Updates from May, 2014 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Vanessa 23:10 on 31/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Well the cameraperson just disappeared without a word… 

    Well… the cameraperson just disappeared without a word… so it would seem that we’re not going on…

     
    • xtaforster 12:25 on 01/06/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh, no! Want update soon….

    • Michael Masucci 12:57 on 03/06/2014 Permalink | Reply

      The event actually went very well! The audeince loved it and the city has asked us to make it an annual event if we’d like.

      Turns out the delays in Fly By going on had to do with Donna’s costumer accidentally cutting the wire on one of the illuminayed costumes. This actually made time for the volunteer Jackie to arrive and set-up the SL laptop. She was very nervous and that may have translatted overseas to Van and her group.

      I sent Van some images of her dancers both being projected 45′ wide to the audience as well as onto the aerial balloon which was not originally expected. But sincve the tech team was waiting for costumes to get fixed, they made additional switching sp that Van could swicth back from the balloon to the Library wall.

      The event was named one of the 5 top dance picks for that weekend by the LA Weekly, in a townj where an awful lot of dance takes place each week.

      Sorry if there was any confusion. I was stuck waiting in the wings to perfoam live music for Fly By, so was not in the loop, and Kate was dealing with re-programming the evening to keep the event running smoothly for the crowd while waiting for Donna to fix her outfilt.

      The audience of course never suspected anything was ever wrong and everyone appreciated what went down.

      Thanks Van!

      P.S. now that this three-month long series oif evenst is over I plan to resume contributing to PBR.

      • xtaforster 09:39 on 04/06/2014 Permalink | Reply

        So happy it all worked out! When Van posted her comment above, I mused on how many things can “go wrong” or — more accurately — cause stress when technology is a component in performance, which is amazing, because performance is already stressful enough (but in a good way, of course). 🙂

    • Monerda Skute 05:56 on 07/06/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Michael, Van and fellow cast: It is so cool that your dance performance was a success and congrats about LA Weekly giving it Top 5 honors! We avatars had fun despite anxiously awaiting our cue 🙂 The projection photos look great and I can’t wait to see video. I bet the RL dancers were super!

  • Vanessa 22:01 on 31/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    OMG Still waiting to go on You can… 

    OMG Still waiting to go on!!!

    You can cut the tension with a knife!!

     
  • Vanessa 17:58 on 31/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    ONE Night VR Costumes 

    photo of avatar modeling wardrobe

    Trilby, in the wardrobe, with ponytail, and optional stars

    Our VR Costumer Trilby found some stars that can go with the wardrobe.
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  • Molly Ross 09:47 on 29/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Buy this book! (more realistically get a librarian to buy this book!) 

    It’s finally in print! The “Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance” has a section on Digital Puppets that will be of interest to many of you! It’s very $$$$$$$ so get a librarian to order a copy you can check out. The more books that sell now the more likely it will get printed in a more reasonable paperback version for the layperson.

    http://www.routledgementalhealth.com/books/details/9780415705400/

     
  • Vanessa 21:51 on 28/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    ONE Night Costumes 

    4 dancers in LED costumes

    ONE Night Costumes, front

    Hi Trilby, here’s what the RL costumes are going to look like. They’re not completely done yet, and the dancer in turquoise doesn’t have her LED lights on, but you can get an idea of what they are like.

    (More …)

     
    • xtaforster 07:40 on 31/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hello! Is there a portal for the virtual audience today/tonight? Break a leg!!

      • Vanessa Blaylock 10:24 on 31/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

        It appears that then don’t have any broadband internet at the venue and are doing it all by WiFi connection. They don’t think they have enough bandwidth to stream our avatars IN to the venue and also stream the event OUT on Ustream, so, sadly, neither you nor the VR dancers will be able to see what’s going on! 😛

        However Michael does say they’ll record video of the event and have it online some days later.

        Happy June!

    • Ciara 10:48 on 31/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Best of luck to the performers in both locations! I look forward to seeing Michael’s documentation.

    • xtaforster 21:02 on 31/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      As do I!!

  • Edie 20:06 on 23/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    ## MOOC MAGAZINE *** Re act*** is the… 

    MOOC MAGAZINE!

    .Re/act is the place to take the great connections you’ve made in a MOOC and keep the conversation & collaboration going!

    And now… MOOC Magazine! is the place to collect the great essays, videos, performance works that you’ve created in a MOOC and present them in a focused magazine!

