So Long, And Thanks for The Inspiration

Throughout this class I've posted a bunch of shit. So what really stuck with me during all of this? I'd say to set limits for yourself, and also to just let ideas come to you.

When trying to come up with original thoughts to a lot of works that I planned on doing, I'd always get stuck because I'd either come up with too much and become overwhelmed, or couldn't come up with anything at all. To fix these issues, I need to simply just say, 'this is what I want, no more' and as for my blocks, I should just walk away, and let my ideas come to me.

All in all many things were beneficial, but I think I'll remember that creativity isn't an instantaneous thing and needs to be allowed to come and go. This will help me greatly not just through college, but hopefully through the rest of my life.

Thanks for a fantastic summer course, and I'll see you again some other time!

Final Fear - Because I'm Tired of Being Scared

Many projects presented were really cool, and all around awesome, but I think I know which one my 'favorite' was, and that was because I was an active participant.

Cooper's experiment (Last name? Probably, I sound like an incredible ass when I say that I never really learned your first) was to blind me, and feed me 3 different foods. Being a picky eater, it was hell. Of course when I volunteered, I had NO idea what I was getting into.

Feeding me the mini beef disgusting can thing, Ok.
The Olive. Gross.
Kalimari. FUCK!

I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it... But he gave me a Sour Patch Kid afterward, and things between us were just fine.

The reason I reacted so strongly, as stated, is because I was physically apart of that experiment. Had I been watching, it would've been amusing, but not terribly scary or supremely engaging. Living it though. Ugh...

My own project beforehand was also the only experiment that had gone around, so I had felt pretty good, however he really captured 'fear' where I had captured more of apprehension and unease. I did feel a little bit "wow that's better than mine" but not so much to where I was disappointing with how I did mine.  I suppose it will effect the human involvement side of my creative journey, I shouldn't be afraid to talk to people and see how their involvement can affect my projects.

What is Best in Life?

CRUSH YOUR ENEMIES!

Sorry I watched a Robot Chicken Conan The Barbarian Musical Sketch while writing this, and I thought it fit, but I carried it pretty far.

My blissful 3 hours was spent...

...
...

Playing Super Mario 3D World.

Surprise of the century right?

Anyway. While playing, you frequently hit ? Blocks to make things appear and I remembered the book and how I wanted to make that a theme. While I've already done the book, I feel as though I should mention that this did have an impact on the cover that I made. It also had a nice little play on words with the title of the book that already exists. It was perfect, and I made it a reality.

THE ALTERED BOOK! FEAR IT! LOVE IT! IT IS DONE!

Holy crap I hate being the procrastination son of a biotch that I am.

Now I can safely say that my copy of The Outsiders, has successfully been Altered.

The Outside of The Box is the Title of my book. And I really like how it came out. Remember how I had stated that I wanted the ? Block to play a part in my book? Well I feel like I've made that work quite well.

The book's bio is pretty much verbatim with the Who Am I and Why Am I Here blog post. The reason I'm not going to be posting pictures of pages is because I really want to surprise this one, What fun is reading a book if you know all about it?

The next page is the egg project with an animated me focusing on what I want, but can't quite make it a reality.

The page after is all a great big doodle mess, with elements of the Fujinasim that I had mentioned in class on the day of the doodle assignment, as well as my doodle blog post.

The page after had a nice little happy coincidence, I bit of serendipity I suppose. It matched up perfectly with the sleep on it assignment, and I also incorporated the What If assignment in there as well on the same page.

The page after, Well let's say Fear and Rule Breaking are the present forms here. I'm not going to say another word because, well that would be complete BS if I ruined that.

The page follow the fear and rule breaking assignments still. I'm going to continue being shut up about it.

The page after is a follow up on the two above assignments, as well as a little something for the reader.

The final pages relate to going back to the fear pages and seeing how they've changed over time. Thus exploring the "Taste the sound of a second" assignment.

Finally we have the back cover featuring an author's portrait, and bullcrap famous quotes.


So my opinion on tech and the human body? I feel like in some degrees, we need it to live. Say we lose a lung, and we need some artificial lung from technology to live. Or perhaps the same could be said with fake limbs. It seems important to some degree, but when you get to the real crazy stuff, I'd stay away from it just because I want to remain more human than machine.

My opinion on a MAS project with my own body? In a way I suppose I did that. I made this book the embodiment of me. I took everything that I did, All my creative talent, and revamped something that already existed, and added myself to it. It felt pretty good. I'd say I'm ok with combing myself like this on an emotional level and less of a physical level. The day I have to sacrifice my brain for a machine that I'm building for a capstone is the day I stop playing video games forever.

