worried about that. Second Life seems to be taking care of itself and as far as my web projects go I just have just do it. Thanks Nike, you corporate horribles.

So my current plans are;

• Journal. This is my journal, my journal is this! Deadline is 21st April, so I have to make sure its finished off and contains everything it should. In reality I don’t think it will, but still, I can but try. Last year I was marked down because Gary thought that I didn’t have any lecture notes in my Journal. They were there! The problem was that they were actually photographs of my physical lecture notes, and he couldn’t read them. Doh! This year I’ve hardly been to any lectures, so at least that won’t be a problem!
• Uni Video. We’ve been told to do a 5 minute video, to aid our end-of-year presentations. That is due one week after the Journal, so I must crack on with that. I have a good idea of how I’m going to make it, so once again its just a matter of doing it.
• Music. Continue my music exploits, as ever. I got news that my record label has just recieved a 20,000 Swiss Franc grant for business development, which can’t be bad!
• HDR. I’m having loads of fun, and getting good results with HDR, so I’m going to continue that.
• Lines. My “Ups & Downs” video I think is a good concept, and I want to explore that further. Although both this and HDR imagery are completely outside of my “user-generated” remit, I think fingers in pies and all that.
• Photobombing. The time is nigh. Almost…. get it all ready then go!
• Film Concepts. I have at least three good ideas that I want to make a start at filming. They can all be on-going things.
• Geocaching. Although my Blogcrossings seem to have gone dead, I’ve launched some more using Geocaching (and travel bugs) as a way to make it work. I’m having great fun with it, let the caching continue. I currently have about 15 tupperware boxes around the house, all set and ready to go. Manchester is going to be cache crazy.

Waterpark Trees (again in HDR)
As well as these individual areas of work I’ve come to realise that I need to make my work a little more cohesive. I’m going to develop my mission statement, maybe even individual mission statements for individual projects. Simply put, I need to be able to say where I’m at with each thing, if asked.