Day 82 - Rules of engagement

Alot of theoretical work these past weeks of our concept and development module. Not something im typically fond but i try to make do. Had some interesting ideas set in motion this week wich are set aside from the school itself but also relates to the same in a way.

Currently working on a bunch of side projects here. Mainly redesigning and rebuilding my own portfolio site wich is more or less what a portfolio site is supposed to be entertaining you with.
Also working on some motion graphics for dubmood's data airlines festival showing the schedule.
Ofcourse there are some serious stuff comming out aswell. Seen bottom right here are a part of our moodboard covering the campaign identity we are developing in the module.



http://www.elapse.se | in constant motion!

Day 75 - Writeup on John Lester's lecture

Not much to report on the concept & development module yet so ill toss in a take on an article im writing for hyper island's blog.

Octorber 12th - John Lester

Lesters was grabbed in passing to give us a lecture about the Second Life network. Its an online social role playing world where users are given avatars, designed and named by themselves. What makes this online world different from others and thus motivates a lecture to the Hyper Island Digital Media class is the freedom of creation the platform offers. The concept of the online world is built on a grid where users with their avatars can walk around and create their own reality as far as visual content and sound goes. Scripts can be applied to their homemade environment as well with semi-advanced building tools supplied to make constructions like buildings and vehicles possible. This is more or less what you expect from any system like this online but what makes it really interesting to us students currently involved in a module about business ideas is the economy.

Second Life comes with an monetary economy of its own where you exchange your US Dollars into the worlds own currency. Thus making it possible for anyone taking part in the network to realize their own ideas, may it be selling or buying, renting or lending user created content. As there are literally no rules of engagement in this world and content in a users property is moderated only by the owner of the land visitors set foot on possibilities to some seems unlimited. If you can make your online idea appealing enough to visitors whether it might be a programmed game, a concert hall or just a tranquil garden its still yours to make money of. Theoretical examples lester brought up on this is to mention just a few; education, live music, co-developing and online meetings. Practical use of these might be e-learning classes for students spread around the world, an architect realizing a blueprint into a 3dbuilding together with a colleague or whats come to be the most popular Second Life event yet, Artists making live appearances.

As stated this network offers a multitude of services either free or payed for with real money. Issues that seems to bother us students overhearing this lecture where the more or less obvious downsides to a system like this. For starters a world built on user created content cant be pre-stored locally on users computers. Its streamed live from servers which puts a pretty heavy quality threshold on the graphics. As far as we are concerned it might have been an application from 2002 and not present. Knowing that fancy uptodate graphics might not be the primary need for Second Life:s user base this could be overlooked. What disturbs us more was that people tend to pick a to most people offensive looking avatar as their physical representation in the world. Offensive in this case meaning a big pink robot wearing a tuxedo or a dwarf in a bikini. Knowing that this is just extreme examples these characters still make out the bulk population of the world. A direct reaction to this is that it might be hard to take someone seriously given the factor of the looks added to the already harsh filter on humanity online-mode is to us. Which brings me to the third issue of the expanding world of possibilities second life is. The ever ongoing digitalization of our social life. To most people text chat or as of late voice chat to replace regular telephony suffices as far as digital communication goes. Being in this very module oriented around online marketing and services generating economical revenue these are of course not great obstacles to overcome for a young creative constantly on the lookout for new areas and platforms to spawn ideas into. Its just that the lecture about Second Life, the possibilities, the looks and the inhabitants left us a bit reluctant and puzzled.

All in all the environment felt perhaps too unmoderated for our Scandinavian (with some exempts) culture. Perhaps too colorful to take serious or to withstand the test of time. Which might be illustrated in a current example with the exodus from previous social networks with more user created content to the syndicated environment of facebook. After a brief inquiry in the class following John Lester's lecture just a handful had ever tried Second Life and not many saw it as a lasting medium for planting business ideas to grow.

Day 73 - Goodbye and thanks for the fish

Its been a while and the week as such has been likewise. Not much to report. We ironed out a top5 list from our ~55 ideas produced from brainstorming all week. We also agreed to try to develop a couple of them set aside from the school. Apart from that not much else happened. Today i got invited to 2 salmon dinners in this city and it looks like i might be attending both. Booked tickets to beirut in copenhagen the 18th. Its gonna be 7 people from our posse going there and i will meet up with nathalie there aswell.