    Contribute today!
    http://MOOC.MediciUniversity.co.uk

     
  • Ciara Finnegan 06:19 on 21/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Edie’s Farm 

    800px-Jean-François_Millet_-_Gleaners_-_Google_Art_Project_2
    Jean-François Millet. The Gleaners. 1857

    On Saturday, I donned my virtual wellies and headed down to The Farm. Edie, The Farm is conceptually brilliant! I love the notion of artist/farmers, idea-planters and cultural tillers. I want to go back there and get my hands dirty:-) I also sensed something of a cheeky wink at the health-farm/clinic concept – the kind of place they might have shipped you off to back in the day, to “recover”.
    BTW Edie, thinking about your relationship to the camera which, I agree, appears to be one of mutual celebration, I was amused as, scrolling down this page, I caught sight of an image of myself in which I look like I’m playing the theremin during the recent Berry Shake hangout…
     
    • Scott Lord 19:21 on 01/06/2014 Permalink | Reply

      You’ve reminded me of Christina’s World by Andrew Wyeth. There’s tone in the Millet, an oval shadow, light on their shoulders and backs, but the isolation is from a vast expanse where the estate can be found. Its interesting that he uses perspective to show the depth of the background and size in the foreground; I’m not sure how he did

    • Christa Forster 08:56 on 14/07/2014 Permalink | Reply

      I’m wondering how Dave Hickey’s book Pirates and Farmers might resonate with Vanessa’s Edie’s Farm.

      http://www.texasobserver.org/art-critic-dave-hickey-calls-it-quits-again-with-pirates-and-farmers/

      Also, Is Edie’s Farm anything like Ant Farm (the 70s underground architecture and arts collective)?

  • Ciara Finnegan 01:44 on 15/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Location, Location, Location 

    Dearest Edie,
    I was thinking, while I was doing the ironing (in dying prematurely, sweetheart, I’m guessing you avoided entrapment in this particular activity) but, mindless enough task as it is, I find it affords a bit of thinking space and I haven’t burnt a hole in anything…yet…
    Anyway, I was thinking about your comment and wondering how do we say: There’s this amazing online kind of Cabaret Voltaire/Factory/Salon experimental artist-led space. Really! Yes! You should come! without making it sound like another arts sales-pitch.
    And I was also wondering if, in fact, this matters so much at all.
    This is not a discussion about funding-by(through)-numbers but a question of location and visibility. I had an interesting conversation, with a friend, about this kind of thing in relation to two galleries located in adjacent neighbourhoods in a city. The first gallery was, in the eyes of many, the Arts flagship of the city, its central location ensuring it a much higher footfall than the second. The second gallery, though only 5 minutes walk from the first, involved departing the centre of town, crossing a major arterial road and navigating a car-park before arriving on its doorstep. In other words, the location of the second gallery demanded that the visitor make a conscious choice to visit it.
    This gallery perceives its location not as disadvantageous but as a good thing. The people who go there do so because they want to.
    I think there’s something similar going on here with .re/act…
    What do you reckon?
     
    • Edie Sedgwick 06:05 on 16/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh hi Ciara! haha, you’re right, I don’t iron! But I hired Ondine to be my French Maid! But he mostly woke me up and set out makeup and drugs, I don’t think he ever ironed anything?

      Yes, I think I know what you mean. Being in the spotlight is great. haha, really great! Did I mention I love cameras! (and they seem to love me!)

      But if you think about blogs, well, nobody actually reads my blog, but it’s new, so maybe I’ll get readers one day. So far I’d say it’s easier to be the life of the party! 🙂

      But Vanessa’s blog iRez gets quite a bit of traffic. And I guess Facebook sends quite a lot of that traffic. But those peeps never leave comments. Or mostly they don’t even go to the blog, they just “like” the link on FB.

      So FB’s kind of like your mid-city gallery. A lot of traffic. But mostly all those eyeballs turn into “Likes” and other minimal engagement comments on Facebook. The peeps not from there are like your lower traffic zone, but they’re more likely to have something to say.

      The real trick I think is to make your party the one everybody wants to be at! I was pretty good at that IRL, but this cyberspace thingy is pretty new to me, so I’m not so sure about that. And my blouse is wrinkled. Guess I’ll have to go buy a new one.

  • Vanessa 16:24 on 14/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    ONE Night – Projection 

    For the video feed TO your giant projector, it should definitely be a laptop running Second Life. This will be vastly higher quality than any sort of external live stream. For the video feed FROM ONE Night, it’s less critical for us, anything will let us see what’s going on and help cue. A better image is nice of course, and it’d let some remote viewers join in.
    (More …)

     
    • Ciara Finnegan 01:48 on 15/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Wow! This sounds like a really fantastic collaboration! I’m looking forward to 31st:-)

    • Michael J Masucci 13:12 on 15/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Thanks so much! Very helpful. I will share all this with the tech team and will get back to you next week with any questoins. We are so happy that you are going to be a BIG (pun intended) part of ONE Night and Fly-By.

      • Vanessa Blaylock 21:47 on 15/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

        Great Michael!

        Just realized I made one mistake: the VR Cinematographer, can’t be the VR Stage Manager – or at least can’t be on the same laptop – whatever’s on their laptop screen will be the live projection, therefore they can’t open a chat window to talk to us, or it would project on the building. So we’ll need to be cued in some other way.