In a way, I feel like the book becomes a part of me really, and It will be hard to let it go. I find that when I'm proud of a project, I don't mind presenting it, but leaving it for a month? That might be tough. Either way, I've made something unique, that represents me, and will probably be one of a kind for a long time.

The FEEEAAR! (Enough with the game references right?) Part 2

Therein lies the joke in the title. Ha! I'm the only one that gets it...

Anyway my Random 2 Minute Draw Experiment (working title) was a rounding success in my opinion. I had predicted that students would be fearful of public critiquing as well as having to deal with stress.

Stress was present in the 2 minute time limit, and in the unintentional side effect of having defective writing tools. I told them to draw this specific thing within this specific time, thus they felt slightly stressed to get it done. Evidence of this existed with the comments of the pens not working, and the groans and or victory cheers at the end of the time limit.

When I asked to briefly show their drawings to the class, the public critiquing came into play. While almost know actual critiquing took place, there was quite a bit of hesitation on quite a few faces that I noticed when they held up their drawings. Heck even I was hesitant. I went through 5 pens for god's sake.

Seeing as how I perfected this experiment, would I change it? Yes, I would. I feel as though the ending presentation was a little weak. At the end I simply had a show, and then collected them. I feel like I can do more with this, perhaps leave it on the desk for more students to find, or have them give a small speech over it. The actually execution of the experiment was fine, perhaps having working pens next time would help. I also believe that coming up with the subject to draw on the spot is important, as I didn't formulate what I'd be drawing beforehand, I was going to say the J.W. Mariot that was not far from the  IT building originally, but I realized how dumb that sounded as I was talking about the reason behind the experiment.

Bottom line, Keep Experiment the same, change presentation. I feel like I could conjure up a more long lasting 'fear' from that kind of method.

On a final and somewhat fearful note, I've seemed to have misplaced those drawings. I'm sure they're around here somewhere, or... maybe not. Either way, it's not like it was anything too valuable. I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Poor Little Classmates... You're In MY World Now

I hope the toxins have been perfected by now...

This experiment's hypothesized outcome will be more than likely fear of being critiqued especially in public in front of everyone. It will also probably stress out certain students.

What could it be? I guess you'll find out.

Memory and Media

In relation to the Video we watched near the beginning of class, our memories really aren't to be trusted all that often. The video was about people who had been shown photographs of themselves as a child, 3/4 are real, and the 4th was them in a hot air balloon. A good portion of the people actually believed that they did indeed ride one, when they really didn't, and even if they didn't believe the photo, they'd make up the feeling that they've done it before.

I can safely say I've experienced a similar situation with dreams. A long time ago, I remember having this group of friends that I saw every now and again. One time we all decided to go outside into the woods surrounding our neighborhood, just for the heck of it. While we were there, we found an old box with nothing in it. One of my friends picked it up. After that we must have come back home.

The issue here amongst all of this? There isn't any woods surrounding my neighborhood that I know of. Yet this dream has stuck with me forever. This begs the question, did we walk really far until we found some woods, or did I just imagine it all?

_________________________________________________________________________________

This in relation to my field of study, was mentioned in one class period, but I don't remember when exactly. The field of New Media is manipulative. We can alter peoples' realities. Sometimes it can be so drastic to the point to where they think that whatever we have created as entertainment, can deceive them to be apart of their memory as something they have lived and experienced. Games, Movies, TV, Art, anything that can be immersive can be considered dangerous on this level.

Keeping this in mind, we can use this to our advantage to help people with memory loss, people with Alzheimers, any issue with memory might be able to be addressed and or fixed using media.

It's a give and take in this field, knowing what you design will probably manipulate people, but not in a terribly inhumane way. The point in creativity is to make sure that whatever you might design that's new and innovative, it should be safe for people.

Time and Senses - Thoughts and A Project

For this project, I decided to listen to a repeat of Super Mario Bros over the course of an hour. The point of this was to see if it were to sound any different over time. Since I did this after watching the film, It was around 1AM. For the first 5 minutes, it was what it was, Mario.

10 Minutes Later, it started to become more background noise, and less distinctive among other sounds (air conditioning turning on and off, electric humming, crickets)

After 30 minutes of listening, I actually fell asleep, only for a small amount of time.

While I was unconscious, I had a pretty interesting dream. I dreamed of different colors that interacted with the music that I subtly knew I was still listening to. I saw different shapes form, creating different wave like patterns within the colors. It was pretty interesting. When I started to regain consciousness, the dream took a more real world approach, becoming Mario once again, as I knew it.

Another 10 minutes later, It went back to being background noise.