I got assigned the task of documenting Björn Fant and John Lesters lectures from last week in writing for the hyper island blog and has yet to start it. Havent decided yet if it should be aligned with my own thoughts, those of the school or the general concensus of the class. Getting mixed impressions from the latter.

Day 67 - Start of module 3

Just got home from a good 7 hours of flash and photoshop. 3 murdered eggs is in the fryingpan i got from nathalie. It still looks fresh and its titaniumalloyed inside is textured like a k10k pixelpattern. So they should be just fine will i toss this entry in.

Module interims are sweet shit. Started the third one today wich is titled Concept & Development. 5 weeks or 800 manhours split among the groupmembers as the module manager so nicely put it. Wingmen on this mission is tore kasper zirath and philip. Brand new setup for me and i think i love it. Slighly higher average age than my previous teams aswell wich should be nice. Alot higher level of expertise aswell wich matches my rising expectations of the group.

With some free time im finally kicking off my sideprojects again. Got 3 comissioned tasks in the pipe and im in the works of remaking elapse.se with dynamics, fullscreens and all that funky hizz.

The eggs are craving for attention.

Day 66 - Theese City Streets

Nathalie came to visit over the weekend and we took a long walk around some of the islands this city is built on. Not the best day for a walk but its been a while since i had an excuse to move anywhere else than the regular home to school to bar to home route. Photos!


Nathalie freezing in the eastern harbour of trossö.



Beutiful remnants next to the old citywall, southwestern trossö.



Houses in the old southwestern part of trossö.



My workstation



The basement of häktet, Hyper Island

Day 66 - God is in the bigscreen

The exhibit in short.



How it looked.


Sums it up pretty good i think. 14 hours straight.



If you are out of good new music go check out:

Midnight Juggernauts - Dystopia
New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom
M.I.A - Kala
Moving Units - Pick up the Phone
Bumblebeez - Radio Fabolous
Architecture in Helsinki - Places like this
Fink - Biscuits for Breakfast


And some random new / old warp record designvideos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lx5F8q-F3Yo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVkpiILA4rw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxEb2FrQUbE

And something eaven more interesting.
This is a clip dubmood sent me from someone who shot one of his gigs.

Day 64 - A hundred days off

To quote a favourite album of mine. Actually its 3 days off. First consecutive 3 good ones in a month.
But anyhow. Ended this second module on Hyper Island called experience technology. Cant really say i enjoyed it in on all levels but some parts shined. It turned out like we all expected it to i guess. Rough and rugged. Should have alot of media to present but i´m trying to gather materials from the other peoples blogs before i decide what describes this whole gazeebo the best. Its pretty frustrating being in a position where you have to scribble thru someone elses flash sources from witch you can barely make out shit. Whats also fascinating is basing stuff on cheap technology that you havent been able to demo in the final set of the installation. I suck at this whole practical hands on exhibitioning. Not saying i didnt enjoy it but id liked to have a bit more material to present the crowd. The group pulled through even tho the flash and its mediocre webcam setup did not. Got up at 7am yesterday to finish up the last parts of it, parts i overlooked previously witch didnt help the general anxiety we all felt that morning. a good 12 hour shift during the actual exhibit ended with a 1 hour cleanout of the area and then we where off to ze bar. The gaybar.

So i got a good 10 hours of sleep after 1 (1) beer, 11-08. Woke up to this very interesting textmsg.

"Jag drömde att vi va på lan i
natt. När jagskal lägga mig
inser jag att jag inte har någon
madrass. När jag frågar om jag
får låna din, lägger du dig på den.
Tar fram en 50cm röd dildo
och gosar ner dig med den precis
som en nallebjörn. Ibland undrar
man hur det står till med en. Puss!
-Gax"


Not sure what i did too him previous to me departing gothenburg for karlskrona but 2 months later hes gunning wet dreams about me. i love it. Anyway. A good lecture in school today. Or maybe not good in the kind of way id call someone a good lecture in conjunction to what i expect to hear at hyper island but it was what we like to call it, random. His name was John Lester and works at linden labs who created and is running second life. Gave us a quick and interesting take on what goes on in this online metaverse as he called it. Gonna do a writeup on the highlights for us and the stockholm class aswell as an ingame interview in a week or two.

