Comm Lab
Robot dances to Jane Fonda
Andi, Dave and I pulled together this animation for our Comm lab animation project. It needs some fixing. We found Jane Fonda’s video and fell in love. I guess we decided to go ridiculous – why would a robot need exercise, after all?
DABA girls
D.A.B.A is the short film that I made with 4 others. It portrays the ongoing story of Dating a Banker, Anonymous, which was covered in the NY Times, and became a large internet meme (mostly in the blogosphere as women collaborated with others for support). The DABA phenomenon was about women who were dating bankers during the 2007 Wall Street collapse, and had to learn how to live with their newly-not-as-well-off-anymore boyfriends lost money. We filmed this at my mother’s psychoanalysis office, at McDonald’s, on Wall Street, and other various locations. We spent a day at David’s friend’s house editing it.
These red Prada shoes played an integral part of the film.
Storyboard – D.A.B.A. girls
David, Nathalie, Aly, and Ariella shot a satyrical comedy about a girl part of the DABA girl community – Dating a Banker, Anonymous. After the crash, she has to relearn how to live with her boyfriend who can no longer buy her Prada shoes.
click here to watch it
(we all pitched in to draw this storyboard)
CommLab – legal issues, appropriation, plagiarism
What are the distinctions between appropriation and plagiarism? Is it only that plagiarism means one claims work as their own?
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drawSomething
This is what I’ve been playing around with, for my Serial Communication lab for P-Comp:
Sort of like an etch-a-sketch, with two knobs, one that controls the x position, one that controls the y position, and you can switch colors by clicking on one of the colors on the palette on top. Play around with it using the mouse
Animals Play Piano
A stop motion film created by Gabriella Levine and Suzanne Kirkpatrick.
“Animals Play Piano” is the story of Brigitte The Bear and her friends from the animal kingdom, mammalian and reptilian, who set out on an adventure together in the music parlor.
Featuring Brigitte The Bear, with guest appearance by Andre The Armadillo. Piano music played by Gabriella Levine.”
Other people in the video: Suzanne Kirkpatrick.
Response – Walter Benjamin: the Work of Art in the Age of Reproduction
Benjamin discusses the loss of aura, leading to the politicization of art. And the loss of aura occurs with art that has the ability to be reproduced (he writes as film and photography proliferate as art forms, and he draws many comparisons between the aura present in a painting vs the aura lacking from a film or photograph).
What happens when aura is lost and the ability for reproduction arises, is a shift where the artistic image and product can be utilitarian, which he predicts will begin to lead the idea of “art for art’s sake” to lapse, and art can then be used as a tool.
Benjamin delves into what the accessibility of an art implies, and what it might mean as appropriation becomes common practice in art. I don’t think he asserts that there is necessarily a benefit or negative consequence, but he asserts that things will change. The ability to reproduce an image, or to have art as a tool, politically and for other purposes, has changed the world and how actions and responses occur.
the shortest drama ever
We had just about thirteen minutes to make this, from scratch. using an Xacto camera and iMovie. Oh man…
The LED Fight from Alvin Chang on Vimeo.
Light onOff relayHeatSensor
Light OnOff Sensor Relay from gabriella levine on Vimeo.
In this video is my DIY light switch, where the light is turned on with the wave of a hand
**(Note for Comm Lab – I used the Xacti camera for this documentation
It uses the same code as before. On the next page is a close up of the circuit and the photosensor
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E.M. Forster’s “The Machine Stops”
“Then she broke down, for with the cessation of activity came an unexpected terror–silence.”
Technology is no longer a matter of luxury, and humans depending on technology for survival is no longer a notion of science fiction. It has come to pass – we depend on technology for every aspect of life – communication, medicine, hygiene, recreation. Forster predicts this dependence, and portrays technology’s effect on humans as debilitating, fear-inducing, and a factor that removes all spontaneity and sensual qualities from life. Vashta has no desire to hug her son, to look at a beautiful landscape, or to take a walk in the sun.
While reading “The Machine Stops”, I was struck by how much I was comparing his 1909 prediction of the futuristic world to what the world is like today. “The Book” reminds me of an i-pad, or any video-chat capable touch-screen phone with internet access.
Forster’s prediction of technology’s capability to enable people to connect instantly is on par. However, I hope that, contrary to his prediction that it will drive everyone underground, advancing technology will enhance humans to physically transport faster. People are concentrating in urban areas, and technological advancements to enhance surface transportation and urban planning is crucial.
“The Machine Stops” is one of many examples of fiction predicting the future. Another one that I love and comes to mind is William Gibson’s “Neuromancer”.
I listened to an interesting piece on Science Friday on NPR a few weeks ago, in which Ira Flatow spoke to Michael and Denise Okuda, the lead graphic designers of Star Trek, and John Underkoffer, the science advisor on Minority Report, about how scientists and technology developers might actually use fiction for design ideas. For example, they mention a motion sensor device, as in “Minority Report”, or flip-phones and touch screens, as in Star Trek.