As soon as it ended just a few minutes later, It was abrupt. No fade, just stopped right at 1 hour. It was interesting to be so used to a sound, so used to something over that long of a time period, and have it suddenly be gone.

It took a good 5 minutes to grow accustomed to silence again, and then I started writing the blog post.

Bartholomew's Song - A Look at Creative Norms

This film was certainly an interesting one, and in a way, a metaphorical one for how we live normally in modern society. To me, I feel like we live like those nondescript people in this short film, just going about our daily lives, following orders of a higher power, and going back home just to wake up and do it again the next day.

Bartholomew was different though, he found something that caused him to act differently, to be more creative outside of the world he previously new. He found a voice. His voice represented a breach in the societal norm. It was small and weak at first, but it only grew. He began to grow intrigued by the speakers on the device, and the intercom speakers.

Eventually this obsession drove him to act, and he found out where the voice of the intercom was coming from, and silenced it. This act to me, was metaphorically killing the norm and doing things our own way. However, when he started singing, he was called defective, and taken away. Then replaced later with a more 'appropriate' version.

In conclusion, I feel as though we represent this movie a lot, and the greatest question I have is simply this. When do we become defective? Can we even become defective? What does it mean to be defective? Just because one doesn't follow in the line of others doesn't make a person non-functioning. Can defective people be useful?

I believe that everyone is defective in some way shape or form. For me, I'm a procrastinator, I wait until 4AM for inspiration, then blame the world for being tired the next day. I'm also fat, another stigma to society. I also speed on most roads, I rarely wear a seat-belt, there's a lot that I don't do that society would deem me as 'defective'. However I feel like I can contribute so much, I have so much to give despite my defects, and I feel the same for Bartholomew. Sure Murder was a bit... much. But the metaphor it brought on was the most important part.

Rule Breaking - Sort Of

I've been really really REALLY busy this week since Wednesday because we've had over 10 employees quit over at Kroger, so I'm putting what little experimentation time I've had on my blog here. Bullshit aside, here's what I did. I examined rules, in the video game world.

Fickle Things - Identity

In class Yesterday, we talked a lot about who we are, and the topic tended to surround that of those who didn't know who they were. I felt, and still do feel that I know who I am, but I haven't always felt that way. I'm sure everyone's gone through that one life changing "Holy shit, what does this make me now?" kind of moment. I didn't mention this in my Who Am I blog because it's not current with who I am, but I figure I'll go ahead and give you a small look into the past.

Middle School is essentially the place where you sink or swim in terms of social interaction. This is where you learn who you really are, or it's where you craft a fake identity just to get through the day. When I started, I was pretty much the same as I am now, more innocent and less crass, but still a video game loving nerd. My clothing reflected this, and boy was that a horrible mistake. It was subtle at first, but there it grew to the point to where people would openly make fun of whatever game I'd be interested in just to get a rise out of me, and by god it worked. The moment when it changed was when a kid 2 years below me asked me how I could still like Mario, because it was for little kids. That made me feel like shit.

For the next 2 years I reshaped my wardrobe, and actually stopped playing games for awhile. I was above them, and they were holding me down or so I thought. My mother had gotten tickets to a concert called Video Games Live at the end of the Middle School year as a celebration for getting through 8th grade. I indulged her and went, and had the best time of my life. It rekindled the passion. Also the people that were there were all older than I was. The one moment I'll never forget is when they started to play the Mario Medley on stage, and everyone got out of their seats to cheer. Who the hell was I to think I was too old for Mario? No one is too old for Mario. When we returned from the concert I went to my room and dug out my old video game clothes as well as all my collectibles. I began displaying them everywhere once again, this time with pride and with knowledge that there was no way I would be taking these down until I moved out.

When High School started, I was back to the way I am now. The only real thing that changed for me during those 4 years was dating, and that's a topic for another post. All I can say is Lebanon girls are all crazy, and will tear your head off if you're not super religious.

How can this help me with creativity? Well I believe that our creativity can stem from who we are, but we need to know who we are in order to truly be creative. I know who I am and I'm proud of it, but it wasn't always that way. Finding out isn't easy, and I suppose that's the central message.

50 Insane Sleep Deprived What Ifs About A Book

This Title needs work.