Anyway. Comming down from this fucked up exhibit module on a friday afternoon with youtubing madonna on letterman. from 88, 94, 2000 and 2003. Good shit. go find it. In 88 shes up there with sandra bernard, both looking like they are on speed and its as good as it sounds. Off to olearys now for some music quiz.

Day 61 - Songs

In no particular order. Neither are they all new but its what passed my systems this past week.


Chris Clark - Body Riddle
Alltogether some insanely sweet shit. Mixing cut up clean breaks with orchestral samples you would expect from jaga jazzist or other ninja tunes. Chris clark, or just "Clark" as he renamed himself on this one has come a long way and this is nothing of what his previous works sounded like. Eaven though it might be abit to juggled for somone more into his old steady stuff its a very rewarding listen. And make sure you check out 1st Ave Machines video for track 5 called ted.

Audio Bullys - Flickery Vision
Descent track. Cant really decide where this come from as first listening leaves you thinking its something old. Very brittain, very 2002.

Junior Boys - The Equalizer ( Morgan Geist Remix )
Crazy stuff from so this is goodbye bonus disc. Would rattle any floor if someone would drop this here. But its as likely to happen as if junior boys themselves made an actual appeirance.

Underworld - Crocodile
Not sure where they are going for this. A descent track. Toned down his usually characteristic vocals to something more euro. The change in style sounds alot like what happened to way out west and Junkie XL in the mid 00:s. Not too good but its underworld and its 2007 so it has to be here. The pete heller bside might go somewhere with people into depeche.



Claude Vonstroke Remixes
Wicked techhouse. Been dropping some sweet shit lately like Whos afraid of Detriot and 7 Deadly Strokes. Both working checking out. Hes also put out a couple of mixcds this summer.
Claude Vonstroke - At the Controls.

Random deep
John Digweed - Gridlock
Daft Punk - Harder faster stronger ( Deadmau5 & Glenn Morrison Bootmix)
Booka Shade - In halcyon rooms ( Tetsuo Bootleg )

Day 60 - Drenched in color

Better than sunday. Worse than friday

We finished parts of the exhibition area today. Tried out the projector angles and worked with the screens. As the installation requires a room much darker than whatever the surroundings might offer we had to cover up the circular screen with blue velvet drapes. It looks pretty dramatic but as far as dramatic sceneries goes, id prefer black silk or grey rough fabrics to match the milky white prints on the outside. The edge of the whole spectacle is blunted by the fact that its elevated and scaffolded around white thin ropes ever visible to attenders. Im really annoyed by this but i have to put it off for the time being. There are much worse things to worry about regarding this installation. One thing that do make me feel better about it is that i finally finished or atleast partly produced what might be a working flashplatform for our films. Felt like we actually got somwhere today and im quite content with where this is leading. Compared to some other groups we seem to be on top of our game atleast for now. I know im gonna regret writing this but somehow i actually see the end of this project, whether its what i wanted it to be or not has yet to present itself.

Carin got some discodamage today falling into a cupboard while building some sort of plastic roof to our little shrine. She got a red little bump on her head! Kims eyes got fucked up by some infection and emil is tense from trying to kick his snus habits. The posters the exhibitcrew put up on sunday is more or less gone today and was replaced by new ones. Im ever puzzled by the works of this city. In gothenburg your poster might get pulled down but is more likely covered by someone elses work. Here they are gone for sure whether it might be an empty wall or a shopwindow-spot you negotiated over with the shopkeeper. Not sure why people accept sponsorship or agrees to host the stuff just to rip it down behind our backs but nothing with this city really suprise me anymore. Just add to my general unrest of moving halfway across the country.

On the domestic side i really had a great evening. I printed out some great works by some of my favourites and covered the walls with. Just standing there for a couple of minutes marveling at what some black and white graphics can do to a mundane workdesk enviroment in a 2x2m prison cell from the 1700th. I hope the fucking radiator under the desk will start working in time to counter the ever so shitty seasonly weather we are promised by those more acustomed to this island. As the leafs around the archipelago turns red the vista we live right next to just amazes me more and more each day. I have a feeling my father will be here just in time to document the best of how autumn treats this place. And if not i will borrow someones camera to do it myself. Being in a constant vicinity of the ocean makes the air just outside the door ever suprising as to what scent it brings. I just love it. If the espresso would just arrive soon.