  • Vanessa 11:05 on 14/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    ONE Night 

    logos for the ONE Night event: City of West Hollywood, EZTV, LA ACM Siggraph

    ONE Night, 31 May 2014

    ONE Night: EZTV, LA ACM SIGGRAPH, and Digital Art in West Hollywood
    is coming up on Saturday 31 May! Vanessa Blaylock Company is collaborating with EZTV & Donna Sternberg, et al on a Mixed Reality component to the evenings activities. Our avatars will be projected outdoors on an inflatable balloon or the side of a building.
    (More …)

     
    • Michael J Masucci 15:25 on 14/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Your avatars will definately be projected on a building, not nthe ballon, which will project the drone camera’s transmission. The buildin will be a library, your image will be 45′ wide and projected using a 18,000 lumen Barco projector

    • Michael J. Masucci 08:07 on 28/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hey Van,

      Any chance you could do a test of our Wi-Fi connection today between noon and 3 or 4Pm? I will be at the location and want to do asimple test with just Google Hangout+ nto make sure we have an adequate connection on site. Thingsa re really progressing and we are so happy that you are a very BIG part of this!

  • Vanessa 18:08 on 12/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    Mixed Berry Shake – May 2014! 

    Nice hangout today with Christa, Ciara, Kate, Michael, Rebecca N., Hugh, and myself. More great topics than we had time for. Here’s a few snips from my typing in response to compelling ideas from the other participants:
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    • Edie Sedgwick 23:11 on 13/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hi Rebecca! I know of 3 of the Kickstarter type funding sites. There’s no doubt plenty of others.

      Kickstarter

      As far as I know the oldest and sort of most established / respected of the platforms. You cannot fund things like “school,” but you can fund a specific project, so you could write that you need €4,000 to produce 1 or a series of dance pieces to be performed at various venues at various times. With Kickstarter it’s all or nothing. If you don’t make your goal nobody pays and you get no money. Their theory is that if you don’t have enough you can’t do the project and it’s not fair to the investors to have 1/2 a project.

      Indiegogo

      Similar to kickstarter with the big difference that you get the money even if you don’t make the goal. Some people think it’s flakier for that reason, but others who aren’t sure about their level of support like the flexibility.

      gofundme

      Different in that it IS for funding your activities like school. So it might be ideal for your situation. Although I do like the opportunity Kickstarter offers to focus on specific “deliverable” works. Some might be happy to help out with your school costs, but others might feel like more of an arts philanthropist if they know their money is helping to produce 6 new choreographic works presented in 3 cities in 2014 – 2015 and that for their contribution they’ll have access to exclusive video previews and video chats with you and some of your team. It seems like a nice “excuse” to build out your network of colleagues and audience members.

      Best wishes on your exciting project Rebecca!

    • Edie Sedgwick 08:16 on 14/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hi guys, me again! I was just looking at all the cultural institutions tweeting come see our X, Y, Z… seems like they’re always trolling for F2F visitors. And I found myself tweeting:

      Which I think is kind of what Ciara was saying about .Re/act. It is interesting how many peeps instinctively use new media in the most simple, banal ways! Or perhaps by following Cultural Institutions instead of Individual Artists I’m making that more likely.

  • Vanessa 03:48 on 11/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Hangout Agenda: 12 May 

    Monday 9-10am California Time / Noon-1pm New York / 18:00 – 19:00 CEST
    Facilitator: Rebecca L.

    1. .Re/act & Online Collaboration – Ciara

    2. Computer Love & Hacking the Timeline v3.0 – Michael, Kate

    3. Funding Art – Rebecca N.

    4. Photojournalism b. circa 1930, d. circa 2010 – Hugh

    5. Guerilla Drive-Ins – Hugh

     
    • Vanessa Blaylock 11:17 on 11/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Oh BTW, as previous Shakers know, and new ones will see, you might have to “Pin” me to read my typed blabbing. But it’s no fun to stare at meee the whole time! So just pin & unpin as you like. You can read for a minute, but then go back to letting Google Hangout direct the stream. As I understand it, if you don’t pin someone, then it switches to whichever participant is making the most noise, which is generally the person talking. (unless, of course, Xta’s hubby is typing loudly! 😀

  • Vanessa 03:26 on 11/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Happy Mother’s Day USA Germany 

    Happy Mother’s Day!
    (USA, Germany)

     
  • Ciara Finnegan 09:45 on 06/05/2014 Permalink | Reply  

    Thinking about .Re/act… 

    I think a lot about the space .re/act provides and about the value of this space. I was hoping that, perhaps, we could talk a little about what .re/act and spaces like it (do we know of any others?) mean to the artists engaging with this platform and how do we perceive this space relative to the real-world institutional spaces we are familiar with within our respective practices.
    (More …)

     
  • Vanessa 16:43 on 05/05/2014 Permalink | Reply
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    12 May – Mixed Berry Shake – 9a EZT 

    Our next monthly hangout is Monday 12 May. Click the read more tag for agenda & full details!

    (More …)

     
    • Vanessa Blaylock 18:11 on 05/05/2014 Permalink | Reply

      Hi All! I noticed that in addition to hangouts we have salons, mixed reality events, etc going on. So I created a “Berry Shake” Google Calendar and added the 10 of us addressed on this message with Read & Write permissions. Hopefully GCal sends you an email about it… if not… LMK!

      Feel free to add anything relevant… whether it’s an event including several of us, or just your own solo activity. Hopefully a Google Calendar is the easiest way to do this, LMK if it isn’t. I thought about making another .Re site for the calender, but I .Re/sisted that temptation! I hope GCal will be easiest…

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