1. What if I make paper airplanes out of pages, each one containing a previous assignment
2. What if I use the book as it is, and try and mark out all but a few words to create sentences from the pre-existing text
3. What if I tear the pages from the book and make a collage on a piece of posterboard
4. What if I burn the edges of the book, and use the burnt edges as a way to write
5. What if I create a popup out of the covers, detailing each assignment
6. What if I put a QR code inside the book that takes people to this blog
7. What if I put a QR code on each page that takes the reader to a different webpage that I created
8. What if I use paper-crafting to create a box out of the book that people can look into
9. What if I use Augmented Reality to show a world inside of the book that can't normally be seen
10. What if I create a board game out of the book
11. What if I wash the book a few times to make it look more aged, giving it a wiser feel
12. What if I make an interactive story out of the book
13. What if I hollowed the book out and put a smaller book in its place
14. What if I mailed the book around the world
15. What if I bury the book for a few days and dig it up later
16. What if I wait to the last second to do anything with the book
17. What if I try to find a way to make the book fly on its own
18. What if I were to interrogate the book as though it were on trial
19. What if I read the actual book one more time
20. What if I spraypaint the whole book gold
21. What if I were to treat the book as though it was another person
22. What if the book's pages were converted to walls of a maze
23. What if I were to make a flipbook out the book
24. What if I made an animation about the book
25. What if I created an obstacle course using the pages and covers
26. What if I were to use grass stains as a form of writing in the book
27. What if I created a level in the UDK about the book
28. What if I were to give the book to a 4 year old for a few days
29. What if I create music from the book, (page turns, slams)
30. What if I created a trading card game out of the book pages
31. What if I cut the book in half, and used each half to represent part of the class, but combine them for something bigger
32. What if I doubled the book's original size, to make bigger projects
33. What if I made a facebook account for the book (pun intended)
34. What if I made a series of YouTube videos about the book's adventures
35. What if I were to use the book as a form of vehicle
36. What if I could create a race out of pages from books
37. What if I were to leave the book outside for a day
38. What if I were to work on the book for only a minute a day
39. What if I were to make dice out of the pages and you turn to the page the dice show
40. What if I made a choose your own adventure (turn to page whatever) book
41. What if I were to tape the book to my back
42. What if I use magazine clippings to create a ransom note look to the book
43. What if I have a hidden camera at the end of the book that takes a photo of the person reading
44. What if there are hidden buttons or levers that I create on the book that reveal the projects
45. What if I create tile puzzles on pages that, when completed allow you to go to the next page
46. What if I were to get the book wet, then put it in the freezer, then shatter the book
47. What if I were to sleep on the book every night
48. What if I were to make a map out of the book that lead to the projects in the real world
49. What if I were to sync the book up with music
50. What if I created multiple origami figures out of the pages

Gaming - The Future Is Bright

Taking a tour of campus today has yielded some incredible results. The tour consisted of looking at different forms of 3D Technology, most of it being immersion and other forms of technology that has been in the works for quite some time, but hasn't been implemented yet. The first thing we witnessed was 4 large movable walls that had images projected too them. Games, Pitches, Artwork, Everything was used with this technology.

The next thing we saw was something I was already familiar with. The Oculus Rift. While built for gaming, it has shown much more potential then just that. It can be used to create an immersive world to be apart of, you can use it to view a movie in an entire different way, heck you can even use it as a simulator for different vehicles. Anyway, this is definitely a very multi-functional piece of technology that would be perfect to implement in so many ways.

Lastly we saw many uses of Augmented Reality (AR). AR has been used in many ways, games has been a large part of it, but we were also shown how it could also be used in gathering information. We could use it to 'scan' objects and gather information about them on the spot rather than look them up on a separate device.

Who am I? What the hell am I doing here? - A Project

Sounds like Lyrics to a bad song right? It probably is. Anyway, Our goal was to create something that answers this question, and to later incorporate that something into the altered book. I had an idea while sitting in my room, and went for it. Incorporation might be tricky, but I'll give it a go after I've given this a bit of explanation.

Ever hear of a Question Mark Block?

Identity - What Does it Mean

A topic covered in class recently was identity, and how it can be defined in multiple ways. We were given an assignment to sort of give our own identity description, but before I do that, I'd like to discuss the different kind of identities that I believe exist to me, and why they are important.

Professional Identities - Formal Identities

These are more along the lines of your presenting self and how you look to others in fields of business or other fields that are important to you. Importance can also be defined by you, thus changing how your formal identity could be used for.

Public Identities

This is more of what everyone sees from a passing glance or how you would behave/act/dress in a typical public setting. This would be different because you wouldn't deem this an important area, nor a private area so you wouldn't present either of those identities. There are variations depending on the type of public setting you're in (example town square compared to a concert) Thus you would present yourself a little differently depending on the exact scenario you'd find yourself in

Private Identities

This is the kind of crap that you would do when you think no one is around, or if you're around people that you are really really close to. Again, it would vary depending on the person and their definition of the word 'privacy'. These are mainly home setting, or any setting where you're on your own or with a friend/significant other. You can just kind of let loose and do whatever you want.