Oh yeah. I couldnt stand looking at that buttugly default of a blogtheme so i tried to catch some of what autumn might bring us as far as colors go along with the ever present ITC Avant Garde!

Day 58 - No Espresso, Data Airlines

Nope

But i made some tshirt screenshots. Shot kim with a dummy on and faked the print onto it.
Cant say i did much else eaven tho this made me quite content. Dug up some fresh deephouse that eased me out of my cold-induced pessimistic mood. Went to a meeting that demonstrated why everyone in the exhibit group has been so confused about everything to this point. Seems we cut ourself a big enough slice of the room to actually go through with our installation as intended. Got back from the meeting too late to catch anyone from the staff to check out my projector i was supposed to use over the weekend. Almost everyone else from my gang of cool people are up in stockholm this weekend to attend the launch party of that branch. Leaves me with almost no company to motivate drinking. But the people left are the ones that makes you go back to photoshop and afx so i think i could come out on top of this weekend as one of the nicer ones in a long time. Hopefully they will go with theese prints or close to them aswell as picking a good quality shirt to smack them on. I wouldnt mind showcasing some of my throwups on a tee.

Day 57 - Little Big Adventure, Data Airlines

Not sure how i should describe what school looks like this week. Its more like everyones back in upper grade school doing carpenter assignments again. Peope are using glue, paint, drills and wood instead of traditional digital media appliancies. Im not entirely happy about spending 2 weeks on building something out of cardboard or wood but some just got that look on their faces saying this is what they wanted to do in the first place. I cant say this has been a week with good focus nor productions but its all on me still. Not too satisfied with the slow pace the group is experiencing right now either. But i cant really push them as i havent made that much progess myself, nor am i happy with that particular outcome.

I must say im suprised by the quality i see popping out of emil in particular today. He unearthed something really spectacular in afx i wasnt exactly expecting, given his previous productions being abit unserious in nature. Kim and Carin is also finally at the productiontable doing some concentrated progress. Im still not used to pointing out to people what they should be doing when it comes to shear creative production nor are my groupmates used to not having theese directions given. I guess we will all level in the end. If its anything ive come to like about the school its being positively suprised when i least expect it. I wish this could be said for the actual staff wich continues to annoy all of us gravely.

Id just wish this would be behind us so we could get our hands on something closer to what we actually wish to acomplish at hi. Atleast the group progress followup came out nicely more or less. We basically ended up around 7-9s on the importance, motivation and ability 1-10 scales. One exception set aside but i feel its hardly the group at fault here nor the assignment we have been given that produces her reluctancy. She described it to us as a sort of alienation but i have a hard time figuring out what to do with it. She doesnt exactly embrace the production nor does she reject it. But still she seems, all though with some exepctions, extremely distanced to whatever we do. Moving in and out of our social sphere without leaving any trace as to how we could remedy this.

After a quick glance at our schedule it doesnt seem like its gonna happen next module either. Looks purely theoretic for the 3 weeks following this module. Enough ranting. On the flipside i might just be quite content with what we produced for this exhibition as far as pure mediacontent goes. I got some interesting stuff i can showcase in the afx folder. Not sure if i can look back at it in 6 months and say its actually worth anything but right now it feels like ive progressed to a atleast something. Wich in fact manifested itself in a buisiness offer today oriented around afterfx.

On the other hand i tossed up a 2 hour tshirt pitch for that same ol festival you probably have gotten tired watching me splash paint on by now. Might look good on a brown tshirt anyway. Might also be subject to heavy changes but heres the result of what my last 2 tired hours of a good 14 hour shift did to me. I know it looks just like the previous stuff but too my defence its still basd around the same theme for that same festival.

Day 56 - Exhibit taking shape

What might be our logo and also poster.
In all a good day. We got some shopping done today aswell as some minor producitonwork. We nailed, more or less, the layout of our exhibit as far as the screen and the framing goes. Kim and emil went downtown to get vp rör for framing and carl and carin went to buy our bigscreen fabric. We should have our first lent projector by tomorrow to start testing fabric response and angles. Not much else to report on this today. Hope to see much of the actual building done by tomorrow night. Also we might already have our minimum 2 projectors solved for us by the exelent exhibitcrew. Adding a cut from the introsequence to the booth below.

18mb quicktime.