A bit of an update for those of you that are e-stalking. I just finished up my first year of graduate studies at Parsons. It was a great year full of stress, excitement and mini projects. So here comes thesis. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to create. I just threw up a site for it at http://scrumtrulescent.claytical.com
Shades of Gray is a massively multiplayer online role playing game for the PC set inan anarchic twenty-second century America where players explore the nature of good and evil through backstabbing, generosity, corruption, schemes and succor.
An Amoral Scenario
Developed by Cryptic Studios, City of Villains is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) based on the superhero comic book genre. It is an offshoot of City of Heroes and shares the same virtual world. Instead of playing as heroes, the characters are based on different villain archetypes with their own unique powers.
Here's the current prototype: http://socialauto.claytical.com
Here's the timeline I'm shooting for with Social Automata:
April 9th
-User Calendar with Availability Selection
-Display Availability
-Find Ideal Day for Event with 2 People
April 12th
-Pull Facebook Data
-Setup User in local SQL database
-Store User Profile Information from Facebook locally
-Event creation per user
Social Automata is a web based application that plans your social life for you. After telling the application when you are available, it will automatically book you for events that your friends have submitted. As social networks and productivity tools receive more attention, Social Automata explores the boundary between a life with computer assistance and a computer mandated life.
These ideas are still swirling around in my head and aren't fully thought out, so any thoughts are appreciated:
Body of Music
An instrument that captures your body as a tone and can then be manipulated by gestures. Using OpenCV, each blob would be visualized on a screen in front of the person. The tone for each blob would be calculated by its size, shape and position. As a person moved their hands, they could slice and push their body around the screen to generate new tones.
Mechanical Pencil
A small robot would receive commands through a terminal and interpret them with a pencil on a canvas. The idea is that you would have a real life person giving commands to a machine and the machine would be manipulating the real world. The inspiration for this is the Yellow Drum Machine.
Automatic Event Planner
Using calendars from social networks, the application would figure out when you and your friends are available. Based on your preferences, the application would add the event to your calendar and purchase tickets if necessary. The idea is pretty similar to iLike's feature where you can click on a band that you "want to see" except this would go a step further and actually set everything up for you.
Foot Flow is a screen based interactive installation for people waiting in a line. As water flows from the top of the screen, the flow is restricted by the feet of people in the line. Working together, the people can orchestrate their feet to let the water reach the bottom of the screen.
Kids Crime Fighting Force is a networked educational game designed for children, ages 7 to 10. A child is given a forensics kit along with the evidence they will need to solve a particular case. Through an online portal, children can access clues and work together in teams for each case. Through online play in conjunction with real world science and experimentation, children will be able to increase their problem solving and communication skills.
Combining a kit like this: http://shopping.discovery.com/stores/servlet/ProductXLImage?storeId=1000...
With a virtual room like this: http://www.centredessciencesdemontreal.com/autopsy/flash.htm
February 5th, 2009
So here's an idea for a visualization: create an entertaining way to see which surnames are abundant and which are scant. By looking at the total number of deaths and births on record per surname, the total number of people living with that particular surname can be deduced. These results could be displayed in an interactive application as bubbles of different sizes and colors where clicking on a given bubble will show a more detailed view of the surname, including birth and death numbers as well as its relative ranking. I think it'd work, self importance can go a long way.
January 29th, 2009
When my Mobile Media instructor, Dave Carrol, asked us to setup a mobile version of our website for our particular cell phone (I've got an iPhone). I have to admit I felt a bit stressed. I've grown so comfortable with Drupal as a platform, the thought of hand coding something just didn't appeal to me. Especially performing updates (eek!). The problem with developing a mobile version of a Drupal site is getting rid of all the excess content (especially on a portfolio site that is media rich).