Books as Pillows - Sleep on It

Our assignment this week was one of the weirdest ones yet. We had to literally take out book intended for reversing, and sleep on it, as a pillow. I can safely say, I didn't really feel much of a difference upon waking up this morning (even though I'm waiting until NOW to post). I also didn't feel much of a difference falling asleep at night. All in all, I suppose it was more of a subconscious thing more than anything else.

Creativity - Something To Be Feared

One thing mentioned in class was how people respond to creativity. The main differences in how people respond seems to be position, and involvement in what is being created. Innovation is the main creative point that I'll be addressing in this blog post.

To Make A Yoshi - An Egg Project

At the beginning of class, we were given an egg. We were told to do 'Something' with egg and document it. Well, I did something with mine, I wouldn't say it's original, hell I don't even know if it's really all that "creative". What I will show you, is my construction of a Yoshi's Egg.

To start, I got out some paint from an old project several years ago

After mixing it up a little, I painted up a few green spots on the egg, trying to make it as organic looking as possible, at the same time, using a huge brush. It was difficult, but the end result was pretty good.

It was then that I made the realization that I did indeed paint the egg while holding onto it, so I had to hold it for 45 minutes while it dried. Not my finest moment in the Tom Brains Department.

When drying was completed, I decided to take a photo of the egg, (the photo above) and be done. Then I realized, that's boring. I have a plethora of collectibles in my room that would look nice with the egg. I spent a good amount of time digging around for them, and sure enough, found a lot of little Yoshi toys to welcome the new egg.

The egg, centered in the photo above, was placed in the mouth of a Yoshi toy meant for flinging a ball in the air. Don't get any ideas, I never actually did that. However a friend of mine shifted the toy a bit too much and caused a nice crack to form in the egg. Poor Yoshi never saw the light of day... However it's a small crack, and the egg is in tact. If luck prevails, I'll be able to bring it in and show it off.

Religious Ambiguity - Yeah I'm Going There

While not really the main subject of the class, it was touched on, and I'd like to voice my own thoughts on the experience.

In class, we were told a story of a Sunday school experience in which someone is to draw 'God' on a sheet of paper. Everyone drew the typical big white bearded old man on a cloud except my professor (at the time). She drew a tree. This was her representation of God, and the Christian Overseer there wouldn't have it. "You need to take this seriously." The person had said.

Doodling - A High School Pass-time/Creative Well

Back in high school, we had little 15-20 minute periods in the middle of the day just before lunch where we'd be given a study hall to do whatever it is we needed/wanted. I had a good friend in my study hall that I'd chat with each time, but every time we'd talk, we'd both realize that we'd be bored. Sure we could work on classwork but come on, that's dumb. One day, I got out a paper and started drawing stick figures fighting each other, and my friend decided to join in. He ended up drawing at the same time as me on the same paper which was fun, but overwhelming, seeing as how we basically created stick figure warfare. 

After about 3 Sessions of this we realized the best way to go about this was to take turns drawing moves, and to have a single rule. Do not manipulate the other persons character. We came up with a name to this game too. Fujinasim. (Foo-jee-nah-sem) Don't ask where it comes from, we just liked it, and we stuck with it. The doodle displayed below is in remembrance to the days where we'd play this game for weeks and weeks on end, coming up with endlessly creative things to attack each other with, sometimes even breaking the 4th wall. This style of gameplay focused a lot on Synchronicity and Spontaneity as your attacks may come out of nowhere and may even be inspired by something your opponent just did. All together it's the most fun and creative game I've ever played on a piece of paper.   

Class 1 - Confinement VS Freedom

Upon arriving in class for Seeing Sideways, I wasn't sure what to expect. I certainly didn't expect to be seated in a chair, and told if I wanted to leave the room, that I had to wheel the chair out with me. This of course happened during one of our breaks and, while entertaining, was thought provoking as well.

Returning to the classroom had yielded in one of my coeds asking what would've happened if we had left the chairs. The resulting answer was simply nothing, as nothing was defined on that regard. So again I wondered why we all had conformed and gone with it. Perhaps it was because we were answering to a higher power of authority.

This leads into the main topic. To me, this experiment felt confining. I was told to stay within a limit, and I stayed within that limit. While enjoyable, it had more bad than good. Mobility, accessibility, practicality, all of it was bad. Upon finding out the restrictions were merely an illusion afterward, the experiment began to feel more freeing. We were free to go where we wanted and do what we normally did, but in these chairs. In a way, it added a sense of freedom. To me, this experiment taught me that you can feel free or confined based on the context of a situation.