Kenny J Smith

In interacting with a creature, Tamagotchi’s are the first thing that I think of. People become attached to their Tamagotchi and form a relationship where they have an artificial being who’s life is reliant on being fed and cared for. I want to further examine this relationship

The main point of my video is that I wanted to add another element to the video without adding any new content. The solution was to add the same video to the screen several times, each playing out of sync from the others. The videos a transparent in certain places depending on the music that is playing. The result is a glitch effect on any moving object that occurs when music is playing.A further element that I added was to play the video in time with the music by scrubbing the video according to the audio level.

To complement the glitch look, I used an electro song called Puppet Mechanics by Carl Phaser. This song has a Creative Commons Licence and can be found at http://starfrosch.ch/2009/07/18/carl_phaser_end_dark. The most effective video for remixing is footage of people moving because there is more of a contrast in glitching organic forms.

Once the final remix video was captured, I noticed that it looks terrible without audio. It is only when you can hear the audio that the video is reacting to that it looks good. It might be hard to further remix this video without the original accompanying audio.

After testing out my remixing patch, it looks a little bit like watching a crappy vhs tape. I wasn’t too sure what the video was going to look like but it should fit in with remix aesthetics.
http://videopong.net/?action=detail&dirid=0cweomlwth7

My concept for an AV remix is manipulate certain elements within the frame using time as a dimension. The basic plan is to have a series of frames that play the same movie at slightly different times and to mask these layers to reveal several frames at a time. The intended effect is the ability to push and pull objects through time. I have been looking into using sound to control the areas where time is manipulated

A response to the article VJing and Live A/V Practices
http://vjtheory.net/web_texts/text_bucksbarg.htm

The combination of audio and visual performance reminds me of early cinema, where a pre-made film would be accompanied by a live pianist or other audio performance. The modern day night club experience has become an audio performance accompanied by video.

To quote an extract of the article “What this early work helps us understand about new audio-visual practices is that when put together, the visuals and the sounds are extensions or amplifications of each other, like instruments in an orchestra or dancers on a stage.”

This statement is interesting because the way that audio and visual components compliment each other. To say that they amplify each other i not necessarily true because the context of one is changed when the other is added. A great example of this is the dark side of the rainbow, when Pink Floyd’s album Dark Side of the Moon is played with the film The Wizard of Oz. Although the film and album are completely unrelated, there are occasions where they seem to correspond with each other. In part this is caused by the mind’s desire to look for the connection between audio and visual.

Electronic mediation of human action has been established for several decades now. The traditional means for communicating with one another, observing natural phenomena, making economic transactions - even dating - are now commonly negotiated with electronic devices. As designers, we can address  such phenomena in a utilitarian manner: by creating new designs that  succeed as functional solutions. Another approach is to investigate these systems for a deeper meaning: designs working as experiments for understanding phenomena. How are complex electronic systems different than biological systems? What manner of attenuation or transduction must occur for fundamentally different systems to communicate? Why do humans imbue objects and interactions with feelings/projects that are simply not there? These questions represent the latter approach for how designers may work with electronics to understand the world we live in in a broader sense, which in turn, will inform how we create more design solutions in the more specific sense.

To spread the word about mpmash.co.nz, we created content on online social networks and content for the wellington public.

We have a screensaver running on Courtenay place and some still images on a billboard infront of James Smith corner. We also gave out political satire recipies to the public and gave them to the chef at backbencher restaurant.

While filming the documentation of our website and these marketing techniques, I wanted to interviewed members of the public to give our branding some physical presence specifically at parliament.

The documentation was edited together in a remix style with quick shots and different subjects spliced together.

We are starting to gain more visits to our website so the marketing must be working.

Most of the visitors come from facebook, some come from mediazone and some come from google.

Introducing double denim John Key, he is a polar opposite of the prime minister.

John Key is sometimes criticised for being New Zealand’s wealthiest prime minister and not being able to connect with ordinary New Zealanders.

Double Denim John Key enjoys listening to classic rock music, working on his v8 car and lives in a state house.

John Key fixing his car
John Key driving to work

When a comment is made about an mp on the mp mash site, it sends the comment via rss to yahoo pipes and is combined with other feeds about that particular politician. The combination of all these feeds is displayed on the mp’s page. This gives the page content a circular feedback loop.

The video remixer is a way for users to remix a politician’s speech, I think we would all like politicians to say what we want to hear e.g. “we are giving everyone some free money” and “the government is scraping the alcohol tax”. With the video remixer, you might not be able to make a politician say anything but with enough mini sound bites you can make them say some interesting statements.

This is roughly what I want the video player to like, there is a list of videos on the right displayed as the words in the sound bite.

On the left is the video screen and below is an area where a sentance / statement gets constructed.

The video player is made with flash and uses xml to load the video and dialog as text.

A rough version as available on this page: http://www.kennyjsmith.com/drupal/node/24